Historiography of the causes of World War I
Historians writing about the origins of
Given the catastrophic consequences of the war, and its far-reaching social, political and economic implications, the origins of the war, and in particular who "caused" the war, remain heated questions.
1914–the Color books
As soon as the war began, the major nations issued "
In the early 17th century,
The
It turned out after the war was over, that the Yellow Book wasn't complete, or entirely accurate. Historians who gained access to previously unpublished French material were able to use it in their report to the Senate entitled "Origins and responsibilities for the Great War"[c] as did ex-President Raymond Poincaré. The conclusion set forth in the report of the 1919 French Peace Commission is illustrative of the two-pronged goals of blaming their opponents while justifying their own actions, as laid out in two sentences:
The war was premeditated by the Central Powers, as well as by their Allies Turkey and Bulgaria, and is the result of acts deliberately committed with the intention of making it inevitable.
Germany, in concordance with Austria-Hungary, worked deliberately to have the many conciliatory proposals of the Entente Powers set aside, and their efforts to avoid war nullified.[9]— Peace Conference Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War and on Enforcement of Penalties
Later, publication of complete archives from the period of the July crisis by Germany, Britain, and Austria, as well as some from Soviet archives, revealed some truths that the Yellow Book conveniently left out. In particular, was Yellow Book document #118, which showed a Russian mobilization in response to Austrian mobilization the day before on 30 July, but in fact, the order of mobilization was reversed; Russian mobilized first. After a contorted explanation by Quai d'Orsay, confidence in the Yellow Book was ruined, and historians avoided using it.[3]
In his essay for the April 1937 issue of Foreign Affairs,
The documents will not change existing views to any great extent. They will not establish the innocence of France in the minds of Germans. On the other hand, the French will be able to find in them a justification of the policy they pursued in July 1914; and in spite of Herr Hitler's recent declaration repudiating Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles, they will continue, on the basis of these documents, to hold Germany primarily responsible for the Great War.[3]
In the German White Book, anything that could benefit the Russian position was redacted.[8]
1918–1930s
In 1919, the German diplomat and former Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow went through the German archives to suppress any documents that might show that Germany was responsible for the war and to ensure that only documents that were exculpatory (favorable to the defendant, in this case, Germany) might be seen by historians.[14] As a result of Bülow's efforts, between 1923–27 the German Foreign Ministry published forty volumes of documents, which as the German-Canadian historian Holger Herwig noted were carefully edited to promote the idea that the war was not the fault of one nation but were rather the result of the breakdown of international relations.[14] Certain documents such as some of the papers of the Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg which did not support this interpretation were destroyed.[14] Hermann Kantorowicz, one of the few German historians who argued in the 1920s that Germany was responsible for the war, found that the Foreign Ministry went out of its way to stop his work from being published and tried to have him fired from his post at Kiel University.[14] After 1933, Kantorowicz who as a Jewish German would have been banned from publishing, was forced to leave Germany for his "unpatriotic" writings.[14] With the exceptions of the work of scholars such as Kantorowicz, Herwig has concluded that the majority of the work published on the subject of World War I's origins in Germany prior to Fritz Fischer's book Griff nach der Weltmacht was little more than a pseudo-historical "sham".[14]
Academic work in the English-speaking world in the later 1920s and 1930s, blamed the participants more or less equally. In the early 1920s, several American historians opposed to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles such as Sidney Bradshaw Fay, Charles A. Beard and Harry Elmer Barnes produced works that claimed that Germany was not responsible for war. Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles, which had seemingly assigned all responsibility for the war to Germany and thus justified the Allied claim to reparations, was invalid.[14] A feature of American "revisionist" historians of the 1920s was a tendency to treat Germany as a victim of the war and the Allies as the aggressors.[15] The objective of Fay and Barnes was to put an end to reparations imposed on Germany, by attempting to prove what they regarded as the moral invalidity of Article 231. The exiled Wilhelm praised Barnes upon meeting him in 1926. According to Barnes, Wilhelm "was happy to know that I did not blame him for starting the war in 1914. He disagreed with my view that Russia and France were chiefly responsible. He held that the villains of 1914 were the international Jews and Free Masons who, he alleged, desired to destroy national states and the Christian religion."[16]
The German Foreign Ministry lavished special "care" upon the efforts of both Fay and Barnes with generous use of the German archives, and in the case of Barnes, research funds provided by the German government.
