The Sleepwalkers (102 page)

85
. The literature on Anglo-German naval rivalry has for some time been in a state of flux. The older view espoused in Arthur J. Marder,
From the Dread-nought to Scapa Flow. The Royal Navy in the Fischer Era, 1904–1919
(5 vols., Oxford, 1961–70), that the German threat dominated and transformed British naval thinking has been questioned by numerous more recent studies; see, for example: Jon T. Sumida, ‘Sir John Fischer and the Dreadnought. The Sources of Naval Mythology',
The Journal of Military History
, 59 (1995), pp. 619–38; Charles H. Fairbanks Jr, ‘The Origins of the Dreadnought Revolution. A Historiographical Essay',
International History Review
, 13 (1991), pp. 246–72; Nicholas A. Lambert, ‘Admiral Sir John Fischer and the Concept of Flotilla Defence, 1904–1909',
The Journal of Military History
, 59 (1995), pp. 639–60. The most important revisionist study in this tradition is now Rose,
Zwischen Empire und Kontinent
.

86
. Cited in Niall Ferguson,
Pity of War
(London, 1998), p. 71.

87
. Hardinge, Wilson and Grey cited in Wilson,
Policy of the Entente
, p. 106.

88
. Rose,
Zwischen Empire und Kontinent
, pp. 202–17 and 404–24; on Tirpitz's ‘renunciation' of the arms race, see Hew Strachan,
The First World War
(Oxford, 2001), p. 33.

89
. Hans Delbrück in
Preussische Jahrbücher
, 87 (1897), p. 402, cited in Canis,
Von Bismarck zur Weltpolitik
, p. 225.

90
. Bernhard von Bülow, speech to the Reichstag on 6 December 1897, in Johannes Penzler (ed.),
Fürst Bülows nebst urkundlichen Beiträgen zu seiner Politik. Mit Erlaubnis des Reichskanzlers gesammelt und herausgegeben
(2 vols., Berlin, 1907), vol. 1,
1897–1903
, p. 6.

91
. Canis,
Von Bismarck zur Weltpolitik
, pp. 255–6.

92
. Waldersee, diary entry 13 July 1900, in Heinrich Otto Meisner,
Denkwürdigkeiten des General-Feldmarschalls Alfred Grafen von Waldersee
(3 vols., Stuttgart, 1922–3), vol. 2, p. 449.

93
. George C. Herring,
From Colony to Superpower: US Foreign Relations since 1776
(New York, 2009), p. 307; Ferguson,
Pity of War
, pp. 54–5.

94
. Cited in Paul Kennedy,
The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 1860– 1914
(London, 1980), pp. 365, 236.

95
. On
Weltpolitik
as a ‘social imperialist' instrument devised for domestic ends, see above all Hans-Ulrich Wehler's classic,
Das deutsche Kaiserreich 1871–1918
(Göttingen, 1973), p. 178; id.,
Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte
(5 vols., Munich, 1987–2008), vol. 3, p. 1139; a similar view is presented in Wolfgang M. Mommsen,
Grossmachtstellung und Weltpolitik. Die Aussenpolitik des Deutschen Reiches, 1870 bis 1914
(Frankfurt am Main, 1993), pp. 139–40; on the navy as an instrument of domestic ‘crisis management', see Volker Berghahn,
Der Tirpitz-Plan. Genesis und Verfall einer innenpolitischen Krisenstrategie unter Wilhelm II
. (Düsseldorf, 1971), pp. 11–20, 592–604 and passim.

96
. Wilhelm II to Bülow, Syracuse, 19 April 1904, in
GP
, vol. 20/1, doc. 6378, pp. 22–3.

97
. Wilhelm II to Tsar Nicholas II, 11 February 1904, in W. Goetz (ed.),
Briefe Kaiser Wilhelms II. an den Zaren, 1894–1914
(Berlin, 1920), pp. 337–8.

98
. Wilhelm II to Nicholas II, 6 June, 19 August 1904, in ibid., pp. 340–41.

99
. Delcassé to Barrère, 28 February 1900, cited in Andrew,
Delcassé
, p. 151.

100
. Abel Combarieu,
Sept ans à l'Élysée avec le président Émile Loubet: de l'affaire Dreyfus à la conférence d'Algésiras, 1899–1906
(Paris, 1932), pp. 183–4.

101
. Cited in Andrew,
Delcassé
, p. 271; Samuel R. Williamson,
The Politics of Grand Strategy. Britain and France Prepare for War, 1904–1914
(Cambridge, MA, 1969), p. 14; cf. J. C. G. Röhl,
Wilhelm II. Der Weg in den Abgrund, 1900–1941
(Munich, 2008), p. 372.

102
. Metternich (German ambassador in London) to German Foreign Office, London, 4 June 1904,
GP
, vol. 20/1, doc. 6384, pp. 29–30.

103
. Hildebrand,
Das vergangene Reich
, pp. 222–3; Williamson,
Grand Strategy
, pp. 31–2.

