Western Civilization - History Of European Society

542 Chapter 27

stand down. When the Russians did not, the German

army invaded Belgium. This violation of the interna-

tional treaty on Belgian neutrality (“a scrap of paper” in

the phrase of the chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg of

Germany) led the British to recognize that their inter-

ests were on the side of the French. For centuries,

British policy had opposed the dominance of the low-

lands (from where an invasion might be launched) by

any strong power—by Spain, later by France, or now

by Germany. European declarations of war rained down

in the first days of August, until the members of the

Triple Alliance, (except Italy) and the Triple Entente

were at war with each other over a crisis of Balkan na-

tionalism. As the British foreign secretary observed, af-

ter a long cabinet meeting had chosen war and the

streetlights of London were being extinguished for day-

break, “The lights are going out all over Europe.” That

somber statement was a good metaphor for the four

years of darkness that followed; at the time, however,

public opinion greeted the war with great enthusiasm

(see illustration 27.3) and brisk sales were made of

French (or German) dictionaries for “the stroll to Paris”

(or Berlin). Only limited expressions of antiwar senti-

ment were heard after Jean Jaurès, the leading socialist

proponent of organizing workers against war, was assas-

sinated on July 31 (three days after the assassination of

Franz-Ferdinand and the day before mobilization of the

French and German armies).

Other belligerents entered the war slowly. The Ot-

toman Empire, whose continuing collapse in the

Balkans had been such a factor in the coming of the

war, followed its close ties with Germany and its his-

toric rivalry with Russia into the war in October 1914.

Italy remained neutral, declaring that the Triple Al-

liance was binding only if Germany or Austria were in-

vaded, not when they invaded small neighbors. The

Italians then negotiated with both sides and eventually

joined the entente powers in 1915, when a secret

Treaty of London promised them significant territorial

compensation at the expense of the Habsburg Empire.

The United States likewise remained neutral despite

significant pro-British sentiment. Although a dispute

over submarine warfare clouded German-American re-

lations, President Woodrow Wilson kept the country

out of war and contributed to efforts for a negotiated

peace until entering the war on the side of the entente

powers in 1917.

World War I: From the Invasion

of Belgium to a World War

The decisive theatre of the war was the western front in

France and Belgium, although the largest armies met on

the eastern front and fighting reached into the Middle

East, Africa, and the Pacific Islands. More than sixty

million men were mobilized to fight, including millions

of Africans, Indians, Canadians, Australians, and Ameri-

cans. The French, for example, conscripted 519,000

Africans to fight in Europe. By 1917 the belligerents in-

cluded Japan and China (both on the side of the west-

Illustration 27.3
War Enthusiasm.The beginning of
World War I was greeted with remark-
able public enthusiasm. Cheering
crowds volunteered to fight and hailed
departing soldiers. One of the most
memorable photographs of this war
fever was taken in Munich on the day
that war was declared, August 2, 1914.
Holding his hat near the center of the
happy crowd is Adolf Hitler, who soon
joined a Bavarian regiment and fought in
the war. The photographer, Heinrich
Hoffmann, later became Hitler’s court
photographer.