pugsville wrote:Austria was decided on war regardless of rtes Serbian response.
But they didn't mobilize for a good while, and when they did it was a partial bit and they were clear (internal documents show this to have been the fact after the war) that they didn't want to take territory either.
Germany took steps to stop any proposed peaceful settlement, concealing knowledge of the Austrian note.
They took the their warmongering so seriously that most of the general staff and the Kaiser himself were off on vacation. This wasn't supposed to turn into the clusterfuck that it did. They were also more baffled than anything when the British came to them with the idea of a conference as they didn't see themselves as having anything to do with the war. Depending on whom you read at the time, there was also a great feeling that the British would end up siding with the Germans if there was a war. The British monarchy was thoroughly German, and both Germany and Britain had been historic enemies of the French. It's true that the Morocco Crises had made most people see the Entente Cordiale as legitimate and firm—but that didn't stop some people in Germany from thinking that if push came to shove, George and Willy couldn't work something out. They not only more or less grew up together, but sent each other bulky packages of gossip and whatnot.
It is always fascinating to me that Westerners especially look at the biggest despot in the world at the time, who was regularly used in the French and British press even
during the the war as a symbol of autocracy and dictatorship, who had his ministers killed if they suggested more democracy, who thought that God himself told him he must be an autocrat that gave no power to the people, who had murdered far more of his citizens than any other European leader, who had massed troops against Germany without any way of pulling troops back even if he wanted to have done so, and say—"Well, we know for
sure that Nicholas the Bloody wouldn't do anything that was overbearing."
There were all kinds of reasons for the war. But people always underplay Nicholas the Bloody and like to pretend he was a saint afterward by virtue of his notorious cruelty and disregard for human life catching up with him.
Rancid wrote:Austria-Hungary was hellbent on starting a war.
Joseph was actually pretty pleased that Franz Duke Ferdinand was out of the way. But you couldn't let a monarch fall. The
Black Hand had just got done killing their own kings. Letting that go was one thing, having them start to kill other monarchs in Europe was counter to the entire premise of European society since Napoleon had been defeated. Technically, the Concert of Europe was still in effect and this kind of activity had to be suppressed. Just as it was in every other country.
I believe Serbia actually agreed to nearly all the terms (that were intentionally completely unreasonable) of the ultimatum that were given to them by the Austria-Hungarians.
Yup. As mentioned, Pasic was probably hoping that this would allow him to purge the Black Hand out of the Serbian government and allow the Parliament to take actual control of the country. In all likelihood, Austria was making a ruckus to save face and everything would have worked out had nobody else gotten involved.
Soooo It was Austria-Hungary that really pushed for war with Serbia which brought the whole shit down.
...Except that it was the Nicholas the Bloody that mobilized against Germany to bring them into the shitshow.
Nicholas the Bloody brought Germany into the war far more than Austria did. As mentioned, most of the German government was off on vacation at the time. While aware of the situation, they weren't provoking it at all. It was only after Nicholas the Bloody sent his people over to France that Germany scrambled back into some kind of action, and by then there were hundreds of thousands of Russian troops on their border and the French had already agreed that they wanted revenge for the Franco-Prussian War.
This isn't to say that Germany was a victim in this, far from it.
But, to my mind, the point of escalation where the doomsday machine could not be turned off happened when the despot that was notorious for his disregard for human life acted like a despot that was notorious for his disregard for human life. I know that's a crazy position because he was handsome, but it seems to be the most accurate.
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