Recaps

Churchill warned the British Cabinet that German dreadnought construction might have overtaken the Royal Navy and urged Britain to respond. The ministers considered speeding up battleship construction and ended with Churchill proposing that Britain shut down the German Welfare Lottery Company.

• Churchill warned that Germany's Nassau-class battleships rivaled Britain's St. Vincent class and claimed the Helgoland class already carried 343mm guns.
• McKenna disputed the intelligence but promised to accelerate Orion-class construction and begin later battleship classes as soon as possible.
• Lloyd George and Haldane questioned how Germany could afford its naval expansion, and Churchill suggested the German Imperial Family was funding it.
• Asquith said King George should support naval development, and McKenna welcomed the prospect of more money for battleships.
• Churchill said Crown Prince Oskar was also funding the German navy through lottery profits earned in Britain and urged the government to shut down the German Welfare Lottery Company.

Britain, France, and Russia seized the German Welfare Lottery Company's operations and froze its funds, dealing Oscar's most profitable company a devastating blow. Oscar learned that the company had followed the law and concluded that the three governments were targeting him.

• Churchill persuaded Asquith's cabinet to seize the lottery company's British operations and lobby France, Russia, and the United States to do the same.
• Asquith ordered the lottery profits obtained in Britain to fund Royal Navy construction.
• In June 1910, Britain, France, and Russia declared the company's operations illegal, seized its businesses, arrested branch heads, and froze bank accounts.
• Karl von Jonath informed Oscar of the seizures and losses, then assured him that the company had not evaded taxes.
• Oscar cursed the three governments and recognized that they were coming after him.

Oscar and Wilhelm II vowed that Britain, France, and Russia would pay for seizing the German Welfare Lottery Company's operations, while Germany's protest brought no relief. With the United States market also under threat, Oscar decided to surrender part of the company's profits to its American partners to preserve its business there.

• Wilhelm II convened an Imperial Council, where Oscar reported that the seizures in Britain, France, and Russia had caused more than one hundred million marks in direct losses and cut expected profits by over one-third.
• Tirpitz worried that the losses would reduce the company's annual low-interest loans to the navy, but Oscar assured him that naval support would remain a priority.
• Oscar and Wilhelm II agreed to seek compensation from Britain, France, and Russia after a future German victory, with Wilhelm proposing one billion marks in damages.
• The German government protested the seizures, but Britain, France, and Russia offered excuses and established their own welfare lottery companies.
• Karl von Jonath told Oscar that British officials were stirring opposition to the German company in the United States, its most profitable foreign market.
• Oscar ordered the company's American partners to receive a larger profit share and manage the portion intended for welfare, hoping to retain forty percent rather than lose the market entirely.

The German Welfare Lottery Company preserved its American branch by conceding a larger share of its profits to local forces, while the great powers accelerated their naval arms race. After France occupied Fez in Morocco, Wilhelm II ordered a German warship there, and Oscar supported the decision.

• Oscar agreed to give local American forces a larger share of the German Welfare Lottery Company's profits, preserving its American branch from being sealed.
• Britain, the United States, and Germany expanded their naval programs, while Germany planned the Kaiser-class Battleships and Derfflinger-class Battlecruisers and designed the Bavaria-class Battleships and Mackensen-class Battlecruisers.
• Oscar's eldest son was born in February 1911, and Wilhelm II named him Friedrich and made him Prince of East Prussia.
• After a Moroccan uprising on May 21, 1911, France sent troops to occupy Fez, violating the agreement that had recognized Morocco's independence.
• Wilhelm II ordered Tirpitz to dispatch a warship to Morocco, and Oscar supported the order.

Wilhelm II and his ministers debated whether to confront France over Morocco, while weighing the risk of war with Britain and the state of Germany’s preparations. Germany sent the gunboat Panther to Morocco, and France threatened to send more troops, leaving the crisis dangerously tense.

• Wachth, Bülow, Tirpitz, and Moltke the Younger debated the dangers and prospects of war as Wilhelm II considered Germany’s response to France.
• Moltke the Younger proposed going to war with Britain, but Wilhelm II decided to wait and see how the situation developed.
• Oscar suggested sending a light warship to Morocco, and Wilhelm II approved the proposal.
• Tirpitz ordered the gunboat Panther to Morocco, while Oscar reflected that the crisis might follow its historical course and hoped Germany’s preparations would be completed before war began.
• France reacted angrily to Panther’s arrival and threatened to send more troops to Morocco if Germany did not withdraw it.

Britain’s Cabinet debated whether to support France in the Moroccan Crisis and chose a hard line against Germany. Britain’s backing strengthened France’s resolve, but Germany temporarily backed down after finding its allies divided.

