Britain declares war on Germany

On 4 August 1914 at 11 p.m. London time, that is midnight in Berlin, the British ultimatum to Germany expired. Berlin had given no assurance that it would respect Belgian neutrality, and its troops had been advancing into Belgian territory since the morning. From that moment Great Britain was at war with Germany.

The last hours of peace

All day London waited for a reply that never came. In the afternoon the prime minister, H. H. Asquith, informed the House of Commons that the ultimatum had been sent. In the evening crowds gathered outside Buckingham Palace and in the streets of Westminster, singing patriotic songs. When Big Ben struck eleven, war became a fact. King George V wrote in his diary that evening that it was a terrible catastrophe, but not Britain’s fault.

The German ambassador in London, Prince Karl Max von Lichnowsky, was handed the documents establishing the state of war. Lichnowsky, who had tried to the very end to prevent a conflict between the two countries, left London a few days later.

The whole empire at war

London’s decision meant that the entire British Empire entered the war. The dominions and colonies did not then conduct their own foreign policy, so the moment Britain declared war, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa and British India were also at war. The scale of their contribution, however, was decided by the governments of the individual dominions, which almost immediately pledged their help.

Why Britain fought

The immediate cause was the question of Belgium, whose neutrality Britain had guaranteed since 1839. The Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, and most of the cabinet believed, however, that more was at stake. A German victory over France and Russia would give Germany domination of the Continent, and the German fleet would threaten the security of the British Isles. For public opinion, though, it was the fate of small, invaded Belgium that became the most important argument for war.

Britain was prepared above all at sea. Its fleet had been at its war stations for several days, and Admiral John Jellicoe was taking command of the main fleet, renamed the Grand Fleet. The army, small compared with the continental armies, was beginning mobilisation and preparations to send an expeditionary force to France.

Significance

On 4 August 1914 the war that had begun as an Austro-Serbian conflict engulfed all the great powers of Europe. With the entry of Britain and its empire the conflict took on a global dimension. Most people on both sides expected the war to be over by Christmas. It was to last more than four years.