104
. ‘The German Emperor at Tangier',
The Times
, 1 April 1905, p. 5, col. A.

105
. ‘The Morocco Question',
The Times
, 8 January 1906, p. 9, col. A.

106
. Katherine Lerman,
The Chancellor as Courtier: Bernhard von Bülow and the Governance of Germany, 1900–1909
(Cambridge, 1990), pp. 147–8; on the ‘uselessness' of the Triple Alliance, see Prince Max von Lichnowsky,
My Mission to London, 1912–1914
(London, 1929), p. 3.

107
. Kennedy,
Anglo-German Antagonism
, p. 280.

108
. Hardinge to Nicolson, London, 26 March 1909, cited in Zara S. Steiner,
The Foreign Office and Foreign Policy, 1898–1914
(Cambridge, 1969), p. 95.

109
. Marina Soroka,
Britain, Russia and the Road to the First World War. The Fateful Embassy of Count Aleksandr Benckendorff (1903–16)
(London, 2011), p. 146; Rogers Platt Churchill,
The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907
(Cedar Rapids, 1939), p. 340; David MacLaren McDonald,
United Government and Foreign Policy in Russia, 1900–1914
(Cambridge, MA, 1992), p. 110.

110
. For an account that does justice to the pressures operating on European diplomacy from the periphery, see Thomas Otte,
China Question
, id.,
The Foreign Office Mind. The Making of British Foreign Policy, 1865–1914
(Cambridge, 2011); Nils Petersson,
Imperialismus und Modernisierung. Siam, China und die europäischen Mächte, 1895–1914
(Munich, 2000); for a powerful critique on theoretical and empirical grounds of the ‘consensus view' that the German powers themselves ‘caused' their own isolation through egregious international behaviour, see Paul W. Schroeder, ‘Embedded Counterfactuals and World War I as an Unavoidable War', consultable online at
http://ir.emu.edu.tr/staff/ekaymak/courses/IR515/Articles/Schroeder%20on% 20counterfactuals.pdf
; pp. 28–9 and passim.

111
. Fiona K. Tomaszewski,
A Great Russia. Russia and the Triple Entente
(Westport, 2002), p. 68.

112
. Lansdowne to Bertie, London, 22 April 1905,
BD
, vol. 3, doc. 90, pp. 72–3.

113
. Aide-Mémoire of the British embassy in Paris, Paris, 24 April 1905,
DDF
, series 2, vol. 6, doc. 347, pp. 414–15; on Delcassé's ignorance of supposed German designs on a west Moroccan port, see note 5 to same.

114
. Conversation between Delcassé and Paléologue of 26 April, recounted in Maurice Paléologue,
The Turning Point. Three Critical Years 1904–1906
, trans. F. Appleby Holt (London, 1935), p. 233.

115
. Andrew,
Delcassé
, pp. 283–5; on Fisher's ‘anti-Germanism': Strachan,
First World War
, p. 18.

116
. Steiner,
Foreign Office
, pp. 100, 102.

117
. See, for example, the minutes appended by Grey, Crowe and Edward VII to various letters from Cartwright to Grey, Munich, 12 January 1907, 23 April 1907, 7 August 1907, 8 January 1908,
BD
, vol. 6, docs. 2, 16, 23 and the minutes to Cartwright's dispatch from Munich of 8 January 1908, pp. 11, 32, 42, 108. Sidney B. Fay discusses London's reactions to Cartwright's dispatches in his review of this volume of Gooch and Temperley's
British Documents
in
American Historical Review
, 36 (1930), pp. 151–5.

118
. G. S. Spicer, minutes to Bertie to Grey, Paris, 12 September 1907,
BD
, vol. 6, doc. 35, pp. 55–8, here p. 56.

119
. Edward Grey,
Twenty-Five Years, 1892–1916
(2 vols., London, 1925), vol. 1, p. 33.

120
. Eyre Crowe, Memorandum on the Present State of British Relations with France and Germany, 1 January 1907,
BD
, vol. 3, appendix to doc. 445, pp. 397–420, here p. 406.

121
. Grey,
Twenty-Five Years
, vol. 2, p. 29; J. A. S. Grenville,
Lord Salisbury and Foreign Policy. The Close of the Nineteenth Century
(London, 1970), p. 213.

122
. Minute by Hardinge, dated 10 November 1909, to Goschen to Grey, Berlin, 4 November 1909,
BD
, vol. 6, doc. 204, pp. 304–12, here p. 311; for a suggestive and trenchantly revisionist discussion of this and other utterances, see Keith M. Wilson,
The Policy of the Entente. Essays on the Determinants of British Foreign Policy, 1904–1914
(Cambridge, 1985), p. 100.

123
. Eyre Crowe, Memorandum on the Present State of British Relations with France and Germany, 1 January 1907,
BD
, vol. 3, appendix to doc. 445, pp. 397–420, here p. 406. On the consolidation of the ‘anti-German phalanx' at the apex of the Foreign Office, see Jürgen Angelow,
Der Weg in die Urkatastrophe. Der Zerfall des alten Europas 1900–1914
(Berlin, 2010), pp. 51–2.

