WDF 27: The Swedish Deluges

The wars that shook the North of Europe to its foundations began in the troubled aftermath of the Thirty Years War for Poland-Lithuania. The Ukrainian Cossack problem raged from 1648 until the early 1650's when the issue became internationalised thanks to Russian intervention, and with the Russian successes a worried Charles Gustav of Sweden felt little choice but to intervene, before Poland collapsed altogether under the Russian weight.

PL Commonwealth in 1648; note its dependencies that stretch into Prussia.

The ferocious impact of the Russian invasions, as Russian forces reach further than ever before into the interior of the Commonwealth.

The Swedish invasion that followed came close to causing the complete disappearance of Poland from the map of Europe. All that prevented a total Polish capitulation to its Swedish and Russian neighbours was, in my view, the underestimation of the Polish spirit, and the gross failure to assess the damage to its reputation that would follow from making war feed war, a strategy which required plundering and pillaging to keep Swedish finances afloat.

Charles Gustav of Sweden

The incredible impact of the dual Russian and Swedish invasions. Russia's invasion sweeps in from the east (darker blue) while Sweden invades from the north west (paler blue)

A clearer impression of the deluge's impact, also showing the remainder of Poland (the strip of white down the bottom) which was all that remained of John Casimir's dominion by the end of 1655.

The conquering of Poland proved to be an impossible objective though; despite the seemingly overwhelming losses suffered by the Poles, the Swedes were unable to occupy all of the country and make it their own. Their constant public relations faux pas enraged Polish opinion, while increasing foreign concern led to a gradually decreasing Swedish presence in Poland in 1656. By the following year in 1657 Charles Gustav had turned his attentions to the next enemy to join the anti-Swedish league; Denmark.

Yet Charles had also spent most of 1656 simultaneously trying to buy the favour of his Brandenburg neighbour. Since he his successes had alienated much of his potential allies, Brandenburg became gradually more indispensable to Sweden as 1656 progressed. By the end of the year 3 treaties had been signed with the Brandenburgers, but it proved inadequate for Brandenburg's Elector, Frederick William. Frederick desired not just nominal possession over Ducal (East) Prussia, but total sovereignty, and only Poland, as Ducal Prussia's overlord, was able to grand this. Thus in September 1657 did Brandenburg officially become Brandenburg-Prussia, as the price for buying the Great Elector's favour and causing him to declare against the Swedes was a promise of the right to inherit and rule over Ducal Prussia, with no strings attached. Sweden's Pomeranian holdings were now seriously threatened. Thus Brandenburg had been flipped, and Sweden was truly alone.

Frederick William, the Great Elector of Brandenburg from 1640-1686.

The two Prussias; one ruled directly by Poland (Royal Prussia), the other under the nominal suzerainty of the King of Poland (Ducal Prussia), and thus requiring Brandenburg to pay homage to the Polish king based on the Brandenburg personal union with Ducal Prussia.

The changing status of Ducal Prussia over 1654-1657.

Swedish Pomerania (in orange) depicted within its Empire.

The flipping of Brandenburg occurred in the background of the invasion and occupation of the Jutland Peninsula by the Swedes, which left the Danish King Frederik III holding out in Copenhagen, hoping that the fortress of Frederiksodde would hold the Swedes on the Peninsula while the anti-Swedish alliance mustered against him. Yet, while such issues seemed promising good fortune struck for Sweden; the Danish Straits froze over following a harsh winter and thus provided a stellar opportunity for Charles Gustav to march across them, thus removing the major Danish defence and granting Sweden a serious opportunity to end the war on decisive terms; the most decisive the Danes had ever experienced.

Frederik III, king of Denmark

The march across the belts depicted in this painting was one of the most incredible military feats of its age, and stunned the rest of Europe because of its daring and audacious effectiveness.

A zoomed in image of the two Danish islands that made up the bulk of the Danish state, while the land to the left of the two islands represents the Jutland Peninsula that was occupied by the Swedes by late 1657. To the right of the two islands lies modern day Sweden, which by this time was owned by the Danes and enabled them to claim the Sound tolls, but not for long. Note the three distinct waterways in this picture; in the far left is the little belt, in roughly the centre is the greater belt, while to the far right lies the Sound, after which the Sound tolls are named. Now imagine the impression marching across these frozen waterways would make on the Danes and Europe as a whole.

