The Causes and Issues of the Great War goes into much detail about the historical background of World War I. About 70 percent of the book describes this background from the end of the eighteenth century to the Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913.
Much of this information could have been summarized, especially the detailed descriptions of battles. But Morris had many years of research and writing behind him, and he probably decided to err on the side of excess, to make sure that the full story was told to an audience that was trying understand the reasons for the war that had recently engulfed Europe.
The most valuable parts of this historical background concerned these events:
- The Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815, when the map of Europe was redrawn after the Napoleonic Wars.
- The Franco-Prussian War in 1870-1871, which led to the unification of Germany, as well as the buildup of resentment in France over territory lost to Germany during this war.
- The Balkan wars of 1912-1913, which showed the volatility of the area where the events leading up to World War I occurred. It also showed the frustration of Serbia, which was involved in the assassination of the Austrian Crown Prince Francis Ferdinand on June 28, 1914. (Serbia was referred to as Servia in most books published in 1914)
As a panic at times affects a vast assemblage, with no one aware of its origin, so a wave of hostile sentiment may sweep over vast communities until the air is full of urgent demands for war with scarce a man knowing why.From a general perspective, Morris wrote that the war was "less a rising of people against people than of war lord against war lord." In particular, he pointed the finger of blame at Francis Joseph of Austria (Francis Ferdinand's uncle), William II of Germany (Kaiser Wilhelm II), and Czar Nicholas II of Russia.
We are not here concerned with their motives, the secret ambitions or political considerations that moved them. What we are concerned with is the terrible fact that three men, in this age of national progress, still possessed the power to plunge a continent into carnage, cause the slaughter of hundred of thousands of their subjects and misery of the millions dependent on them.Morris wrote much about the resources of each country to wage war, and how advances in technology had made war much more deadly and destructive than in the nineteenth century. He also wrote about the years of military preparation in different countries, which often included many years of mandatory military service.
All of these resources for war were at the mercy of political forces that had been building up for years. These forces were unleashed when the heir to the Austrian empire, Francis Ferdinand, was assassinated by a Serbian student on June 28, 1914 in Bosnia, which had been annexed by Austria in 1908.
All Europe appeared to be sitting, unknowingly or knowingly, upon a powder barrel which only needed some inconsequent hand to apply the match. It seems incredible that the mere pulling of a trigger by a Servian student and and the slaughter of an archduke in the Bosnian capital could in a month's time have plunged all Europe into war.Morris provided this general description of how the dominoes fell from the June 28, 1914 assassination to a European war on August 5, 1914. Much of this activity happened rapidly after July 25.
- Assassination of Francis Ferdinand.
- Austria demands an apology and concessions from Serbia in response to the assassination, with a response deadline of July 25.
- Austria rejects Serbia's response to Austria's demands.
- Austria, with the probable backing of Germany, prepares for military action against Serbia.
- Russia starts mobilizing troops to help Serbia defend itself against Austria.
- Germany starts mobilizing troops in response to Russia's troop mobilization, and then declares war against Russia.
- France starts mobilizing troops to help Russia. Both countries are part of the Triple Entente defense alliance, along with Great Britain. Germany, Austria, and Italy were part of a similar group (Triple Alliance).
- Germany declares war against France and starts military actions against both France and Russia.
- Germany invades Belgium and Luxembourg, angering Great Britain, which supported Belgian neutrality.
- Germany declares war against Great Britain at 7 p.m. on August 4, followed four hours later by a declaration of war by Great Britain against Germany.
The general impression has been that Germany went to war with the purpose of establishing beyond question her political and military supremacy on the European continent. Military despotism in Germany was the decisive factor in making inevitable the general war. The Emperor of Germany stood as the incarnation and exponent of the Prussian policy of military autocracy.Morris tried to see the war as the latest struggle between autocratic forms of government and political systems that promoted personal liberty. In the preface to the book, he expressed the hope that "the close of the war may witness the complete downfall of autocracy as a political principle and the rise of the rule of the people in every civilized nation on earth."
The book includes many useful pictures that helped personalize the major figures in the war and the events that led up to it over the past century. Photographs, drawings, and tables also help dramatize historical events, and also help describe the current military capabilities of the different countries.
The Causes and Issues of the Great War was praised by book reviewers as a good general resource about the war.
"This work should prove of value to those who desire to have instantly available a large amount of information concerning the various phases of the present European war," read a book review in the October 4, 1914 edition of The New York Times.
"Mr. Morris has traced the long train of complicated events which have culminated in the greatest war of all history," read a review in the December 28, 1914 edition of The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky.
The Causes and Issues of the Great War was published around September 28, 1914, when it was advertised in The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky. Front page headlines in that day's Courier-Journal included:
- GERMANS KEEP UP VIOLENT ATTACKS / Instructions From Highest Command To Seek Solution of Battle of Aisne Indicated. / Berlin Claims Repulse of Advance French Division At Bapaume By Smaller Force. / Allies Capture Flag, Cannon and Many Prisoners, Forcing Back Crack Prussian Guard. / NO CHANGE ON HEIGHTS OF MEUSE
- FALL OF PREZEMYSL SEEMS CERTAIN / Russians Occupied Greater Part of Galician Stronghold on Saturday, Says Dispatch. / Movement of Germans in Direction of Warsaw Has Failed, Petrograd Reports / Invaders of Poland Thrown Back With Heavy Losses In Two Encounters. / BORDERS OF HUNGARY ENTERED
- JAPANESE WIN AT TSING TAU / Defeat Germans in Stubborn Battle of 14 Hours. / Kaiser's Gunboats Bombarded Positions of Troops. / China Wants Explanation of We Hsien Occupation. / WOMEN FEAR SOLDIERS
Online versions:
Newspaper information from Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/)
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