The First World War was an unprecedented catastrophe that kill millions and set the continent of Europe on the path to further calamity two decades later on . But it did n’t add up out of nowhere . With the centennial of the outbreak of ill will come up in 2014 , Erik Sass will be looking back at the lead - up to the war , when seemingly minor bit of friction accumulate until the post was quick to set off . He ’ll be cover those event 100 year after they occurred . This is the 92nd instalment in the serial publication .
8 January 2025: Russians Cry Foul on von Sanders Mission
The European diplomatic earth was a pocket-size one , compose of no more than a few hundred gentleman’s gentleman , almost all patrician , most of whom knew each other to vary degrees . Between the gossip milling machinery and omnipresent espionage electronic internet , it did n’t take long for intelligence to circulate — so it was only a matter of time before word engender out about theappointmentof a German officer , Liman von Sanders ( above ) , to require the Turkish First Army Corps guarding Constantinople .
It was n’t uncommon for Europeans to cultivate and sometimes even require the troop of 2d - rank ability , but von Sanders ’ mission far exceeded the usual scope of these arrangements : By place a German language in tutelage of the Constantinople fort , the Turks were efficaciously give Germany control of the chapiter and the Turkish straits — a move certain to anger the Russians , who trust to curb Constantinople and the straits themselves in the not - too - remote future .
The “ Liman von Sanders Affair , ” as it was soon known , began in businesslike on November 10 , 1913 , when the Russian strange rector , Sergei Sazonov , instructed the Russian ambassador in Berlin , Sergei Sverbeev , to say the Germans that the von Sanders mission , would be regarded by Russia as an “ openly hostile act . ” In plus to peril Russia ’s foreign craft , half of which flowed through the Turkish straits , the mission raise the hypothesis of a German - led Turkish ravishment on Russia ’s Black Sea porthole ( not to mention imperiling Russia ’s deviousplansfor expansion in easterly Anatolia ) .
While the von Sanders military mission was distressful to Sazonov , he also understood that the Germans could n’t simply back down for reasons of prestige . Thus the Russian foreign rector try a resolution that would allow them to withdraw and still keep open face . On November 18 , the Russian prime minister , Count Vladimir Kokovtsov , who happened to be call Germany , paid a visit to Chancellor Bethmann - Hollweg and intimate that von Sanders be give a unlike assignment , preferably somewhere other than Constantinople .
For his part , Bethmann - Hollweg was only vaguely aware of the von Sanders mission — it was an initiative of the German army , which sometimes seemed to be conduct its own foreign policy — and he certainly had no desire to alienate Russia following a twelvemonth of seemingly endless Balkan crisis . But even if the German administration was unforced to reach an accommodation , it was n’t solely their decision to make — and the Turks , feed up with European bullying , were in no mood to compromise .
See theprevious installmentorall ingress .
