The Calm Before the Storm
There was a tense calm in Europe; a match had been lit and was about to kindle a fire. In response to the actions of the Serbian, both Germany and Austria-Hungary ordered partial mobilizations of their armies, calling up their reserves for training purposes. In Bosnia, the Austro-Hungarians did nothing to stop anti-Serbian riots near Serbia, which led to several dozen Serbian injuries. In response to the assassinations, Austria-Hungary and Germany made a series of demands of the Serbians:
-Suppress any publications from 'inciting hatred and contempt of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy' or are 'directed against its territorial integrity.'
-Suppress any societies or organizations such as the Black Hand or 'The People's Defense'
-Remove anti-Austro-Hungarian propaganda from schoolbooks and public documents
-Give up to a joint German-Austro-Hungarian commission members of the Black Hand or other organizations which funded the assassination or participated in the assassination for an open and public trial
-Cease moving arms and explosives across the border to those hostile to the Austro-Hungarian authorities
Austria-Hungary gave two weeks for Serbia to comply; on the fortnight in July after the deaths, its reply was a solid 'no.' The United Kingdom offered to mediate the dispute, upon personal application by Kaiser Heinrich I, who thought the matter wasn't worthy of a war, despite some of the belligerence in his government's cabinet. The UK was slow to act, taking a week to come up with a reply to the Kaiser.
In France, with their alliance with Serbia, mobilized its own military, marching 1/2 to the French-German border and the other half to the Belgian border. Napoleon IV asked Belgium for permission to march through their territory in the event of war with Germany. Tsar Nicholas II put his military on alert, which while not a full mobilization, looked like a military declaration of war. In Germany, newspapers reportedly had evidence that the French Prime Minister Poincaré was pushing Russia into war with Germany with the intent of dismembering Germany and Austria-Hungary amongst themselves, which only inflamed the situation more.
In Paris, Wilhelm von Schoen, the German ambassador to France, told Philip Berthelot, political director of Quai d'Orsay, that "to my simple mind, France's attitude was inexplicable if it did not aim at war." The British ambassador to France, Sir Francis Bertie, suggested a conference between France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia to avoid war, but was rejected by the French. It was Napoleon IV's opinion that Germany was not ready for war, and that France stood a good chance to regain Alsace-Lorraine and its national honor, and to him, his father's honor. It as well known that Kaiser Heinrich I had not increased the size of Germany's army in over a decade to appease the British, and if he struck at the right time, he believed, he could gain a swift victory with minimal cost in lives and munitions.
It would be the Serbians who would take the first move. Serbia declared war on Austria-Hungary on the 27th of July; since France was likely to distract Germany, and Austria-Hungary faced Russia, the nation's leaders believed that the distracted empire could be defeated and their dream of a united south-Slavic nation could be realized. Serbians crossed into Bosnia, intent on reaching the capital, Sarajevo and winning a quick little war.
Austria-Hungary was informed of the declaration, and within six hours, declared war on Serbia, notifying the other European nations and requesting they remain out of the conflict. Within 12 hours, France declared full mobilization and positioned its armies on the border of Alsace-Lorraine and on the border of Belgium.
On the 30th, Nicholas sent a message to Heinrich informing him of his partial mobilization against Austria-Hungary, and asking him to do his utmost for a peaceful solution. Upon hearing of this, Heinrich replied, "Then I must mobilize too." The German ambassador in St. Petersburg informed Nicholas that Germany would mobilize if Russia did not cease all military preparations at once, including those it had previously assured Russia that it did not see as a threat against Germany, or a cause for German mobilization. The German military attaché in Russia reported that the Russians appeared to be acting out of fear, but "without aggressive intentions."
Nicholas first ordered a general mobilization, then after getting an appeal for peace from Heinrich, cancelled it as a sign of good faith. The cancellation led to furious protests from Sukhomlinov, Sazonov, and Russia's top generals, all urging Nicholas to reinstate it. Under strong pressure, Nicholas gave in and ordered a general mobilization on July 30th. Russia's general mobilization was the first of the general mobilizations, and came at a moment when the German government had not yet even declared a state of war.
