The beginning of the First World War. Germany made a strategic mistake. Berlin believed that England would not fight. That Germany is ready for war, while England and France prefer to wait until Russia is combat-ready. In reality, the masters of the West deliberately pitted the Russians and the Germans, and deliberately led the case to the destruction of not only Germany, but also Russia.
Balkan "powder keg"
Balkan Wars 1912-1913 completed the liberation of the Slavs from Turkish oppression, but caused new problems. Increased contradictions between the Balkan countries. The defeated Bulgaria thirsted for revenge and the return of the lost territories. Greece and Serbia were not satisfied with Albania's borders. Italy wanted to strengthen its position in the western part of the Balkans. The Ottoman Empire was waiting for an opportune moment to take revenge, regain at least part of the positions on the peninsula, and take the Aegean Islands from Greece.
Behind the contradictions of the Balkan countries was a higher level of confrontation between the great powers in the Balkans and the Middle East. Germany strengthened its position in Turkey, it was opposed by England. In Sofia, Bucharest and Athens, there was a fierce diplomatic struggle between the Entente and the German bloc for the military-political orientation of the Balkan countries. So, Petersburg tried to incline Romania towards the Entente. Bucharest traded actively. The Romanians demanded concessions from the Austro-German alliance at the expense of Hungary - in Transylvania. Therefore, Vienna believed that the case was hopeless, since Hungary could not be cut in favor of Romania. Berlin believed that it was necessary at all costs to keep Bucharest on its side. Therefore, Germany demanded concessions from Hungary to the Transylvanian Romanians. Also, the Russian government tried to restore the Balkan Union together with Bulgaria, to involve Romania in it. In turn, Austro-German diplomacy persuaded the offended Sofia to their side. Berlin wanted to achieve rapprochement between Bulgaria and Turkey in order to neutralize the Entente in the Balkans by their joint efforts.
Austria-Hungary believed that in order to preserve the empire and suppress the national movement, it was necessary to crush the seat of sedition - Serbia. Vienna saw in Serbia and South Slavic propaganda a danger to the future of the empire. Belgrade, on the other hand, cherished hopes for the creation of a "Greater Serbia" on the ruins of the Habsburg empire. Russia has traditionally supported Serbia, but was cautious, fearing a major war. Serbia was supposed to contain Austria-Hungary.
Thus, Serbia has become a convenient fuse for the start of a pan-European war. Russia could not abandon an ally in trouble. As soon as the Austro-Serbian conflict flared up again, and it was enough for Petersburg this time not to yield to the Central Powers, and the Austro-Russian war would begin. The mechanism of military alliances would automatically work. Vienna could not have started a war without Berlin's consent. And if such a war began, then the Second Reich is ready for it. France could not help but support Russia, since the defeat of the Russians meant the collapse of hopes for revenge for the war of 1870-1871, and confrontation with the German bloc alone. In such a situation, England also had to enter the war, since the masters of London and Washington organized a world war with the aim of destroying the Russian and German empires. England had to support France to hold out while the Russians were fighting the Germans in the East.
This is how the Balkans became Europe's powder magazine. As soon as it was set on fire, the entire European civilization would explode. Therefore, in Belgrade and other Balkan capitals, special services and diplomats of the great powers, Masonic lodges were actively working. The Serbian patriotic community and officers were actively pushing towards war, towards the creation of "Great Serbia", for which it was necessary to destroy the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Anglo-German "rapprochement"
The main enemy of England was Germany. The rapid growth of the economy, military-industrial potential and fleet of the Second Reich challenged the world British Empire, its dominance in trade, colonies and sea communications. The German world was dangerous for the Anglo-Saxons. It was a competitor within the westernmost project. Anglo-German antagonism became one of the main factors that caused the world war (along with the desire of the masters of the West to solve the "Russian question"). London and Washington needed to crush the German world for hegemony in Europe and the world.
