Summary Of The Book 'The War That Ended Peace'

Margaret Macmillan’s account of the years leading up to the start of World War 1 in the The War that Ended Peace: The Road to 1914, highlights the many different conditions that slowly transformed Europe from a time a peace into total war. For Macmillan, this transformation was not inevitable, but rather a series of poor reactions and/or decisions made by leaders, as well as “their lack of courage to stand up to those who said there was no choice left but to go to war” (645). The book begins in the seemingly peaceful 1900s, with Europe flourishing as it celebrated nearly a century of peace and prosperity, but it soon becomes evident that tensions are rising, as nationalistic pride for each country becomes more commonplace, and creating rivalries among different nations.
Tensions among nations were also high as many European Countries still had imperialistic tendencies and were fighting over new and existing territories. The way that European leaders reacted to these tensions exacerbated them even more than they already were. For example, Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany often acted hastily and without sense as he tried to build the German empire. When tensions reached an all time high, and Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Austria-Hungary Empire was murdered, Germany was ready within days to back up its ally Austria-Hungary as it declared war on Serbia, the country they believed to have killed the heir to their empire. Of course Russia immediately backed Serbia in the cause because they had hatred for Austria- Hungary after they had annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian Crisis in 1909. One of Russia’s other allies was France, so Germany quickly attacked France, and the war had officially begun. Macmillan