Could WW1 Have Been Stopped Before It Began?

THIS IS PART ONE OF OUR SERIES ON THE CAUSES OF WW1, NEXT EPISODE HERE:    • The Secret Meeting That Set the World on F...   PLAYLIST HERE:    • The Causes Of WW1   Join this channel to get access to perks:    / @restishistorypod   This is parts 1 and 2 of the podcast series on the outbreak of WW1 which released earlier this year. By the end of July 1914, the world hovered on the edge of a cataclysmic world war; Austria was at war with Serbia, Russia with Germany, and an ultimatum had been handed to Belgium. The July crisis had resolved itself in the most calamitous way possible. But how did this state of affairs erupt from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, in Sarajevo a month earlier? Even in the wake of their deaths war did not seem inevitable, with diplomats and politicians such as the British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey manoeuvring to douse the flames kindled by the Serbian assassin Gavrilo Princip. The fires would, however, prove unquenchable, thanks to the implosion of of the Balkan powder keg beside a declining, desiccated Austro-Hungarian Empire, long fearful of Serbia, the rise of Germany under the eccentric Kaiser, as an industrious powerhouse to rival Britain, and the complex alliances and treaties that forbade the Great Powers any retreat from the coming inferno… Join Dominic and Tom as they set out upon Europe’s road to the First World War - the War to End All Wars - and explain how that devouring conflagration, which would see the end of the world as people knew it before 1914, came to pass. 00:00 Why the outbreak of WW1 was such a tragedy 04:40 how we should view the outbreak of war 13:35 Austria blames Serbia for the assassination 28:13 Willemite Germany 33:49 Kaiser Wilhelm II 49:20 Kaiser responds to the assassination 53:50 The Austrians appeal to Germany 1:04:24 The Kaiser responds to Franz Joseph 1:11:00 The Blanque Cheque 1:16:00 The German view of war with Russia 1:19:30 The Schlieffen Plan 1:25:30 Austria Hungary decides what to do 1:28:40 The Kaiser’s plan to avoid war 1:30:40 Austria Hungary’s delay to mobilise Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Producer: Theo Young-Smith Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett Social Producer: Harry Balden Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor