Going Over The Top: Getting an Early Start

[AndyC]

Discuss @David Flin 's latest article here

 

[SenatorChickpea]

Good article. I understand the need to write these things to a reasonable word count, but the Balkan Wars could perhaps have used an extra paragraph or too.

But I'd never heard of the Casablanca Incident! What a neat encapsulation of the high stakes and pettiness of pre-war diplomacy.

 

[Charles EP M.]

This is an angle I don't usually hear about when it comes to WW1 - that everyone was used to diplomatic crises that involved "YEAH?! YEAH?!?! I'LL HIT YOU" but no war actually starting, international politics as Year 7s, and then one day whoops.

 

[Alex Richards]

I was aware of most of these before, but Casablanca still came up as a surprise. Mental.

 

[Redolegna]

Casablanca is indeed mental, and it seems like the Central Powers were at times deliberately trying to piss off as many potential friends as possible. Then there are things like the Saverne incident, which are domestic, so would not lead to an early war but which did much to accentuate the atmosphere of sabre-rattling.

Still in awe of Kaiser Wilhelm signing a letter 'Admiral of the Atlantic'.

 

[Kato]

I am so tempted to write a Timeline/long vignette based on the Casablanca Incident starting to get out of hand. Possibly with the main action revolving around a cafe, possibly owned by someone from a country without an interest in the international situation, desperately trying to stay neutral as French and German interests gradually move the world towards war. Toss in a romantic distraction, some shady goings on, outpourings of patriotic sentiment under difficult circumstances.

Maybe written in the format of a film about the incident.

I could call it "Casablanca."

This could be the start of a beautiful timeline.

 

[Stateless]

If I'm honest, the start of WWI OTL makes sense if you frame it as a playground dispute.

I think this is how Terry Deary framed it in The Frightful First World War.

Of course, after he did so he then burned down a library and spat on a teacher.

 

[OwenM]

I keep forgetting the Russians mistaking trailers in the Baltic for the Japanese thing isn't actually fictional.

 

[Alex Richards]

I keep forgetting the Russians mistaking trailers in the Baltic for the Japanese thing isn't actually fictional.

The Russo-Japanese War is frightening in how incompetent much of the Russian military revealed itself to be.

 

[Geordie]

The Russo-Japanese War is frightening in how incompetent much of the Russian military revealed itself to be.

Tbh, after they'd almost started war with Sweden and the British Empire before even rounding the Breton Coast, the biggest surprise is that the world seemed stunned when the Baltic Fleet was destroyed fairly handily. I'm more surprised that they didn't shell Valparaiso, thinking it was Kobe.