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British entry into World War I

The United Kingdom entered World War I on 4 August 1914, when King George V declared war after the expiry of an ultimatum to the German Empire. The official explanation focused on protecting Belgium as a neutral country; the main reason, however, was to prevent a French defeat that would have left Germany in control of Western Europe. The Liberal Party was in power with prime minister H. H. Asquith and foreign minister Edward Grey leading the way. The Liberal cabinet made the decision, although the party had been strongly anti-war until the last minute. The Conservative Party was pro-war. The Liberals knew that if they split on the war issue, they would lose control of the government to the Conservatives.

Empire at war[edit]

The king's declaration of war automatically involved all dominions, colonies, and protectorates of the British Empire, many of whom made significant contributions to the Allied war effort, both in the provision of troops and civilian labourers.

Causes of World War I

Austro-Hungarian entry into World War I

Allies of World War I

Triple Entente

British military history

since 1707

History of the United Kingdom

International relations of the Great Powers (1814–1919)

Diplomatic history of World War I

Color book

International relations (1919–1939)

Timeline of British diplomatic history

History of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom

Albertini, Luigi. The Origins of the War of 1914 (3 vol 1952).

Anderson, Frank Maloy, and Amos Shartle Hershey, eds. Handbook For The Diplomatic History Of Europe, Asia, and Africa, 1870-1914 (1918)

online

Bartlett, Christopher John. Defence and diplomacy: Britain and the Great Powers, 1815-1914 (Manchester UP, 1993).

Bartlett, C. J. British Foreign Policy in the Twentieth Century (1989).

Brandenburg, Erich. (1927) From Bismarck to the World War: A History of German Foreign Policy 1870–1914 (1927) .

online

Bridge, F. R. "The British Declaration of War on Austria-Hungary in 1914." Slavonic and East European Review 47#109 (1969), pp. 401–422.

online

Charmley, John. Splendid Isolation?: Britain, the Balance of Power and the Origins of the First World War (1999), highly critical of Grey.

Clark, Christopher

online

Ensor, R. C. K. England, 1870–1914 (1936)

online

Evans, R. J. W.; von Strandmann, Hartmut Pogge, eds. (1988). . Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-150059-6. essays by scholars from both sides

The Coming of the First World War

Fay, Sidney B. The Origins of the World War (2 vols in one. 2nd ed. 1930). , passim

online

French, David. British Economic and Strategic Planning 1905-15 (1982).

Goodlad, Graham D. British Foreign and Imperial Policy 1865–1919 (1999).

Hale, Oron James. Publicity and Diplomacy: With Special Reference to England and Germany, 1890-1914 (1940) Archived 2020-12-04 at the Wayback Machine

online

Hamilton, Richard F. and Holger H. Herwig, eds. War Planning 1914 (2014) pp 48–79

Hamilton, Richard F. and Holger H. Herwig, eds. The Origins of World War I (2003) pp 266–299.

Hamilton, Richard F.. and Holger H. Herwig. Decisions for War, 1914-1917 (2004).

Hinsley, F. H. ed. British Foreign Policy under Sir Edward Grey (1977)

31 major scholarly essays

Howard, Christopher. "MacDonald, Henderson, and the Outbreak of War, 1914." Historical Journal 20.4 (1977): 871-891.

online

; Martel, Gordon (2013). The Origins of the First World War (3rd ed.). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781317875352.

Joll, James

Kennedy, Paul. The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987), pp 194–260.

online free to borrow

Kennedy, Paul. The Rise and Fall of British Naval mastery (1976) pp 205–38.

Kennedy, Paul M. "Idealists and realists: British views of Germany, 1864–1939." Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 25 (1975): 137-156.

online

McMeekin, Sean. July 1914: Countdown to War (2014) scholarly account, day-by-day

MacMillan, Margaret (2013). . Random House. ISBN 9780812994704.; major scholarly overview

The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914

Massie, Robert K. Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the coming of the Great War (Random House, 1991) see Dreadnought (book), popular history

excerpt

Cornelissen, Christoph, and Arndt Weinrich, eds. Writing the Great War - The Historiography of World War I from 1918 to the Present (2020) ; full coverage for major countries.

free download

Herwig, Holger H. ed., The Outbreak of World War I: Causes and Responsibilities (1990) excerpts from primary and secondary sources

Horne, John, ed. A Companion to World War I (2012) 38 topics essays by scholars

Kramer, Alan. "Recent Historiography of the First World War – Part I", Journal of Modern European History (Feb. 2014) 12#1 pp 5–27; "Recent Historiography of the First World War (Part II)", (May 2014) 12#2 pp 155–174.

Langdon, John W. "Emerging from Fischer's shadow: recent examinations of the crisis of July 1914." History Teacher 20.1 (1986): 63-86, historiography

in JSTOR

Mombauer, Annika. "Guilt or Responsibility? The Hundred-Year Debate on the Origins of World War I." Central European History 48.4 (2015): 541-564.

Mulligan, William. "The Trial Continues: New Directions in the Study of the Origins of the First World War." English Historical Review (2014) 129#538 pp: 639–666.

. and Antoine Prost eds. The Great War in History: Debates and Controversies, 1914 to the Present (2005)

Winter, Jay

Barker. Ernest, et al. eds. Why we are at war; Great Britain's case (3rd ed. 1914), the official British case against Germany.

online

Gooch, G.P. Recent revelations of European diplomacy (1928) pp 3-101.

online

Major 1914 documents from BYU

Joll, James, ed. Britain and Europe 1793-1940 (1967); 390pp of documents;

online

Jones, Edgar Rees, ed. Selected speeches on British foreign policy, 1738-1914 (1914).

online free

Lowe, C.J. and Michael L. Dockrill, eds. Mirage of Power: The Documents v. 3: British Foreign Policy (1972); vol 3 = primary sources 1902-1922

Scott, James Brown, ed., Diplomatic Documents Relating To The Outbreak Of The European War (1916)

online

United States. War Dept. General Staff. Strength and organization of the armies of France, Germany, Austria, Russia, England, Italy, Mexico and Japan (showing conditions in July, 1914) (1916)

online

Wilson, K.M. "The British Cabinet's Decision for War, 2 August 1914" British Journal of International Studies 1#3 (1975), pp. 148–159

online

Young, John W. "Lewis Harcourt's Journal of the 1914 War Crisis." International History Review 40.2 (2018): 436-455. Diary of UK cabinet discussions 26 July to 4 Aug. 1914.