1. EVENTS LEADING TO THE OUTBREAK OF WW I
1905: Germany provokes the First Morocco Crisis.
: Brutal counter-insurgency in Southwest Africa.
1908: Austria provokes the Bosnian Annexation Crisis.
1911: Germany provokes the Second Morocco Crisis.
1912/13: First and Second Balkan Wars.
June 28, 1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated.
July 5/6, 1914: Germany gives Austria a “blank check.”
July 23, 1914: Austria delivers harsh ultimatum to Serbia.
July 29, 1914: Austria attacks Serbia.
July 30, 1914: Russia mobilizes its army reserve.
August 1, 1914: Germany implements the Schlieffen Plan.

2. Map of Europe in 1914.
SOURCE:

3. CLASHING SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT ON WILHELMIAN FOREIGN POLICY
The most powerful Marxist case was argued in the 1960s & ‘70s by FRITZ FISCHER: The “barons of rye and steel” resorted to ever more ambitious schemes for expansion abroad to prevent democratization at home.
The “Bielefeld School” inspired by Max Weber (Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Jürgen Kocka) sees the emergence of “anti-democratic pluralism” after The government floated Imperialist arguments to sway elections, but then saw the Imperialist pressure groups take on a life of their own.
Conservative German historians such as Andreas Hillgruber argue that foreign policy decisions resulted from genuine national security concerns. They argue nevertheless that warped perceptions and flaws in Bismarck’s constitution hampered rational decision-making.

4. Bernhard von Bülow (b. 1849, Reich Chancellor 1900-09)
He wrote a courtier in 1895: "I place my faith increasingly in the Kaiser. He is so impressive! He is, along with Frederick the Great, the most impressive Hohenzollern who has ever lived. In a manner which I have never seen before, he combines the most genuine and original genius with the clearest good sense. He possesses the kind of imagination that lifts me on eagle's wings above all triviality and, at the same time, the shrewdest appreciation of the possible and the attainable. And with it, what energy! What reflectiveness! What swiftness and sureness of conception!"
Bernhard von Bülow ( ), chancellor of the German Empire from 1900 to 1909.
(photographed around 1900; German Historical Museum, Berlin)
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5. Great Britain and France signed the Entente cordiale in April 1904 to resolve their colonial disputes in Africa.
Cartoon in PUNCH to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Entente cordiale (April 1914).
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6. The Japanese besieged Port Arthur from February to December 1904; after they dragged their siege guns into position, they quickly pounded it into submission on January 2, 1905
The siege of Port Arthur. The Japanese attacked without warning on February 8, 1904, captured the 203 Metre Hill in December, and quickly battered the fortress into submission on 2 January 1905.
SOURCE: Richard Holmes, ed., _The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Course of History_ (New York: Viking, 1988), p. 112.
Japanese troops haul an 11-inch siege howitzer near Port Arthur in January 1905.
SOURCE: Richard Holmes, ed., _The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Course of History_ (New York: Viking, 1988), p. 113.

7. But France’s ally Russia suffered a crushing defeat by Japan at Port Arthur in March 1905
The expansion of Russia in Asia from 1533 to 1900.
SOURCE: R.R. Palmer, ed., _Historical Atlas of the World_ (Chicago and New York: Rand McNally, 1965), p. 29.

8. France announced in March 1905 that it had secured agreement with Spain and Britain on a protectorate in Morocco. Bülow persuaded the vacationing Kaiser to land his yacht at Tangier.
The partition of Morocco,
SOURCE: Norman Rich, _Great Power Diplomacy, _ (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1992), p. 397.

9. The Kaiser paraded into Tangier on March 31, 1905: “the most mischievous and uncalled-for event which the German Emperor has ever been engaged in” (King Edward).
Wilhelm II, preparing for his ceremonial entry into Tangier on March 31, 1905.
SOURCE:
As this American cartoonist suspected, Germany only took an interest in Morocco to drive a wedge between France and Great Britain.
Cover of HARPER'S WEEKLY, New York, July 1, 1905.
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10. IN THE FIRST MOROCCO CRISIS, GERMANY’S PROFESSIONAL DIPLOMATS RESPONDED IN A CLUMSY WAY TO A GENUINE NATIONAL SECURITY PROBLEM
Russia had just suffered catastrophic defeat by Japan, and the German general staff recommended a “preventive war” against France.
The German Foreign Office judged that France would feel compelled to retreat in Morocco and would learn that its Entente cordiale with Britain was worthless. Bülow, the Kaiser, and the Foreign Office never intended to go to war.
Great Britain offered France unexpected support in this crisis, as did Spain, Italy, and the USA.