• Asquith asked his Cabinet whether France and Germany would go to war over Morocco, and Grey warned that both sides were prepared to fight.
• Lloyd George proposed urging France to compromise, but Churchill argued that Britain had to support its ally and deter Germany.
• Asquith endorsed Churchill’s position, while McKenna assured him the Royal Navy could defeat Germany if war began.
• Britain declared France’s actions in Morocco just, demanded that Germany withdraw its warships, and sent a light cruiser and a destroyer to Morocco.
• France refused to retreat, while Italy called for restraint despite Austria-Hungary’s support for Germany.
• Germany temporarily compromised after realizing that its allies were less united than France’s.

After Germany compromised in the Second Moroccan Crisis, Wilhelm II blamed Italy for withholding support and vowed that Germany would eventually defeat Britain and France. In Rome, Giovanni Giolitti and Vittorio Emanuele III decided to put Italy’s long-prepared plan into action while Europe’s attention was fixed on Morocco.

• Wilhelm II raged at Italy for refusing to support Germany, while Oscar, Bernhard von Bülow, and Wachth urged him to be wary of Italy and seek compensation elsewhere.
• Wilhelm II vowed to remember the humiliation and defeat Britain and France in a future war.
• The Second Moroccan Crisis ended with the Treaty of Fez, making Morocco a French Protectorate while France ceded part of the French Congo to Germany.
• Vittorio Emanuele III worried that Italy’s refusal to back Germany would provoke resentment, but Giovanni Giolitti defended the decision as necessary to keep Italy out of war.
• Giovanni Giolitti told Vittorio Emanuele III that Italy’s long-prepared plan could proceed, and the king approved it as the start of restoring Rome’s glory.

Italy prepared to seize Tripoli and Cyrenaica from the Ottoman Turkish Empire, while seeking European support. Oscar offered German backing in exchange for oil extraction rights in the occupied territories, and the Italian Special Envoy agreed to report the proposal to his government.

• Giovanni Giolitti urged Vittorio Emanuele III to take advantage of the Moroccan Crisis and invade Tripoli and Cyrenaica, and Vittorio Emanuele III ordered an envoy to seek German support.
• Wilhelm II and Bernhard von Bülow refused to meet the Italian Special Envoy, while von Kiderlen-Wächter condemned Italy’s conduct during the Moroccan Crisis.
• Oscar summoned the Italian Special Envoy and offered German support for Italy’s North African expansion, including weapons and supplies.
• Oscar asked for the German Energy Company to receive oil extraction rights in Tripoli and Cyrenaica after Italy occupied them.
• The Italian Special Envoy, surprised to learn oil might be present, promised to report Oscar’s condition to his government.

Italy agreed to support Germany’s oil exploration in Cyrenaica in exchange for forty percent of future oil revenues, then defeated the Ottoman Empire and took control of the region. German engineers discovered a high-yield oil well in the Sirte Basin, and Oscar ordered rapid extraction, a pipeline, and expanded storage as other powers feared Germany’s growing oil supply.

• Giovanni Giolitti agreed to Oscar’s demands but required Italy to receive forty percent of future North African oil revenues.
• The Kingdom of Italy invaded Ottoman-controlled Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, beginning the Italo-Turkish War on September 28, 1911.
• Italy defeated the Ottoman Empire, and the two governments signed the Treaty of Ouchy on October 18, 1912, leaving Cyrenaica under Italian control in practice.
• Moritz led German Energy Company specialists into the Sirte Basin and discovered a high-yield oil well about a month later.
• Oscar ordered Karl von Jonath to support oil extraction, build a pipeline, and accelerate construction of German oil-storage facilities.

Germany's discovery of a large oil field in Cyrenaica strengthened its wartime fuel prospects, but officials feared Britain or Italy would seize it once war began. As tensions rose, Wilhelm II ordered full war preparations, while Britain planned to use Italy to deny Germany access to the oil.

• Tirpitz congratulated Oscar on the German Energy Company's oil discovery, and Oscar said he had ordered the company to begin shipping crude oil home within three months.
• Wilhelm II and the ministers celebrated the discovery, but Oscar warned that Britain, France, or Italy could take or destroy the distant oil field during a war.
• Tirpitz assured Wilhelm II that the Imperial Navy could defeat the British, and Wilhelm ordered Germany to make full war preparations and attack once war broke out.
• Churchill proposed that Britain encourage Italy to claim the oil field after the war began, with Britain destroying it if Italy refused to join its camp.
• Asquith ordered Britain to prepare for war and said the British Empire must defeat Germany and retain its global leadership.