The Treaty of Copenhagen brought home the totality of Danish defeat and the supremacy of Sweden over its former enemies. Forced upon its Danish enemy by a Swedish army on its home island, Denmark was stripped of any possibility of ever reclaiming its old status. Never again could European statesmen perceive Denmark as anything but a second rate power, and never again could the Baltic have any other overlord but Sweden. The Vasa state had triumphed over Poland on a level never before imagined possible, and here now it had done the same against its Danish foe. Sweden had trounced its greatest enemies, but the war still raged on.

For the anti-Swedish league, the defeat of Denmark was a blow to their hopes of distracting Sweden long enough in Scandinavia to be able to deliver a knockout blow in Northern Europe. Sweden had been mostly driven out of Poland, but it had left behind an alliance of Transylvanians and Cossacks that kept the alliance of the Poles and Habsburgs busy for much of 1657. Only in 1658 was anything resembling an answer to Swedish dominance forming, but the Danish loss was a tough one to take for the beleaguered Holy Roman Emperor and his Polish ally who, though joined by Brandenburg, now had to face a confident, empowered Sweden secure in its western flank and out for revenge; Frederick William of Brandenburg felt sure that his lands would be on the list of places Charles Gustav would visit.

The news for the anti-Swedish league grew worse when Russia re-entered the war against the Poles and signed a truce with the Swedes, freeing up both more Swedish forces in the east and further pressuring the Poles. The issue for Russia proved to be the creation of the Union of Kėdainiai, which would have created a Polish-Lithuanian-Ukrainian Commonwealth and would have violated the earlier Treaty of Pereyaslav that Russia had signed with the Cossacks which had pledged the latter to the Tsar's Empire. The renewal of the Russo-Polish war was but another complication in the series of struggles that the Second Northern War had now degenerated into.

The Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth that proved too much for Russia to take. Russia, having intervened purely out of opportunism in 1653 to take advantage of the Cossack pleas for aid, could not allow Poland to craft these same Cossacks onto its own state and thus violate the treaties of assistance and fealty signed between Cossack and Russian in mid-1653.

The Union of Kėdainiai  

For Charles Gustav, the threatening stance posed by Dutch and Danish friendship partly inspired him to ensure a tougher stance be taken against the helpless Danes in the treaty negotiations that took place over the early summer of 1658. However, once it became clear that the Danes were dragging their heels, the Swedes broke off negotiations and attacked the Danes again in early autumn. This time, since the Swedes had attacked first, the Dutch could honour their defensive alliance, and a Dutch fleet did battle with the Swedes, freeing the siege of Copenhagen in early 1659 and paving the way for a dogged Danish defense as Frederik III of Denmark inspired his people to resist. With enemies on all sides of him and Brandenburg leading the allied armies, Charles Gustav had quite the struggle ahead. It appears to have taken its toll, because upon falling ill while visiting troops in early 1660, he died shortly thereafter, plunging the Swedish Empire into another Regency and paving the way for peace out of necessity.

The following treaties brought peace at last to Northern Europe. However, for all intents and purposes too much had changed in the five years of war for any European statesmen to view the region in the same way again. The old ambitions of once great powers; Denmark and Poland, now clearly lay in ruins owing to their overwhelming defeats, while Sweden was the undisputed military masterclass of Europe and its empire was further extended. But at what cost? Sweden remained plagued by internal problems, as well as hounded by opportunistic enemies like the rising powers of Brandenburg-Prussia and Russia. Sweden had alienated itself from Europe because of its conquering ways, and its empire remained no easier to keep unified than before, requiring large garrisons in every corner of it to keep it all together. The impression Sweden made on the map was monumental, but Charles Gustav had much to do before his untimely death further kicked the can down the road. It would be the Swedish misfortune in later years that Swedish policymakers, in their desperation, turned to the only ally they felt they still had following their unleashing of deluges upon Europe: Louis XIV's France. It was to be a partnership that almost collapsed the entire Vasa state.

Sweden after its defeat of Denmark in 1645, the yellow parts of this map was ceded to Sweden, while the red portion was leased to the Swedes for twenty years.

The peace of Copenhagen in 1658; the yellow portions go to Sweden, while the red province, formerly a lease agreement, becomes permanent. The purple seizure of Norwegian land would later be recouped, but here it shows the grand Swedish ambition as Norway is split in half and Sweden acquires a guaranteed access to the North Sea. 

Swedish gains over the years; note the explosion in land grabs that each successive Swedish king sought. Our man Charles Gustav's gains are found in the lightest green shade.