11. On April 7, 1906, Morocco agreed at the Algeciras Conference that France could garrison some coastal cities and police the Algerian border
El-Hadj el-Mokri, Ambassador to Spain, signs the treaty at the Algeciras Conference
allowing France to patrol the border with Algeria and Spain to police Morocco (April 7, 1906).
SOURCE:
Teddy Roosevelt attends the Algeciras Conference in 1906.
Teddy Roosevelt supported France at Algeciras, after brokering peace between Russia and Japan

12. Battle cruisers of the British Grand Fleet, anchored in the Firth of Forth: After 1905 the British concentrated their navy in home waters to counter the German threat
The battlecruisers of the British Grand Fleet at anchor in the Firth of Forth. This photograph is taken from the airship R.9, and reflect the decision by the British Admiralty to concentrate almost all of their battleships and heavy cruisers in mainland naval bases where they could confront the German High Seas Fleet in the North Sea. SOURCE: John Keegan, _An Illustrated History of the First World War_ (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), p. 14.

13. The former historian Carl Peters published wildly popular accounts of exploration in East Africa and blackmailed Bismarck into recognizing his treaties with local chiefs.
Carl Peters ( ) depicted as a young student. He became Germany's most famous African explorer in the 1880s and founded the Pan-German League in 1891.
Porträt Dr. Carl Peters mit Gewehr und Pistole (Borchardt C93 ?)
Peters, Carl Dr.: Kolonialpolitiker, Gründer von Deutsch-Ost-Afrika, Deutschland PND
Date,ca. 1893/1900
SOURCE:
SOURCE:

14. German officer training “Askaris” in East Africa, 1901
Only about 20,000 Germans lived in all the German colonies by 1913, and only 1% of Germany’s foreign trade was with its colonies.
German officer training “Askaris” in East Africa, 1901
A German officer trains indigenous recruits in the 5th Askari Company in Massako, German East Africa, From Dieter Vorsteher and Maike Steinkamp, eds, THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: PHOTOGRAPHS OF GERMAN HISTORY FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE GERMAN HISTORICAL MUSEUM (Heidelberg: Wachter Verlag, 2004), p. 49.
Buffet car on the Usambara Railway in German East Africa, From Gollwitzer, IMPERIALISM, p. 59.
Buffet car on the Usambara Railway, East Africa, 1907
(Note that over one million Germans emigrated to America from 1885 to 1905.)

15. Weltpolitik and Public Opinion: Imperialist Pressure Groups (see Blackbourn, pp. 321-28)
The Pan-German League: 20,000 members
The German League for the Eastern Marches (Hakatisten): 220,000 members
The Colonial Society: 40,000 members
The Navy League: over 1,000,000 members
Their influence peaked under the “Bülow Bloc” of , when the Conservatives and Liberals all backed the government in the Reichstag.

16. The War of Extermination against the Herero and Nama peoples: German Southwest Africa, 1904/05
German Southwest Africa in 1904/05. From Pakenham, SCRAMBLE, p. 603.

17. Right: General Lothar von Trotha, who took command in German Southwest Africa in 1904 Below: Governor Theodor von Leutwein with Herero leaders in 1895
Theodor von Leutwein und Samuel Maharero in 1895.
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Lieutenant General Lothar von Trotha, photographed around 1905.
SOURCE:

18. Albert von Schlieffen, Chief of the General Staff, inspects troops departing for the Herero War, May 1, He insisted that the Army take control.
Alfred von Schlieffen Inspects Troops Prior to their Deployment in the Herero War (May 1, 1904)
Alfred von Schlieffen ( ) had a long and distinguished military career, having fought as an officer in both the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War of In 1891, he replaced Helmuth von Moltke ( ) as Chief of the General Staff of the German Army. Here, Schlieffen inspects troops in Hamburg prior to their departure for German Southwest Africa, where they were being sent to fight in the Herero War of 1904
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19. General Lothar von Trotha’s “Extermination Decree” of October 2, (cancelled by order of the General Staff on December 8)
“I, the great general of the German soldiers, send this letter to the Herero people. Herero are no longer German subjects. They have murdered, stolen, cut off the ears and noses and other body parts from wounded soldiers, and now out of cowardice refuse to fight…. The Herero people must leave this land. If they do not, I will force them to do so by using the great gun [artillery]. Within the German border every male Herero, armed or unarmed, with or without cattle, will be shot to death. I will no longer receive women or children but will drive them back to their people or have them shot at. These are my words to the Herero people.”

