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Vlad_Dracul1989

Time Lord
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Jun 11, 2015
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Note for the start: I had other plans, but I feel that AARs are needed and I simply must also pay respect to another awesome mod, and people behind it - because they are keeping DH truly alive.
And this time, again, I'll try to make it somewhat different from my other stories. But it still will be monarchist and extremely reactionary - that will never change.
At first, I wanted just Great War AAR for the first time, but Grand Campaign allows me to continue afterwards.



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The German Empire was created at Versailles in 1871 under the aegis of Prussian military might after the defeat of France a year previously. Yet Chancellor Bismarck desired no further expansion - rather, favoured the maintenance of the status quo. Bismarck's foreign policy aimed at maintaining Germany's position as Europe's pre-eminent military power by keeping France diplomatically isolated.

In 1879, a rapprochement with Austria was completed, with the signing of an alliance. 1882 saw Italy included into the combination, and a Reinsurance Treaty was signed with Russia, thereby separating France from potential allies and curtailing its desires for 'revanche'. Domestically, Bismarck appeased the socialists' desires for democratisation by pursuing a popular policy of colonialism and modest reforms. 1888 saw the ascent to the throne of Germany's new emperor, Wilhelm II - a year later he sacked Chancellor Bismarck, refused to renew the Russian Reinsurance Treaty and began his pursuit of 'a place in the sun'.

Russia, insecure with the recent repeal of the Reinsurance Treaty, aligned themselves with France. Germany suddenly found itself with potential enemies on two fronts, not to mention the enemy within: the socialists.

Wilhelm II's policy of 'Weltmacht' aimed at turning Germany from a continental power, into a global power. Wilhelm II believed that this could be achieved by the construction of an ocean-going fleet, and in 1897, his Navy minister, Alfred Tirpitz passed the first of two important navy bills, backed by rich industrialists and junkers alike - an attempt to unite all German peoples and integrate the socialist leaning working classes into the volksgemeinschaft.
This move of naval expansion alarmed the British, causing the latter to align itself closer to France by signing the Entente Cordiale in 1904.

By 1906, the British had responded comprehensively to the German naval challenge, by beginning the Dreadnought race, causing considerable antipathy between Great Britain and Germany. 'Der Fischer kommt' (Fisher is coming) was one of the frightened mottos of some of the residents of Kiel. With such a growing sense of encirclement, plans were drawn up for the eventuality of war with France and Russia - Chief of General Staff, Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen devised a timetable-tight plan involving an invasion of Belgium and a right-wheel flanking movement to circle Paris and crush the French army in its rear, before moving eastward to defeat the Russians before they had mobilised properly.

This was not the only war that was planned: unease about the growing power of the socialists forced the German General Staff to devise the 'Staatsstreich', a contingency plan to crush uprising revolutionary workers that could imperil the stability of the German state and security of the landed elites.
Crises over Morocco had worsened relations with France, and the continued Dreadnought race strained relations with Britain yet further.

By 1914, the socialists had become the most powerful party in Germany, France was planning to increase conscription from two years service to three, and the infrastructure in western Russia had improved vastly.
The German military had estimated that given current developments, Franco-Russian military power would become unassailable by 1916, and that the Schlieffen Plan would have to be implemented by 1915 at the very latest to work successfully.

These facts could not have been far from the German military's mind as 1914 came: as Chief of Staff von Moltke put it - 'war is inevitable, and the sooner the better'. Time is running out. Can the 'place in the sun' still be found?

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1914

1. Why we fight
2. German virtues
3. In retrospect
4. High Seas Fleet
5. Perfidious Albion
6. Teutons and Slavs

1915

7. Long game
8. Naval power
9. Together for victory
10. Global conflict
11. Eastward
12. Long way
13. Broken realm
14. Africa and Asia

1916
15. China Expedition
16. Heads of Hydra
17. Ordered peace
18. Neglected fronts
19. Rogue state
20. March on Rome

1917
21. Unrestricted warfare
22. Settled disputes
23. Middle East
24. Kaiser's battle
25. Sinister changes

1918
26. In the lion's den
27. Victors and vanquished
28. Future spectres

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29. Pacification
30. Friendly ultimatum
31. Order and security
32. Golden cage
33. Crimson war
34. Minor concerns
35. Delicate changes
36. Naval treaty
37. Uncivil war
38. White fall
39. Without compromise

40. Eastern crusade (1)
41. Eastern crusade (2)
42. Under banner
43. God's work
44. Two dragons

45. American dream
46. Insidious plan
47. Byzantine affairs
48. Double Eagle
49. Forsaken land
50. Divine right


51. Guards of the Friedrichstrasse
52. The Right Decision

 
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Great, that is one big scope! Looking forward to reading this!
 