However, in 1913 and in the first half of 1914 (almost until the very beginning of World War II), London's main efforts were aimed at masking the severity of the Anglo-German confrontation. British diplomacy did everything to deceive the Germans and lure Berlin into a trap. So that Berlin, until the very first shots of the world war, was confident that England would remain neutral. After all, if Berlin knew for sure that England would side with France, then there was a high probability that the Second Reich would not start a war. And the masters of the West needed Germany to start a war, become the "main instigator" and be defeated.
Therefore, before the start of the war, London flirted with Berlin in defining the borders in Albania. British diplomacy stopped putting a spoke in the wheels of the Germans in funding the Baghdad Railway. For this, Berlin agreed not to continue the road beyond Basra without the consent of the British, to the coast of the Persian Gulf, which was recognized as the sphere of influence of England. Also, by the summer of 1914, the Anglo-German convention on the division of the wealth of Iraq (oil from the Mosul region) was prepared. The British resumed negotiations on the 1898 treaty on the division of the Portuguese colonies. It was changed in favor of Germany. Now the Germans got almost all of Angola, although under the agreement of 1898 only part of this territory was transferred to them. This strengthened the position of German capital in Africa. Negotiations on the division of the Portuguese colonies as a whole were completed during the visit of King George V of England to Berlin in May 1913. This visit demonstrated the Anglo-German "rapprochement". In August 1913, the Portuguese possessions agreement was initialed. True, London dragged on the signing and publication of the document until the end of July 1914, a few days before the start of the world war.
British Foreign Secretary Edward Gray (served from 1905-1916) did everything to convince Berlin that England would not participate in the war against Germany. In fact, London hypocritically encouraged the Second Reich to aggression. As a result of pacifist gestures and maneuvers of British diplomacy in Berlin and Vienna, it was decided that England would maintain neutrality. In fact, it was an illusion that did no credit to the Austro-German diplomats. The traditional contradictions between Russia and England, in particular, the conflict in Persia, inspired Berlin with considerable hopes.
Germany decides to go to war
As conceived by the masters of the West, Germany was to become the official instigator of the war. They were going to "hang all the dogs" on the Germans, accuse them of all crimes, so that they could calmly dismember, plunder and rebuild the German world (Germany and Austria-Hungary). They did not intend to save the Second Reich, it was originally sentenced to destruction. The world war was conceived to create a "new world order", and for this it was necessary to destroy the old world order, monarchical empires, where the old aristocracy dominated. This old world stood in the way of the new - with the rule of the "golden calf", slave-owning oligarchy and plutocracy (political domination of the rich).
The German military-political elite was deceived. In Berlin, they were preparing for a traditional war: with the seizure of territories, resources, spheres of influence, but they did not think about a total restructuring of the political superstructure (only after the failure of the blitzkrieg plans did they start betting on the revolution in Russia). In 1914, as it seemed in Berlin, the most favorable conditions for the outbreak of war emerged. First, the Germans became firmly convinced that England would not want to participate in the war with Germany. Secondly, Germany possessed the highest rates of development among the capitalist powers, armed itself the fastest and best of all. As a result, the Germans prepared for war better and faster than anyone else.
The calculations of the German elite were well outlined in July 1914 by State Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs Yagov. “Basically,” Yagov wrote to the ambassador in London, “Russia is not ready for war now. France and England also do not want war now. In a few years, according to all competent assumptions, Russia will already be combat-ready. Then she will crush us with the number of her soldiers; its Baltic Fleet and strategic railways will already be built. Our group, meanwhile, is getting weaker and weaker. With his last words, Yagov noted the disintegration of the Habsburg empire.
