The Tsar, seated, and the Kaiser, who both spoke movingly of European Union © Mary Evans Picture Library
To mark the centenary of the Great Crisis of 1914, here is an excerpt from AJP Taylor’s unpublished masterpiece, “The Struggle for European Union,” which opens with an account of the signing of the Treaty of Paris at Versailles in September 1939:
The historic resonance and opulence were matched only by the grandeur of the two senior crowned heads who opened the proceedings: the 80-year-old Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and the 71-year-old Czar Nicholas II of Russia. Both spoke movingly of the path towards European union. Thirty of Europe’s heads of government then signed the Treaty of Paris, establishing a European parliament and executive to oversee the now substantial “Concert of Europe joint defence force for European security.”
The joint force had first been established to police the implementation of the Balkan peace plan, which saw Austria withdraw its troops from Serbia in 1915. Led initially by British Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, it grew from four brigades totalling some 15,000 troops (one each from Germany, Russia, Britain and France) to become an integrated military force of more than 100,000 by the mid-1930s, deployed under successive European treaties in trouble spots across the Balkans and southeastern Europe.
The Treaty of Paris introduced democratic oversight and leadership for this growing European defence capability, and added a significant free trade dimension to the new “European Union.”
It was a far cry from the Great Crisis of 1914 which began the process. In the weeks after the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on 28th June, Europe stood on the brink of general war. Austria planned military reprisals against Serbia while the German pro-war party, led by Helmuth von Moltke and Alfred von Tirpitz, agitated strongly in support of Austria. Kaiser Wilhelm, who had been leaning towards the war party against his Chancellor and diplomatic advisors, only drew back thanks to the famous Asquith ultimatum of mid-July.
The British Prime Minister warned Berlin that Britain would throw its entire military strength against any incursion by Germany into Belgium, the Netherlands or France. This led Germany to draw back from supporting a humiliating Austrian ultimatum to Serbia, intended for 23rd July, which would have been rejected and precipitated immediate Austro-German military confrontation with Serbia’s ally Russia and then with Russia’s ally France.
Edward Grey, Britain’s weak and vacillating Foreign Secretary, had done little since 28th June. Beyond urging restraint on all sides, he had no plan of action, leading the Germans to believe that Britain would not ultimately intervene and the French to believe that it would. Asquith, increasingly seized of the gravity of the situation, consulted the Tory opposition leadership and the army high command, both adamant that Germany could not be allowed to invade France or Russia.
“Were a Franco-German war to erupt, we would inevitably be engaged from the outset. The political pressure would be irresistible at home against allowing Germany to rampage over Europe,” Asquith wrote to his lover Venetia Stanley. “Far better to forestall this while there remains a substantial peace party vying for the Kaiser’s ear in Berlin, rather than risk the triumph of the German war party. For ultimately we could not stand by if France were invaded.”
Executing this démarche involved replacing Grey with Winston Churchill as Foreign Secretary. Churchill signalled an immediate “get tough” stance. Churchill was a friend and ally of the radical David Lloyd George, who was persuaded that no alternative strategy was likely to keep the peace. After two days of perilous uncertainty, German Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg accepted Asquith’s invitation to a five-power conference in London to address the Balkan crisis.
There are some who believe that a Europe-wide war would not have occurred in 1914 even without the Asquith ultimatum. Crisis after crisis had been resolved without a general European war since the Napoleonic War of the 1800s, and this was going to be no different. Perhaps. History always tends to render what happened as inevitable. At any rate, it took the threat of Armageddon in July 1914 to bring wiser counsels to the fore.
Equally poignant at Versailles was the closing speech, from the oldest and most distinguished Prime Minister present. David Lloyd George, in the last month of his great Liberal-Labour coalition, was the “father of the welfare state” in Britain. His crowning achievement, the creation in 1926 of a National Health Service, providing free healthcare funded by progressive taxation, had been copied across Europe. Even Russia was following suit.
“Some say that social progress comes only through wars and revolutions,” he declared. “But we know better. We glimpsed the abyss in 1914. Never again.”
