Excerpt from “The First World War,” An EBC 1 documentary series, 5 July 2014
Episode I: The Road to War
Iconic archival footage from the Battle of Somme plays, depicting a mass of British soldiers emerging from the trenches to charge across no man’s land. Whistles, gunfire and incoherent shouts are dubbed over.
NARRATOR
Four and a half years of war. Over nine million soldiers dead on the battlefields. Seven million civilians perish. The map of Europe is redrawn. Old empires die, new nation-states emerge. A grand experiment in social revolution begins in what was once the Russian Empire.
FOCUS ON:
A map of the infamous Schlieffen Plan, depicting the movement of German armies through neutral Belgium to outflank the French Army
TITLE CARD: “The First World War”
NARRATOR
How did the world plunge so swiftly from “peace in our time” into the abyss of war? How did the web of alliances grow to ensnare the old United States of America? We all know of the spark that lit the magazine, but in this episode we shall trace how Europe came to be strewn with powder kegs.
CUT TO:
A re-enactor in costume of KAISER WILHELM II sits at the head of the table while various government ministers flank him. Toy battleships litter the table.
CUT TO:
Historian JOHN DERBY* sits in front of a camera.
DERBY
The origins of the First World War go back decades, and while it would be impossible to list them all, the ascension of Kaiser Wilhelm II to the throne of the German Empire is among the most important turning points. The previous Kaiser, Frederick III, had reigned for only ninety days before his untimely death. Wilhelm II inherited an empire that had no serious enemies and quite strong allies thanks to the diligent work of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. The impetuous Wilhelm II chose to sack Bismarck and pursue a new course.
INTERVIEWER
You make him sound very foolish.
DERBY
(Laughs) Well, he very much was. He had a cavalier attitude that oft caused trouble, and it took a great deal of effort on the part of his ministers to rein in his passions. Wilhelm II wished to intervene on behalf of Spain in the Spanish-American War, hoping that the war would humble the young upstart U.S. and perhaps gain access to the West Indies in the trade.
CUT TO:
An infographic plays, displaying the result of the Spanish-American War. After, an overlay displays the relative naval strength of the various powers.
NARRATOR
The Royal Navy had by tradition maintained a “two-power” standard, maintaining in peacetime a fleet sufficient to defeat the next two largest naval powers. When Wilhelm II signed the First Imperial Naval Law in 1898, the planned fleet of 19 battleships and 12 armored cruisers did not change the balance of power in Europe.
The launching of SMS Pommern , with Kaiser Wilhelm II in attendance, circa 1905.
NARRATOR
A second Naval Law is passed just two years later, doubling the authorized strength of the Kaiserliche Marine. The naval arms race begins. Advances in gunnery and technology will intensify this race.
The HMS Dreadnought at sea, eight of her ten 12-inch guns firing a broadside volley.
NARRATOR
In a single stroke, the HMS Dreadnought renders all existing capital ships obsolete. A double-edged sword, such a revolution she was she reset the arms race to zero.
WIPE TO:
The commissioning of the SMS Nassau , Germany’s first dreadnought battleship, with the commissioning of the USS Kansas , America’s own first dreadnought in shown in a split screen to contrast the two events.
NARRATOR
Events would conspire to bring two emerging world industrial powers into conflict.
Naval historian JEAN-MARIE BENOIT* sits behind two scale replica battleships, the Brazilian Minas Geraes and the Argentinian Rivadavia. He speaks in Received Pronunciation with a noticeable French lilt.
BENOIT
The richer states in South America are at each other’s throats at this time. The arrival of the Dreadnought revolution gives them a new way to tip the balance. Brazil orders her own dreadnought, the world-class Minas Gareas with her twelve 30cm guns. This forces a response from Argentina. Both Germany and the United States are interested.
WIPE TO:
American president Taft attends the launching of the USS Mississippi , an eight gun dreadnought.
BENOIT (VOICE-OVER)
There was an intense bidding process, and it caused multiple political conflicts within Argentina and the United States. In spite of the ability of the hyperefficient National Steel trust to provide cheap, high quality steel, ultimately the Argentine minister of war’s preference for a unified logistics train won out, and the Rivadavia was ordered from Wilhelmshaven in Germany.
