Chapter 482: Forced to Act

The confidence of Germany and France also spread to their allies; Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Italy all accelerated the expansion of their armies, and all sorts of mobilization propaganda and news reports spread throughout the countries of Europe.

Among the military expansions of all nations, the expansion speeds of the German and French armies were the fastest. On one hand, the transportation systems of Germany and France were more developed, allowing the populace participating in conscription to be quickly transported together, thereby forming new armies.

In just half a year, the number of troops in Germany and France successively broke through one million, which also made the confrontation between the two major European military blocs increasingly severe.

Because of their respective offensive plans, Germany and France mobilized over a million troops to stand in opposition along the Alsace-Lorraine border.

Yet, the Germans and the French were filled with hatred for one another; with so many troops facing off at the border, problems were bound to erupt sooner or later.

Sure enough, on July 15, 1912, on a day that was unremarkable for Spain, a fierce conflict broke out between Germany and France at the Alsace-Lorraine border; dozens of soldiers were directly involved in this clash, ultimately resulting in two deaths and over a dozen injuries.

This conflict was actually not a big deal; after all, only two people had died, which was acceptable to both Germany and France.

But the problem was, given that the conflict broke out at such a critical juncture and people had died, could the German and French publics accept it?

Of course they could not accept it.

When the French public learned that the two dead soldiers were from the French side, their fury was completely ignited.

Several hours after this news broke, thousands of Paris citizens gathered together, holding up homemade banners filled with French words for revenge and declaration of war, and began a massive parade through the streets of Paris.

It was nearly nightfall by then, but for the citizens of Paris, the coming night was no obstacle to the parade.

As the news spread, by around 12: 0 midnight, the parading crowd had expanded several times over, reaching as many as tens of thousands.

Now the news could no longer be suppressed, and the French government simply could not ignore the opinions of tens of thousands of citizens. Moreover, behind these tens of thousands of protesters were even more citizens who supported the war and hated Germany.

On July 16, the French government formally issued a statement to the outside world, severely condemning Germany for invading French territory and causing the deaths of two French soldiers, demanding that the German government hand over the culprits responsible for the deaths of the two French soldiers within 24 hours and apologize to the French government and the injured French citizens; otherwise, it would be viewed as the highest provocation against the French government, and France would have the right to use military action to retaliate.

The demands of the French government received the support of the public, and the French public's hatred for Germany reached its peak.

The suddenly erupted incident immediately became a hot topic of discussion throughout Europe, and what choice the German government would make became an answer that almost every European country was curious about.

How would the German government choose?

In reality, just like the current French government, the German government had no choice either.

The rights and wrongs of this conflict incident were no longer important; neither Germany nor France could back down in this incident, as both governments had already been coerced by domestic public opinion and their militaries.

Kaiser Wilhelm II keenly realized that the time for war to break out had arrived. The German government must absolutely not yield in this diplomatic incident, nor could it express any attitude of weakness.

Two hours after the French government issued its statement, the German government likewise issued a statement, pointing the responsibility for the border conflict directly at France, stating that it was because the French government had detained several German soldiers on normal patrol without cause that the German army had to provide rescue for these soldiers.

It was precisely during the process of providing rescue that the conflict between the two armies occurred; the French army should bear the primary responsibility for the conflict, and the German government did not need to apologize to the French government, nor did it need to provide any compensation.

Not long after the German government issued this diplomatic statement, the French government also responded. The French diplomatic department first strongly condemned the German government, stating that it was because German patrol soldiers had invaded French territory that the French army had detained these German soldiers.

During the time these German soldiers were detained, France not only provided them with the food that ordinary soldiers could enjoy, but also did not inflict any harm upon them.

On the contrary, it was the German army that invaded French territory without any explanation and used force to rescue these soldiers.

The German army's attack on the French army was barbaric, and the damage caused to the French army was even more immense. If the German government refused to apologize, the French government would have to consider the attitude of the public, and the possibility of declaring war on Germany could not be ruled out.

Seeing that Germany and France were about to fight, the countries of Europe were finally panicked.

Among them, the most panicked was Britain; Britain was not yet prepared for a super war to break out, because the British navy had not yet reached the two-power standard they had planned.

Although the British navy was still the world's number one, the world's second-ranked Spanish navy could pose a huge threat to the British navy, which also meant that the British Royal Fleet was not invincible.

The German navy, ranked third in the world, had also undergone significant development and likewise posed a huge threat to the British navy.

The outbreak of a European war at this time held no good news for Britain, and the British government could not decide the direction of this war unless it participated in it personally.

In order to avoid the outbreak of a European war, the British government contacted the French and German governments, hoping that negotiations could be opened regarding this border conflict to avoid the outbreak of a war that would sweep across all of Europe.

But the British government completely ignored the public opinion within Germany and France at this time; under the sweeping tide of public opinion in both countries, whether it was Germany or France, there was no choice left.

The German government and the French government successively rejected the British government's request for peace negotiations, which also made the British government realize that this war was no longer something it could stop.

Sure enough, on July 17, 1912, within the final hour of the 24-hour deadline set by the French government, the German diplomatic ambassador to Paris formally delivered a declaration of war to the French government, and proudly left behind a sentence: "Since the French government is unwilling to bear the fault of its army, then let all rights and wrongs be judged by war."

Germany had declared war!

This European war broke out in a way no one had expected, and it broke out so hastily.

The only ones who truly anticipated that the war would break out were perhaps the two parties involved, Germany and France.

Why did Germany wait until the final hour of the 24-hour deadline to declare war on France? In reality, it was to stall for time, so as to carry out a larger-scale national mobilization.

Although the French government did not know of Germany's trick, the French government also anticipated that the war would break out in the near future.

In order to be prepared, under the advice of Chief of General Staff Joffre, French President Armand Fallières also quietly issued a mobilization order to carry out a total mobilization across the country.

After receiving the German declaration of war, French President Armand Fallières, annoyed by the arrogant attitude of the German diplomatic ambassador, immediately ordered the French ambassador to deliver a declaration of war to the German government, and ordered Chief of Staff Joffre: "Mr. Chief of Staff, now is the moment for you to perform."

"I do not wish to see the arrogant attitude of this group of Germans again; it is time to let them understand the phrase that the glory of France cannot be trampled upon."

Chief of General Staff Joffre naturally nodded in agreement; he was quite confident in the operational plan he had formulated, and also believed that the outbreak of war at this time was not a bad thing—at least the French public was quite supportive of this war, which also meant that France would have a continuous stream of new recruits in the future, which was already huge good news.

When the news that Germany and France had declared war on each other spread to the countries of Europe, two and a half hours had already passed.

Luo Lun was also surprised by the way the European war broke out; he did not expect that the world war in this world would actually be ignited by a German-French conflict.

Perhaps the old Emperor Franz Joseph I could hold on for a longer time in this world; after all, his second heir, his nephew Archduke Ferdinand, seemed to have escaped the fate of being assassinated.

What Luo Lun was curious about at this time was the attitude of the allies of Germany and France. The war had broken out in a way that surprised Luo Lun; would the allies of Germany and France firmly fulfill their alliance obligations and simultaneously declare war on their allies' enemies?

Time soon gave Luo Lun the answer.

On July 18, 1912, Russia declared war on Germany on the grounds of fulfilling its obligations under the Franco-Russian Alliance.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire also declared war on Russia on the same day, and subsequently declared war on France.

France and Germany also declared war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia respectively on this day; the war had spread from the two sides of Germany and France to the entire Allied Powers and Entente Powers.

Of course, there were exceptions to this.

As a member of the Triple Alliance, Italy did not give a clear attitude even after Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire participated in the war.