The World War and What was Behind It The Story of the Map of Europe
PREFACE This little volume is the result of the interest shown by pupils, teachers, and the general public in a series of talks on the causes of the great European war which were given by the author in the fall of 1914. The audiences were widely different in character. They included pupils of the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, students in high school and normal school, teachers in the public schools, an association of business men, and a convention of boards of education. In every case, the same sentiment was voiced: "If there were only some book which would give us these facts in simple language and illustrate them by maps and charts as you have done!" After searching the market for a book of this sort without success, the author determined to put the subject of his talks into manuscript form. It has been his aim to write in a style which is well within the comprehension of the children in the upper grades and yet is not too juvenile for adult readers. The book deals with the remarkable sequence of events in Europe which made the great war inevitable. Facts are revealed which, so far as the author knows, have not been published in any history to date; facts which had the strongest possible bearing on the outbreak of the war. The average American, whether child or adult, has little
_fact_, a war existed.... Under such circumstances
it seemed scarcely possible to avoid speaking of this in the
technical sense as _justum bellum_, that is, a war of two
sides, without in any way implying an opinion of its justice,
as well as to withhold an endeavour, so far as possible, to
bring the management of it within the rules of modern
civilized warfare. This was all that was contemplated by the
Queen's proclamation. It was designed to show the purport of
existing laws, and to explain to British subjects their
liabilities in case they should engage in the war."
To this Adams answered "... that under other circumstances
I should be very ready to give my cheerful assent to this
view of his lordship's. But I must be permitted frankly to
remark that the action taken seemed, at least to my mind, a
little more rapid than was absolutely called for by the
occasion.... And furthermore, it pronounced the insurgents to
be a belligerent State before they had ever shown their
capacity to maintain any kind of warfare whatever, except
within one of their own harbours, and under every possible
advantage. It considered them a marine power before they had
ever exhibited a single privateer on the ocean.... The rule
was very clear, that whenever it became apparent that any
organized form of society had advanced so far as to prove its
PREFACE This little volume is the result of the interest shown by pupils, teachers, and the general public in a series of talks on the causes of the great European war which were given by the author in the fall of 1914. The audiences were widely different in character. They included pupils of the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades, students in high school and normal school, teachers in the public schools, an association of business men, and a convention of boards of education. In every case, the same sentiment was voiced: "If there were only some book which would give us these facts in simple language and illustrate them by maps and charts as you have done!" After searching the market for a book of this sort without success, the author determined to put the subject of his talks into manuscript form. It has been his aim to write in a style which is well within the comprehension of the children in the upper grades and yet is not too juvenile for adult readers. The book deals with the remarkable sequence of events in Europe which made the great war inevitable. Facts are revealed which, so far as the author knows, have not been published in any history to date; facts which had the strongest possible bearing on the outbreak of the war. The average American, whether child or adult, has little