Chapter 10 of
- (5) According to the memoirs of the French Ambassador at Alsace-Lorraine. ... Our armies will meet at Berlin. ... Germany will be annihilated."
In a different approach,
The National Socialist approach to the question of the war's origins were summed up in a pamphlet entitled Deutschkunde uber Volk, Staat, Leibesubungen. In 1935, the British ambassador to Germany, Sir Eric Phipps, summed up the contents of Deutschkunde uber Volk, Staat, Leibesubungen which described the origins of the war thus:
"Not Germany, but England, France and Russia prepared for war soon after the death of
Boer War, against Russia when she was engaged against Japan... That she did not do so is Germany's guilt, though a proof that she was peaceful and wanted no war."[20]
In the inter-war period, various factors such as the network of secret alliances, emphasis on speed of offence, rigid military planning,
The Fischer thesis
In 1961, the German historian
He was the first to draw attention to the
Fischer's discovery of Imperial German government documents prepared after the war began, calling for the ethnic cleansing of Russian Poland and German colonization to provide Germany with Lebensraum (living space) as a war aim, has also led to the widespread acceptance by historians of continuity between the foreign policies of Germany in 1914 and 1939.[27][28]
Fischer alleged the German government hoped to use external expansion and aggression to check internal dissent and democratization. Some of his work is based on Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg's Septemberprogramm which laid out Germany's war aims. Controversially, Fischer asserted a version of the Sonderweg thesis that drew a connection between aggression in 1914 and 1939. Fischer was later to call Bethmann Hollweg the "Hitler of 1914". Fischer prompted the Primat der Innenpolitik ("primacy of domestic politics") school, emphasizing domestic German political factors. Some prominent scholars in this school include Imanuel Geiss, Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Wolfgang Mommsen and Volker Berghahn.
In a major 2011 conference entitled "the Fischer Controversy 50 Years On", a group of historians and academics debated the legacy of Fischer's work. The conclusion was that "...a consensus emerged that Fischer had got it right in attributing 'a significant part of the historical responsibility for the outbreak of a general war' to Germany and that Fischer's thesis of the continuity of German war aims still stands fifty years later." Yet by August 2014, many new books had appeared which by their divergent views collectively continue the controversy.
Opposition to the Fischer thesis
The "Berlin War Party" thesis and variants of it, blaming domestic German political factors, became something of an orthodoxy in the years after publication. Nonetheless many authors have attacked it. German conservative historians such as Gerhard Ritter asserted that the thesis was dishonest and inaccurate.
Ritter promoted the idea that Germany displayed the same traits as other countries and could not be singled out. In a 1962 essay, Ritter contended that Germany's principal goal in 1914 was to maintain
Fischer argued that in private, Ritter admitted that some evidence supported Fischer on some points. In a letter to Hans Rothfels on March 26, 1962, before publishing an article attacking Fischer, Ritter wrote:
"I am alarmed and dismayed by your letter of 21 March. If Bethmann, as you write, in July 1914 had the 'desire' [Wunsch] to bring about war with Russia, then either he played without conscience with the fate of the German people, or he had simply incredible illusions about our military capablilities. In any case, Fischer would then be completely in the right when he denies that Bethmann seriously wanted to avoid war...If what in your view, Riezler's diary reveals is correct, I would have to discard my article, instead of publishing it...In any case we are dealing here with a most ominous [unheimlichen] state secret, and all historical perspectives are displaced [verschieben sich], since...Bethmann Hollweg's September Program then appears in a wholly different light".[30]
Trachtenberg concluded in 1991:
- It is certainly not true, however, that the views of the Fischer school have come to be almost universally shared, either inside Germany or out. The older interpretations of people like Pierre Renouvin, Bernadotte Schmitt, and Luigi Albertini--which, while quite critical of Germany, never went so far as to claim that the German government deliberately set out to provoke a general war--are still very widely accepted.[31]
1960s–1990s
In the 1960s two theories emerged to explain the causes of World War I. One championed by the West German historian
Another theory was
Other authors, such as the American Marxist historian Arno J. Mayer in 1967, agreed with some aspects of the "Berlin War Party" theory but felt that what Fischer said applied to all European states. In a 1967 essay "The Primacy of Domestic Politics", Mayer made a Primat der Innenpolitik ("primacy of domestic politics") argument for the war's origins. Mayer rejected the traditional Primat der Außenpolitik ("primacy of foreign politics") argument of diplomatic history, because it failed to take into account that all of the major European countries were in a "revolutionary situation" in 1914.[34] In Mayer's opinion, in 1914 Britain was on the verge of civil war and massive industrial unrest, Italy had been rocked by the Red Week of June 1914, France and Germany were faced with ever-increasing political strife, Russia was facing a huge strike wave, and Austria-Hungary was confronted with rising ethnic and class tensions.[34] Mayer insists that liberalism was disintegrating in face of the challenge from the extreme right and left in Britain, France and Italy, while being a non-existent force in Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia.[34] Mayer ended his essay by arguing that World War I should be best understood as a pre-emptive "counterrevolutionary" strike by ruling elites in Europe to preserve their power.[34]