Undoubtedly impressive, the Swedes had cemented their military reputation and could at least bask momentarily in their glory. With a regency looming and an uncertain economic future though, it would take a king with more than the talents of Charles Gustav to protect all that had been taken in the years of warfare known as the Swedish Deluges.

Thanks for listening, and see you all once my thesis ends!

Zack

WDF 26: First Anglo-Dutch War

Having defeated its Spanish enemy after 80 long years, nobody could have supposed that the Dutch Republic would do anything but prosper after 1648. The promise of peace resulted in a booming of Dutch ambitions around the world, and an even greater return on their worldwide investments. The Dutch could count no power their economic equal on the continent, and it certainly seemed as though their Golden Age would remain in place for the foreseeable future. History of course, is never so simple. The Dutch were in fact embarking on a collision course after 1648, though they could not have known it at the time. Their next enemy was to be, in many ways, their political and ideological twin and, in previous years, one of their closest trading partners.

The Dutch Empire, with the lighter green shade denoting the imperial possessions and the darker green denoting the economic possessions in the early Republic. The orange dots essentially represent the warehouses and location of Dutch business that were responsible for Dutch Eastern commerce.

A modern map of the Dutch provinces. Nowadays Holland is divided into two separate provinces, but during our era it was one, and thus dominated the seafaring interests of the Republic.

The War of the Three Kingdoms had ravaged the British Isles on a level experienced during the Thirty Years War on the continent. The residual problems that the new English Commonwealth, founded in May 1649 only months after killing the King of England, Scotland and Ireland, Charles I. The civil wars in the British Isles had been raging on and off since 1643, and would not end convincingly in favour of the English Rump Parliament until late 1651. In those 8 years the conceptions of English, Scottish and Irish statehood would be pulled apart and would fray at the seams. In mid-1653 did the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland become transformed into the family dictatorship ruled over by Oliver Cromwell, but the turmoil that began in the early 1640's never truly went away in the meantime.

The new model army drill that brought the Parliamentarians to victory against the Royalists

Re-enactment of the civil war, a popular historical pursuit for history nerds like myself.

King Charles I of the British Isles, whose execution in early 1649 crystalised the radical new steps that the Three Kingdoms were keen to embark upon. 

The causes of the war will be covered in the four episodes, but suffice it to say they revolved around commercial jealousies on the English part, as well as the Dutch inability to give the Rump what it wanted. In a bizarre logic, war would result because the Dutch could not agree on English terms for a union. The fundamental English desire was to secure its new regime against foreign threats caused the Rump's reps in The Hague to promote their case of union with the newly triumphant Dutch Republic.

Not wishing to jeopardise the state of affairs that their victory over Spain had secured, the Dutch remained unwilling to agree to a union that they perceived would become dominated by London. The Dutch had kept an eye on what the Rump had done; Ireland and Scotland had been subdued by force, and offers of a Commonwealth were believed to be the next step towards further domination by London. Why would the Dutch agree to such a lopsided union when they had everything to gain in the status quo? The English could not answer such a question, and because neither side were willing to give ground, tensions only escalated.

Depiction of the States of Holland, where much of the most important decisions of the Republic were taken

Building where the States-General, effectively the governing apparatus of the Dutch Republic, met for the purpose of crafting state policy. Present were representatives from all 7 Provinces, though Holland certainly had the most influence thanks to its position, thanks to its pride of place in the Republic.

When the war did erupt, few could have anticipated what would happen next. Expecting a Dutch walkover, Europe was stunned to bear witness to the English domination of the war, thanks to its reliance on huge warships and its concentration on firepower that overwhelmed the old Dutch tactics. Still attempting to use the tactics that had enabled it to carve out its place atop the European food chain, fireships and undersized converted merchant vessels were what awaited the English first rates. The overwhelming impact of English superiority of fire and tactics weren't felt initially, but after a series of devastating defeats, the Dutch predicament became quickly desperate.

Battle of the Gabbard Bank depicted in a painting; one of the most devastating losses suffered by the Dutch in their history; the loss here resulted in the scales finally falling from Dutch eyes.

Battle of the Kentish Knock, the first proper encounter between both sides, yet it wasn't conclusive enough to convince the Dutch that change to their strategy was badly needed.