France had reiterated her support for Russia, and both France and Russia believed that Britain would remain neutral long enough that they could force Germany and Austria-Hungary to the peace table. Nicholas and Heinrich wrote a series of letters to each other (the so-called "Nicky and Henry correspondence") where the two proclaimed their desire for peace, and trying to get the other to back down. Nicholas wanted the mobilization only against the Austrian border, hoping to prevent war against the German Empire, but his army had no plans for a partial mobilization, so he took the fateful step on the 31st of July of confirming the order for general mobilization, despite being strongly counseled against it.
Germans under Kaiser Heinrich continued to try to get Austria-Hungary to stop in Belgrade and urge Britain to help them try to maintain the peace, but when news of Russia's general mobilization came in to Berlin, the German Chancellor instructed the ambassador in Vienna "that all mediation attempts be stopped."
The German ambassador to France urged Paris not to take any action to offer his country an excuse to mobilize against the country. German troops were ordered to pull back 6 miles from the French-German border as a sign of Germany's peaceful intentions. British Prime Minister Asquith wrote to their ambassador to Germany of the deteriorating situation. The Austrian Crown Council decided on July 31 to continue the war against Serbia, and to ignore the dangers of the Russian mobilization, expecting German support and British neutrality. Nicholas wrote to Heinrich that the Russian general mobilization was not aimed as a prelude to war.
The French ambassador to Berlin delivered an ultimatum to the Chancellor telling him that if Austria-Hungary didn't stop its mobilization, then France would attack Germany. One of the German generals soon asked for permission to order general mobilization and was refused; the partial mobilization on the western front remained, but was certainly not enough troops to face the French. Germany's mobilization called for the main thrust of the army through Alsace-Lorraine, as going through Belgium would tip Britain against Germany, and Heinrich was as anglophile as his father, Friedrich III.
On August 1, 1912, a British offer to guarantee French neutrality was sent and promptly accepted by Heinrich; this would limit the war to just an eastern front. Heinrich ordered German forces to strike Russia alone, but got fierce protests from Moltke, as France's forces were already moving into Luxembourg and were on the border with Belgium (other reports placed them already in Belgium). Most of Germany's forces were in Alsace-Lorraine and Moltke let the Kaiser know they couldn't shift them rapidly enough to the north or east. Once the mobilization was complete, Heinrich ordered the army to redeploy to the east, as the British were going to guarantee French neutrality. Moltke replied "Now it only remains for Russia to back out, too." He persuaded the emperor to start shifting troops north to Rhineland and Westphalia.
In Paris, the Prime Minister had announced France had mobilized and delivered an ultimatum to Germany to renounce its alliance with Austria-Hungary, or face a French attack. In response to reports of French troops invading Luxembourg and Belgium, plus the French ultimatum, German mobilization as authorized on August 1, with Heinrich signing the mobilization orders. By 7 PM, German troops were on the trains heading north.
On the morning of August 2, French troops took control of Luxembourg, as a preliminary to the invasion of Germany and entry into Belgium. The British government promised that same day to protect Germany's coast from French attack. The foreign secretary Edward Grey gave Britain's firm assurance of protecting Germany with its navy to German Ambassador Karl Max, Prince Lichnowsky. Lichnowsky's account stated, "I felt the battle was won. Everything was settled. In truth a great country does not wage war by halves. Once it decided to fight the war at sea, it would necessarily be led into fighting it on land as well." Within the British Cabinet, the widespread feeling that France would soon violate Belgium's neutrality and destroy Germany as a power (and valuable trading partner with Britain) led to the increasing acceptance that Britain would be forced to intervene.
A French ultimatum was delivered to Belgium the same day, requesting free passage for the French army on the way to Germany. King Albert of Belgium refused the request of the French to violate his country's neutrality. On August 3, France declared war on Germany, and on the 4th on Belgium. This violated Belgian neutrality, the status to which Germany, France, and Britain were all committed by treaty; French violation of Belgian neutrality provided a casus belli for Britain's declaration of war.
Later on August 4, a member of the French legislature spoke up that French invasion of Belgium and Luxembourg were violations of international law, but argued that France was in a state of necessity and necessity knows no law. Raymond Poincaré
At 7 PM on August 4, British Ambassador Sir Edward Goschen delivered Britain's ultimatum to French Foreign Secretary Raymond Poincaré demanding a commitment by midnight (5 hours) to go no further in French violation of Belgian neutrality. Poincaré rejected the ultimatum and Goschen demanded a meeting with him. Somehow the telegram never arrived, and on August 4th, Great Britain declared war on France. They expected a limited conflict of rapid movements like in the Franco-Prussian War, wherein the British could use their naval strength primarily.