20. Herero survivors in British Bechuanaland (Botswana) in 1907
Herero survivors in British Bechuanaland (Botswana) in Over 50% of the Herero and Nama peoples died from 1904 to 1907 in the desert or in concentration camps.
Surviving Herero after the escape through the arid desert of Omaheke in German Herero survivors who trekked across the great desert from what is today Namibia to Botswana (Ullstein Bilderdienst, Berlin, 1906/07).
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21. Reichstag Election Results (% of votes/% of seats)
YEAR
SPD
Left Lib.
Nat. Lib.
Center
Free Con.
Ger. Con.
1898
27/14
10/10
13/12
19/26
5/6
11/14
1903
32/20
8/8
14/13
20/25
4/5
10/14
1907**
29/11
10/11
15/14
19/27
4/6
9/15
1912
35/28
12/11
14/11
16/23
3/ 4
9/11
** The “Hottentot Election”

22. The Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907 nurtured fear of “encirclement” in Berlin
The background of the Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907.
SOURCE: Hammond's HISTORICAL ATLAS OF THE WORLD, rev. edn (Maplewood, NJ, 1987), H-39.

23. AUSTRIA HOODWINKED RUSSIA IN THE BOSNIAN ANNEXATION CRISIS OF 1908
Count Aehrenthal, Austrian foreign minister,
Alexander Izvolsky, Russian foreign minister,
They met secretly in Moravia on Sep. 16, 1908, but Austria broke its promise to help Russia after it formally annexed Bosnia.
Austrian diplomat Alois Lexa von Ährenthal ( ), photographed in April 1910.
SOURCE:
Alexander Izvolsky ( ), Russian foreign minister,
SOURCE:

24. Austria-Hungary was vulnerable to Pan-Slav agitation
Austria-Hungary was vulnerable to Pan-Slav agitation. Proportion of Germans in Austria: 33%. Proportion of Magyars in Hungary: 54%.
Ethnic divisions in Austria-Hungary in In the Austrian half of the Empire (Cisleithania), German speakers were the largest single ethnic group but only made up 33% of the population. In the Hungarian half (Transleithania), Magyars made up 54% of the population but were hardly present in the provinces of Croatia and Transylvania.
SOURCE: Patrick O'Brien, ed., OXFORD ATLAS OF WORLD HISTORY_, rev. edn. (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 175.

25. The Reichstag debates the political role of the Kaiser during the “Daily Telegraph Affair” in November 1908
The Reichstag debate of November 10/11, 1908, at the height of the "Daily Telegraph Affair."
SOURCE:

26. THE PRICE OF IMPERIALISM
The Bülow Bloc began to unravel when the government announced that it needed another 500,000,000 Marks per year to pay for the naval arms race. Conservatives refused to accept any new tax on landowners, demanding instead a new tax on stock exchange transactions and tariffs and sales taxes. In 1909 they found a Reichstag majority for this program with the Center Party (the “Black and Blue Bloc”).
A powerful new business lobby emerged in 1909, the Hansa-Bund, to demand tax justice and an end to Junker hegemony in German politics. Its leaders argued that the policies of the SPD were in many ways more rational than those of the Conservatives.

27. The new Chancellor Theobold von Bethmann Hollweg and his predecessor Bülow in This expert on social policy promoted détente with Great Britain and the SPD.
Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg says farewell to his predecessor, Bernhard Fürst von Bülow, shortly after he was named the Reich Chancellor and Prime Minister of Prussia in 1909.
[Bildersammlung: Protagonisten. The Yorck Project: Das große dpa-Bildarchiv, S. 568
(vgl. dpa, S. 169) (c) 2005 The Yorck Project]

28. Bethmann Hollweg believed that social welfare programs offered the best hope to influence voters: “German Social Insurance Is an Unparalleled Example for the Whole World” (1913)
In 1911 a new health insurance program was organized for white-collar workers.
"Germany's social insurance is an unparalleled example for the whole world." Poster from 1913 to summarize the benefits of the welfare system pioneered by Bismarck, including health insurance and pensions for disability, old age, and surviving dependents.
SOURCE: Deutscher Bundestag, ed., _Fragen an die deutsche Geschichte. Historische Ausstellung im Reichstagsgebaeude in Berlin: Katalog_, 7th edn (Bonn, 1981), IV/149.

