[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
//-->Sidney Fay, The Origins of the World WarIntroductionUnderlying CausesSystem of AlliancesSystem of SecretAlliancesMorocco CrisisChapter 4Haldane MissionChapter 5Izvolski’s EffortRumanian RiddleLiman von SandersConclusionSIDNEY BRADSHAW FAYBEFORESARAJEVOThe Origins of the World WarVOLUME ISecond Edition, RevisedTHE FREE PRESS,New YorkCOLLIER-MACMILLAN LIMITED,LondonCopyright, The Macmillan Company, 1928 and 1930Copyright renewed 1956 and 1958 by Sidney B. FayCopyright © 1966 by The Free PressA DIVISION OF THE MACMILLAN COMPANYPrinted in the United States of AmericaAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form orby any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by anyinformation storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.Collier-Macmillan Canada, Ltd., Toronto, OntarioFIRST FREE PRESS PAPERBACK EDITION 1966http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/fay/fay.html5.4.2006 9:27:17Sidney Fay, The Origins of the World War, Vol 1, prefaceSidney Bradshaw Fay :THE ORIGINS OF THE WORLD WARINTRODUCTION TO THE PAPERBACK EDITIONTODAY, looking back on more than half a century of study, I ammore than ever impressed by the tremendous impact the WorldWar of 1914-18 has had upon world developments of the nextfifty years. The war ushered in a period of international politicaland social change unequaled in history. At the same timeenormous innovations in electronic and genetic sciences occurredand the speed of transportation was enormously increased withthe use of the automobile and the airplane.The World War also opened a new age of violence thatcontrasted greatly with the era of comparative peace that hadpreceded it. In this earlier period, from 1815 to 1914, peacegenerally prevailed in Europe except for some “local” wars thatwere fought with traditional weapons, were comparatively short-lived, and wreaked small destruction. Most of Asia and of Africawere still tolerably quiescent under the colonialism imposed byEuropean imperialist powers. Diplomatic relations were strictlysecret and were conducted unhurriedly by trained officials whokept in touch with their home governments by means of couriersand coded letters rather than by telegraph. After 1914, however,the “little” wars exploded into global conflicts that raged forseveral years and were fought with new weapons likesubmarines, tanks and air missiles that caused terrific losses oflife and property. At the same time, in Asia and Africa, the yellow and dark-skinnedpopulations, no longer quiescent, began a struggle to end all European colonial domination andto establish their own independence and power. In the conduct of international relations thewisdom and caution of experienced ambassadors was often undermined by special envoys wholacked sufficient international knowledge and by the increasing tendency of top authorities tomake statements by radio to the whole world, thereby disturbing the secrecy of diplomaticnegotiations.During the turbulent half-century that began in 1914, the causes of the war and theresponsibility for its outbreak have remained problems of high historical interest and of deeppolitical importance. The subject has given rise to a great mass of controversial literature,which may be said to fall into three periods in each of which the scope and value of the workwas more or less dependent on the evidence available to the writers.In the first period, 1914-19, persons writing on the immediate causes of the war were largelyhttp://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/fay/origin_00.html (1 of 9)5.4.2006 9:27:28Sidney Fay, The Origins of the World War, Vol 1, prefacedependent onapologiaemade by men who had held responsible political positions at theoutbreak of war, and on the so-called “color books,” small and highly selective collections ofdiplomatic documents, that were issued by each of the principal governments involved. Thesewritings were intended to prove the wisdom and honesty of the conduct of each and throw onothers the blame for starting the war. Much of this literature of the first period was also badlywarped by wartime hatred, prejudice, and political propaganda. The assertions put forth bywriters on the side of the ultimate victors were summed up by the Versailles Treaty, whichimplied that the war was caused solely by the aggression of Germany and her allies.The second period, 1920-30, was notable for the publication of astonishingly full and reliablecollections of diplomatic documents relating both to the crisis of July 1914 and to the events ofthe preceding forty years. The unprecedented and extensive public revelation of secrets fromthe archives was begun by the German Republic. Other governments soon followed herexample. The German and French collections each eventually comprised some forty volumesand dealt with international relations as far back as the Franco-Prussian War.After long and careful study of as much of this valuable material as had already appeared inprint, I published in 1928 the present two-volume work,The Origins of the World War.Thefirst volume is devoted to the underlying causes of the war during several decades, and thesecond volume to the hectic diplomatic crisis which precipitated its outbreak in 1914. I tried tomaintain as fairminded and scholarly attitude of mind as possible, leaving aside earliercontroversial literature and basing my account entirely on the new documentary evidence. Theresult was highly gratifying. Reviewers generally praised it as an important and interestinghistorical survey of the much-disputed question of responsibility for the war. It consequentlyhad a large sale and was published in German, French, and Russian translations. A noted Soviethistorian (V. Chvostov inIstorik Marksist,Vol. 18-19, 209-216, 1930) castigated me as adecadent bourgeois historian, probably paid by Wall Street, who completely failed tounderstand that the true cause of the war was “finance capitalism.” To prove his point hequoted parallel passages from Lenin’s writings and from my book, but he concluded his longreview more favorably, saying that it was the best book in any language, that it ought to be usedin all Russian schools and universities. The Soviet government printed an edition of 50,000copies.I published a revised two-volume-in-one edition of my book in 1930. This edition took note ofthe documentary and other material that had appeared since the first edition two years earlier.During the third period, since 1930, the French and the British have completed their invaluabledocumentary collections, the Russians have extended theirs, the Austrians have published ninevolumes of diplomatic material for the years 1908 to 1914, and the Italians have issued the firstvolume of a series. The total amount of this new evidence revealed since 1930 is perhaps equalto that of the preceding