Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess Salisbury Quotes
Wherever it [Democracy] has had free play in the ancient world or in the modern, in the old hemisphere or the new, a thirst for empire, and a readiness for aggressive war, has always marked it.
Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 1830-1903, 3rd Marquess Salisbury, British Prime Minister (Liberal), British Prime Minister (Conservative), Quarterly Review, 115, 1864
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Evelyn John St. Loo Strachey
This was not the ravings of a right wing extremist. It was normative for Prussia as a whole. Right wing extremism as we think of it today was the norm of the ruling classes in Prussia and other parts of Germany. This book was a best seller in Germany. This quotation illustrates the mentality of the conservative, militarist, culture that dominated Germany at the time. The German aggression of WWI was not even considered as immoral but a God-given right.
The Hapsburgs were the ruling family of the Austrian Empire who wanted to invade Serbia in retaliation for their complicity in the assassination of the Austrian Archduke. This would likely bring Russia in the war in support of Serbia. The editor thought that there was no obligation to support Austria when they were planning a war of choice. What the editor did not know was that the German leadership very much wanted war at the time and supporting Austria was the perfect excuse to fight without them starting the conflict. However, the evidence became clear later than it was German aggression that turned the dispute into a World War.