29. But another major war scare, the Second Morocco Crisis of 1911, revealed the influence of Imperialist pressure groups
In April 1911 the German Foreign Secretary, Alfred von Kiderlen-Wächter, arranged a secret meeting with Heinrich Class of the Pan-German League to urge him to demand a more aggressive foreign policy as the best hope to weaken the SPD in the next Reichstag election.
In June 1911 tribal uprisings compelled French troops to occupy Fez in violation of the 1906 Algeciras Accord. Bethmann was on vacation, but Kiderlen-Wächter approached the Kaiser directly to secure approval for the German occupation of the port of Agadir.

30. SMS Panther, the German gunboat that sailed into Agadir harbor on July 1, The German press hailed “the Panther’s Leap.” “At last a deed!” one headline declared.
The gunboat Panther (above) played a leading role in the Agadir Crisis of 1911, when Germany attempted to force France to concede territory in French-controlled Morocco. Built in 1901, the 977-ton Panther was 211' long and mounted two 4.1"/40 guns, but her name entered the common speech with her exploit, labeled "The Panther's Leap" (Panthersprung in German). When a more imposing warship was called for, the cruiser Berlin (below) anchored next to Panther and continued the game of diplomatic chicken. In the end a desolate slice of land bordering Cameroon was ceded to Germany, more as a sop to German pride after a losing gambit than out of fear. Germany's State Secretary Alfred von Kiderlen had postured and issued dire threats and made himself ridiculous; his career did not survive the fiasco. Kiderlein's long-time heavy drinking caught up with him after this disgrace, costing him health, career, and life itself.
SOURCE:
The German government alleged that France had excluded German business interests from Morocco, but far more German capital was invested in the “French” mining consortium than in the purely German one denied access….

31. THE SECOND MOROCCO CRISIS RESULTED IN ANOTHER DIPLOMATIC DEFEAT FOR GERMANY
After the British government publicly threatened to go to war if Germany attacked France, Germany agreed to give France a free hand in Morocco in exchange for the transfer of some jungle land to German Cameroon.
During these negotiations, the new Army Chief of Staff, Helmuth von Moltke the Younger, wrote his wife: “If we again slip away from this affair with our tail between our legs, and if we cannot bring ourselves to put forward a determined claim which we are prepared to force through with the sword, I shall despair of the future of the German Empire. I shall then resign. But before handing in my resignation, I shall move to abolish the Army and to place ourselves under Japanese protectorate; we shall then be in a position to make money without interference and develop into ninnies.”

32. Bethmann Hollweg sought a naval arms limitation agreement with Britain, and Lord Richard Haldane arrived in Berlin in February 1912 to propose the following bargain (co-authored by Sir Edward Grey and Sir Winston Churchill):
1. Fundamental. Naval superiority recognized as essential to Great Britain. Present German naval program and expenditure not to be increased, but if possible retarded and reduced.
2. England sincerely desires not to interfere with German Colonial expansion. To give effect to this she is prepared forthwith to discuss whatever the German aspirations in that direction may be. England will be glad to know that there is a field or special points where she can help Germany.
3. Proposals for reciprocal assurances debarring either power from joining in aggressive designs or combinations against the other would be welcome.
The memorandum prepared on January 29,1912 by Sir Edward Grey, Winston Churchill, and Lloyd George to serve as a basis for Lord Haldane's (Viscount Richard Burdon Haldane) mission. Johannes Lepsius, Albrecht Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and Friedrich Thimme, eds., Die große Politik der europäischen Kabinette, : Sammlung der diplomatischen Akten des Auswärtigen Amtes, 40 vols.; Berlin, , XXXI, 98.

