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Relations between the United Kingdom and Germany before 1914

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Relations between the United Kingdom and Germany before 1914

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In his book The rise of the Anglo-German antagonism, British historian Paul Kennedy argued that tensions between the United Kingdom and Germany were already building up before the start of the First World War. His main point was that of the British realisation that Germany was increasingly becoming more economically powerful through rapid industrialisation. Germany was thus seen as a threat, and their reliance on military aggression seen as inhumane. This would come to play a major role in the outbreak of the war, when the invasion of Belgium by Germany was seen as evidence of their aggression, and something that needed to be acted against swiftly.

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28 June 1914 - The assassination of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand

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28 June 1914 - The assassination of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand

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The assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz-Ferdinand is unequivocally known as the main spark that lit the fire of the First World War. It resulted in Austria-Hungary issuing an ultimatum to Serbia, and the latter's refusal to cooperate led to a war between them that at first involved much of the Balkans, and quickly moved on to involve most of Europe.

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Before the declaration of war, the United Kingdom had been extremely divided on whether to get involved or not. Newspapers had been reporting on the events taking place in Europe, and their standpoints varied from being in favour of peace to supporting war, and anywhere in between. Furthermore, the United Kingdom's own domestic situation was not stable at all. The suffragettes had been battling for a long time and the Irish problem was only getting more unavoidable. As the British Empire, they even had problems in India and Persia to deal with. Furthermore, the foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, was vehemently opposed to evolving the British entente with Russia and France into an actual alliance with all the consequences to come with that decision.

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4 August 1914 - The United Kingdom declares war on Germany 

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4 August 1914 - The United Kingdom declares war on Germany 

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A ripple effect was felt throughout Europe, as Germany (backing Austria-Hungary) and Russia (backing Serbia) emerged as the greatest powers in this war. Germany declared war on France, and illegally threaded through Belgium in order to flank the French army. Interestingly, Winston Churchill, who later became known as the Prime Minister that led the United Kingdom through the Second World War, was one of the cabinet ministers that was most insistent on resisting Germany and going to war in 1914. The Belgians called upon the United Kingdom for support under the Treaty of London of 1938, and the United Kingdom subsequently declared war on Germany. The German invasion of Belgium was presented to the British public as the cause of the war, when there were many different underlying reasons that lead to the decision, such as ensuring the imperial security it had created for itself in its alliances. Pictured is a crowd of people gathered outside of Buckingham Palace on this day, greeting the news of the war with patriotic enthusiasm.

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Although the United Kingdom had been exceedingly divided before the war on Germany was declared, the moment the decision was made the public opinion shifted rapidly. All the newspapers that were apprehensive concerning getting involved in the war before, were now unanimously in support of it. The idea of coming to the aid of a Belgium and France in need appealed to many of the British men, and two million of them volunteered to the war effort in the first half of the war. British historian John Keiger summarises it so that a country that was tremendously divided before 1914 was suddenly united by the war. This patriotism also spilled over into more unscrupulous acts against Germans living in the United Kingdom, as described by George Wilkinson of County Durhan in the attached audio file.

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7 August 1914 - The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) lands in France to assist the French and Belgian soldiers in halting the German offensive

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7 August 1914 - The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) lands in France to assist the French and Belgian soldiers in halting the German offensive

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Although the British army is much smaller than the French army it is sent to assist, it consists of seasoned professionals rather than young inexperienced conscripts. Soldiers start to clash along what would later turn into the Western Front, as the Germans were attempting to further advance into France.

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6-12 September 1914 - First Battle of the Marne

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6-12 September 1914 - First Battle of the Marne

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The Battle of the Marne was a key event in the First World War, as it resulted in the stopping of the advancement of the Germans further into France. In the first days of September, the German army had advanced so far into France that they were only tens of kilometres away from reaching Paris, forcing the British and French soldiers to launch a desperate attack to push them back. They succeeded by exploiting a gap between the 1st and 2nd German armies, and the Germans retreated while pursued by the British and French armies. The losses however were enormous, with over two million men in total fighting in this battle, approximately 500,000 were killed, missing or wounded by the end of it. This battle also resulted in the start of trench warfare, where both sides dug deep trenches and fought from these, since the state of warfare at this time was such that the defender held the advantage. Moreover, this lead to somewhat of a stalemate as neither army was advancing much, and this is what much of the First World War consisted of.

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24-25 December 1914 - The Christmas truce 

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24-25 December 1914 - The Christmas truce 

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The Christmas Truce was a series of unofficial ceasefires that occurred along the Western Front, mostly between British and German soldiers. The war had not come to a quick end as was hoped for in the beginning, and many of the soldiers had become tired of the endless fighting. Around 100,000 of these soldiers in the trenches showed a magnificent display of humanity when Christmas Day came, completely ceasing hostilities and even exchanging Christmas carols and gifts. This ceasefire also allowed for recently fallen soldiers to be retrieved from the no man's land in between the trenches, where even football matches ended up being played between the two armies. This scene has been recreated many times in popular culture, in an attempt to display the futility of war. One corporal of the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry, named Adolf Hitler, was perhaps unsurprisingly, opposed to this truce.

