{"id":170,"date":"2025-06-13T03:20:35","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T03:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maximiliansmith.com\/?p=170"},"modified":"2025-06-13T03:22:51","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T03:22:51","slug":"third-piece-of-the-puzzle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maximiliansmith.com\/?p=170","title":{"rendered":"Third Piece of the Puzzle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For my final project I have begun looking into some books I have read about the history of First World War origins, as well as discovering some new works on the subject I have not yet read. Since I have changed my focus slightly towards the personal conflicts between European leaders in the early 19th century, my area of interest for evidence and locations of primary source documents centers around works that examine these anecdotal instances rather than strictly geopolitical histories. One of the best books in this regard is Margaret MacMillan’s work entitled The War that Ended Peace<\/em> which is full of lesser known personal accounts from high ranking European leaders and prominent individuals that demonstrate the rising tensions between their respective nations. For instance, when the Kaiser began participating in the British Royal Family’s regatta at Cowes, his lack of sportsmanship and selfish behavior offended not only his uncle Edward VII, but Queen Victoria as well. It is the little moments like these which are often the most relatable that I want to teach students about through this project. For now the challenge remains how to properly integrate a certain level of interaction into my timeline to go along with the historical events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One image I intend to use in my final project is the photograph below, which is taken from a transcription of a letter written by Kaiser Wilhelm II to Tsar Nicholas II in 1902. The letter begins quite cordially as the Kaiser addresses the Tsar with “dear Nicky” however it is this last page which is most important because for the first time, he signs his correspondence as “admiral of the Atlantic.” Not only was this move bound to have consequences for his relationship with the Tsar and Russia, but was also unmistakeably a slight towards England over control of the seas. The naval arms race between England and Germany is widely cited as one of the most significant contributions to the outbreak of war in 1914, however primary sources such as these demonstrate the human aspect at play behind the scenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For my final project I have begun looking into some books I have read about the history of First World War origins, as well as discovering some new works on the subject I have not yet read. Since I have changed my focus slightly towards the personal conflicts between European leaders in the early 19th […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maximiliansmith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maximiliansmith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maximiliansmith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maximiliansmith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maximiliansmith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/maximiliansmith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175,"href":"https:\/\/maximiliansmith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions\/175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maximiliansmith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maximiliansmith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maximiliansmith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}