The German chancellor continued exploring arrangements that might limit the war and keep Britain outside it. Moltke and the general staff increasingly overrode or sabotaged those political efforts. Civilian leaders became mouthpieces for a military timetable built around a general European war. German military reasoning also recast that war as the only way to preserve Austria-Hungary as a great power by forcing the divided Dual Monarchy to rally under pressure. The chancellor's attempts to secure naval arrangements with Britain and a halt at Belgrade could no longer direct German policy.
Chapter · 1:31:40-1:33:12
Germany's general staff takes control of the crisis
As mobilization accelerated, German military planning displaced political attempts to restrain the crisis or keep Britain neutral.