13. "THE GREAT WAR" (WORLD WAR ONE)

1914

Austria’s declaration of war on Serbia At this point Austria wanted to destroy Serbia, but needed German backing.  Wilhelm was reluctant to get involved in such a tangle but also knew that German support was vital in keeping the Austrian-Hungarian empire from falling apart.  He had to support Austria.  Aware of this backing, the Austrian cabinet placed extremely heavy demands on Serbia to allow Austria to take over the search in Serbia for the Serbian criminals (presuming a Serbian refusal, and thus in effect precipitating the war sought by Austria).   The Serbian government itself had authorized no such act … and tried to meet the terms of an outraged Austria.  Thus most of Austria's demands were agreed on by the Serbian government.  But Austria insisted that not most – but all – of the demands be met by Serbia.  When Serbia stalled, Austria decided that it had the justification it needed … and on July 28 declared war on Serbia.   Austria supposed that this would remain a quick, local war, as most of the wars in the Balkans had been.  But Austria foolishly had failed to take note of the fact that things were very different in the European diplomatic world at this point. Russia joins in It was now Russia’s turn to decide what to do.  Russia was not only the protector of Serbia, it saw in this outbreak of war the opportunity to take advantage of the crisis to seize Constantinople and complete its dream of its own port with direct access to the Mediterranean.  But Russia was not really prepared for a major war, and Tsar Nicholas was well aware of this fact.  Yet he could not hold back his own ministers who wanted war nonetheless.  They demanded a general mobilization.  Nicholas knew well that this would constitute a declaration of war, and by the terms of the Dual Alliance would automatically bring Germany into the war as well.  But he finally gave in to his ministers and on July 29 the Russian cabinet called for mobilization.  A few hours later he received a conciliatory letter from his German cousin Wilhelm.  But it was too late to call off the mobilization.  Russia was at war. Germany joins in Germany reacted immediately to the news of the Russian mobilization with a demand that the Russians immediately back down, and declared war (August 1) on Russia when Russia failed to do so.  Germany then sent a letter to France demanding to know whether or not France was intending to stay out of the conflict, received an ambiguous reply, and thus declared war on France (August 3). Italy initially chooses to stay out of the conflict Most wisely, Italy declined to honor its treaty with Germany and Austria-Hungary … because it had agreed to act in accordance with the treaty only when it was a matter of national defense – not offense, as clearly was the case for Austria (and Germany also for that matter).  Italy thus stayed neutral … at least for a while. Turkey joins the German-Austrian side Turkey, meanwhile, having no formal commitments to either side, was at first unsure of where it stood in this new crisis.  It looked to Britain as a friend (Britain had earlier defended Turkey against Russian expansion) … but with Russia now a British ally, this confused matters a bit.  Also, the Young Turks were very impressed with German military technology and general order, although Germany's alliance with Turkey's problematic neighbor Austria complicated matters here as well.  But finally, Turkey chose to enter the war on the side of Germany … although it had little to offer its new allies by way of military support – at least not at first.   The papacy stays neutral … and humanitarian Giacomo Chiesa had just been voted pope as Benedict XV in 1914 – in the very days that the war first broke out.  He immediately declared the Catholic Church to be neutral in this nationalist contest.  Indeed, pope Benedict tried on two occasions (1916 and 1917) to formally mediate the conflict ... but was rejected by both sides of the contest.  Nationalist fervor hugely outranked the religious – even Catholic – loyalties of fired-up Europeans … at least those of the political leadership of the nations involved. Meanwhile, Benedict undertook to offer humanitarian aid to both soldiers (captured and/or wounded) and hungry civilians.