In a 1972 essay "World War I As a Galloping Gertie", the American historian Paul W. Schroeder blamed Britain for the First World War. Schroeder argued that the war was a "Galloping Gertie", that it got out of control, sucking the Great Powers into an unwanted war.[35] Schroeder thought that the key to the European situation was what he claimed was Britain's "encirclement" policy directed at Austria-Hungary.[35] Schroeder argued that British foreign policy was anti-German and even more anti-Austrian.[35] Schroeder argued that because Britain never took Austria-Hungary seriously, it was British policy to always force concessions on the Dual Monarchy with no regard to the balance of power in Central Europe.[35] Schroeder claimed that 1914 was a "preventive war" forced on Germany to maintain Austria as a power, which was faced with a crippling British "encirclement policy" aimed at the break-up of that state.[35]
The American historian Samuel R. Williamson, Jr., lays most of the blame with the Austro-Hungarian elites rather than the Germans in his 1990 book, Austria-Hungary and the Origins of the First World War. Another recent work is Niall Ferguson's The Pity of War which rejects the Fischer thesis, laying most of the blame on diplomatic bumbling from the British. Ferguson echoes Hillgruber in asserting that the German government attempted to use the crisis to split the Entente.
Post-2000
According to Annika Mombauer in 2015, a new consensus among scholars had emerged by the 1980s, mainly as a result of Fischer’s intervention:
- Few historians agreed wholly with his [Fischer's] thesis of a premeditated war to achieve aggressive foreign policy aims, but it was generally accepted that Germany’s share of responsibility was larger than that of the other great powers.[36]
Regarding historians inside Germany, she adds that by the 1990s, "There was 'a far-reaching consensus about the special responsibility of the German Reich' in the writings of leading historians, though they differed in how they weighted Germany’s role.[37]
Europe's Last Summer
American historian
The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914
Christopher Clark's 2013 book The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 refocused the origins back to the Balkans and sought to redistribute agency back to the diplomats. He also sought to distribute responsibility to all of the Great Powers, paying particular attention to Germany, Austria-Hungary, France and Russia. Clark argues that the Germanic powers sought a localised war to punish Serbia, but in doing so knowingly risked war with Russia. For its part Russia accepted the risk of war by upsetting the balance of power in the Balkans in 1912-13, encouraging anti-Austrian irredentism, and deciding to support Serbia come what may. France did not restrain Russia, positively encouraging her to face down the Germans and support Serbia in 1914. Clark concludes that while all the continental powers risked a general war, none sought that war.[38]
Clark notes the speed of the crisis rendered diplomacy futile: "German efforts at mediation – which suggested that Austria should “Halt in Belgrade” and use the occupation of the Serbian capital to ensure its terms were met – were rendered futile by the speed of Russian preparations, which threatened to force the Germans to take counter–measures before mediation could begin to take effect".[39]
Furthermore, while Clark does not seek to place responsibility on Russia alone, he places more emphasis on Russian actions than many previous historians, stating: "Yes, the Germans declared war on Russia before the Russians declared war on Germany. But by the time that happened, the Russian government had been moving troops and equipment to the German front for a week. The Russians were the first great power to issue an order of general mobilisation and the first Russo-German clash took place on German, not on Russian soil, following the Russian invasion of East Prussia. That doesn’t mean that the Russians should be ‘blamed’ for the outbreak of war. Rather it alerts us to the complexity of the events that brought war about and the limitations of any thesis that focuses on the culpability of one actor."[40]
The book challenges the imputation, hitherto widely accepted by mainstream scholars since 1919, of a peculiar "war guilt" on the part of the German Empire, instead mapping carefully the complex mechanism of events and misjudgements that led to war.[41][42] There was, in 1914, nothing inevitable about it. Risks inherent in the strategies pursued by the various governments involved had been taken before without catastrophic consequences: this now enabled leaders to follow similar approaches while not adequately evaluating or recognising those risks. Among international experts many saw this presentation by Clark of his research and insights as groundbreaking.[43]
Reception in Germany
In Germany itself, where the book received much critical attention, reactions were not all positive. Volker Ullrich contended that Clark's analysis largely disregards the pressure for war coming from Germany's powerful military establishment.[44] According to Hans-Ulrich Wehler, Clark had diligently researched the sources covering the war's causes from the German side only to "eliminate [many of them] with bewildering one-sidedness" ("verblüffend einseitig eliminiert"). Warming to his theme, Wehler attributed the sales success of the book in Germany to a "deep seated need [on the part of German readers], no longer so constrained by the taboos characteristic of the later twentieth century, to free themselves from the burdensome allegations of national war guilt".[45][46]