124
. These figures are drawn from Hans-Ulrich Wehler,
Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte
(5 vols., Munich, 2008), vol. 3,
Von der ‘deutschen Doppelrevolution' bis zum Beginn des Ersten Weltkrieges, 1849–1914
, pp. 610–12.

125
. Clive Trebilcock,
The Industrialisation of the Continental Powers 1780– 1914
(London, 1981), p. 22.

126
. Keith Neilson, ‘Quot homines, tot sententiae: Bertie, Hardinge, Nicolson and British Policy, 1906–1916', unpublished manuscript; I am extremely grateful to Professor Neilson for letting me see a copy of this text prior to publication.

127
. Hardinge to Bertie, private letter, 14 February 1904, Bertie Papers, TNA, FO 800/176; Hardinge to Bertie, private letter, 11 May 1904, Bertie Papers, ibid., FO 800/183, both cited in Neilson, ‘Quot homines, tot sententiae'.

128
. Keith Neilson, ‘“My Beloved Russians”: Sir Arthur Nicolson and Russia, 1906–1916',
International History Review
, 9/4 (1987), pp. 521–54, here pp. 524–5.

129
. ‘The Invention of Germany' is the title of the sixth chapter of Wilson,
Policy of the Entente
, pp. 100–120.

130
. On British concerns about defensive capability after the Boer War, see Aaron L. Friedberg,
The Weary Titan. Britain and the Experience of Relative Decline, 1895–1905
(Princeton, 1988), pp. 232–4 and passim; David Reynolds,
Britannia Overruled. British Policy and World Power in the Twentieth Century
(2nd edn, Harlow, 2000), pp. 63–7.

131
. On this feature of US foreign policy, see John A. Thompson, ‘The Exaggeration of American Vulnerability: The Anatomy of a Tradition',
Diplomatic History
, 16/1 (1992), pp. 23–43.

132
. For examples of this kind of fantasizing, see A. Dekhnewallah (pseud.),
The Great Russian Invasion of India. A Sequel to the Afghanistan Campaign of 1879–9
(London, 1879); William Le Queux,
The Great War in England in 1897
(London, 1894) (foresees a Franco-Russian invasion of Britain that is thwarted by the gallant intervention of Imperial Germany); for an excellent overview, see I. F. Clarke,
Voices Prophesying War, 1763–1984
(London, 1970).

133
. Diary entry 29 November 1906, in Paléologue,
The Turning Point
, p. 328.

134
. David M. McDonald,
United Government and Foreign Policy in Russia 1900–1914
(Cambridge, MA, 1992), pp. 103–11.

135
. E. W. Edwards, ‘The Franco-German Agreement on Morocco, 1909',
English Historical Review
, 78 (1963), pp. 483–513, here p. 413; on the hostile British and Russian response, see Paul Cambon to Jules Cambon, 9 December 1911, in Paul Cambon,
Correspondance 1870–1924
(3 vols., Paris, 1940–46), vol. 2, pp. 354–5; Jean-Claude Allain,
Agadir, 1911. Une Crise impérialiste en Europe pour la conquête du Maroc
(Paris, 1976), pp. 232–46.

136
. Hildebrand,
Das vergangene Reich
, pp. 256–7; Uwe Liszkowski,
Zwischen Liberalismus und Imperialismus. Die zaristische Aussenpolitik vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg im Urteil Miljukovs und der Kadettenpartei, 1905–1914
(Stuttgart, 1974), pp. 70, 156; on détentist tendencies in general during this period, see Kiessling,
Gegen den grossen Krieg?
, passim.

1
. Johannes Paulmann,
Pomp und Politik: Monarchenbegegnungen in Europa zwischen Ancien Régime und Erstem Weltkrieg
(Paderborn, 2000), pp. 338–40.

2
. On the Kaiser's capacity to shape the language with which ordinary Germans grasped foreign relations, see Michael A. Obst,
‘Einer nur ist Herr im Reiche'. Wilhelm II als politischer Redner
(Paderborn, 2010), pp. 406–7.

3
. Christopher Hibbert,
Edward VII. A Portrait
(London, 1976), p. 282.

4
. Virginia Cowles,
Edward VII and His Circle
(London, [1956]), p. 110.

5
. Zara S. Steiner,
The Foreign Office and Foreign Policy, 1898–1914
(Cambridge, 1969), pp. 69–71.

6
. Robert and Isabelle Tombs,
That Sweet Enemy. The French and British from the Sun King to the Present
(London, 2006), p. 438; Hibbert,
Edward VII
, pp. 259 (quotation), 258; Roderick McLean,
Royalty and Diplomacy in Europe, 1890–1914
(Cambridge, 2001), pp. 147–8.

7
. Cited in Hibbert,
Edward VII
, pp. 261–2.

8
. Harold Nicolson,
King George the Fifth
(London, 1952), p. 175.

9
. Kenneth Rose,
George V
(London, 1983), p. 166.