Looks ambitious
 
Let's revive the forum! Good luck Dracul!

 
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From "Current Misconception About the War." 1915.
  • Karl H. von Wiegand's Interview with the Crown Prince Wilhelm

"Preparation was our duty," declares heir to Kaiser's throne-holds Russia responsible

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"Undoubtedly this is the most stupid, senseless and unnecessary war of modern times. It is a war not wanted by Germany, I can assure you, but it was forced on us, and the fact that we were so effectually prepared to defend ourselves is now being used as an argument to convince the world that we desired conflict."

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"I am a soldier, and therefore cannot discuss politics," said the Crown Prince, "but it seems to me, that this whole business, all of this action that you see around here, is senseless, unnecessary and uncalled for. But Germany was left no choice in the matter. From the lowest to the highest we all know that we are fighting for our existence. I know that soldiers of the other nations probably say, and a great many of them probably think, the same thing. This does not alter the fact, however, that we are actually fighting for our national life."

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"Since we knew that the present war was to be forced on us it became our highest duty to anticipate the struggle by every necessary and possible preparation for the defense of the Fatherland, against the iron ring, which our enemies have for years been carefully and steadily welding about us.
"The fact that we foresaw and, as far as possible, forestalled the attempt to crush us within this ring, and the fact that we were prepared to defend ourselves is now being used as an argument in an attempt to convince the world that we not only wanted this conflict, but that we are responsible for it."


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"No power on earth will ever be able to convince our people that this war was not engineered solely and wholly with a view to crushing the German people, their Government, their institutions and all that they hold dear. As a result, you will find the German people are one grand unit imbued with a magnificent spirit of self-sacrifice."

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"I cannot help believing that it will very soon dawn upon the world that so far as Germany is concerned, this conflict is a fight backed by the unity and solidarity of the German Empire. This unity is the best answer to the charge with which Russia is endeavoring to terrify the world — that the war is being pushed by an ambitious military clique."

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The scene of our conversation was the drawing-room of a small French villa, located a few miles directly back of the German fighting-lines and used by the Crown Prince as a headquarters for himself and staff. The Crown Prince entered, accompanied by Major von der Planitz, who, after presenting me, withdrew.
The young commander of the German forces was dressed simply in the gray-green khaki of his troops, in a uniform devoid of any decorations save a very small insignia of his rank of lieutenant-general and his recently-acquired black and white ribbon of the Order of the Iron Cross. He carried no sword, but toyed with a short swagger stick similar to those carried by English cavalry officers.


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There is nothing of the fire-eater nor uncompromising warrior about him. He gave no evidence of gaining pleasure from his military experience or of delighting in conflict. It was obvious that the carnage he has already witnessed has made a deep imprint on his naturally impressionistic mind, and he referred frequently to the losses and the suffering, not only of his own but of the enemy's forces. He was exceedingly generous at all times in his praise of the enemy as he had come in contact with them.

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I hesitated a moment, trying to figure just how much frankness was compatible with discretion in discussing personalities with the Crown Prince of the German Empire. Apparently reading my thoughts, his Highness laughed good-naturedly, and prompted :
"I like frankness and can stand the truth. Go ahead. I really want to know."
"Well," I replied, "the fact is that your Imperial Highness has been very generally represented, or misrepresented, as one of the Kriegshetzer, a war agitator, leader of the war party, and exponent extraordinary of militarism."


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"Yes, I know," said the Crown Prince, nodding his head in assent and giving no evidence of surprise, "and even large part of English press says all that and much more. The papers have stated that I am a thief and that I have personally robbed and pillaged these French houses in which we have been forced to make our headquarters. Really — and I want you to tell me frankly — is it possible that intelligent people in England or even in Russia can honestly believe such things of me? Can it be possible that they beheve me capable of stealing pictures or art treasures, or permitting the looting of French homes?"
I reminded him that in war times sane judgment often went by the boards.
"I know, but it is simply incredible that people could believe what the English papers have printed about me personally and about our side of the war. Let's see, how many times have I committed suicide or been wounded?"
I admitted that I had lost count.
The young soldier laughed heartily when I told him that the Russian press bureau had recently reported that their troops nearly captured the Kaiser during a recent engagement near Konigsberg.
"I must tell father about that. I am sure it will be news to him and that he will enjoy it," he said.

