The Sleepwalkers (96 page)

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Authors: Christopher Clark

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They knew it, but did they really feel it? This is perhaps one of the differences between the years before 1914 and the years after 1945. In the 1950s and 60s, decision-makers and the general public alike grasped in a visceral way the meaning of nuclear war – images of the mushroom clouds over Hiroshima and Nagasaki entered the nightmares of ordinary citizens. As a consequence, the greatest arms race in human history never culminated in nuclear war between the superpowers. It was different before 1914. In the minds of many statesmen, the hope for a short war and the fear of a long one seem, as it were, to have cancelled each other out, holding at bay a fuller appreciation of the risks. In March 1913, a journalist writing for the
Figaro
reported on a series of lectures recently given in Paris by the leading lights of French military medicine. Among the speakers was Professor Jacques-Ambroise Monprofit, who had just returned from a special mission to the military hospitals of Greece and Serbia, where he had helped to establish better standards of military surgery. Monprofit observed that ‘the wounds caused by the French cannon [sold to Balkan states before the outbreak of the First Balkan War] were not merely the most numerous, but also horrifically grave, with crushed bones, lacerated tissues, and shattered chests and skulls'. So terrible was the resulting suffering that one prominent expert in military surgery, Professor Antoine Depage, proposed an international embargo on the future use of such arms in battle. ‘We understand the generosity of his motivation,' the journalist commented, ‘but if we must expect to be outnumbered one day on the field of battle, then it is as well that our enemies know that we have such weapons to defend ourselves with, weapons that are to be feared . . .' The article closed with the declaration that France should congratulate herself both on the horrific force of her arms and on possessing ‘a medical organisation that we may confidently describe as marvellous'.
8
We can find such glib reflections wherever we look in pre-war Europe. In this sense, the protagonists of 1914 were sleepwalkers, watchful but unseeing, haunted by dreams, yet blind to the reality of the horror they were about to bring into the world.

Notes
ABBREVIATIONS

AMAE – Archive Ministère des Affaires Ètrangères, Paris

AN – Archives Nationales, Paris

AS – Arkhiv Srbije, Belgrade

AVPRI – Arkhiv Vneshnei Politiki Rossiiskoi Imperii (Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire), Moscow

BD
– G. P. Gooch and H. Temperley (eds.),
British Documents on the Origins of the War: 1898
–
1914
(11 vols, London, 1926–38)

BNF – Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris

DD
– Karl Kautsky, Count Max Montgelas and Walter Schücking (eds.),
Deutsche Dokumente zum Kriegsausbruch
(4 vols., Berlin, 1919)

DDF
– Commission de publication de documents relatifs aux origines de la guerre de 1914 (ed.),
Documents diplomatiques français relatifs aux origines de la guerre de 1914
(41 vols., Paris, 1929–59)

DSP
– Vladimir Dedijer and Života Anić (eds.),
Dokumenti o Spoljnoj Politici Kraljevine Srbije
(7 vols., Belgrade, 1980)

GARF – Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii (State Archive of the Russian Federation), Moscow

GP
– Johannes Lepsius, Albrecht Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Friedrich Wilhelm Thimme (eds.),
Grosse Politik der europäischen Kabinette, 1871
–
1914
(40 vols., Berlin 1922–7)

HHStA – Haus- Hof- und Staatsarchiv, Vienna

HSA – Hauptstaatsarchiv, Stuttgart

IBZI
– Kommission beim Zentralexekutivkomitee der Sowjetregierung under dem Vorsitz von M. N. Pokrowski (ed.,)
Die internationalen Beziehungen im Zeitalter des Imperialismus. Dokumente aus den Archiven der zarischen und der provisorischen Regierung
, trans. Otto Hoetzsch (9 vols., Berlin, 1931–9)

KA
–
Krasnyi Arkhiv

MAEB AD – Ministère des Affaires Étrangères Belgique – Archives Diplomatiques, Brussels

MFA – Ministry of Foreign Affairs

MID-PO – Ministerstvo Inostrannikh Del – Politicko Odelenje (Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Political Department)

NA – Nationaal Archief, The Hague

NMM – National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

ÖUAP
– Ludwig Bittner and Hans Uebersberger (eds.),
Österreichs-Ungarns Aussenpolitik von der bosnischen Krise bis zum Kriegsausbruch 1914

PA-AA – Das Politische Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes, Berlin

PA-AP – Papiers d'Agents – Archives Privées

RGIA – Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Istoricheskii Arkhiv (Russian State Historical Archive), St Petersburg

RGVIA – Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Voenno-istoricheskii Arkhiv (Russian State Military History Archive), Moscow

TNA – The National Archives, Kew

INTRODUCTION

1
. Cited in David Fromkin,
Europe's Last Summer. Who Started the Great War in 1914?
(New York, 2004), p. 6.