In September 1912, Oscar showed Wilhelm II and German Army generals how the re-equipped 8th Army Corps had become a formidable force. A tank demonstration won imperial approval for an Armored Division, leaving the corps with ten Infantry Divisions and one Armored Division.

• Wilhelm II and the generals inspected the 8th Army Corps, and Moltke the Younger criticized its heavy ammunition consumption.
• Oscar presented the corps’ secret assault unit, and more than forty tanks advanced across trenches and barbed wire under machine-gun fire.
• A tank fired a 37mm shell that destroyed a machine-gun position, impressing Wilhelm II and the generals.
• Wilhelm II approved Oscar’s plan to expand the corps’ Armored Regiment into an Armored Division, and no one objected.
• Oscar told the generals that tanks could withstand shrapnel but not a direct artillery hit.

Oscar showed Wilhelm II the Mark I tank and the 8th Army Corps’ advanced fighter planes and bombers, prompting the emperor to order their purchase and expansion. The chapter left Germany preparing to strengthen its armored and air forces ahead of the coming war.

• Wilhelm II ordered Moltke the Younger to equip more army units with Mark I tanks, and Gustav Krupp and Moltke signed a deal for one thousand tanks over two years.
• Oscar urged Wilhelm II to keep tanks top secret, and the emperor classified them as the Army’s top-secret weapon.
• Oscar led Wilhelm II and the others to the 8th Army Corps airfield and showed them the Mark II fighters and H1 bombers.
• Ten H1 bombers dropped five tons of bombs on a hill during a demonstration, impressing Wilhelm II and his entourage.
• Wilhelm II ordered the Army to purchase more aircraft and establish additional Air Corps units to secure air superiority.

Oscar told Field Marshal Count Tirpitz that aircraft carriers would soon make battleships and battlecruisers obsolete, and explained how carrier-based torpedo bombers could attack ships from beyond a hundred kilometers. Tirpitz was shocked but agreed the Navy had to adopt the new weapon, and asked to visit German Shipyard to see the carriers.

• Oscar visited Field Marshal Count Tirpitz at the Naval Ministry and asked how the Navy's war preparations were progressing.
• Tirpitz said the fleet was training, then asked whether the Bavaria-class Battleships and Mackensen-class Battlecruisers would be ready in time for war.
• Oscar said the new ships should arrive in time and described plans to use battlecruisers and submarines against Britain's sea lanes before a decisive fleet battle.
• Oscar said the next class of capital ships might be the last because aircraft would soon make battleships and battlecruisers obsolete.
• Oscar explained that German Shipyard was building aircraft carriers to launch torpedo bombers against ships at sea.
• Tirpitz asked Oscar to take him to German Shipyard so he could inspect the aircraft carriers and urged the Navy to equip itself with them.

Oscar presented Germany’s nearly completed Pioneer-class aircraft carriers to Tirpitz and argued that carriers would become the navy’s main force. At the end of 1913, Oscar proposed abandoning Blue Island, Germany’s foothold in the Eastern Empire, shocking Wilhelm II and drawing Moltke the Younger’s criticism.

• Oscar showed Tirpitz the two nearly finished aircraft carriers and described their design, aircraft, and expected entry into service.
• Oscar assured Tirpitz that carrier-based aircraft could damage British capital ships, and Tirpitz welcomed the prospect of using them in naval battles.
• Oscar donated the two carriers to the German Navy, and Tirpitz vowed to defeat the British.
• During the Balkan War, Germany remained neutral while offering the Ottoman Turkish Empire limited support to encourage it to join the Allied Powers.
• At an Imperial Council meeting at the end of 1913, Oscar proposed abandoning Blue Island, and Moltke the Younger objected while Wilhelm II reacted with displeasure.

Oscar persuaded Wilhelm II to return Blue Island to the Eastern Empire, arguing that Japan would seize it once war with Britain began and that Germany should conserve its strength. The decision unsettled other nations, and by 1914 Oscar prepared for war as he learned of Austro-Hungarian military exercises in Bosnia.

• Oscar warned Wilhelm II that Japan could attack Blue Island during a war with Britain and argued that Germany should abandon the island to preserve its forces.
• Tirpitz supported Oscar, while Moltke the Younger argued that Germany could defend Blue Island and later recover it.
• Oscar said Germany's future focus should be the Atlantic and its powerful rival across the ocean, and Wilhelm II approved returning Blue Island to the Eastern Empire.
• Germany's decision surprised other countries, thwarted Japan's plans, and prompted Britain and France to accelerate their war preparations.
• In 1914, Oscar urged the navy and army units under his influence to intensify training and combat preparations.
• Oscar learned that Austria-Hungary would hold military exercises in Bosnia in June and realized that war was approaching.

