CHAPTER VI. CAUSES OF THE WAR
National and Race Prejudices—The Triple Alliance—The Triple Entente—Teuton vs. Slav—Influence of Russian Diplomacy—Russia vs. Austria—Control of Balkan Seaports—England's Commercial Supremacy Challenged by Germany—Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria by a Serb.
Within the space of less than a week from August 1, 1914, five of the six "great powers" of Europe became involved in a war that quickly developed into the greatest and most sanguinary struggle of all time. The European conflagration, long foreseen by statesmen and diplomats, and dreaded of all alike, had broken out.
Beginning with the thunder of Austrian guns at Belgrade, the reverberations of war were heard in every capital of the Old World. Austria's declaration of war against Servia was followed by the alignment of Germany with its Teuton neighbor against the forces of Russia, France and England. Italy alone, of the six great powers, declined to align itself with its formal allies and made a determined effort at the outset to maintain its neutrality.
Soon the highways of Europe resounded with the hoof-beats and the tramp of marching hosts, with the rattle of arms and the rumble of artillery. Of such a war, once begun, no man could predict the end. But the world realized that it was a catastrophe of unparalleled proportions, a failure of civilization in its stronghold, a disaster to humanity.
For more than forty years the great powers of Europe had been at peace with one another. Though war had threatened now and then, diplomacy had avoided the actual outbreak. But that the dreaded conflict was inevitable had long been recognized. For its coming immense armaments had been prepared, until the burdens of taxation laid upon the people had become in themselves a source of danger. But behind it all lay the sinister influence of the "junker" element of Germany—the military party, swollen with pride in the development of the German army by more than forty years of preparation for conflict, and the naval party, eager for "der Tag" which should bring a trial of the new German navy against the battle fleets of an enemy. Fostering and encouraging these militaristic sentiments was the growing desire of Germany for "a place in the sun," which was translatable only as a desire for world domination. Greater and wider markets for German commerce were urgently demanded, and visions of Germany as mistress of the seas, with a great colonial empire, and of the Kaiser as the undisputed military overlord of Europe, already filled and fired the Teuton imagination.
The political alignment of the great powers prior to the war was as follows: On the one side was the Triple Alliance, including Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy; while on the other was the Triple Entente, comprising Great Britain, France and Russia. As the event proved, the uncertain element in this line-up was Italy, which had a real grievance against Austria in the latter's possession of the former Italian territory known as the Trentino, and which was not consulted by Germany and Austria prior to the outbreak of hostilities. She therefore declined to enter the war as a member of the Triple Alliance, but was later found in the field against Austria, and thenceforth rendered powerful aid to the cause of "the Allies," as the members of the Triple Entente and their supporters soon came to be known.
It was in the Balkans, long regarded as the zone of danger to European peace, that the war-clouds gathered and darkened rapidly. For generations Austria and Russia had struggled diplomatically for the control of Balkan seaports, with the Balkan states acting as buffers in the diplomatic strife. Servia acted as a bar to Austria's commercial route to the Ægean, by way of the Sanjak of Novi Bazar to Saloniki, while Russia was Servia's great ally and stood stoutly behind the little Slav kingdom in its opposition to Austrian aggression.
AMBITIONS OF SERVIA