The Guns of August (1962) by Barbara W. Tuchman

The book “The Guns of August” explains many topics throughout it, such as, imperialism, political alliances, the diplomacy of royalty amongst national rivalries, and even the social darwinism in the years leading up to the Great War. The Great War lasted from 1914-1918. This book starts by explaining the scene of the funeral for King Edward VII. There were many royal people that attended this event, such as 5 heirs, 40 imperials or royal highnesses, 7 queens, and a whole lot of ambassadors from unknown countries.

All of these high powered human beings came together to represent the 70 nations in the greatest assemblance of royalty ever brought together in one place.

The main person that attended this occasion was Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was King Edward’s nephew. At the funeral, Wilhelm describes King George II as a “very nice boy” to President Theodore Roosevelt. The reason that King Edward’s death was such a huge deal, was because he was known as the “Uncle of Europe.” The reason the funeral itself was such a big deal, was because it was one of the last and biggest gatherings of European royalty together because this was a main event leading up to the World War I. Over the next couple years, while everyone was relaxing peacefully, Germany was lowkey preparing for war. They decided they were going to attack and take over Belgium, and then expand the Kiel Canal to get access to the Baltic Sea. All of these plans caused England and France to freak out a little bit, because they did not want to go to war against the strong German military.

In 1910, Japan defeated the Russian military (who is France’s alliance) and Russia was running short on men and weaponry. Because of this, France was even more nervous, they did not want Germany to take advantage of Russia in this rough time for them. Aside from them being beat up right now, Russia was still a strong military threat and France depends on their help against any German invasion. Despite Kaiser preferring to defeat with no care in the world of how many people die or how much blood is involved, after the Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were murdered by a Serbian Nationalist, Germany declares war on Russia. Russia started getting extremely concerned, therefore they drug their ally, France, into the war for extra help. At this point everyone was starting to freak out, a snowball effect occurred, and France tried to drag another ally in England into the war. England rejected France, and while they were all fooling around trying to gain more help, Germany was persuading Belgium into thinking that they were going to get attacked by the French.

Well, that did not work out very well for Germany, the King of belgium pretty much ignores everything Germany told them and went behind their back to make deals with the enemies to help himself. Germany did what they had originally planned to do and attacked Belgium, and this caused England to finally make up their minds and join this war in high hopes to take down the powerhouse, Germany. More countries start to get involved in the war such as Turkey, but Turkey does not have a for sure side to take yet. They are not sure if they want to support Germany because they are worried Germany will lose with all these other countries ganging up on them, but they are not very fond of countries on the other side, like England. Meanwhile, while Turkey is trying to make a decision, Germany is making big moves, such as taking over many little countries that are all surrounding their main target, Belgium.

Germany is ruthless in their efforts to try to take over Belgium, they attack cities and kill innocent citizens. In the meantime, France makes some moves such as invading a prior French owned territory that Germany had taken a few years before the attack. But the Germans were not going down without a fight, they gain ground into Belgium. A couple weeks into the war the battles really starts, the first one being in the city, Lorraine. In these fierce battles, the German troops do not hesitate to immediately retreat because they could not handle the brutal French troops. Directly after that battle the Germans are already on their next mission. They send a bunch of armed troops through belgium to take over the capital, and in a matter of days, on August 20th, they not only take over the capital, but kill many, many civilians along the way. For the next four days, there was bloody battles day in and day out, and the French were starting to realize that they may have underestimated the power of the vicious Germans. These Germans are literally heartless, they continue to burn down innocent cities and kill innocent civilians day in and day out.

The German army starts to generate some swag because they are showing all the people that expected them to be an average military that they are the real deal, and nothing to mess around with. The Russians, after they have healed from the attack against Japan, decided that they want in on some of the action. Their main goal is to help out the French and get rid of the Germans. Russia had a hard time getting all the way to the place of the battles but they finally made it. The first thing the Russian army did was invade on the Germans, but the Germans did not even budge. The Germans absolutely demolished the Russians so badly, that they made them retreat by the thirtieth of August. Though they lost so embarrassingly badly, the Russians never gave in to any of the offers of peace given by the Germans. Over the next several weeks, Germany continues to burn down cities, and murder harmless families everyday, and the United States was tired of hearing about these horrific things going on in the other side of the ocean.

They wanted to join in and put a stop to it. After the Germans completely wiped out Belgium their next stop was Paris, France. Everyone in this city is warned and immediately evacuate, and the French troops prepare for war. The Germans may think they have this one in the bag, but the French troops feel better than ever. The Germans and French met at the Marne river for an intense battle that resulted in a French victory, sending the German Army Retreating. This battle made things all tied up for the Germans and the French, the Germans lost some confidence, while the French are just now gaining theirs. This very first ever World War was definitely one for the books, especially that severe, merciless month of August.

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