33. BUT ADMIRAL TIRPITZ SECURED THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF A MAJOR INCREASE IN GERMAN NAVAL CONSTRUCTION AS HALDANE ARRIVED
Squadron of the High Seas Fleet in the early 20th century. In the foreground is a battleship of the "Brunswick" class, with a reconnaisance Zeppelin flying overhead.
SOURCE:

34. A genuine international crisis then erupted in October 1912 with the First Balkan War. Major victories by Russia’s ally Serbia threatened disaster for Germany’s ally Austria….
The Balkans in 1912/13
SOURCE: Norman Rich, _Great Power Diplomacy, _ (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1992), p. 424.

35. The atmosphere of crisis enhanced Moltke’s influence (shown here observing the annual army maneuvers with Wilhelm II in 1912), and he and the Kaiser assumed the worst in their “War Council” on December 8, 1912.
The Kaiser attends army maneuvers, ca

36. Chancellor Theobold von Bethmann Hollweg (1909-17)
Helmuth von Moltke the Younger ( )
Chancellor Theobold von Bethmann Hollweg ( )
Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg ( ; held office ), photographed ca. 1910/11. SOURCE: Rainer Rother, ed., _Der Weltkrieg Ereignis und Erinnerung_ (im Auftrag des Deutschen Historischen Museum, Berlin: Edition Minerva, 2004), p Portrait of Moltke from
Bethmann Hollweg firmly rejected Moltke’s argument for “preventive war”

37. Bethmann’s diplomacy SUCCEEDED at the London Ambassadors’ Conference of December 1912, which agreed to create Albania to limit Serbia’s growth.
The agreement at the London Ambassadors' Conference in December 1912 to create the independent state of Albania in order to limit the growth of Serbia and maintain a balance of power in the Balkans.
SOURCE:

38. The territorial settlement of the Second Balkan War in 1913, and the grievances of Serb and Rumanian nationalists
The Balkan borders of 1913, and the remaining grievances of Serb and Rumanian nationalists.
SOURCE: Western Civilization: The Continuing Experiment, 4th ed., p. 838;

39. Franz Ferdinand and his wife leave for the hospital to visit their wounded aide, Sarajevo, June 28, 1914
The Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo, leaving the office of the governor of Bosnia-Herzegovina on 28 June A member of the Yugoslav terrorist team had already thrown hand grenades at the official limousine that morning; the targets were missed, but an officer in the car following them had been wounded. Here the couple is leaving for the hospital to visit their wounded aide. SOURCE: John Keegan, _An Illustrated History of the First World War_ (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), p. 42.

40. Gavrilo Princip of the “Black Hand” assassinates Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on June 28, 1914
After completing their official duties, the royal couple decided to visit the hospital to see an aide wounded in an unsuccessful attack with hand grenades on their motorcade that morning. Through incredibly bad luck, their chauffeur made a wrong turn and was compelled to turn around, just where another member of the assassination team was standing. Gavrilo Princip was armed with a revolver and shot both the archduke and his wife dead on the spot. Princip was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Fortress of Theresienstadt, where he died of tuberculosis. SOURCE: John Keegan, _An Illustrated History of the First World War_ (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), p. 43.

41. THE ARREST OF GAVRILO PRINCIP
Actual photograph of the arrest of Gavrilo Princip (beneath the plus sign) in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914.
[Bildersammlung: Kriege, Krisen & Konflikte. The Yorck Project: Das große dpa-Bildarchiv, S. 46
(vgl. dpa, S. 16) (c) 2005 The Yorck Project]

42. Kaiser & King Franz Josef I, born in 1830, reigned 1848-1916
Leopold von Berchtold: ambassador to Russia, , foreign minister
Kaiser Franz Josef I, born in 1830, reigned
SOURCE:
Count Leopold von Berchtold, Austria-Hungary's ambassador to Russia, , and foreign minister,

43. Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918; ruled 1894-1917)
Sergei Sazonov, Russian foreign minister,
(committed to Russia’s alliance with Serbia)
Tsar Nicholas II ( , ruled ), photographed in 1898.
SOURCE:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov ( , in office ).
Sazonov was a professional diplomat and the brother-in-law of Prime Minister Stolypin; he took office as a result of the collapse of Izvolsky's efforts to seek an understanding with Austria.
SOURCE:

44. Raymond Poincaré ( ), leader of the French center-right, premier in 1912/13, President of France,
Raymond Poincare' ( ), premier of France 1912/13, , , and President of France,
SOURCE:

45. British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey ( ), who was committed to alliance with France but sought to avoid provoking the Germans