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January 1916 - Introduction of conscription

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January 1916 - Introduction of conscription

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While the first portion of the war was fought with an excessive amount of volunteers, the fact that it did not come to a quick conclusion as expected was cause for much decline in this enthusiasm to volunteer. This made it so that the Military Service Bill had to be introduced, forcing each unmarried man and childless widower between 18 and 41 (later raised to 50, and made to include married men) to enlist at once. Irish men were exempt due to the Easter Uprising, but many still volunteered. This bill however also created much protest, with 30% of all eligible men failing to enlist, and almost a million called for an exemption to be made for them, for various reasons. The attached propaganda poster calls for men to fight themselves instead of risking getting killed at home by an airstrike like a sitting duck.

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The United Kingdom was very proud of its naval forces, partly because they were extremely important to keeping open the trade routes and ensuring a future for the British Empire. The British battle fleets only ended up fighting once in a naval battle in the First World War. The British Royal Navy Grand Fleet had been blockading Germany's only access to the sea in its North, and the Battle of Jutland was Germany's attempt to break this blockade. The Germans planned to ambush the British and make the battle play out in such a way that they would not have to engage the entire Grand Fleet at once, as they would be incapable of doing so. While the plan to lure out a small part of the British battle fleet worked, a German command signal was intercepted and the British fleet was informed of its imminent attack. The battle was confusing and bloody, and both sides ended up declaring victory, with the British losing fourteen ships and 7,000 soldiers, and the Germans losing eleven ships and 3,000 soldiers. The British blockade of the German coastline was however kept in place, keeping the German battle fleet confined in its own waters for the entirety of the First World War.

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1 July 1916-18 November 1916 The Battle of the Somme

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1 July 1916-18 November 1916 The Battle of the Somme

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This battle was an attempt from the British to relieve some pressure off the French army after the latter had suffered massive losses in the Battle of Verdun. After seven days of heavy bombardment of the German trenches, the British army, by this point consisting mostly of raw conscripts, started their advance. This build-up to the battle was filmed for a documentary that was created in order to show the success of the British advance. However, in just the first day, the British suffer 57,000 casualties, with at least 19,000 killed, the greatest number of casualties in a single day to this date. Nevertheless, they persisted, resulting in a battle lasting 141 days until bad weather halted the efforts in November, in which only eight kilometres of advancement were made. This was however the largest advancement since the Battle of Marne two years earlier, and it can be argued that this meant that the battle ended in an Anglo-French advantage. The amount of soldiers that perished in the Battle of Somme is horrific, as there ended up being a total of about 420,000 British casualties, and another 200,000 French casualties. The Germans are estimated to have lost approximately the same or slightly less soldiers.

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18 July 1918 - Start of the Allied counter-offensive

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18 July 1918 - Start of the Allied counter-offensive

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The appointment of French general Ferdinand Foch as the Supreme Allied Commander is one of the things that turns the tides of the war in the favour of the allied forces. As the American forces started entering Europe, he helped coordinate them successfully with the British and French forces into a successful counterattack against the Germans. For the first time since the start of the war, the Allied armies cross the Marne river and force the Germans to withdraw, and the usage of tanks forces the central powers to retreat even further.

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With the military situation of Germany and the rest of central powers rapidly decaying because of the Allied counter-offense, the German military leaders started to see that this war could not be won. On top of that, the escalation of the German Revolution caused the leader of the country, Kaiser Wilhelm, to abdicate. An armistice, leading to the ceasing of all hostilities on the Western Front, was signed on 11 November, to come into effect at 11:00 am. In a striking repetition of the scene that was shown at the declaration of the war, joyful crowds once again gathered outside Buckingham Palace, this time glad that the endless battle was finally over. The armistice was extended multiple times, until finally the official Treaty of Versailles was signed half a year later. Ferdinand Foch was critical of this treaty as being too lenient on Germany, declaring: "This is not peace. It is an armistice for twenty years." He passed away in 1929 without seeing his words come true when the Second World War started twenty years after this treaty.

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Continued commemorations: Remembrance day, poppies, Lest we forget.

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Continued commemorations: Remembrance day, poppies, Lest we forget.

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Many British lives were lost in the First World War, with the total amount of deaths being somewhere between 867,829 to one million, approximately 2% of the population. Another 1,5 million soldiers were wounded, and many of those who returned unharmed physically were shell-shocked. The tremendous impact that this war had on the United Kingdom is the main cause for how extensively it is remembered every year. The tradition of celebrating Armistice Day on 11 November evolved into a more generic Remembrance Day, in order to incorporate the honouring of other soldiers that perished in the line of duty. This day is honoured extensively throughout the United Kingdom, with remembrance poppies being worn, and the phrase ''Lest we forget'' often being repeated. This is all not just to honour the lives lost, but also to hope for a peaceful future and to never forget the futility of war.