Abstract
The years between 1890 and 1907 do not provide a neat progression to the more obvious and immediate origins of the First World War. It is true that France and Russia concluded a military convention against Germany in 1894, but in practice each found itself mainly preoccupied with imperial rivalries with Britain. This distraction in the case of Russia even facilitated a significant improvement in relations with Germany and Austria-Hungary during the second half of the 1890s. Most surprising and therefore revealing was the fact that yet another Near Eastern crisis reinforced rather than weakened these trends. Consequently for some years (and in striking contrast to the late 1880s), it seemed quite possible that the next great war would see Britain ranged against either Russia or France — or both of those powers — and with Germany and Austria (at least in the opening phase) in the role of interested by-standers.
‘The partition of the greater part of the globe among such powers is … now only a question of time.’ (George Bernard Shaw)
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Notes and References
E. Kehr, Economic Interest, Militarism and Foreign Policy (1977), pp. 37–8, 43–8; I. Geiss, German Foreign Policy, 1871–1914 (1976), p. viii; V. R. Berghahn, Germany and the Approach of War in 1914 (2nd edn., 1993), Chapters 2–3 passim, especially p. 147: ‘… Tirpitz’s naval and world policy had posed a threat to the balance of power, which was dangerous enough to unite Germany’s neighbours’.
M. Howard, ‘A Thirty Years War? The Two World Wars in Historical Perspective’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th series, iii, 1993, pp. 171–84. See also W. Fuller, Strategy and Power, p. 347, for Schlieffen’s fears of potentially disastrous wars and (pp. 350–66) for the ongoing effects of the Franco-Russian alliance.
K. Bourne, Foreign Policy, pp. 432–3.
M. Balfour, The Kaiser and his Times (1964), p. 183.
F. Bridge, Habsburg Monarchy, pp. 199, 202–10.
See W. Fuller, Strategy and Power, pp. 386–9, for the tightening of the Franco-Russian alliance against the Central Powers from 1899. Note also M. S. Anderson, Ascendancy of Europe, p. 45 for Delcassé’s visit to St Petersburg in 1899 when he argued that the alliance should uphold the balance of power as well as keep the peace of Europe.
F. B. M. Hollyday, Bismarck’s Rival: a political biography of General and Admiral Albert von Stosch (1976), pp. 65–7, 252–3, 258, 273, 278.
Woodruff D. Smith, The German Colonial Empire (1978), Chapters 9 and 11.
N. Rich and M. H. Fisher (eds.), The Holstein Papers: 1837–1909 (1955–63), iii. 511–12, 528, 550–60; iv. 9–12, 22–5; B. Jelavich, St Petersburg and Moscow, pp. 232–49.
F. Bridge, Habsburg Monarchy, pp. 196–7, 209.
Ibid, pp. 210–14.
K. Bourne, Foreign Policy, pp. 440–2.
Ibid, pp. 446–7.
See e.g. A. Palmer, Chancelleries, pp. 182–6.
C. Holbraad, Concert, pp. 4, 173–81; K. Bourne, Foreign Policy, pp. 449–52.
F. Bridge, Habsburg Monarchy, pp. 221–2.
Ibid, pp. 225, 284–7.
N. Rich, Friedrich von Holstein: politics and diplomacy in the era of Bismarck and Wilhelm II (1965), ii. 453–6, 583, 611–14, 620–3, 669–76.
N. Rich, Holstein Papers, i. 118–19.
N. Rich, Politics and Diplomacy, ii. 565–6, 836–49; also Chapter 32.
N. Rich, Holstein Papers, i. 159 ff.; ii. 570, 814–15.
N. Rich, Politics and Diplomacy, ii. 611–14, 620–3; Chapters 40–1, 44–6.
Ibid, ii. 611–14; Keith Wilson, Channel Tunnel Visions, 1850–1945 (1994), pp. 50–2.
C. Holbraad, Concert, pp. 186–190.
B. Tuchman, The Proud Tower: a portrait of the world before the war, 1890–1914 (1980), pp. 236–7, 244–50; Anderson, Modern Diplomacy, pp. 253–65, 270–2.
B. Tuchman, Proud Tower, pp. 240–3.
M. Anderson, Modern Diplomacy, p. 262; N. Rich, Politics and Diplomacy, ii. Chapter 42; pp. 603–7; B. Tuchman, Proud Tower, p. 256; A. Palmer, Chancelleries, pp. 191–5.
K. Bourne, Foreign Policy, p. 472; M. Balfour, Kaiser, p. 238–40.
V. R. Berghahn, Germany, pp. 61–2. See also Holger H. Herwig, ‘The Luxury Fleet’: the imperial German navy 1888–1918 (1980), Chapter 3.
H.H. Herwig, Luxury Fleet, pp. 75, 92.
W. Fuller, Strategy and Power, pp. 370–2, 382, 386–9 for references to Russia’s interests at the Straits and the Far East, and her growing dependence on France.
David MacLaren McDonald, United Government and Foreign Policy in Russia, 1900–14 (1992), pp. 78–81. See also his, ‘A lever without a fulcrum: domestic factors in Russian foreign policy, 1904–10’ in H. Ragsdale, Imperial Russia, Chapter 11, and ‘A. P. Izvol’ski and Russian Foreign Policy under “United Government”, 1906–10’, in R. McKean, New Perspectives, Chapter 10, pp. 174–202.
K. Neilson, Britain and the Last Tsar: British policy and Russia, 1894–1907 (1995), Chapter 9.
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© 1996 C. J. Bartlett
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Bartlett, C.J. (1996). Imperial Rivalries and European Diplomacy, 1890–1907. In: Peace, War and the European Powers, 1814–1914. European History in Perspective. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24958-9_6
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