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WORLD-WAR-I
Before the First Balkan War between the Balkan League and the Ottoman Empire was even over, another conflict was brewing—this time between the members of the Balkan League.
Installment #56: On February 18, center-right politician Raymond Poincaré took office in an inauguration ceremony at the Hôtel de Ville. Poincaré’s presidency was an important factor in the lead-up to the First World War for a number of reasons. Although
Installment #53: In January 1913 there was reason to hope the First Balkan War was winding down. After the Ottoman Empire suffered crushing defeats at the hands of the Balkan League—Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro—the two sides agreed to a ceasefi
Installment #52: On January 17, 1913, Raymond Poincaré, a leading conservative politician and the premier and foreign minister of France since January 1912, was elected President of France after a complicated, contentious five-way race, which at times pit
Installment #15: One of the grand traditions of Britain’s Royal Navy was the royal review, in which all the vessels of the home fleet – the core force, responsible for protecting the British Isles from invasion – assembled for a ceremonial inspection by t
Installment #13: Since the time of the Trojan War, the narrow straits between Europe and Asia have been crossed by merchants and armies, diplomats and traitors. Simple geography made whoever controlled the straits wealthy and powerful – but also a target
Installment #9: “We cannot conceal from ourselves the fact that we live in an age of incipient violence and strong and deep-seated unrest,” Winston Churchill warned the British House of Commons in a dramatic, defiant speech delivered in the gathering gloo
Installment #8: Tensions were mounting in Western Europe in the first months of 1912, as French and British leaders reacted with alarm to German plans for an arms buildup. But unbeknownst to them, the next step towards war was being taken a thousand miles
Installment #7: In The War in the Air, published in 1908, H.G. Wells imagined a terrifying new form of aerial warfare, with cities turned into infernos by bombs dropped from the sky. The protagonist “had seen airships flying low and swift over darkened an
Installment #6: After his previous attempt was rebuffed, French commander-in-chief Joseph Joffre (pictured) took the opportunity of a change in France’s civilian leadership to ask a second time to be allowed to violate Belgian neutrality in the event of w