Archduke Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo by Princip after an earlier bombing failed to kill them. Their deaths set the crisis that would ignite World War I.

• The Austro-Hungarian Empire planned to attack Serbia with German support as tensions over the Balkans grew.
• The Black Hand Society and Young Bosnia planned to assassinate Ferdinand, despite the Serbian government's efforts to stop the plot and warn Austria-Hungary.
• An assassin threw a bomb at Ferdinand's motorcade, but it only grazed him, and he agreed to return to the hotel.
• Princip rushed to Ferdinand and his wife's car at a corner and shot them dead.
• The guards found that Ferdinand and his wife had died, and their assassination became the fuse for World War I.

After Archduke Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, Franz Joseph I ordered the Austro-Hungarian Empire to mobilize for war against Serbia and called on Germany to honor its alliance. Serbia also prepared for war and sought Russia’s support.

• A servant told Franz Joseph I that the Crown Prince and his wife had been assassinated in Sarajevo.
• Franz Joseph I summoned Mario Weber, Archduke Friedrich, and Marshal von Hotzendorf to discuss the crisis.
• Marshal von Hotzendorf and Archduke Friedrich urged war, while Mario Weber warned that Britain, France, and Russia might intervene.
• Franz Joseph I ordered the troops to mobilize and instructed the German Ambassador to seek Germany’s support.
• After learning of the assassination, the Serbian government was thrown into chaos, and Putnik ordered nationwide mobilization and asked its Ambassador to Russia to seek Tsar Nicholas II’s support.

After receiving news of Archduke Ferdinand’s assassination, Wilhelm II ordered Germany’s commanders summoned as he anticipated war. In Russia, Nicholas II pledged to support Serbia and attack Austria-Hungary, even threatening to invade East Prussia if Germany intervened.

• Wilhelm II, Oscar, and Count Tirpitz inspected the widened Kiel Canal and discussed the strength of the German Navy.
• A staff officer informed Wilhelm II that Crown Prince Ferdinand and his wife had been assassinated in Sarajevo, and Tirpitz urged Germany to seize the opportunity for war.
• Wilhelm II ordered an immediate return to Berlin and summoned the Army and Navy’s principal commanders.
• Nicholas II met with Russian officials after Serbia requested aid and declared that Russia would not allow Austria-Hungary to take the Balkans.
• Sukhomlinov told Nicholas II that Russian mobilization would take at least three months, while Grand Duke Nicholas claimed the standing army could invade East Prussia.
• Nicholas II promised Serbia that Russia would attack Austria-Hungary if it invaded and threatened to attack East Prussia if Germany intervened.

France and Russia strengthened their alliance as Austria-Hungary issued Serbia an ultimatum and Serbia rejected two demands. Germany prepared for war, while Britain publicly urged restraint but privately encouraged France and Russia and warned Germany that it might intervene if Germany and France fought.

• French President Poincaré ordered secret mobilization, while Britain weighed war and Foreign Minister Grey publicly denied having obligations to France or Russia.
• On July 5, Ambassador Szögyény delivered Franz Joseph I’s letter asking Wilhelm II to support military action against Serbia, and Wilhelm II then confirmed Germany’s war preparations.
• On July 20, Poincaré and René Viviani visited Russia and reaffirmed the two countries’ alliance, while Poincaré warned the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to handle Serbia cautiously.
• On July 23, Austria-Hungary issued Serbia an ultimatum, and Serbia accepted all but two of its demands.
• Russia warned Austria-Hungary that an attack on Serbia would trigger Russian general mobilization, while Grey proposed mediation and Britain secretly encouraged France and Russia to oppose Germany and Austria-Hungary.
• On July 29, Grey told the German Ambassador that Britain might remain neutral in a conflict limited to Russia and Austria-Hungary, but could intervene if Germany and France became involved.

Franz Joseph I and his ministers committed the Austro-Hungarian Empire to war against Serbia, confident the army could win despite the risk of Russian intervention. Serbia appealed to Russia as fighting began, and Germany’s ultimatums and declaration of war on Russia widened the conflict.

• Marshal von Hotzendorf urged Franz Joseph I to punish Serbia, and Archduke Friedrich reported that six corps were ready for battle.
• Franz Joseph I entrusted the Empire’s fate to the army after his commanders outlined plans to attack Serbia while preparing for possible Russian intervention.
• On July 28, the Austro-Hungarian government declared war on Serbia, which sought Russian aid and mobilized its forces.
• The Austro-Hungarian army attacked Serbia with two corps, while Tsar Nicholas II ordered Russian general mobilization and France also mobilized.
• On July 31, Germany issued ultimatums to Russia and France, then declared war on Russia after both continued mobilizing; Russia declared war on Germany in turn.