Finally, on August 6, Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia. Now, Europe was at war.
It would later come out, about 40 years later, that the French had given secret assurances to the Serbians that if they were to declare war, France would support them militarily.
Radio Technology
Soon after Marconi's invention, wireless voice transmission followed, being called 'radio.' Its development would be let by Reginald Fessenden (inventor of the heterodyne principle), John Ambrose Fleming (inventor of the diode vacuum tube), and Lee De Forest (inventor of triode amplifying vacuum tube).
Reginald Fessenden was from Quebec, Canada. He was excited to be working in the field of electricity, but didn't believe he could learn too much up in Canada. So he wrote to Thomas Edison in 1886, hoping to gain employment with him as an unskilled technician. He was persistent and got a job in 1886 at Edison Machine Works in Nashville, laying underground cables. His work there impressed Edison and he got invited to work in Edison's laboratories as a junior technician in 1887.
Edison Machine Works, Nashville
In 1892, Fessenden left to take a post as a professor of electrical engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. There at Georgia Tech, he was free to pursue his own research, and keep any patent rights he might earn. He did cause somewhat of a stir in hiring and teaching blacks there at night, but it was important to his development of what he would call the heterodyne principle, where two signals combined to create a third signal. James Henry Davis, called 'Jim Limber' by the first President Davis, was working nearby and was a bright man, and the two worked well together. With their combined work, Fessenden would create a rotary-spark transmitter in 1900, and demonstrated successful wireless, but barely understandable, voice transmission over a mile distant.
Later that year, Fessenden was hired by the Confederate Weather Bureau to work for them, providing him a lab and equipment expenses, and promising him all patents for his inventions. Fessenden's terms including them hiring and paying James Davis, a black man, which they surprisingly agreed to do. The Weather Bureau put Fessenden and his equipment at Roanoke Island, NC, where he successfully demonstrated wireless voice communication 50 miles distant to a station beyond Buxton. Fessenden and Davis continued working on wireless voice transmission, using faster and faster rotary-spark transmitters, but this approach would soon be made obsolete by vacuum tube devices. But it would be Fessenden's heterodyne principle leading to hi-fi radio and later TV.
John Ambrose Fleming was born in Lancaster, England, 1849. His father was a minister, and he studied under James Clerk Maxwell at Cambridge. In 1897, Fleming held the Pender Chair as a professor of electrical engineering at University College in London. His invention of the diode vacuum tube in 1904 would go on to make most modern electronics possible, including television and computers. While remaining in London, Fleming acted as a consultant to Edison's companies (starting in 1882), and Marconi's company (starting in 1899). In 1907, he took a temporary leave of absence from his duties at University College to take a four-year post as 'Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering' at the University of Nashville, under encouragement from both Edison and Marconi. He taught graduate students, engaged in research, and continued consulting for both Edison and Marconi's businesses.
Due to Fleming's Confederate patents on his diode vacuum tube, he had more than enough financial success to pursue his engineering and scientific career and research without worrying about money. After the death of his first wife, Clara, in 1917, he would go on to marry Hannah Mae Luther in 1923 in Alabama.
Lee De Forest was born in Iowa, but his father took the position of President of the Talladega College in Alabama in 1879, a school for black Confederates, when he was 6, bringing him south. His family kept their US citizenship and lived in Alabama temporarily. Though his father, a minister, wanted his son to follow in his footsteps, Lee was much more excited about science and the revolutionary inventions coming out each year. In 1891, he declined to attend a boys' school his father wanted for him to attend so that he could go to Nashville. Continuing his education at the University of Nashville, he earned a BS in Physics. He then got his doctorate in Physics from Georgia Tech in 1899 at the age of 25. De Forest became an experimenter and promoted his inventions.
Most of the companies he started went bankrupt and left his investors with nothing, but he did come up with one very important invention - a derivation of the diode vacuum tube. He had built a Fleming diode with an anode, cathode, and a grid-pattern wire between the two, acting as an amplifier - the triode vacuum tube. This invention would become essential to all future electronics before solid state came along.
Arcades
In imitation of the fashionable London Burlington Arcade, several cities in the Confederacy developed similar arcades, covered passages filled with shopping venues.
