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35 Days

Thirty-Five Critical Days

Russia seems to me to be the reason World War I became the crisis that it did. The Austrian aggressiveness obviously gave everyone involved a starting point, but the reason it blew up to the scale that it did way poor leadership on the part of the Russians. The Tsar seems to be a very weak person who knows that his peers view him that way. Also his insecurity fuels his inability to make decisive stands. An example of this is in his first mobilization of his troops. When he saw that it wasn’t a very popular decision, he immobilized, only to turn around and mobilize again. It’s hard to know how serious the Kaiser was about finding a peaceful solution that would result in avoiding a world war, but he was at least trying to sound as though there was a peaceful way out.
The Kaiser seems to be very diplomatic in his dealings with his cousin. He seems to play to the weaknesses of “Nicky”. But the Tsar won’t be pushed around this time. He knows that his people see him as weak, and that they are done being ruled by his dynasty. He feels desperate to save his families interests and honor. Winning a huge war in Europe might be what he thought he needed. Germany’s smooth diplomacy with Russia was just to deflect blame. They had their war plans lined out, and knew what they wanted. This war was started by the pawns, but only so the power players could get things set in motion.
Britain had the right idea heading into this conflict. They had aligned themselves, but were sticking by their old views of European land wars, wait it out and see where things go. They had no reason to jump into things before their interests were threatened. Had the gotten involved from day one, it would have only made things even more tense for everyone involed and it would have put added tension on Britain that there was no need for. They were about to watch what other nations were doing and set up a plan for involvement that would be more secure than...