CUT TO:
A map of the Western hemisphere detailing spheres of interest, with American ones in focus.
NARRATOR
The United States had long held to a policy called the Monroe Doctrine, echoes of which still guide policy in Soviet America. Old World influence in the New World was to be resisted, and Kaiser Wilhelm II’s influence in Argentina was seen as a direct violation of this doctrine. The United States begins to align more closely with its largest trade partner, Great Britain.
CUT TO:
JOHN DERBY sits with the British archival copy of the Treaty of Toronto.
DERBY
What we see following the Argentine crisis is a United States government increasingly conscious of its world interests. Not only did she greatly increase the pace of battleship construction, but she looked to strengthen economic and military ties with the United Kingdom. This was mutual beneficial, as the Royal Navy could free itself from having to prepare against the United States as a potential threat, to focus on the German Navy, while the US Navy was able to benefit from the immense experience the Royal Navy had to offer.
Excerpt from “The Mexican Revolutions: 1910-1934”, secondary school textbook , c. 1998
[…] The overriding goal of Germany during the reign of Wilhelm II was acquiring Germany’s “time in the sun”, by building an empire to match or even eclipse Britain’s. Key to this was acquiring leverage and building a base of power in the Americas, long firmly in the Anglo-American sphere of influence. Though Wilhelm was unable to get his war for Spain’s sake in 1898 due to the admiralty feeling unready for such a conflict, the dream of getting Germany a “seat at the table of the new world” never vanished.
The first step was then getting Germany’s foot into the door in the south American Dreadnought race, known as the “ABC” (Argentina, Brazil, and Chile) powers of the continent looked to modernise their militaries and establish themselves as first rate powers with first rate navies. Due to extensive pitches by German arms’ manufacturers beforehand, Argentina was already making heavy usage of German equipment, settling Argentina on a course of acquiring warships from the Kaiserreich. This culminated in the sale of the battleship Rivadavia and her sister Moreno, bouying German finances and was seen as a diplomatic coup in Berlin.
However in the halls of Parliament and Congress, this would be seen with great concern. This was nothing less than a direct attack on the “informal empire” of Britain’s trade domination over South America and America’s mandate to keep out the old powers of Europe from the New World specified in the monroe doctrine. Germany’s announcement of further plans to cultivate ties in the new world would only harden opinions about “the Prussian scheme’ as it was called at the time; the establishment of German domination over much of the Americas south of the Rio Grande.
With the success in Argentina, German Foreign Minister Alfred von Kiderlen-Waechter soon paid attention to events in Mexico and its ongoing revolution. In particular, they were focused on [Victoriano] Huerta, who had already begun his plot with [Bernard] Reyes and [Felix] Diaz against [President Francisco] Madero.
Huerta, thus, gained the help of German ambassador Heinrich von Eckardt in his plot against Madero. With Eckardt’s help and assurances of support from the German government, Huerta, Reyes and Diaz were able to proceed with the coup in February, 1912. [1]
[…]
After Huerta’s coup and execution of Madero and [Vice President José María Pino] Suarez and assumption of the Presidency , President William Howard Taft was alerted to the involvement of Eckhardt and subsequently, the German government in these events. After the embarrassment in Argentina, the administration was now faced with German intervention across their very own border.
Taft thus refused to recognize Huerta’s presidency, and enacted an embargo against Mexico. Tensions increased between the US and Mexico, especially since Huerta was receiving German aid and weapons, which circumvented the embargo. After the rising of the Constitutionalist Army under [Venustiano] Carranza, the US backed them against Huerta.
German interference within the Mexican Revolution, as well as their growing relationship with Argentina, led Taft to an anti-German foreign policy, and building ties with the United Kingdom against them. This would culminate in the 1912 Toronto Treaty, which established economic and military cooperation between the US and the UK. Most importantly, its secret protocols stated that the US will back the UK in a defensive struggle against the German Empire…..
[*] Asterisks by a name is our convention for indicating that a person has no OTL analogue.
[1] Much earlier than OTL
Bình luận
0