At German Army headquarters on August 1, 1914, Oscar argued that Germany should keep the Eastern Front lightly reinforced and concentrate more forces on the Western Front. After Moltke the Younger presented a deployment that weakened the Schlieffen Plan’s right wing, Oscar challenged him, leaving the two men in open conflict.

• Wilhelm II and Oscar arrived at General Staff Headquarters, where the generals declared their readiness for war.
• Moltke the Younger proposed expanding the 8th Army Corps from ten to eighteen Infantry Divisions to counter Russia, but Oscar insisted the eight additional divisions should go to the Western Front.
• Oscar claimed the 8th Army Corps, including its Armored Division, could hold the Russians for a month, and Wilhelm II approved his plan.
• Moltke the Younger presented his Western Front deployment, which Oscar saw as weakening the right wing and abandoning the core of the Schlieffen Plan.
• Oscar invoked Schlieffen’s warning against weakening the right wing, angering Moltke the Younger in front of the assembled commanders.

Oscar challenged Moltke the Younger’s revisions to the Schlieffen Plan, but Wilhelm II backed the chief of staff as Germany prepared for war. Oscar warned Tirpitz that the army’s prospects were grim and that the navy might have to defeat Britain to keep Germany from collapsing under a blockade.

• Moltke the Younger defended his revised Schlieffen Plan, while Oscar argued that its weakened right wing could not break through French defenses.
• Wilhelm II stopped the argument and confirmed that he had approved Moltke the Younger’s plan.
• Moltke the Younger outlined the seven German army corps assembled on the Western Front, totaling more than 1.4 million men under Germany’s limited mobilization.
• Wilhelm II urged the generals to fight for victory, and they answered with confidence.
• Tirpitz asked Oscar about the army’s prospects, and Oscar warned that even victory could bring enormous losses.
• Oscar told Tirpitz that the navy would need to defeat the British if the army failed to win quickly, lest blockade and lost trade bring Germany down.

Oscar ordered Germany’s submarine forces and Battlecruiser Squadron to prepare to strike Britain’s maritime supply lines, anticipating that Britain would enter the war. He then left for the 8th Army Corps in East Prussia, determined to hold back the Russian advance and buy time for the Western Front.

• Oscar asked Grand Admiral Count Tirpitz to send the submarines and Battlecruiser Squadron to sea the following night, and predicted Britain would declare war within three days.
• Grand Admiral Count Tirpitz agreed to prepare the fleet to attack British supply lines and said the Bavaria-class battleships and Mackensen-class battlecruisers should enter service in the first half of next year.
• Oscar and Grand Admiral Count Tirpitz expected Britain’s losses at sea to force a decisive naval battle in the first half of the next year.
• Oscar told Wilhelm II that the 8th Army Corps would hold back Russia’s attack and buy the Western Front a month or more.
• Oscar said farewell to Gundelinde and his son, then boarded a special train bound for Königsberg.

Germany demanded that Belgium allow its army to cross Belgian territory as the Schlieffen Plan began, while King Albert I and his officials weighed the threat. The German ambassador presented the demand, leaving Belgium to decide whether to yield or resist.

• Wilhelm II ordered Prime Minister Bülow and Foreign Minister von Kiderlen-Wachth to demand passage through Belgium before the German offensive began.
• Albert I convened Belgium’s ministers and generals to discuss the German army massing at the border.
• Foreign Minister Kohlmann argued that Belgium’s neutrality should protect it, while Prime Minister Brockville warned that Germany would pursue victory regardless.
• Belgium’s Minister of War claimed Fortress of Liège could stop a German invasion, though the fortress had been built for outdated artillery threats.
• The German ambassador asked Albert I to withdraw Belgian border troops and let German forces pass, promising not to harm Belgium’s security or interests.

King Albert I and Belgium’s ministers faced a German ultimatum to join the German-led Allied Powers or accept the consequences. They resolved to reject the demand, prepare to defend Belgium, and seek help from Britain and France.

• The German Ambassador offered Belgium a place among the Allied Powers and gave it twenty-four hours to respond, warning of consequences if it refused.
• King Albert I and Prime Minister Broqueville discussed the threat, and Belgium’s ministers declared they would resist rather than surrender their independence.
• King Albert I decided Belgium would formally reject Germany’s demands the next day and ordered thirty thousand troops sent to the Fortress of Liège.
• King Albert I ordered Foreign Minister Kohlmann to request aid from Britain and France in case German forces attacked.