The War would only be ended with the Treaty of Westminster, where the Act of Seclusion would solve what Cromwell upheld to be the prime threat to the Commonwealth's security: the Orange family. Thus, the importance of the Orange family is revealed at this early a stage. William III of the House of Orange was barred from entering office in the Dutch Republic and, at just 4 years old, seemed destined to fade into obscurity thanks to the demands of the victorious English. Yet, times would change, and there would come a point when that same William III would rule both Britain and the Netherlands under a union. In a strange twist, it was just as the Rump had intended, yet the series of events that would lead to the Glorious Revolution of 1688 were directed at a common enemy, France, and by that stage the Anglo-Dutch relationship had come to symbolise all that the Rump originally hoped it would in 1651 when it had offered its seemingly impractical union. Of course, by 1688 it had taken three Anglo-Dutch Wars and the threat of an even greater enemy, Louis XIV, to change the relationship between the English and Dutch into an amicable one....

William III when the act of seclusion was signed. At just 4 years old when his succession to the Dutch Republic was barred, few could have anticipated his later meteoric rise not just to the top of the Dutch Republic, but also to the pinnacle of European power politics by the end of the century.

The Act of Seclusion that prevented by law any member of the House of Orange from holding office in the United Provinces; it was directly aimed at William III, who was 4 years old at the time.

 ..........but these, are stories for another episode. So thanks for reading history friends, and I hope you enjoy the First Anglo-Dutch War!


Thanksssssssss

The Post-Westphalian Age

The treaties were signed, but peace was far from eternal.

After tearing itself apart for 30 years, the various powers of Europe; Spain, France, Sweden, the Dutch, the Habsburgs and others had made their peace, but not completely. Spain remained at war with France. France was consumed by a revolt led by some of its court's highest profile noblemen. The Dutch remained locked in a struggle across the sea with Portugal in modern-day Brazil, and of course, foreign intrigue and competition was forever in the background of all dealings that were concluded by European statesmen.

A simple map of Europe c. 1648

A rather more depressing map of the HRE that brings it all home. The different tones show the variation in the drop in population that the war caused.

The Thirty Years War had revealed the limits of power in Early Modern Europe.  States could only go so far when mobilising their populations or resources. They could only push their people so far before revolt threatened. Events in France vindicated this, as did events in Spain, where revolution in Catalonia and its Portuguese vassal had ripped its prospects apart. In addition for Spain, there was no escaping the fact that in the case of its longest running revolution, the Dutch, its failure to quell that corner of its empire's dissension had resulted in the transformation of the European balance of power.

The Dutch were embarking on their Golden Age, a fact that would set them on a collision course with virtually all of their neighbours. For the moment though, their prospects looked bright. Their former overlord Spain was enmeshed in its own numerous problems, a fact which enabled the Dutch to become the most important trading partner of the Iberian Peninsula. The Dutch success was made that much easier by the utter chaos that their sometimes geographical rival England had fallen into.

The English Civil War consumed the entirety of the British Isles. Uncertain loyalties in Ireland, Scotland and in the New World necessitated campaigns of notable ferocity and destruction in these regions. By the late 1640's Charles I had been captured by forces loyal to the Parliament and the first phase of the civil wars appeared to be nearing an end. The most striking acts of this play had yet to come however; a head had yet to roll, a Commonwealth had yet to be declared and a protector had yet to be named. All of these would come in time, but for the moment England was not in a position to stake its claim to the international system as it once had, leaving, for the moment, the task of assessing and acting to preserve the balance of power to the Dutch.

The face of change: Oliver Cromwell in 1656. 

The head that would roll. Charles I of England and Scotland. 

But the Dutch weren't the only state transformed by the wars of before. The Swedish Empire had been born from them. Having emerged from the obscurity of Scandinavia and from under Denmark's shadow thanks to the exploits of its conquering king Gustavus Adolphus, Sweden had gone on to endure difficult periods and incredible highs, to the point that it was an undeniable first class power by 1648. Unlike other powers of its time, Sweden had made its name and achieved this new rank purely by force of arms alone. Few other powers could claim the startling rise to power that it could, but the majority of Sweden's neighbours had more binding them together after 1648 than the threat of Swedish armies. The consequences of this fact will be felt in future, but as the daughter of Gustavus, Cristina, came of age in 1644, Sweden appeared destined to remain at its newfound place of prosperity.

Johan de Witt, the de facto PM of the Dutch Republic from 1653-1672

The definer of an era: William III of England began his career as William III, Prince of Orange and Stadtholder in the States of Holland. His incredible career and rivalry with Louis XIV is one which is long overdue a film, or at least a long series on Netflix. 

A typical Dutch painting of sailboats, 1679. Note the abundance of orange.

