NON-GOVERNMENTAL ELITES AND THE LIMITS TO ANGLO-GERMAN ANTAGONISM, 1905 ...

370 Pages·2014·10.61 MB·English

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GERMANOPHILISM IN BRITAIN:
NON-GOVERNMENTAL ELITES AND THE LIMITS
TO ANGLO-GERMAN ANTAGONISM, 1905-1914
By
Steven Wai-Meng Siak
London School of Economics and Political Science
Submitted for the Degree of Ph.D.
March 1997
UMI Number: U615717
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ABSTRACT
This thesis examines the limits to Anglo-German antagonism and the sources of
rapprochement between Britain and Germany, during the approximate period 1905-1914. It
thus explores Anglo-German relations before the First World War from a perspective which
has up to now been largely neglected, and serves as a corrective to the emphasis on the
sources of antagonism which prevails in the English-language historical literature.
The study probes Germanophilism among British non-governmental elites, focusing
on the commercial, financial and academic communities, as well as cooperative links
between the two countries at the non-governmental level before the war. The topics
examined include the Anglo-German friendship movement in Britain, ties between British
and German commercial interests and Anglo-German economic interdependence, and
Anglo-German links in education.
The thesis also studies attitudes, including a discussion of British stereotypical
images of Germany based on travel accounts. British textbooks on German history that
were published before the war are analysed as well as a means of assessing the prewar
attitude of British academics, in particular historians, towards Germany. This investigation
reveals the strength of the idea of Anglo-German racial kinship, and demonstrates that
British historians tended to view Germany favourably before the war. Their attitude,
however, changed after the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914.
In conclusion, the thesis reappraises the ultimate failure of the 'pro-German' forces
in Britain to prevent the outbreak of Anglo-German hostilities in 1914. Its primary aim,
nevertheless, is not to argue that the limits to the Anglo-German antagonism could have
prevented the First World War, but to demonstrate that they existed and were important.
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CONTENTS
page
List of Tables 4
Abbreviations 5
Acknowledgements 7
1. Introduction 9
Part One
2. The Anglo-German Friendship Movement, 1905-1914 23
3. Anglo-German Economic Rivalry: An Optical Illusion? 53
4. The German Connection in British Education 101
Part.Tjyp
5. The German in British Eyes: Friend, Foe or Blood Relation? 152
6. The Betrayal? 183
7. The Ambivalence of Being at War 250
8. Conclusion 306
Bibliography 338
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TABLES
Percentages of World Trade
The Explosives Industry in Britain
and Germany, 1889
ABBREVIATIONS
AGFC Anglo-German Friendship Committee
AGFS Anglo-German Friendship Society
ED British Documents on the Origins of the War. 1898-1914
3DFA British Documents on Foreign Affairs
BEF British Expeditionary Force
BL British Library
BLPES British Library of Political and Economic Science
BodL Bodleian Library
CAB Cabinet papers
CID Committee of Imperial Defence
CMH Cambridge Modem Historv
DBB Dictionary of Business Biography
PNB Dictionary of National Biography
ED Board of Education papers
FO Foreign Office papers
HSBC Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation
I£I Imperial Chemical Industries: A Historv
ICIA Imperial Chemical Industries Archives
IGS Institute of Germanic Studies
JHI Journal of the Historv of Ideas
KCMAC King's College Modem Archive Centre, Cambridge
KEBF King Edward VII British-German Foundation
LCC London County Council
MET Modem Language Teaching
NCA Nineteenth Century and After
NLS National Library of Scotland
PRO Public Record Office
RHL Rhodes House Library
RTC Report of the Tariff Commission
T Treasury papers
ULL University of London Library
USL University of Southampton Library
WO War Office papers
ZUG Zeitschrift fur Untemehmensgeschichte
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