Vernon Bogdanor
Vernon Bogdanor has criticized Clark for downplaying the German and Austrian refusal of offers of mediation. Over the course of the July Crisis Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary, offered a four-power conference of the Great Powers to help mediate the conflict. Clark dismisses Grey’s attempts as “half-hearted” and founded on a “partisan indifference to the power-political realities of Austro-Hungary’s situation”.[47]
Russia accepted the four power conference proposal but Austria-Hungary rejected the proposal. Germany also rejected the proposal on the grounds that they believed only Germany would support their ally. Bogdanor believes the Germans were mistaken. “That’s mistaken. I think Grey would have taken the Austrian side and would have said concessions were needed by Serbia to keep the peace…and it would have been very difficult for the Russians not to go along with that."[48] The Russians further proposed that the conflict be subject to the court of arbitration in the Hague but this too was rejected by Germany and Austria-Hungary. To Bogdanor the rejection of the options of the four power conference and the court of arbitration weigh heavily against Germany and Austria-Hungary when looking for the causes of the war.[48]
The Russian Origins of the First World War and July 1914
Sean McMeekin, in his books The Russian Origins of the First World War and July 1914, also places more emphasis on Russian actions and in particular Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Sazonov’s bellicosity and duplicity. McMeekin argues that Russia’s Balkan policy, and crucial support for Serbia, only make sense in the context of her wider strategic desire to control or capture Constantinople and the Straits from the ailing Ottomans. This is similar to the Russian's plan during the Bosnian Crisis of 1908 in which they had also wanted to gain the Straits around the area. Furthermore, Russia's foreign policy of gaining these Straits were the same during the Balkan Wars.[49] He further argues that during the July crisis Sazanov must have known that Russia’s partial mobilisation would inevitably lead to general mobilisation and likely war. Moreover he highlights that Sazanov deliberately lied to the British about Russia’s mobilisation, rendering the British unable to restrain their entente partner through ignorance of the advanced state of their military preparations.[50]
The War That Ended Peace
Margaret MacMillan, in her book, The War That Ended Peace, puts the blame for the start of the First World War on the decision making of a small group of people, primarily blaming the leaders of Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary.[51] The Russians did not want to back down after mobilizing, due to the fast mobilization that they had ordered. German leaders were also to blame due to their issuance of the Blank Cheque to Austria-Hungary during the July Crisis, which pushed Austria-Hungary into going to war with Serbia. Finally, the leaders of Austria-Hungary were culpable for planning to invade Serbia after the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.[51]
The Origins of the First World War
Historian William Mulligan, in his book, The Origins of the First World War, believes that the First World War had started due to the fall of international relations which had then led to various empires around the continent feeling threatened which had then led to poor decision making.[52] European powers had weakened due to crisis such as the Bosnian Crisis and the two crises in Morocco which happened as a result of the weakening power in the Ottoman Empire in the area. Mulligan believes that an arms race was facilitated due to the powers becoming weaker and this arms race led to even more fear and instability. All this fear and instability then exploded in the July Crisis and poor decisions were made because European powers believed that the power of their countries were at stake.[52]
Other views
Alexander Anievas also puts the blame of the start of the First World War on the decline of relations between the European powers in the article "1914 In World Historical Perspective: The Uneven and Combined Origins of World War I". Anievas believes that countries in Europe such as Germany and Russia had tried to bolster their empires due to the collapse of influence from the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans region of Europe. In this attempt, major crises such as those in Bosnia and Morocco broke out[53] These crises brought further problems on the European stage. For example, due to the Bosnian Crisis, Russia had now suffered a major embarrassment on the world stage; their relationship with Austria-Hungary worsened and Russia ordered an early mobilization during the July Crisis.[53] Furthermore, with the nation of Germany, the crisis that had occurred in Morocco led to worse relations between Germany and other major European countries. The Germans felt threatened; they began to build up their weapons which in turn led to Russia re-arming too.[53]
Political scientists Richard N. Lebow and Thomas Lindemann argue that the First World War broke out partly due to ideas about Social Darwinism. Austrians felt that Serbians, as Slavs, were inferior to Austrian-Hungarians and Germans, so it was legitimate to make Serbian territory part of Germanic empires.[54]
See also
- Causes of World War I
- Diplomatic history of World War I
- History of the Balkans
- International relations (1814–1919)
- Paris Peace Conference, 1919
- War guilt question
- Causes of World War II
Notes
- ^ German title of the White Book was: "Das Deutsche Weißbuch über den Ausbruch des deutsch-russisch-französischen Krieges" ("The German White Book about the Outbreak of the German-Russian-French War".
