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The Kaiser's 13 Balkan crises
A calm summer
Europe felt calm in the summer of 1914. Britain's Foreign Secretary, Edward Grey, remembered the early months of that year as a time when the international sky seemed clearer than it had been. Many statesmen were looking inward at problems in their own countries.
Sarajevo and the slide
Then the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was assassinated in Sarajevo, a place few British or French citizens had ever heard of, and within a few days Europe was steamrolling toward war. Tensions among the great powers had been building for years, but the killing landed when people in Britain, France, Germany, and especially Austria were worried about their relative position. Austria was a weak ally of the far more powerful Germany, and it took action that unraveled the whole European system. Germany wasn't willing or able to hold it back.
The Kaiser changes his mind
The Kaiser's anger lasted until he realized, in a day and a half of terrifying hours at Potsdam, that this time was really different. He and everyone around him came to see that the wheels were already in motion and that the crisis would be almost impossible to roll back.
How did one assassination pull in so many powers?
Europe's great powers were bound into two blocs: Germany and Austria-Hungary on one side, France and Russia on the other, with Britain tied to France and Russia by looser understandings. In early July 1914, Germany assured Austria-Hungary of its support, a promise historians call the blank cheque. Austria-Hungary sent Serbia an ultimatum on 23 July and declared war on 28 July. Russia mobilized to back Serbia, Germany declared war on Russia on 1 August and on France on 3 August, and Britain entered the war on 4 August after German troops crossed into Belgium.
Why did the Balkans keep producing crises?
The Ottoman Empire had been losing its European territory for decades, and Austria-Hungary, Russia, and the new Balkan states all competed to fill the gap. Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, which set off a crisis with Serbia and Russia. Two Balkan Wars followed in 1912 and 1913, the first fought by a league of Balkan states against the Ottomans and the second among the winners over the spoils. Serbia came out of them with substantially more territory.
Why did the Kaiser holiday in Norway every summer?
Wilhelm II began his yearly cruises to the Norwegian fjords in 1889, sailing on his imperial yacht Hohenzollern with a party of friends and courtiers. The trips took place in July, when the German court was otherwise quiet. He left for the 1914 cruise on 6 July, the day after promising Austria-Hungary Germany's backing, and was back in Germany by 27 July.
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