period, but its fresh importance to the historian is much less. That is tosay, it has added relatively little to the account which I gave in my revised edition of 1930 orwhich Professor Bernadotte E. Schmitz gave in his valuable two-volume work,The Coming ofthe War, 1914also published in 1930.http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/fay/origin_00.html (2 of 9)5.4.2006 9:27:28Sidney Fay, The Origins of the World War, Vol 1, prefaceHis work is more severe in its judgment of Germany than mine, and it deals mainly with theoutbreak of the war in 1914, rather than with the earlier underlying causes. But the generalpicture that emerges from both books is not likely to be much modified by later archivalrevelations, biographies or monographs, though some minute details may be added to thepicture and obscure points may be clarified.The intense scholarly and popular interest in the causes of war in 1914 naturally abatedsomewhat as attention became absorbed in the second war. But during the past decade itappears to have revived, judging from the increased sales of my book and the publication ofmany new ones on the subject. Two of these are notable. Luigi Albertini,The Origins of theWar of 1914(London, 1952-57 translated from the Italian, deals mainly with the immediateorigins and is the most detailed and probably the most authoritative account so far written, butits three large volumes, averaging nearly 700 pages each, are somewhat repetitious andsometimes prejudiced. Fritz Fisher,Griff nach der Weltmacht(Hamburg, 1961), deals severelywith, Germany and tends to assume that Germany’s undoubted annexationist policies after warbroke out are evidence of her policies prior to the war.It had been my intention eventually to completely rework my revised edition of 1930. Thiswould have enabled me to cut out passages in which I had expatiated at length to establishcertain views that have been generally accepted by historians and no longer need suchexplanation. Such, for instance, is the chapter on the Potsdam Council in which I definitelydemolished the widely accepted myth that the Kaiser had deliberately plotted the war at ameeting with his top officials at Potsdam. The space thus saved I hoped to use for a fullerdiscussion of such causes as economic factors, the influence of the press, the psychology ofcertain officials, and, of course, the inclusion of the results of new documentary revelations andthe researches of other historical scholars. But the press of other work caused me to postponethis intended revision until declining eyesight made it impossible.Therefore, when The Free Press proposed reprinting the 1930 edition as a paperback, I readilyassented. The edition is fairly broad in outlook, surveying mounting international frictionsmany years before the war, and describes in detail the fatal diplomatic crisis of 1914. Yet it isso condensed that the whole account is not unduly long. It is based on strictly contemporaryevidence, is as rigidly objective as possible, and avoids polemics and lengthy disputes about“guilt” and responsibility for the war. On the basis of such new light as has appeared since1930, historians no doubt will long continue to differ as to the exact effect of this or that actionand as to the precise responsibility of each nation in causing the war. My book, I hope, willprove a convenient spring-board for a deeper plunge into the controversies.SIDNEYB. FAYCambridge, Mass. 1966PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION REVISEDhttp://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/fay/origin_00.html (3 of 9)5.4.2006 9:27:28Sidney Fay, The Origins of the World War, Vol 1, prefaceSINCE the publication of the first edition nearly two years ago, the stream of new documentarymaterial on the origins of the war has continued to flow very freely. Dr. G.P. Gooch andProfessor H.W. Temperley have pushed forward with energy their admirable collection ofBritish Documents,so that the sixth volume carries the story of Anglo-German relations throughthe failure of the Haldane Mission in 1912. Austrian scholars took everyone by surprise lastChristmas by presenting the world with eight closely packed volumes onOesterreich-UngarnsAussenpolitik,containing nearly 12,000 documents from their archives covering the years 1908to 1914. This collection runs parallel to the GermanDie Grosse Politik,and is of especial valuefor the additional light that it throws on Balkan problems in general and on Austro-Serbianrelations in particular. The French Government has published three initial volumes ofDocuments Diplomatiques Français,a monumental series which will eventually illuminateFrench foreign policy from 1871 to 1914 in the same detail as has been done for German policyin the same period byDie Grosse Politik.In addition to these official publications there have also appeared many valuable privatepublications containing important new documents or based on unpublished first-hand material.Dr. Bogitchevitch’s unofficial collection,Die Auswärtige Politik Serbiens 1908-1914,partlycompensates for the Serbian Government’s persistent failure to follow the example of otherstates in disclosing fully and frankly their secret pre-war archives. Interesting light on leadingEnglish personalities and their psychology is contained in charming biographies, like LordNewton’sLord Lansdowne,Mr. Harold Nicolson’sLord Carnock(better known as Sir ArthurNicolson), and in Lord Morley’s remarkableMemorandum on Resignation.InLa PolitiqueRusse d’avant GuerreBaron Taube has stated in no uncertain terms what he knew of Izvolskiand certain episodes in Russia’s pre-war policy. The present writer has also been privileged toread the advance pages of the first volume of Professor B.E. Schmitt’s scholarly and detailedforthcoming work,The Coming of the War, 1914.These and many other recent publications of source material, as well as innumerable secondarymonographic studies, can usefully be drawn upon to add an infinite amount of new detail to thestory of the main outline of the origins of the war which I have tried to give within the compassof two volumes. But I do not find that they so essentially modify the chief thread of mynarrative or my general conclusions that it is necessary in a revised edition to recast the wholeform of the book. I have therefore mainly confined the revision to rewriting several passages, tocalling attention in the footnotes to important new material, and to adding a few supplementarynotes at the end of the first volume. This has made possible the retention of the paging of thefirst edition, which it is hoped will be a convenience to students. Many of these revisions havealready been made in the German and French editions.SIDNEYB. FAYHarvard University,June 28, 1930.http://yamaguchy.netfirms.com/fay/origin_00.html (4 of 9)5.4.2006 9:27:28
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