- ^ The German White Book was translated and published in English the same year.[2]
- ^ French: "Les origines et les responsabilités de la grande guerre"
References
- ^ OCLC 769268852. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
- OCLC 1158533. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
- ^ a b c d Schmitt, Bernadotte E. (1 April 1937). "France and the Outbreak of the World War". Foreign Affairs. 26 (3). Council on Foreign Relations. Archived from the original on 25 November 2018. Retrieved 5 October 2020.
- ^ a b "German White Book". United Kingdom: The National Archives. Retrieved 23 January 2017.
- ^ Kempe 2008, vol.7, p.18.
- ^ Kempe 2008, vol.7, p.19.
- OCLC 9427935. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-938622-16-2. Retrieved 4 October 2020.
- OCLC 632565106., vol.7, p. 23
La guerre a été préméditée par les Puissances centrales, ainsi que par leurs Alliés, la Turquie et la Bulgarie et elle est le résultat d'actes délibérément commis dans l'intention de la rendre inévitable.
as quoted in Kempe (2008)Kempe 2008
L'Allemagne, d'accord avec l'Autriche-Hongrie, a travaillé délibérément a faire écarter les nombreuses propositions conciliatrices des Puissances de l'Entente et a réduire a néant leurs éfforts pour éviter la guerre. - )
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- ISBN 9780674353268.
- ISBN 0300135092.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Herwig, Holger. "Patriotic Self-Censorship in Germany", pages 153–159, from The Outbreak of World War I, edited by Holger Herwig. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
- ^ Lipstadt, Deborah Denying the Holocaust London: Plume Books, 1994, pages 32–33
- ^ Lipstadt, Deborah, Denying the Holocaust. London: Plume Books, 1994, page 26
- ^ My Memoirs: 1878–1918 by William II, London: Cassell & Co. (1922) pp. 245-252
- ^ Henig (1989) page 34
- ^ Lenin (1978)
- ^ Dispatch of Phipps to Hoare December 16, 1935 Doc 275 C 8362/71775/18 British Documents on Foreign Affairs, Volume 46, Germany 1935, University Publications of America, 1994 page 394
- ^ Rohl, John. "1914: Delusion or Design", pages 125–130, from The Outbreak of World War I, edited by Holger Herwig. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997 pages 127–129
- ^ Rohl, John "1914: Delusion or Design" pages 125–130 from The Outbreak of World War I edited by Holger Herwig, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997 page 129
- ^ Röhl, John "1914: Delusion or Design" pages 125-130 from The Outbreak of World War I edited by Holger Herwig, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997 page 129
- ^ Röhl, John, "1914: Delusion or Design", pages 125-130, from The Outbreak of World War I, edited by Holger Herwig. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997 page 125
- ^ Fischer, Fritz, "Twenty-Five Years Later: Looking Back on the "Fischer Controversy" and Its Consequences", pages 207-223, from Central European History, Volume 21, Issue 3, 1988, page 214.
