World War I as Galloping Gertie: A Reply to Joachim Remak

Abstract

In a recent article, Joachim Remak argues that modern research on the origins of the First World War, led by Fritz Fischer and his students, has distorted our view while expanding our knowledge. The search for more profound causes of the war has tended, in Remak’s phrase, to make us miss the forest for the roots. World War I was really the Third Balkan War. It arose from the last of a long series of local Austro-Serbian quarrels, none of which had led to war before; it involved a series of political manoeuvres and gambles typical of the great pow;er politics of that time, manoeuvres which previously had not issued in general conflict. Only the particular events of 1914 caused this particular quarrel and this diplomatic gamble to end in world war.