20. 21. TREVELYAN, GEORGE MACAULAY, “Austria-Hungary and Servia," GIBBONS, HERBERT ADAMS, The New Map of Europe, pp. 418, 22. GIBBONS, HERBERT ADAMS, The New Map of Africa, pp. 503, N. Y., Century, 1916. 23. 24. 25. 26. TURNER, E. R., "The Causes of the Great War," Am. Polit. COOK, SIR EDWARD, How Britain Strove for Peace-a Record of 1914. MURRAY, GILBERT, The Foreign Policy of Sir Edward Grey, ARCHER, WILLIAM, The Villain of the World Tragedy, pp. 46, 27. FULLER, GEORGE N., "Democracy and the Great War," pp. 234, Bull. 20, Dept. Pub. Instr., Lansing, Mich., 1918. II THE LAUNCHING OF THE WAR, THE RECORD OF TWELVE DAYS "The triumph of the Greater Germany, which some day must dominate all Europe, is the single end for which we are fighting."-Proclamation of June, 1915, by Kaiser Wilhelm II. "A Grey man came and said: 'You know, Your treaty guarantees them, so "I said to him, I said it plain, 'Then we must tear it up again.""' Malice in Kulturland. "In view of these indisputable facts, it is not surprising that the whole civilized world outside of Germany attributes to us the sole guilt for the world war."-PRINCE KARL LICHNOWSKY, lately German Ambassador at London. The desire in the sun " E have seen that the ultimate cause of the present war is to be traced to German ambitions for world domination, a program consistently carried out by the Hohenzollerns since the time of the for a "place Great Elector, and brought to its crowning realization under Bismarck in the aggressive wars of 1864, 1866, and 1870-wars by which Bismarck acquired new provinces for Prussia while welding the congeries of German states into the German Empire. William II., coming now to the throne and making the discovery that the valuable undeveloped and particularly tropical countries of the world had been largely acquired by England and France while the German states were distracted by religious wars, covets this "place in the sun" for Germany. The plot to secure the desired territory through aggressive wars was set forth by the PanGerman Union in a political tract published in 1911 and by General Bernhardi in his Germany and the Next War, which was published in 1912 (1). The more important events which led up to the launching of this war have been set down in order in the preceding chapter. The opportunity to strike found Having prepared the explosive material, it remained only for Germany at the proper moment to apply the fuse or fulminate to set off the charge. This was done in the summer of 1914 through utilizing the opportune assassination at Sarajevo of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. The assassination, which occurred on June 23d, naturally caused a wave of indignation to sweep over Europe and occasioned much disquietude in European chancelleries, where the possibilities of serious danger to the peace of Europe were at once appreciated. The Austrian papers immediately charged the murder to a Serbian conspiracy This charge was indignantly denied by the Serbian press, which made countercharges based upon the fact that one of the murderers had been regarded in Serbia as a dangerous character. Serbia had before endeavored to expel him from her own territory, in doing which she had encountered opposition from Austria. Both the Serbian royal family and the Serbian Government at once sent messages of condolence, and canceled festivities scheduled for the day in Belgrade, the Serbian capital. Austria's secret investigation Without giving notification to Serbia, Austria held a secret investigation within the prison at Sarajevo where the criminals were incarcerated; concerning which examination, purporting to extend over nearly a month, no findings were made public or even communicated to diplomats, with the apparent exception of those of Germany. Even from Italy, the third partner in the Triple Alliance, all knowledge of what was going on was carefully withheld. There is abundant evidence that an attempt was made to dispel any disquietude on the part of the several Entente allied governments, and in a number of instances diplomats of the Entente group were given definitely to understand that in case the investigation should reveal that Serbia had been involved in a conspiracy against Austria, the demands upon her would be moderate. The ulti matum to Serbia On the 23d of July, a month after the assassination, the world was almost stupefied under the shock of the publication by Austria of a formidable ultimatum delivered to Serbia at 6 P.M. of that day, making demands for a satisfactory answer within forty-eight hours under penalty of a break of diplomatic relations. The demands upon Serbia included an admission of guilt in a “submersive movement" born under "the eye of the Serbian Government," with the object of detaching territory from Austria, a movement alleged to be fostered by Serbia and participated in by her officials. The Austrian demands required that Serbia make public this admission in the most humiliating manner possible, through announcing it as an order of the day to the army. By demanding, further, that Serbia remove any officers which Austria might see fit to name, and consent to the cooperation of Austrian officials in suppressing any political movements directed against Austria within Serbian territory, Serbia was to be required to surrender the powers of a sovereign state. Sir Edward Grey has said that he "had never before seen one state address to another independent state a document of so formidable a character" (2, p. 21). The newspaper Die Post of Berlin remarked of the Austrian ultimatum with approval: "Every sentence is a blow of the fist in the face of the Serbian Government" (2, p. 21). The history of the twelve days after the launching of the ultimatum the student should follow in the official reports, especially those of France and Britain, which are not only much the most comprehensive of any but the best edited. The best general summaries are by the able lawyer, Mr. James M. Beck, in his The Evidence in the Case (3), and by the distinguished literary and dramatic critic, Mr. William Archer, in The Thirteen Days (2). In order to familiarize his readers with the diplomats involved in the correspondence, Beck publishes a list of "The Witnesses," and in Archer's discussion the material is particularly well ordered and admirably concise. There is in the long wait subsequent to the assassination and in the quieting assurances, followed as The time chosen to handicap the Allies they were by the discharge of this bombshell over Europe, a most disquieting suggestion of design. This amounts to conviction when we note carefully the time chosen for firing the charge. Some of those most concerned on the side of the allied nations were just then absent from their posts and inaccessible. If Austria were to declare war upon Serbia, Russia, before acting in her rôle of the protector of Serbia, must know whether |