- ^ Mombauer, Annika, Helmuth von Moltke and the origins of the First World War, Cambridge University Press, 2001, p 143
- ^ Moses, John, "The Fischer Controversy", pages 328-329, from Modern Germany: An Encyclopedia of History, People and Culture, 1871–1990, Volume 1, edited by Dieter Buse and Juergen Doerr. Garland Publishing: New York, 1998 page 328
- ^ Carsten, F.L. Review of Griff nach der Weltmacht, pages 751–753 from English Historical Review, Volume 78, Issue #309, October 1963 of pages 752–753
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Ritter, Gerhard, "Anti-Fischer", pages 135–142 from The Outbreak of World War I edited by Holger Herwig. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
- ^ Fischer, Fritz "Twenty-Five Years Later: Looking Back on the "Fischer Controversy" and Its Consequences" pages 207-223 from Central European History, Volume 21, Issue 3, 1988 page 210.
- ISBN 0691023433.
- ^ Hillgruber, Andreas Germany and the Two World Wars, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981 pages 26 & 30–31.
- ^ Herwig, Holger H. "Andreas Hillgruber: Historian of 'Großmachtpolitik' 1871-1945," pages 186-198 from Central European History Volume, XV 1982 page 190
- ^ a b c d Mayer, Arno, "The Primacy of Domestic Politics", pages 42-47 from The Outbreak of World I, edited by Holger Herwig. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
- ^ a b c d e Schroder, Paul, "World War I As a Galloping Gertie", pages 142-151 from The Outbreak of World War I edited by Holger Herwig. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.
- ^ Annika Mombauer, "Guilt or Responsibility? The Hundred-Year Debate on the Origins of World War I." Central European History 48#4 (2015): 541-564, quote on p. 543.
- ^ Mombauer, p. 544
- ^ 2015 Laura Shannon Prize with Sir Christopher Clark. YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-11.
- ^ Christopher Clark's ″The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 (2013), p. 525.
- ^ Clark, Christopher (29 August 2013). "Christopher Clark · the First Calamity: July, 1914 · LRB 29 August 2013". London Review of Books. 35 (16).
- ^ Berthold Seewald (25 October 2013). ""Besessen von der deutschen Kriegsschuld" Mit seinen neuen Thesen zum Kriegsausbruch 1914 provoziert der britische Historiker Christopher Clark heftige Debatten. In Potsdam stellte er sich seinen Kritikern – mit erstaunlichem Ergebnis.Die Selbstzerstörung Europas.". Faz.net. Die Welt (online). Retrieved 15 December 2014.
- ^ Andreas Kilb [in German] (9 September 2013). "Die Selbstzerstörung Europas: Christopher Clark hat eine Studie über den Ausbruch des Ersten Weltkriegs verfasst: "Die Schlafwandler" ist das Buch des Jahres. Und eine Mahnung an alle, die militärische Konflikte regional begrenzen wollen". Faz.net. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (online). Retrieved 15 December 2014.
- ^ Richard J. Evans, Rezension zu: Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers. How Europe Went to War in 1914, London 2013. In: The New York Review of Books, 6 February 2014, pages 14–17.
- ^ Volker Ullrich: Zündschnur am Pulverfass. In Die Zeit, 17 September 2013; Volker Ullrich: Nun schlittern sie wieder. In Die Zeit, 16 January 2014. see also: Annika Mombauer: Julikrise und Kriegsschuld – Thesen und Stand der Forschung. In: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 64 (2014), H. 16/17, pages 10–17.
- ^ "ein tiefsitzendes, jetzt wieder hochgespültes apologetisches Bedürfnis", der Deutschen "sich von den Schuldvorwürfen zu befreien".
- ^ Hans-Ulrich Wehler: Beginn einer neuen Epoche der Weltkriegsgeschichte. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 6. Mai 2014, Nr. 104, page 10
- ^ Christopher Clark's ″The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 (2013), p. 559.
- ^ a b Britain and 1914 - Professor Vernon Bogdanor 46mins, YouTube.
- )
- ^ McMeekin,Sean, The Russian Origins of the First World War, pp238-239 Harvard University Press, 2011
- ^ a b MacMillan, Margaret (2013). The War That Ended Peace: The Road To 1914. Toronto: Penguin Books. p. 247.
- ^ a b Mulligan, William (2010). The Origins of the First World War. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 232–235.
- ^ a b c Anievas, Alexander (2012). "1914 In World Historical Perspective: The 'Uneven' and 'Combined' Origins of World War I". European Journal of International Relations (4): 721–746 – via Journals.sagepub.
- S2CID 143652498.
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