March 31, 1905- The Day Europe was Put on Alert

Readers of William Whitaker’s Some Damn Fool Thing have been introduced to the events of March 31, 1905 in its first chapters, but from the perspective of over one hundred years it is difficult to appreciate the the basis and extent of the reaction that a speech by Kaiser Wilhelm  elicited that day.

The seeds  for the dramatic response provoked by Wilhelm had been first sown some forty years previously when Prussia, under its formidable  chancellor Otto von Bismarck, launched a series of wars first against Austria and then France. Prussian victories removed catholic protection over swathes of German principalities thereby allowing the unification of Germany under the Prussian Hohenzollern rulers. In the aftermath of those wars, France lay prostrate divided by class warfare while most of the other continental powers were in eclipse, giving this new Germany significant strength.

Fortunately for France and others, Bismarck chose not to press what advantages he might have, turning instead inwardly to consolidate the many disparate German principalities into a functioning political unit. This was accomplished with Bismarck’s usual thorough competence, resulting in a nation with an ever expanding economy and population base that when coupled with German scientific excellence made the country the supreme power on the continent at the turn of the new century.

The tribes of Europe have long memories however, and the strength of Germany was a source of grave concern for many. Chief amongst them was France who weighed Germany’s ever increasing power against the longtime Prussian predilection for the use of its potent military as a primary means of diplomacy. Russia too had concerns, fearful that their barely defensible frontiers with this new power would prove too great a future temptation for German territorial expansion.

Many European nations of that era existed in unnatural collections of minor states and nationalities created by imperialistic conquests of an earlier age. Once acquired many of these empires were loath to relinquish the power inherent in their present positions. The rising arc of German might which was threatening to destroy the  continental balance of power had therefore drawn the eye of the rulers of history’s greatest colonial empire, Great Britain. A pacified continent in the aftermath of Napoleon’s defeat had given the British Navy a free hand to exercise its considerable power across the globe creating a trading hegemony unrivaled in human history. A strong Germany with a powerful navy threatened to disrupt the forces that Britain depended on for their supremacy and security.

 Thus as Europe entered the twentieth century the powers of Europe were keenly aware of the threat of an ever more powerful Germany and had begun to take measures to check it. Already an unlikely mutual defense alliance had been crafted between Republican France and Despotic Russia for the sole purpose of deterring more aggressive German foreign policy. Such a pact to the hard working German burgher or to the German war lords could only be construed as a cynical attempt by two unnatural partners to deny them their rightful place of preeminence.

Such an alliance and its ramifications served to bring out some of the worst in the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II. The grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm I who had been in power during the defeat of France in 1870, the younger Wilhelm was far less suited for rule than his stern, domineering and conservative  predecessor. The young Wilhelm on coming to power quickly ousted his more liberal mother, the daughter of Queen Victoria from her former home and soon thereafter ousted his mighty chancellor, Bismarck.

In their place the continent’s greatest power came under the rule of a man who often acted impetuously intent of demonstrating his power to domestic critics and potential foreign foes. That such actions, often driven by insecurity or vanity might have enormous international consequences often seemed less important to Wilhelm than in projecting an image of German power. That image, of a powerful nation ruled by a mercurial and arrogant leader was far too sobering to ignore and  ultimately drew Great Britain away from ties of kinship with Germany into explorations of an alliance with one of their oldest and most intractable enemies, France.

By March 31, 1905 that alliance was only in discussion and had yet to be fully consummated. All that remained was for the Kaiser to give the British a reason to defy years of bloodshed  and the distrust it engendered and make up with the French. On March 31, 1905 he did.

On that day the Kaiser, attired in full military regalia gave a bombastic speech in Tangier stating that Germany would ignore French claims and  insist on Moroccan independence and equal commercial opportunities for all trading nations. Such a speech was the loud call of the feared monster reawakening much to the consternation of the remainder of the continent. At a time when Britain had yet to align with France and Russian weakness had been exposed in a series of humiliating defeats by Japan the speech was also timely. There for all to see was German militarism reborn, demanding a unilateral change of the status quo while threatening France, who represented it in Morocco.

As related by William L. Shirer in his book the Collapse of the Third Republic, the mystic French poet Charles Peguy described the feeling in Paris that day best.

“By half past eleven that morning in the span of two hours like everyone else, I knew that a new period had begun in the history of my life, the history of my country, and the history of the world.”

What would follow would be nations reshaping their policies and individuals their lives in response to the spectre of a more militant Germany once more unleashed. Such acts once begun would prove ever more difficult to put aside.