Thanks Tom. 2 minuted 7/8 seconds into the video there’s mention of the fact that Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand warned Emperor Franz Josef about Hötzendorf (not to listen t. him) before Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. I have not been able to find any reference anywhere to any warning given by Franz Ferdinand about Franz Graf Conrad von Hötzendorf, although I know they did lock horns on military strategy and Hötzendorf’s insistence on preventive war. It would be interesting to find that information
Maybe. But the navy thing caused the British to have a hatred and rivalry with the Germans. Just declaring war to preserve the balance of power wouldnt work in a Democracy.
GB was not a democracy prior to 1918. BBC - History - British History in depth: Overview: Britain and World War One, 1901 - 1918
And they did essentially go to war to preserve the balance of power when they allied with their traditional enemy, the French. They could have remained neutral ala 1870-71 but they couldn’t allow Germany to defeat France.
Yes really. Before Germany started the arms race, Britain simply wasn’t hostile to Germany as a policy. They would certainly oppose Germany attempting to take over large chunks of Europe, but were perfectly willing to entertain various ideas that helped Germany but didn’t result in them controlling the continent, especially since prior to 1900 their main worry was Russian and French domination of Europe. They only decided to throw in their lot with their traditional enemy France because of German belligerence, if it wasn’t for the direct threat they would have been happy to continue their traditional policy of playing off other powers against each other. Even with all that happened, there was some uncertainty over the British declaration of war in 1914, and Britain almost certainly wouldn’t have entered the war in 1914 if Germany had refrained from invading Belgium.
"In 1901 Britain had a constitutional government, but it was not a fully-fledged democracy. "
They went to war to preserve their dominance at sea.
Ser the post above yours.
I came in to point out the same thing. 1914 Germany was not a true democracy, but it was not an absolutist monarchy either; it had a constitution that provided for a popularly elected legislature (the Reichstag). True, the executive was largely shielded from democratic control (because the Chancellor was appointed by the Emperor and not accountable to the Reichstag), but this did not mean the executive could do as it pleased; it still needed the elected Reichstag for law-making, and - arguably more importantly - to get funding apprropiated for its endeavours. On top of that, German courts by the time were operating in a largely independent manner.
The German electoral system was actually really interesting: it was by design oligarchic/elitist, such that the weight of your vote was linked to how much you paid in taxes.
That was only for state elections in Prussia. At the imperial (i.e., federal) level, franchise was equal and universal among adult male citizens.
Wrong Thread
This really is a subject of a different thread, but I really question the degree to which the ideological differences cited here shaped WWII.
IMHO, the basic causes of WWI were quite similar to those of WWII. The balance of power was changing and certain countries were willing to go to war to either accomplish territorial expansion or to prevent it.
Germany and Italy were both fascist, but not particularly strong allies. Nor did they really care that other countries were democratic. They weren’t engaged in an ideological struggle with the democracies.
Japan was not fascist, it was ultra nationalistic. Japan only entered the Tripartite Pact out of convenience and the moved was opposed by many leaders within Japan.
The war between Germany against France and Britain was because of Germany’s moves in central Europe, not because of any ideological differences. Likewise, Japan’s was with the US and Britain was over Japan’s expansion into China.
Of course, everyone was worried about communism, but that didn’t trigger the war. Germany’s war against the USSR was more based on Hitler’s views of Slavs and Lebensraum.