World War One: how much was it Britain's fault?
We find that Britain was tricked into going to war in 1914 and it had a lot to do with cycling holidays in France and the Sloane Square Gang. No, seriously, this was a shocking outrage, perpetrated by a few who should have known better.
Britain’s main problem by 1910 was Russian expansion towards its Persian oil and India, the jewel in Britain’s crown. So why did Britain go to war to SUPPORT Russia and AGAINST Germany which was its closest European friend and trading partner?
We look at anti-German hysteria in Britain 1906-1909. The British publishing phenomena of 1906 was The Invasion of 1910 (by Germans), serialised in the Daily Mail and marketed by men walking around London in Prussian uniforms. This chimed perfectly with the anti-German clique at the foreign office.
How did what friendly chats between British and French generals since 1905 turn into a commitment to send a small British Expeditionary Force to France at the start of a war with Germany? A commitment that had not been agreed by Cabinet, Parliament or the Navy?
In 1912 a deal between War Secretary Haldane and the German chancellor Bethmann-Holweg to allow Britain to retain naval supremacy if they both remained neutral (if neither side had started the war), was rudely sabotaged. It involved lying to Cabinet that the Germans were demanding a full-scale Anglo-German alliance, which they weren’t. It meant throwing away what the majority of the Cabinet saw as the best chance to contain Russian expansion, by making common cause with Germany. Russia, allied to the French, could now call all the shots.
8pm German time the Kaiser orders champagne, halts the German advance towards Belgium, and sends a telegram of congratulations to his cousin George V at Buckingham Palace. The Liberal British Cabinet had voted to remain neutral on 31 July. Earlier on 1 August Foreign Secretary Grey met the German ambassador Prince Lichnowsky (one of a string of meetings that week) to tell him that France might also remain neutral. A few hours later they met again and Grey added that even if France went to war Britain would not. So what went so catastrophically wrong in the next 72 hours?
A right-wing anti-German contingent call their campaign for war, the weekend of 31 July-2 August 1914 a ‘pogrom’. All talks of peace are, in their words, a German-Jewish plot to keep Britain out of the war for financial reasons. They have the support of the Conservative party, the British and French military, the politician in charge of the Royal Navy, and the press. But how on earth does Grey persuade the anti-war Liberal Cabinet and Parliament? And WHY?
One day after Britain goes to war - ‘at sea’ - on 4 August 1914 the first War Council unceremoniously throws out the army’s secret plan to send a few divisions to meet the Germans head on and win quick, painless glory fighting alongside the French. Only then do the four men who had single-handedly thrown away the chance of avoiding a general European war, understand what Britain’s most prestigious soldier, Kitchener, has been warning since 1911. That a war with Germany would last at least 3 years and it would come down to ‘the last million men’ Britain could send.
You can find much of the behind-the-scenes story about how Britain was pushed into declaring war in 1914 in two books.
Douglas Newton’s The Darkest Days. The Truth behind Britain’s rush to War 1914 (2014) tells the story of the discussions of the Cabinet, the Ambassadors and the Relugas Gang. It’s a deeply researched but often angry book and you have to take your own view on what it says. David Owen is not an historian but a former Foreign Secretary. His The Hidden Perspective (1914) follows the secret talks between the British and French Armies from 1905. The problem is that, like Newton, Owen often makes a very, very complicated story more confusing. Dip into these books if you dare.
Newton’s book owes a lot to The Policy of the Entente (1985) and Decisions for War 1914 (1995) by Keith M. Wilson which are easier to read. If you want to check Owen’s facts, look also at Thomas G. Furgusson, British Military Intelligence, 1870-1914 (1984). Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers, How Europe went to War in 1914 (2012) is good on all this, and especially the anti-Germans at the Foreign Office.
There’s a briefer outline in Keith Neilson’s chapter on Britain in Richard F Hamilton and Holger H Herwig (eds) War Planning 1914 (2010).
For a dense but often amusing discussion of the way the Foreign Office worked, see T.G. Otte, ‘Old diplomacy; reflections on the Foreign Office before 1914,’ Contemporary British History, 18 (2004).
Have fun reading about novelist Le Queux and British attitudes to Germany in John Ramsden, Don’t Mention the War (2006) and Richard Milton’s Best of Enemies, Britain and Germany (2007). Christopher Andrew’s Defence of the Realm (2009) gives a more sober account of the story of secret agents K and M, as you’d expect from the Official Historian of British Intelligence.
The Russian angle is often mentioned but badly neglected. If you have access to a fantastic library or to JSTOR you can look up Ira Klein’s original articles ‘The Anglo-Russian Convention and the Problem of Central Asia, 1907-1914’, Journal of British Studies XI, 1 (Nov 1971) and ‘British Intervention in the Persian Revolution, 1905-1909’, The Historical Journal XV, 4 (Dec 1972).
See also Roger Adelson, London and the Invention of the Middle East (1995) and William J Olsen, Anglo-Iranian Relations during World War I (1984, 2013).
Later historical writing about 1914 is summed up by Anika Mombauer here. If you want to find out more, see John W Langdon, July 1914. The Long Debate (1991).
The BBC series 37 Days. The Countdown to World War I (2014) is an elegant and well-acted drama. It could, however, have been written by the Foreign Secretary at the time, Edward Grey. He appears as a brilliant diplomat, as honest with other ministers as he is tireless in seeking peace. The Germans are comic-book villains. The decision to send the army isn’t ever mentioned. Don’t, whatever you do, use this series as a source for history.
Unusually you won’t find much help on-line. The BBC is, as usual, the best. But beware the links that take you to the BBC drama 37 Days (see note above.)
Transcripts for episodes #17-23 below
