Before there were diplomatic treaties between super powers on thermo-nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles, there was the age of the Dreadnought: how many battleships should a country have? This article concerns the views of a Norwegian statesman named Erik Vullum (1850 – 1916) and his admiration for former U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt and his understanding of armament arbitration agreements between the major European powers prior to the First World War.
Andrew Carnegie (1835 - 1919) tried his hand at clairvoyance and wrote this article in response to the constant plea for money from the U.S. Department of War, which he found completely unnecessary and excessive.
"Our naval and military officials must dream of wars since most of them never even see one."
An article that appeared in DEUTSCH REVIEW in 1910 by Lord Esher (1852 – 1930) entitled, "King Edward VII and Germany". Published in the last year of Edward's reign, it is plea to prolong that "Indian summer" before the First World War and a declaration of his affection for Germany and the German people as well as his deep support for all disarmament treaties.
This 1910 article from THE REVIEW OF REVIEWS discusses the "probable effect (that) the change of sovereigns will have upon the present so-called constitutional crises [in Britain]." The writer also concentrates on the subject of Edward VII as diplomat, his thoughts concerning Germany and Austria, his general popularity and his unique relationship with the French. The character of the incoming George V is examined as it relates to the constitutional controversy of 1910.
This small piece from THE SPECTATOR magazine concerned the 1912 budget increase mandated by the Imperial German "Defense Bills" which called for a growth of the German army and navy. The expansion of the fleet was to include eight battleships and nine cruisers of various sizes and provide for further additions later. The German Army was to be furnished with two additional army corps.
A defense was offered for the growth of German military expenditures based on the spread of "Slavik pride" and the rise of a "great Pan-Slavonic movement" due to "victory of their kinsmen in the Balkans". German leaders, furthermore, felt a deep uneasiness about the fact that about one-third of the population of the Hapsburg Monarchy consisted of Slavs and therefore felt that military aid from the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not guaranteed in the event of a war with Russia and France.
The son and heir of the German Kaiser, Crown Prince Wilhelm III (1882 - 1951) was known well throughout the pre-war era for demonstrating his dislike of the German Government's peaceful policies and especially for his belligerent, anti-British remarks, which caused tremendous embarrassment to the Imperial German Chancellor, while giving no end of pleasure to the "hot-heads" of Berlin.
When the attached article first appeared in print the Balkan War (1912 - 1913) was over, however some of the swells of Europe put their crowned heads together and collectively came up with the best Medieval plan they could think of in order to insure the promise of peace in the region.
It was agreed that the Czar's daughter, Grand Duchess Olga (1895 - 1918), would wed Serbia's Crown Prince Alexander (1888 - 1934); while the Czar's second daughter, Grand Duchess Tatiana (1897 - 1918) was promised to Romania's Crown Prince Charles (1893 - 1959). All concerned felt that Romania's Princess Elizabeth (1894-1956) and Crown Prince George of Greece (1890 - 1947) would make a simply splendid couple (they divorced in 1935).
This article heralds the construction of two American battleships that would later become famous for the rolls they played during the Second World War. Both ships, U.S.S. Oklahoma and U.S.S. Nevada, would be commissioned in 1916 and assigned to the Atlantic Fleet during the Great War; Oklahoma protected convoys and later, in 1919, escorted President Wilson to France to the Versailles Treaty.
As a wise, old sage once remarked: "You don't go to war with the army that you want, you go to war with the army that you have" -no truer words were ever spoken; which brings us to this news piece from a popular American magazine published in 1910. The reader will be interested to know that just seven years prior to the American entry into World War One, the U.S. Army was lousy with deserters and it was a problem they were ill equipped to handle.
Click here to read some statistical data about the American Doughboys of the First World War.
Attached is a short review of a book that turned many heads in the diplomatic circles of Europe in 1911:
Germany And The Next War, written by Germany's General von Bernhardi (1849 – 1930):
"A very influential military writer in Germany declares that Germany must win her place as a world power through warfare".
The book sales in Germany were quite meager up until the first shot was fired in August of 1914, when they picked up considerably.
