The Germans Invade Belguim
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In Germany, the close involvement of the military aristocracy in politics and commerce gave these tensions a militaristic slant. Germany's existence as a unified state dated only from 1870, and its late start in the European scramble for world empires prompted some Germans to look to territorial expansion in Europe itself as a means of making up lost ground. This attitude built on a deep-seated German fear of ‘the Russian menace’.Sir Edward Grey, the British foreign secretary, asked for renewed assurances that Belgian neutrality (guaranteed by the Treaty of London 1839) would be respected. France gave these guarantees, but Germany's answer was evasive and Britain formally notified Germany on 1 August that it could not ignore a threat to Belgian neutrality. On 2 August German troops entered Luxembourg, and shortly after there were skirmishes between French and German troops in Alsace. |
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Even the least militaristic of Germans understood the need for access to raw materials, ready-made trade markets, and outlets in colonial possessions for their country's surplus people that the empire had brought to Britain. The small German colonial empire had to be guarded by a powerful navy, but the expansion of the German Navy was regarded as a direct threat in Britain. Similarly, German diplomatic efforts to recover the stability of Bismarck's day in Europe by combining Central Europe into a formidable bloc exacerbated fears of German expansionism in France and Russia. |
 
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In 1902 Lord Lansdowne, British foreign secretary, abandoned the previous British policy of isolation. He concluded the Anglo-Japanese Treaty, relieving Britain of large naval commitments in the Pacific, and the Entente Cordiale with France in 1904.Widespread nationalistic unrest in the Balkan provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire had resulted in strained relations between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, regarded as sponsor of the nationalist movements. While visiting Sarajevo, capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia-Herzegovina, on 28 June 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir of the Austro-Hungarian emperor, was assassinated by a Bosnian student, Gavrilo Prinzip, backed by the Serbian nationalist Black Hand organization. |
 
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Meanwhile, Germany demanded the right of passage through Belgium to counter possible French moves. Asquith, the British prime minister, issued orders for the mobilization of the Royal Navy on 2 August. On 3 August Belgium rejected the German demand and Germany declared war on France; on the same day Britain told Germany that it would stand by the 1839 Treaty guaranteeing Belgian neutrality and would protect the French coast. Germany invaded Belgium on 4 August. Britain demanded German withdrawal. There was no formal reply, and so from midnight on Tuesday 4 August 1914 Britain and Germany were at war. |
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The Austro-Hungarian government sought to punish Serbia for the crime and Germany promised support, despite the danger of involving Russia, ultimate patron of the Balkan nationalist movements. Austria-Hungary presented Serbia with an ultimatum on 23 July, requesting a reply within 48 hours. Serbia, on Russian advice, agreed to all the demands except two which conflicted with its authority as a sovereign state. Austro-Hungarian armies near the Serbian border were mobilized.The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, one of the events that triggered the start of the war. |
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Although the armistice signed on 11 November 1918 ended the actual fighting, it took six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. Of the many provisions in the treaty, one of the most important and controversial required Germany and its allies to accept responsibility for causing the war and, under the terms of articles 231-248, to disarm, make substantial territorial concessions and pay reparations to certain countries that had formed the Entente powers. The Treaty was undermined by subsequent events starting as early as 1922 and was widely flouted by the mid-thirties. The result of these competing and sometimes incompatible goals among the victors was a compromise that nobody was satisfied with. Germany was not pacified, conciliated or permanently weakened, which would prove to be a factor leading to later conflicts. More on the war |