Of course, it had reached this new level at the expense of its neighbours. Poland and Denmark in particular still had notable bones to pick with the Swedes. In the case of the former, dynastic ties and an ugly family feud meant that the two lines of the Vasa family sat at very different ends of the European spectrum in 1648. This rivalry would erupt over the coming years, but for the moment Poland was occupied with its quest to quell nationalist rebellion from its Cossack minority, and Denmark was still reeling from the devastating campaign of assassination that Sweden had launched against it only a few years before. For Poland in particular, the growing power of Russia was a cause for concern, and indeed for Swedish policymakers, focusing on the need to protect their newly won Baltic territories, the Russians seemed like the enemy of the future. Over the previous years they had modernised and expanded their army greatly, as well as see the extension of the Tsar's power over lands to the east, north, west and south of Moscow.

Russia could not expand forever though. To its south lay the formidable Ottoman Empire, whose stake in Balkan affairs would not be shifted for another three centuries. The Thirty Years War had certainly given it a reprieve from any wars with the distracted Habsburg family, but its vassals in the Crimean Tartars and Transylvania had been very busy indeed. Their control over an effective buffer zone led to permanent unease in Vienna, and in the Habsburg court a future war with the Turk seemed both likely and necessary. The Thirty Years War had changed how the Holy Roman Empire operated, but it remained the primary cultural and political nerve centre of the Germans. This would not change for the remainder of the century, but signs were already emerging that things would not be the same after Westphalia.

The Habsburg hereditary lands that encompassed most of the Austrian Empire formed the backbone of the HRE. Surrounding it was Bavaria, its sister Catholic heartland and its valuable ally throughout the war. To the north things became more complex. Brandenburg-Prussia straddled Pomerania and some critical Imperial fiefs. Saxony remained a Protestant stronghold and a centre of European learning. The Rhineland and its Palatine family had fingers in numerous pies despite their humiliation and exile in years past. First and foremost, the election of a new emperor, though it would seem to be mostly a formality by this stage, remained an important European event. Until that fact changed, and until Europeans could ignore the pull of Vienna in favour of another capital, the Empire of the Germans would always be relevant.

Great contemporaries: Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor 1658-1705

Tsar Alexis I of Russia, 1645-1676

The Sun King Louis XIV, King of France 1643-1715, though ruling solo only from 1661.

The Thirty Years War had left many scars; it was hard to imagine that such a war could ever occur in Europe again; the extent to which the ordinary man had had to bear the brunt of such savage conditions meant that an indelible imprint had been left on the European, but especially German psyche. War had by no means vanished from the plethora of tools at a statesman's disposal, but it had certainly lost much of its sheen, and the reasons for waging it had notably been altered. Sovereignty and independence, state power and the absolute rights of kings; these were issues which concerned Europeans now. Whether they would lead to the same level of warfare and destruction as the previous thirty years had wrought remained to be seen, but many issues remained at the top of European politics that could not be ignored, and many figures were waiting in the wings to take these issues to their logical conclusion, as their father's statesmen and their grandfather's statesmen had done so terribly before. War would always be on the horizon in post-Westphalia Europe; what remained to be seen was where conflict would be experienced next.

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Hello history friends! Welcome to a new season of WDF! Season 3, if my calculations are correct. This new season will see me present to you a new series of wars. Some would call these wars obscure, others would consider them essential for understanding how modern Europe came to be. It is my pleasure to attempt to bring these wars to you, and to bring to life new eras of history which were simply dying to be discovered. I hope you'll join me for the ride! Thanksssssssss! :D

Zack (B.A.)

End of Crisis, Beginning of War

Having finally reached the end of the line in our July Crisis Project, and in the process now feeling like I'm able to live my life without constantly thinking about these people, I feel like a blog post is in order to give you a chance to put faces to the names of these statesmen and to see the list of sources I used for my work.

First is Gavrilo Princep, who assassinated the Archduke and his wife and began the July Crisis.

Next up we have his mark and the man who had plans for the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Ferdinand. 

Next up we have Franz' uncle Franz-Josef, the incumbent emperor at the time of the July Crisis, and the man who signed off on numerous early orders that would prove so instrumental.

Next we have Austria's Foreign minister Leopold von Berchtold, whose declaration of war on Serbia on 28th July precipitated much of the crisis, but not all of it!

And who can forget Stefan Tisza? The man wholly responsible for delaying Vienna's response time!

And who can forget Count Alexander Hoyos? The Austrian who acquired the 'blank cheque' for his state and ensured that Germany would support the Habsburgs in *whatever* transpired.