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And thus it begins.
 
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From "Current Misconception About the War." 1915.
  • Karl H. von Wiegand's Interview with the Crown Prince Wilhelm (Continuation)

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Switching to the subject of the enemy, the Crown Prince said:
"The French soldiers are surpassed by none for their bravery. They have fought splendidly. Individually, the French soldier is equal in every respect to our own intelligence, and in some things is quicker and more agile. But he is a defensive fighter and lacks the dogged determination and staying power of our troops when it comes to offensive work. Events have shown that French leadership has been excellent, and it has commanded our admiration."

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Our conversation drifted along freely, skipping about from war to literature, to sports and to human nature generally. It was impossible, however, for me to get from his Highness for quotation any statement of a political nature.

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Our general talk, however, served to convince me that if this young man, who will in all probability one day rule the German Empire, was ever the hot-headed and boisterous youth he has been painted, the war has turned him into a sober, earnest, thoughtful man, with a deep sense of his responsibility.

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The keynote of his make-up is his simplicity, lack of affectation and the faculty he has of impressing you with the idea that he is just a natural human being, a man among men, with a quiet dignity, no poses and a hearty and freely-expressed dislike of pomp. There seems little doubt that his reputation for breaking precedents and disregarding traditions, especially if they have a tendency to hamper progress, is well earned. He is no diplomat, knows and admits it.

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He gives the impression of knowing his own limitations, but has a straightforward manner and an inclination to say just what he thinks, which makes him both trouble and friends. He has an unusual trait of being able to
hear the unpleasant truth with good grace. His greatest antipathy is to flatterers.

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From my conversation with him I gathered that the Crown Prince is strongly opposed to bureaucracy and everything standing between the people and their ruler. It developed from my conversations with members of his staff that it is almost impossible to get him to sign the death sentence of a convicted spy or franc-tireur[1].

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Recently when the French stormed the German trenches in the Argonne[2] and were hurled back at one point with an unusually heavy loss, the Crown Prince offered the French a truce in order that they might gather up their wounded, who strewed the ground before the German trenches.

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When I asked the Crown Prince about the incident, he replied:
"Yes, there were several hundred dead and wounded in front of our trenches. I simply could not stand it, thinking of those brave fellows badly wounded, and lying there, many of them dying within a few yards of our doctors and nurses, while others were trying to drag themselves inch by inch toward our or their own trenches. I almost had a row about it with my Chief of Staff, who opposed me in the matter, saying the French would only report that we had asked for a truce because we were defeated. But I insisted on a white flag bearer being sent to the French trenches with an offer to give them time to get their wounded or allow us to get them. They refused, and, as a result, hundreds of those wounded fellows who might have been saved perished miserably. Some of them lived three or four days without food, water or medical attention. The whole thing
seemed to me an instance of senseless and useless cruelty."

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As a matter of fact I learned from other officers that the Chief of Staff was right in his judgment. The French did report that the Germans had asked for a truce. I found among the officers of his staff, mostly all young men like himself, the Crown Prince is an idol. From elder officers, I learned that the young man has demonstrated an unusual capacity for strategic problems, and the prediction is made that the war will serve to place him in the list of Germany's greatest generals.

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  • What is German "Culture"?


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When the German speaks of "Kultur" he means not only scholarship and artistic genius, but all the developments in governmental, social and economic betterment. He includes expert and honest municipal rule, scientific efficiency in industry, education and military training, high standards of service in public utilities, conservation of natural
resources, effective measures of public sanitation, an aggressive commercial policy, the amelioration of poverty and the elimination of uneconomic living conditions, old-age pensions, industrial insurance and a thousand other results of German thoroughness in dealing with the problems of existence.

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"Kultur" means not only achievements in the arts and sciences, but in everyday progress. It embraces not only poems and symphonies, but dirigible airships, sanitary tenements and scientific sewage disposal. It covers the whole range of German civilization. It is for this that the German people are fighting. Rightly or wrongly, they are possessed with the idea that other nations have plotted to destroy it, and they have proved themselves ready for any sacrifice to preserve it.