Thus, it was a strategic blunder of German diplomacy. In Berlin, it was believed that Germany was ready for war, while in England and France they preferred to wait until Russia was ready for battle. In reality, the masters of the West deliberately pitted the Russians and the Germans, and deliberately led the case to the destruction of not only Germany, but also Russia. The Russians acted as "cannon fodder", and Russia was initially designated a victim, not a victorious power. Paris, London and Washington did not intend to give the Black Sea Straits, Constantinople, Western Armenia, etc. to the Russians. The Russian Empire was being prepared for destruction and dismemberment. Russia and Germany had to bleed themselves in a cruel and bloody massacre, and become victims of the masters of the West. Therefore, Russia's weakness in 1914 was a desirable factor for the masters of Paris and London. Russia lost in the war a cadre army, the last stronghold of the Russian autocracy, and became an easy victim of the "fifth column" that the West had prepared.
Murder in Sarajevo
In Serbia and in the Slavic regions of the Habsburg empire, there were organizations that fought for the liberation of the southern Slavs from the power of Vienna and their unification into a single state. Among the officers of the Serbian army, there was a secret organization called the Black Hand. Its goal was the liberation of the Serbs who were under the rule of Austria-Hungary, and the creation of "Great Serbia". The leader of the secret organization was Colonel Dragutin Dmitrievich (nicknamed Apis), the head of Serbian counterintelligence. The Black Hand has become a shadow government in the country. The Serbian government of Pasic was afraid of this organization, a military coup. They also had other similar organizations, some were democratic in nature. This was an excellent breeding ground for foreign intelligence.
The old Austrian emperor Franz Joseph was living out his last days (he ruled since 1848). His nephew and heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, gained more and more weight in the political life of the empire. He did not belong to the "war party", on the contrary, he planned a radical modernization of the empire, which gave a chance for its future. The heir was going to transform the dualistic monarchy (with a predominance of Austria and Hungary) into a triune state (Austro-Hungarian-Slavia), where 12 national autonomies were formed for each major nation living in the Habsburg empire, not counting the German formations and enclaves. The trialist monarchy gave a chance to the monarchy and the Habsburg dynasty. The opponents of this idea were the "war party", which saw the way out in the defeat of Serbia and "tightening the screws" in the Slavic regions of the empire. And the Hungarian elite, which with such a reform lost control over vast territories - Croatia, Slovakia, Subcarpathian Rus, Transylvania and Vojvodina. The head of the Hungarian government, Count Istvan Tisza, even expressed his readiness for a new Hungarian revolution.
Thus, the peace plans of Franz-Ferdinand interfered with the masters of the West, a significant part of the Austro-Hungarian elite and members of the Slavic secret societies, who dreamed of the collapse of the Habsburg empire. Therefore, Franz-Ferdinand was sentenced (as earlier Stolypin, who did not allow Russia to be drawn into the war). Austria-Hungary had to oppose Serbia so that Russia would fall into the trap.
Members of secret Slavic societies were used for provocation. In the spring of 1914 it became known that in June the heir to the Austrian throne would arrive in Bosnia for military exercises. Serbian counterintelligence believed that this was preparation for a war with Serbia. Franz Ferdinand was sentenced to death by the Mlada Bosna organization. Preparations for the assassination attempt began. The executors were Gavrilo Princip and Nedelko Gabrinovich. The weapons of the killers were supplied by the Black Hand, which has access to the arsenals of the Serbian army. That is, the trail led to Serbia.
The Serbian government guessed about the conspiracy and did not approve of it. Belgrade knew that St. Petersburg would not approve of such an action, that Russia was not ready for war. Serbia itself has not yet recovered from the aftermath of the Balkan Wars. Serbian authorities tried to prevent the assassins who were in Belgrade from returning to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The government ordered not to let them cross the border. But the Serbian border guards associated with the Black Hand did not follow this instruction. Then Belgrade, through its envoy in Vienna, warned the Austro-Hungarian government about the danger of Franz Ferdinand's trip to Bosnia. But this warning, like others, was ignored. The protection of the heir to the throne was also poorly organized.
Thus, everything was done to eliminate Franz Ferdinand. Obviously, here the interests of the Austro-Hungarian "war party", the Serbian conspirators and the masters of the West coincided. On June 28, 1914, Franz-Ferdinand was assassinated by Princip in Sarajevo (Assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the mystery of the outbreak of the First World War).