2
. The German Foreign Office sponsored the activities of the Arbeitsauschuss Deutscher Verbände dedicated to coordinating the campaign against war guilt and unofficially supported a Zentralstelle zur Erforschung der Kriegsursachen staffed by scholars; see Ulrich Heinemann,
Die verdrängte Niederlage: politische Öffentlichkeit und Kriegsschuldfrage in der Weimarer Republik
(Göttingen, 1983), esp. pp. 95–117; Sacha Zala,
Geschichte unter der Schere politischer Zensur. Amtliche Aktensammlung im internationalen Vergleich
(Munich, 2001), esp. pp. 57–77; Imanuel Geiss, ‘Die manipulierte Kriegsschuldfrage. Deutsche Reichspolitik in der Julikrise 1914 und deutsche Kriegsziele im Spiegel des Schuldreferats des Auswärtigen Amtes, 1919–1931',
Militäreschichtliche Mitteilungen
, 34 (1983), pp. 31–60.

3
. Barthou to Martin, letter of 3 May 1934, cited in Keith Hamilton, ‘The Historical Diplomacy of the Third Republic', in Keith M. Wilson (ed.),
Forging the Collective Memory. Government and International Historians through Two World Wars
(Providence, Oxford, 1996), pp. 29–62, here p. 45; on French criticism of the German edition, see for example, E. Bourgeois, ‘Les archives d'État et l'enquête sur les origines de la guerre mondiale. Á propos de la publication allemande: Die grosse Politik d. europ. Kabinette et de sa traduction française',
Revue historique
, 155 (May–August 1927), pp. 39–56. Bourgeois accused the German editors of structuring the edition in a way that concealed tactical omissions in the documentary record; for a reply from the German editor, see Friedrich Thimme, ‘Französische Kritiken zur deutschen Aktenpublikation',
Europäische Gespräche
, 8/9 (1927), pp. 461–79.

4
. Ulfried Burz, ‘Austria and the Great War. Official Publications in the 1920s and 1930s', in Wilson,
Forging the Collective Memory
, pp. 178–91, here p. 186.

5
. J.-B. Duroselle,
La grande guerre des Français, 1914–1918: L'incompréhensible
(Paris, 1994), pp. 23–33; J. F. V. Keiger,
Raymond Poincaré
(Cambridge, 1997), pp. 194–5.

6
. Keith M.Wilson, ‘The Imbalance in British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898–1914. Gooch, Temperley and the India Office', in id. (ed.),
Forging the Collective Memory
, pp. 230–64, here p. 231; see also in the same volume Wilson's ‘Introduction. Governments, Historians and “Historical Engineering”', pp. 1–28, esp. pp. 12–13.

7
. Bernhard Schwertfeger,
Der Weltkrieg der Dokumente. Zehn Jahre Kriegsschuldforschung und ihr Ergebnis
(Berlin, 1929). On this problem more generally, see Zala,
Geschichte unter der Schere
, esp. pp. 31–6, 47–91, 327–38.

8
. Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg,
Betrachtungen zum Weltkriege
(2 vols., Berlin, 1919), esp. vol. 1, pp. 113–84; Sergei Dmitrievich Sazonov,
Les Années fatales
(Paris, 1927); Raymond Poincaré,
Au service de la France – neuf années de souvenirs
(10 vols., Paris, 1926–33), esp. vol. 4,
L'Union sacrée
, pp. 163–431. For a more detailed but not necessarily more revelatory discussion of the crisis by the former president, see the statements recorded in René Gerin,
Les responsabilités de la guerre: quatorze questions, par René Gerin . . . quatorze réponses, par Raymond Poincaré
(Paris, 1930).

9
. Edward Viscount Grey of Fallodon,
Twenty-Five Years, 1892–1916
(London, 1925).

10
. Bernadotte Everly Schmitt,
Interviewing the Authors of the War
(Chicago, 1930).

11
. Ibid., p. 11.

12
. Luigi Albertini,
The Origins of the War of 1914
, trans. Isabella M. Massey (3 vols., Oxford, 1953), vol. 2, p. 40; Magrini was working at the behest of the Italian historian Luigi Albertini.

13
. Derek Spring, ‘The Unfinished Collection. Russian Documents on the Origins of the First World War', in Wilson (ed.),
Forging the Collective Memory
, pp. 63–86.

14
. John W. Langdon,
July 1914: The Long Debate, 1918–1990
(Oxford, 1991), p. 51.