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From "Selbsterziehung zum Tod fürs Vaterland" [Self-education for death for the fatherland]. Excerpts from the papers of war volunteer, Prof. Udo Kraft. 1915.


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Sometimes I seem to be contented. This is almost always the case when I become conscious of having used my time in earnest, particularly when I have done my duty, when I have accomplished or made something…But then I again get this disquieting, anxious feeling. At these times I ask myself, “What is your purpose in the world?—To work, earn your daily bread, and enjoy life? No, that cannot be why you are here.”

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I want to accomplish something great so that my name will not die along with my body, but will live on.—Earlier in life I had this thought quite frequently, but I always rejected it. Now I think I have figured it out. I want to be a good and noble man. I want to strive for self-respect, to become conscious of my own inner substance. I will ask only such people what they think of me whom I respect. My ideal is to become a true, loyal German man…

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...the forthright, bold and true hero of the Nibelungen saga[3] embodies an ideal completely different from that of the “nimble, cunning Odysseus,” who not infrequently lies and cheats to achieve his purpose when brute force fails. Such behavior did not go against the grain of the Greek Volk; on the contrary, they took delight in their hero’s facile lies and glib talk. The ancient Germans would have despised such a man. Openness and forthrightness of spirit, unbounded courage, and steadfast loyalty: these are the ideal virtues of our ancient German heroes. These are the characteristics that have preserved the German Volk through the centuries up until this day, and which will continue to preserve it forever...

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Nothing is so held against us by the shopkeepers[4] of the world that we hold war to be sacred. They say that war is inhuman and senseless. The slaughter of the best of a Volk is bestiality. And that is how it would appear to a shopkeeper who knows nothing higher on earth than the natural life of the individual. But we know that there is a higher life, namely the life of the Volk, the life of the state.

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[Prof. Udo Kraft died on September 22, 1914 at Varennes, France, with the rank of Company Sergeant Major. He took a bullet to the temple, and was one of the first in his regiment to fall. He died immediately.]


[1]French partisans, literally 'Free Shooters'. Essentially what later came to be called guerrillas or insurgents.
[2]Argonne Forest, during Second Battle of Sedan.
[3]Author speaks about 'The Song of the Nibelungs'. The story tells of dragon-slayer Siegfried at the court of the Burgundians, how he was murdered, and of his wife Kriemhild's revenge.
[4]English.
 
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An interesting character portrait of the Prince.
 
Seems the trenches has yet to set.
 
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From "Reflections on the World War." Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg,
German Imperial Chancellor. 1920.

  • Foreword


The conditions of peace have been published while this work is in the press. The world has never yet seen so magnificient an apparatus for the stability of a newly prosperous nations. This peace is the crowning of the work that began with the creation of the Mitteleuropa. I find nothing to alter there.

  • Outbreak of War
A legend that has been given wide circulation assigns the origin of the war to a Crown Council that the Kaiser is said to have held at Potsdam on the 5th of July, 1914. Even Germans have believed this fable, although our opponents, who would certainly of 21st of February, 1914, in which military action in the Straits was discussed, without, so far as the protocol shows, recording any dissentive view.

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As a matter of fact, what happened was this: On the 5th of July, 1914, Count Szogyenyi, Austrian Ambassador, after lunching with the Emperor, handed him an autograph letter of the Emperor Francis Joseph, together with a memorandum of his Government. This memorandum drew up a comprehensive Balkan programme of a far-reaching character, in which the Russian schemes were to be checkmated by strong diplomatic counter moves. This policy looked for support to Bulgaria and Turkey as against a hostile Serbia, and instead of a Romania that was no longer reliable. The object was a Balkan Alliance exclusive of Serbia under the aegis of the Central Powers.

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Perhaps nothing more than practical reconciliation of interests was possible, and we should have given up any immediate reconstruction of the existing alignment of Powers. While this would not have essentially improved our position for several years, yet it might have led in the course of some more or less protracted period to that relaxation of tension that our beleaguered position had caused me to work for in all haste and even over hastily.

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German and English interests had come into closest contact in Asiatic Turkey, where the Bagdad Railway enterprise had caused much disfavour and disquiet in England. Agreement as to these issues was of all the more importance in that it offered an opportunity of coming to an arbitral settlement with France and Russia as to mutual interests in those countries.

