Germany proposes an agreement on British neutrality
- Category:
- Diplomacy
- Date:
- 29 July 1914
- Author:
- Łukasz Skowroń
On the evening of 29 July 1914 Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, having returned from a conference with the Emperor in Potsdam, summoned the British ambassador, Sir Edward Goschen. He made him a proposal intended to secure for Germany the neutrality of Great Britain in the event of a European war.
The Chancellor gave assurances that if Britain remained neutral, Germany, after a victorious war, would not seek territorial gains at the expense of France in Europe. When asked about the French colonies, however, he would not give a similar promise. He also declared that Germany would respect the neutrality of the Netherlands, provided other states did so too. As for Belgium, he said only that its territory would remain intact after the war if it did not side against Germany. Bethmann Hollweg presented these assurances as a possible starting point for a broader neutrality agreement between the two countries.
The proposal revealed more than the Chancellor intended. If Germany was already setting the terms of peace with France and would not guarantee Belgium’s integrity during the war, it meant that it was reckoning on an attack on France, including through Belgian territory. For the British, Belgian neutrality, guaranteed by the Treaty of London of 1839, was a matter of principle.
The Chancellor did not know that the same afternoon in London the Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, had warned the German ambassador, Prince Karl Max Lichnowsky, that if France were drawn into the war, Britain could not stand aside for long. The report of this conversation reached Berlin only after the meeting with Goschen and seriously alarmed the German leadership.
On 30 July Grey rejected the German proposal. He held that Britain could not bind itself to neutrality on such terms, and that concluding such a bargain at the expense of France and Belgium would be a disgrace for it. The Chancellor’s attempt had the opposite effect: instead of reassuring London, it strengthened British suspicions about Germany’s real intentions.
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Meanwhile
(03)Elsewhere in the same days.
- 28 July 1914 · Balkan FrontAustria-Hungary declares war on SerbiaOn 28 July 1914 Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia by telegram. That same night Belgrade was shelled and the First World War began.
- 1 August 1914 · Eastern FrontGermany mobilises and declares war on RussiaOn 1 August 1914 Germany ordered general mobilisation and in the evening declared war on Russia. The war ceased to be a Balkan conflict.
- 1 August 1914 · Eastern FrontFirst fighting on the border of the Kingdom of PolandOn 1 August 1914 the German-Russian border, running through Polish lands, became a front line. In the following days the Germans took Kalisz and Częstochowa.
Related events
(04)The same battle, people or subject.
- 30 July 1914 · DiplomacyBritain rejects Germany's neutrality proposalOn 30 July 1914 Edward Grey rejected a German offer. He judged that neutrality at the expense of France and Belgium would be a disgrace for Britain.
- 4 August 1914 · DiplomacyGreat Britain issues an ultimatum to GermanyOn 4 August 1914 London demanded that Germany respect Belgian neutrality by midnight. The chancellor called the treaty a "scrap of paper".
- 28 July 1914 · DiplomacyGerman government rejects British conference proposalOn 28 July 1914 Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg confirmed that Germany would not take part in the conference of the powers proposed by Britain.
- 2 August 1914 · Western FrontGerman troops enter LuxembourgOn the morning of 2 August 1914 German troops occupied neutral Luxembourg despite the protests of Grand Duchess Marie-Adélaïde and the government.