This article refers to a "temperate" review of Anglo-German relations as understood by Dr. Theodore Schiemann (1847 - 1921), confidant of Kaiser Wilhelm II and professor at the University of Berlin. Interestingly, the professor predicted some aspects of the forth-coming war correctly but, by enlarge, he believed Germany would be victorious:
"A German-English war would be a calamity for the whole world, England included; for it may be regarded as a foregone conclusion that simultaneously with such an event every element in Asia and Africa that is hostile to the English would rise up as unbidden allies of Germany".
The Indian Muslim scholar Syed Ameer Ali (1849 - 1928) is remembered as a man who, at times, fully recognized that there were indeed some benefits in store for the developing nations serving as colonies with the British Empire; but in the attached 1908 column, the man preferred to only list the damnable qualities of colonization:
"A few years ago 'Spread-eagleism' was used for mere purposes of ridicule; christened 'Imperialism' it has acquired a holy meaning - it sanctions crusades against the liberty of weaker states...England treats her provincials worse than Rome did."
[NOTE: The author of this piece mistakenly assumed Ali to have been a follower of Hinduism.]
An article about the Muslim opinion concerning
Christianity can be read here...
This 1908 magazine article serves to define the "Young Turk" movement and present a brief history of those reformers who sought to modernize the government of Turkey and introduce a constitutional form of government that would benefit not only the Turks but also the people who reside within the dominions of the Ottoman Empire:
"The program of the Young Turks includes individual liberty to all Ottomans; this liberty is to be inviolable excepting by process of law; the press is to be free, Ottomans may form commercial, industrial, or agricultural associations, so long as no law is infringed. All are to be equal before the law."
Attached is a 1913 article from an American magazine in which the journalist reported on a strong sense of insecurity experienced by France as a result of Imperial German military hubris. The reporter illustrated the point with various quotes from French papers of the day and in a similar vein, sites a number of German papers that express an arrogant contempt for France.
"The German military maneuvers have aroused the attention of Europe to the splendid equipment and administration of the Army, not only in the fighting spirit, but in the commissariat and its medical service."
-so begins the attached article which referenced the overall sense of intimidation and uneasiness that was triggered by the display of bristling military might that was recently witnessed. The journalist mused about just what the Franco-Russian Alliance would mean in the face of such an advanced military force, touching upon the size of the German Army compared with other forces in Europe -openly stating that France could never stand up to an attack.
A printable chart calculated in millions of U.S. dollars (evaluated prior to the 1934 value), which lays out the military spending as it increased between the years 1908 through 1913. The nations taken into account are Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan and the United States.
Numerous articles about military spending prior to W.W. II in this section...
Appearing on newsstands fourteen years prior to the outbreak of the First World War was this small piece from THE LITERARY DIGEST declaring that the thirst for military glory was woven into the very fiber of the French Republic:
"Not within the memory of living men has France been the mistress of continental Europe; yet the memory of her military glory is still vivid among her people, and the expressions of many of her writers show that she has not given up her proud preeminence."
"Revenge for Sedan is a sentiment necessary to our national existence."
Click here to read a 1912 article about the expansion of the Imperial German Navy.
"French hatred of Germany has been looked upon as something of a bugaboo, as being greatly exaggerated, and having little reality except in the writings of the sensationalists. That this hatred is a fact, a very serious fact..."
A printable article that illustrated the sensitive diplomatic status existing between France, Britain and Germany in 1900 when France was still smarting from their humiliating defeat in the Franco-Prussian War; recently allying themselves with Imperial Russia, Germany felt extremely ill at ease. The kaiser's diplomats remarked openly that Britain, as the abusive tormentors of the Boer farmers in South Africa, were not likely to be on friendly terms with Germany any time soon.
The Franco-Russian Alliance (1892 - 1917) was a military partnership uniting the Russian empire of Alexander III Alexandrovich and the French Third Republic under President Marie François Sadi Carnot. It was a key element that contributed to the deep sense of insecurity experienced by Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. When one reads the attached article from 1897, with it's strong anti-German language, you will come away wondering why the First World War didn't begin sooner:
"France may now hope to regain her lost provinces with the help of Russia. The hour of revenge has come. Alsace Lorraine will once more be French..."
"Bismark (1815 – 1898) has long since recognized what at length the people of England are beginning to understand, that England and Germany must come to blows over the right to levy from the whole world the tribute of commerce..."