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However Russia, and one may perhaps say the Entente also, had intended that it should form a solid Balkan front against the Central Powers. This object was not as completely attained as had been intended. Nevertheless, the scale had been heavily weighted against the Central Powers. Turkey had been vastly weakened and, besides Constantinople, only retained a scanty scrap of Europe. For the time the Entente had no object in depriving Turkey of this last remnant. Turkey could be left the post of "Gate-Keeper of the Straits."

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Turkey's proposal for the establishment of a German military mission at Constantinople had been discussed verbally by the Emperor, in my presence, with the King of England, and with the Tsar without either of these monarchs making any objection. On the contrary, the proposal was accepted as merely a renewal of the earlier military mission of Golz Pasha and was taken as a matter of course. Early in 1914, Russian foreign minister seems to have submitted proposals to the Tsar which contemplated securing the support of France and England, and preparing for the possibility of serious military action. There seems already to have been question of an occupation of Turkish ports.

  • Franco-Russian difficulties
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The plan of campaign was the most rapid offensive in the West, and, during its first period, a defensive in the East after the anticipated successes in the West attacks on a larger scale in the East. A strategy on these lines seemed to offer the only possibility of making head against the enemy's superior strength. But military opinion held that a condition of success for the Western offensive was passage through Belgium. Herein, political and military interests came into sharp conflict. The offence against Belgium was obvious, and the general political consequences of such an offence were in no way obscure. The chief of the General Staff, General von Moltke, was not blind to this consideration and eventually declared, that it wasn't a case of absolute military necessity.

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The existence of documents in which Belgian and English military representatives negotiated in 1906 as to the military use of Belgium were only found after the war. Certainly these documents are compromising for Belgium, but even if they had been much more compromising than they really were, they wouldn't have freed us from the obligation of respecting the guarantee of neutrality of 1839.

The enemy propaganda was in no way weakened, and continued to work through unlimited exaggerations, not to say falsifications. Italy and Romania soon freed themselves from their treaty obligations under frivolous pretexts.

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The French peasant and workmen did not want to go to war for Serbia, and would not waste French blood for Russian ambitions in Constantinople. Possibly thoroughgoing Chauvinists would, in July, 1914, not have shrunk from bringing war out of the blue for Alsace-Lorraine; but the French people would hardly have stood for this. However deep the idea of revanche was rooted, we should be wrong in believing it strong enough by itself for a war of offence. So far as I know, Paris is the one capital where, in July, 1914, there were street demonstrations against war.

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The Emperor was very profoundly impressed by our beleaguered position. On the various occasions that he proclaimed the world power of Germany with characteristic eloquence and with a confidence inspired by the unanticipated aggrandisement of his country, he did so in the desire to encourage that country to new efforts and to raise it from its daily round by the stimulus of his enthusiastic temperament. He wanted to see his people strong and steadfast ; but Germany's mission, a matter of religious conviction with him, was to be a mission of labour and of peace.

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In the Russian orders for mobilisation, 30th of September, 1912, we find, "It is the Emperor's order that the notification of mobilisation should be equivalent to the notification of a state of war with Germany," and the following order lays down a general instruction for the troops on the North-west front : "As soon as concentration is completed we shall proceed to advance against the armed forces of Germany with the object of carrying the war on to their own territory."

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At last on the 1st of August, there seemed to be a ray of hope. Our Ambassador received immediate instructions from me to grasp the hand which seemed to be stretched out to us. If England would guarantee the neutrality of France we would undertake no military action against France. The Kaiser telegraphed in the same sense to King George. But it was a mirage that at once melted away, an unexplained misunderstanding. The avalanche could no longer be avoided. The avalanche that has destroyed the Europe of our day.

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  • Facts of European Policy
The supposition that Germany let loose war out of mere lust of world power is so silly that a historian would only take it seriously in the entire absence of any other explanations at all. It is, on the other hand, a historic fact that German policy did not use many opportunities of making war with comparatively good prospects of success, but at all times sought for and supported a friendly settlement.

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Whereas the assumption that we should have selected the very worst possible conditions for an attempt to establish German world dominion in the most crude contradiction to all military and political possibilities, conditioned as they were by the prevailing systems of coalitions such an assumption ascribes to us the sort of folly that is only attributed to an opponent in the heat of political controversy, and that is in no way likely to be accepted by the judgment of history.