Richmond Arcade, 1872
The most famous is the Richmond Arcade, a two-floor open-air shopping passageway, featuring high-end shops, would be the inspiration for similar arcades in Atlanta, Charlotte, Montgomery, Nashville, Houston, Dallas, San Diego, and elsewhere, and was the forerunner of the modern shopping mall.
Draining the Swamp
A young inventor from New Orleans, Albert Baldwin Wood, graduated from Tulane University with a BS in Engineering in 1899. Right out of his studies he was hired by the Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans to try to improve the city's drainage. He invented 'flapgates,' and other hydraulic devices, most notably an efficient low-maintenance, high-volume pump which included the wood screw pump (1909) and the wood trash pump (1910), and would spearhead swampland reclamation and development for New Orleans development. Wood's colleagues in New Orleans would come from the Dutch Quarter, what amounted to a 'Little Holland' in the city, looking like a piece of the Netherlands in the deep south.
Wood spent much of his career in New Orleans, but would consult and design the drainage, pumping, and sewage systems for other cities, such as Atlanta, Richmond, San Diego, Sacramento, San Francisco, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Baltimore. He even consulted on projects in India, Egypt, China, and Canada, and back in the Netherlands, helping reclaim land from the Zuider Zee. Some of his pumps would go on to be in continuous use for over 80 years without need of repairs; new pumps would continue to be built from his designs.
Wood at a dedication for some of his pumps in New Orleans
Wood's children, Lydia Anne, Robert Edward, Thomas Jonathan, and Sarah Elizabeth, succeeded him. His company provided instructions and assistance in French and English, as French competency is a required component of graduating from school in Louisiana.
Jacksonville's Great Fire (1901)
A tragic fire engulfed downtown Jacksonville when a mattress factory caught fire and took most of downtown with it. An architect from the north, Henry J Klutho, was contracted to help rebuild the southern town. Klutho studied the 'Chicago School' of architecture, creating a version of the 'Prairie Style,' and his designs would reshape Jacksonville, and inspire the neighborhoods of Springfield, Riverside, and Avondale, and soon, South Jacksonville, East Jacksonville, New Berlin, and North Jacksonville. Beyond this redesign of Jacksonville's Downtown, Klutho's designs would be emulated and copied in other small but growing downtowns all the way to Hawaii and Guam and the Washington Islands, becoming a key style of building. Nowhere in the Confederacy would any 'brutalist' or other overly-simplistic or abstract architecture gain traction. Architects would continue to be required to create attractive houses and walkable downtowns across the Confederacy. Fred Kloeppel, a German immigrant to Jacksonville, would go on to create many of the still-standing hotels of the town, such as Hotel George Washington, Hotel Lee (originally the Carling), Hotel Jackson, and others, copies of which would soon appear across the South, even in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Santo Domingo.
Buildings in Jacksonville:
Confederate Presidents (1910)
Lt. Gen. Thomas Jonathan Jackson, called "Stonewall," lived a long life, living well into his 80s, living long enough to see his son, Thomas, become President of the country he helped create.
General Jackson, 1910.
Thomas Jackson, wearing a 1890-pattern uniform for the army before more modern versions were adopted.
Jackson was a Democrat, and the Populist party candidate, Henry A. Pritchard, faced off in a heated campaign.
Henry Pritchard
Pritchard's campaign involved continued rumors and off-record remarks of wanting to remove blacks from North and South Carolina to Santo Domingo or Liberia, which would go on to hurt his party's chances in the Congressional elections as well. Jackson campaigned on military preparedness and maintaining Confederate neutrality; the CS hadn't been in a war since 1879 and Jackson hoped to keep it that way. In 1910, enforcement of the voting amendment was spotty, but in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, South California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Rio Grande, Durango, blacks were able to vote, provided that they were over 21, had paid taxes, were not on any form of charity or assistance, and had not been jailed within the last 5 years. Other states in the Confederacy did not enforce the amendment much, if at all, so voting by blacks in the rest of the Confederacy was essentially on a county-by-county basis or town-by-town basis.
With name recognition, a dashing figure, and a beautiful wife (Sarah Anne), Jackson easily won his election in 1909 to take office in 1910. At 325-144 (419 House members, 50 Senators from 25 states, so 469 total), victory was not in doubt.
Confederate First Lady, Sarah Anne Jackson