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Helmut von Moltke the younger was living in his uncle's great shadow. Helmut the elder had overseen the defeat of France in 1870, now Germany surely hoped that lightening would strike twice with their second iteration of the military Moltke family. Though ardently pro-force and determined to stick to the war policy as planned, and unable to improvise, Moltke's control of events are almost always overstated by historians, who see Moltke as the conception of Germany in the pre-war years. Moltke was bellicose and would later prove himself hopelessly blind to foreign opinion when he insisted on the violation of Belgium, but he didn't control the country, and spent more time complaining that the 'two old women' of the Chancellor and Kaiser were restraining his hand and embarking on a weakly paciffist course.

Theobald Von Bethmann Holweg served as Germany's Chancellor from 1909-1916, and thus had a fundamental part to play in our story. The crisis would bear witness to the collapse of his life's work, as he had keenly pursued a policy of reapproachment with Britain on the basis that the naval race between Germany and Britain had wound down by 1914.

Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II, who this project will hopefully rehabilitate a tad in your eyes, is pictured here. As someone who tried to negotiate for peace till the very end, Wilhelm is interesting because for so long he was portrayed as the boogeyman of the era, and even I fell victim to this portrayal in my last special on the July Crisis. Sorry about that Willy.

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Wilhelm's third cousin lived in St Petersburg and was in fact the Tsar on Russia. Tsar Nicolas II was a weakly willed man, but was also a man who loved nationalist rhetoric and hated war; two strangely incompatible traits that would lead to his internal struggle later on to sign the mobilisation order.

Nicolas' Foreign Minister was Sergei Sazonov, the Russian statesman who would later insist on general mobilisation to the approval of Russia's war party, even after Nicolas cancelled it the previous day.

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These Russians met their French counterparts over the course of the summit from 20th-23rd July. Here is pictured Raymond Poincare, France's President and a determinedly bellicose man when it came to the issue of defending the entente's interests. He was, interestingly, from Alsace, born there in 1860, and remembered the invasion of German troops into his homeland for the rest of his life.

Rene Viviani was the French PM, who accompanied Poincare to the summit. A relatively new appointee to the office, Viviani was a pacifist and had to be persuaded regularly by Poincare of the need for the Russian alliance. He would become a determined supporter of the bellicose French course, much to Poincare's undoubted happiness.

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A British statesmen who must receive a mention was Sir Edward Grey, the thoroughly pre-occupied British foreign secretary during the July Crisis. Consistently behind on events and distracted by Ireland, one could make a case for Grey's unawareness of how bad things on the continent really were in 1914. His bias towards the entente is obvious when one notes how willing he was to believe the Franco-Russian picture of events, which was doctored to suit the entente's need to have a Britain that was on side with them. His battle to convince his government of the need to intervene would not be won by the time Germany invaded Belgium, and because of that German act the whole process became far easier to attain.

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After listing the folks responsible, the time has now come to list the sources I used. I of course cannot account for everything, and certainly used some accounts more than others, but the vast majority of what I used is listed here. Note in particular Christopher Clark's book the Sleepwalkers, and Sean McMeekin's book July 1914. Both were stellar works and helped me greatly; should you happen to own these books you'll likely notice that I drew upon their arguments and conclusions considerably for my project. I am indebted to them for their hard work, and I would highly recommend you check them out.

• Sean McMeekin, July 1914. 2013.
• Christopher Clark, The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914. 2012.
• Geoffrey Wawro, A Mad Catastrophe: the outbreak of world war 1 and the collapse of the Habsburg Empire. 2014.
• James Joll & Gordon Martel, The Origins of the First World War. 2013.
• Roderick McLean, Royalty and Diplomacy in Europe 1890-1914. 2007.
• Richard Ned Lebow, Forbidden Fruit: Counterfactuals and International Relations. 2010.
• Thomas Otte, July Crisis, the world's descent into war, Summer 1914. 2014.
• Dale Copeland, The Origins of Major War. 2001.
• Brian Higgins, Historians and the July Crisis of 1914: An Historiography of the Origins of the First World War. 1987.
• Richard F. Hamilton, Holger H. Herwig, Decisions for War, 1914-1917. 2004.
• William Mulligan, The Origins of the First World War. 2010.
• Daniel Allen Butler, Burden of Guilt: How Germany Shattered the Last Days of Peace, Summer 1914. 2010.
• Winston Churchill, The World Crisis 1911-1918. 1930 (republished since).

Thankssssssssssssss for reading and listening!