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All that can be said on the German side is similarly only all ex-parte and consequently patchwork. It can be nothing more than a reproduction of subjective conceptions, which are themselves not free from traces such as the enormity of the catastrophe cannot fail to produce upon anyone with human feelings. Only historians in a remote future will be able to judge altogether sine ira et studio. All the same, the connection between certain facts can no longer be disputed.

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The determination of Russia to get possession of the Straits at the cost of a European war can be documentarily proved. And if Russia forced the Pan-Slavist issue that had been rendered acute by the outrage at Sarajevo from a local to an international question and thereafter carried it by application of its whole armed strength from a diplomatic to a military question, we cannot avoid seeing that this Russian action is nothing but the logical expression of a line of historical development that Russian policy has identified with its national mission, and that is, moreover, entirely unmistakable in its immediate effect.

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The controversy as to which party gave the first impulse to a programme of general armament and to a perversion of the policy of alliances will probably never be fought to a finish. Immeasurable mutual distrust, imperialistic ideals, and a patriotism restricted to material national instincts, respectively worked each other up without its ever being possible to say that any particular nation had contributed most to the general tendency of the world.

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All the same, it may be observed that if we consider the extremes on either side, Chauvinists in France and Russia demanded the conquest of Germany and some in England desired to cripple it, therein openly advocating aggressive intentions ; while the exponents of the same point of view in Pan-German circles, in spite of their undoubted and damaging extravagances, scarcely anticipated or aspired to anything more than the repulse of hostile ambitions by a strengthening of Germany.

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  • Responsibility for the War
In spite of their millions of armed men, the Triple and Dual Alliances by counterbalancing each other brought about no breach so long as England remained in the background and maintained the balance. For the Triple Alliance was purely defensive, and the offensive ideas underlying the Dual Alliance would not risk action without the certainty of English support. The "splendid isolation" of England was a great guarantee to the peace of the world. The further England departed from this position the closer had Germany to associate itself with Austria-Hungary, and it is more than a coincidence that the great Army Bills of 1913 date back to the interference of England in the Franco-German dispute about Morocco.

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Finally, when England had so deeply involved itself in the system of alliances that military support of its Franco -Russian friends had become a point of honour, the military policy of the Dual Alliance passed in its turn from a period of passivity into one of practical activity. From defenders of peace these alliances had grown to be designers of war. That is the net result of European statesmanship.

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The proud English motto, "My country, right or wrong" is buried under business advertisements, the battle cry that makes its appeal alike, whether in victory or defeat, has been drowned in the businesslike propaganda that has proclaimed the "crime" of Germany while passing over in silence other facts that are notorious.

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The Entente greatly overestimated its strength if it thought it could create a new age by defeating Germany and Balkanising Central Europe. Europe must either heal its self-inflicted wounds by its own free and friendly self-help, or it will bleed to death.

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The general unrest in the world was really rooted in that Balance of Power which divided Europe into two camps, anxiously watching each other and armed to the teeth.

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What a curious contrast to the effusions that have become popular during the war as to the equal rights of nations and the unlimited love of peace of England herself.

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English foreign policy that first made war possible by unchaining the bellicose inclinations of the Dual Alliance with assurances of British support, and English procedure in the war itself, are the true causes of the world revolution that is now proceeding. Thus we find the Anglo-German conflict to be the ultimate origin of the war. This fact is confirmed by the elemental explosion of popular passion in both countries.

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Well...there goes France. Now Russia has to feel the full might of the Triple Alliance. Something has to go wrong but...what? ...stop snickering Murphy!
 
Nice and effective work against France, Schlieffen would be proud :)
 
France smashed and forced into an armstice in just a few months??? What war is this again?
 
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That was very quick. Nice job on the quick win against France.

Not 6 weeks though. Drilling through French lines right to Normandy took more time.

Well...there goes France. Now Russia has to feel the full might of the Triple Alliance. Something has to go wrong but...what? ...stop snickering Murphy!

Crumbling Habsburg ally, Italian snakes, Russian revolutionaries, unpredictable Yanks...anything may happen still.

Nice and effective work against France, Schlieffen would be proud :)

Especially with not falling into English trap. They can declare war anyway, but why we should make it easy for them? :D

France smashed and forces into an armstice in just a few months??? What war is this again?

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Term 'Parisian visit' will be probably used when someone truly insists on visit regardless of your opinion :)
 
We need a rewritten version of "Deutscheland du land der treue", to match the Kaiserreich feeling. Nice victory!