Geris

In the end, according to Joll, in July "events were moving too fast for the diplomats because the decisions were now more and more being taken by the soldiers." What had started as a diplomatic crisis had resulted in military action. The second causal factor offered by Joll is the Alliance System between the Great Powers. Germany was thus allied with Austria-Hungary. France and Russia had their own pact. Adding to these treaties, aiming for a Balance of Power, where the secret ententes between England and France, and England and Russia. The result was a military and political planning that depended, or was strengthened by this polarization of the two camps: The Alliance and The Entente. The various treaties thus "provided the framework within which the diplomacy of the pre-war years was conducted." Thirdly, Joll analyzed pre-war militarism and strategic planning. Germany, militaristic, had increased its naval program enough as to lead to "a radical change in British strategic thinking." The British were involved in the usual strategic planning aiming at securing their access to the Empire and, in the end, the arms race "contributed to the feeling that war was inevitable." French militarism was aiming at increasing the draft term, whereas the Russian military recovery from the 1905 loss to the Japanese was "alarming the Germans". All major powers had anticipated war, and the pre-war planning, such as the Schlieffen Plan, exacerbated everything. The Powers were ready for the conflict, had planned for it, and when the crisis came, diplomatic thinking was bypassed by military critical readiness. Fourthly, Joll examined the importance of domestic policies, which, according to several historians, could have influenced foreign policy decisions. Every Great Power was "passing through a political and social crisis in 1914." The Austro-Hungarian Empire was losing its geopolitical integrity; Britain had to deal with the Ulster Irish question that was about to overspill; France had as issues taxation and the Three-Year service issue.