15
. It would be pointless to offer a sample from the literature here. For useful discussions of the debate and its history, see John A. Moses,
The Politics of Illusion: The Fischer Controversy in German Historiography
(London, 1975); Annika Mombauer.
The Origins of the First World War: Controversies and Consensus
(London, 2002); W. Jäger,
Historische Forschung und politische Kultur in Deutschland. Die Debatte um den Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkriegs 1914–1980
(Göttingen, 1984); Langdon,
The Long Debate
; id., ‘Emerging from Fischer's Shadow: Recent Examinations of the Crisis of July 1914',
The History Teacher
, vol. 20, no. 1 (Nov 1986), pp. 63–86; James Joll, ‘The 1914 Debate Continues: Fritz Fischer and His Critics',
Past & Present
, 34/1 (1966), pp. 100–113 and the reply in P. H. S. Hatton, ‘Britain and Germany in 1914: The July Crisis and War Aims',
Past & Present
, 36/1 (1967), pp. 138–43; Konrad H. Jarausch, ‘Revising German History. Bethmann Hollweg Revisited',
Central European History
, 21/3 (1988), pp. 224–43; Samuel R. Williamson and Ernest R. May, ‘An Identity of Opinion. Historians and July 1914',
Journal of Modern History
, 79/2 (June 2007), pp. 335–87; Jay Winter and Antoine Prost,
The Great War in History. Debates and Controversies, 1914 to the Present
(Cambridge, 2005).

16
. On ‘ornamentalism', see David Cannadine,
Ornamentalism. How the British Saw Their Empire
(London, 2002); for a superb example of the distancing ‘world-that-was' approach to the pre-1914 world, see Barbara Tuchman,
Proud Tower. A Portrait of the World before the War, 1890–1914
(London, 1966) and ead.,
August 1914
(London, 1962).

17
. Richard F. Hamilton and Holger Herwig,
Decisions for War 1914–1917
(Cambridge, 2004), p. 46.

18
. Svetoslav Budinov,
Balkanskite Voini (1912–1913). Istoricheski predstavi v sistemata na nauchno-obrezovatelnata komunikatsia
(Sofia, 2005), p. 55.

19
. See esp. Holger Afflerbach, ‘The Topos of Improbable War in Europe before 1914', in id. and David Stevenson (eds.),
An Improbable War? The Outbreak of World War I and European Political Culture before 1914
(Oxford, 2007), pp. 161–82 and the editors' introduction to the same volume, pp. 1–17.

CHAPTER 1

1
. Sir George Bonham to Marquess of Lansdowne, telegram (copy), Belgrade, 12 June 1903, TNA, FO 105/157, fo. 43.

2
. Conflicting accounts of the regicide circulated in Belgrade during the weeks following the assassinations, as various individuals sought to conceal the most incriminating details or to minimize or magnify their own roles in the plot. For detailed and well-informed early press reports on the events of 10–11 June, see
Neue Freie Presse
, 12 June, pp. 1–3, and 13 June 1903, pp. 1–2; the British envoy reports are particularly informative about the steady accumulation of facts amid the rumours; these can be consulted in TNA, FO 105/157, ‘Servia. Coup d'Etat. Extirpation of the Obrenovitch dynasty & Election of King Peter Karageorgević. Suspension of diplomatic relations with Servia June 1903'; also Wayne S. Vucinich,
Serbia Between East and West. The Events of 1903–1906
(Stanford, 1954), pp. 55–9; for authoritative accounts in the secondary literature, see Slobodan Jovanović,
Vlada Aleksandra Obrenovica
(3 vols., Belgrade, 1934–6), vol. 3, pp. 359–62; Dragisa Vasić,
Devetsto treća (majski prevrat) prilozi za istoriju Srbije od
8
. jula 1900. do 17. januara 1907
(Belgrade, 1925), pp. 75–112; Rebecca West,
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. A Journey through Yugoslavia
(London, 1955), pp. 11–12, 560–64.

3
. David MacKenzie,
Apis: The Congenial Conspirator. The Life of Colonel Dragutin T. Dimitrejević
(Boulder, 1989), p. 26; Alex N. Dragnich,
Serbia, Nikola Pašić and Yugoslavia
(New Brunswick, 1974), p. 44.

4
. MacKenzie,
Apis
, p. 29.

5
. See, for example, the passages from the diary of Vukasin Petrović describing a conversation with Alexandar Obrenović transcribed in Vladan Georgevitch,
Das Ende der Obrenovitch. Beiträge zur Geschichte Serbiens 1897–1900
(Leipzig, 1905), pp. 559–88.

6
. Vucinich,
Serbia between East and West
, p. 9.

7
. Ibid., p. 10.

8
. Branislav Vranesević, ‘Die Aussenpolitischen Beziehungen zwischen Serbien und der Habsburgermonarchie', in Adam Wandruszka and Peter Urbanitsch (eds.),
Die Habsburgermonarchie 1848–1918
(10 vols., Vienna, 1973– 2006), vol. 6/2, pp. 319–86, here pp. 36–7.

9
. See
The Times
, 7 April, p. 3, issue 37048, col. B; 23 April, issue 37062, col. A.

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