The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 (146 page)

2. A family wedding in Coburg in 1894 shows the many connections that linked the European royal families. Most of those present were related to Queen Victoria, seated in the front dressed in her customary black. Her grandson, Wilhelm II, the ruler of Germany, is on the left and behind him, his cousin Nicholas, about to become the Tsar of Russia. Victoria’s son, the future Edward VII, is just behind the latter while the future Tsarina, Alexandra, stands between Wilhelm and Victoria.

3. Although Wilhelm (right) was devoted to his grandmother Queen Victoria, he had an uneasy relationship with her son and successor Edward VII (left) whom he suspected of plotting to create a coalition against Germany. Edward reciprocated the mistrust and found his nephew tiresome.

4. Otto von Bismarck was the greatest statesman of his time. He not only created the new state of Germany in 1871 but he dominated the international relations of Europe.

5. The Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary ruled over a diminishing and troubled empire at the heart of Europe (1848–1916). With a strong sense of duty, he lived a life marked by rigid routine and unceasing work.

6. For many, Robert Cecil represented the calm self-assurance of the British upper classes and of Great Britain itself. Rich, clever and well-connected, he was a Conservative prime minister three times between 1885 and 1902.

7. Jan (or Ivan) de Bloch was a Russian financier who understood that the new general war could lead to stalemate and costs which Europe’s societies would not be able to bear.

8. Alfred von Tirpitz was convinced that Germany needed a big navy in order to become a world power. Wilhelm II who shared his aspirations made him Secretary for the Navy in 1897 and Tirpitz set in train a massive naval building programme.

9. Forceful and opinionated, Admiral John Fisher revitalised and reorganised the British navy to meet the growing challenge from Germany. He brought back much of the fleet into home waters and initiated the building of the huge dreadnoughts.

10. Dedicated to re-establishing French power and prestige after its humiliation at the hands of Bismarck and Germany, Théophile Delcassé was one of the longer serving and more competent foreign ministers of the Third Republic.

11. Nicholas II, Tsar of Russia, and his German wife Alexandra (centre), lived in seclusion with their children outside St Petersburg and continued to believe, in the face of growing unrest in the country, that the Russian people were still loyal to them. From left to right the daughters are Marie, Olga, Tatiana and Anastasia. The little boy is Alexei, heir to the throne, and suffering from the life-threatening condition of haemophilia. All were murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918.

12. Bloody Sunday, as it became known, took place in January 1905 during the unrest in Russia which had been set off by military defeat in the war with Japan. As a peaceful procession including many workers marched towards the Winter Palace in St Petersburg to present a petition to the Tsar asking for reforms, troops fired on them.

13. Jean Jaurès, a leading French socialist, was one of Europe’s most vociferous pacifists. He hoped to build the Second International of left-wing parties and unions into a strong and united force opposed to war. In the final crisis of 1914 he struggled until the very end for peace. A French right-wing nationalist shot him shortly before the outbreak of war.