It has always been the policy of kings to take the minds of their people off their own wrongs by giving them some foreign war to think about.  Although the Russian government did all that it could to prevent the war without completely betraying Serbia, still the war probably put off the Russian Revolution for two years.

It must be kept in mind that in Germany and especially in Prussia there was a class of people who had no trade but war.  These were the so-called Junkers (Yoonkers), direct descendants of the old feudal barons.  They were owners of rich tracts of land which had been handed down to them by their fore-fathers.  The rent paid to them by the people who lived on their farms supported them richly in idleness.  Just as their ancestors in the old days had lived only by fighting and plundering, so these people still had the idea that anything that they could take by force was theirs.

Bismarck was a Junker of Junkers.  He had nothing but contempt for the common people and their law-making bodies.  In the early days when he was Prime Minister of the Prussian kingdom, the Congress had refused to vote to raise certain moneys through taxes that Bismarck advised, because he wanted to spend all of it in preparations for war.  In spite of the vote of the representatives of the people, Bismarck went right on collecting the money and spending it as he wished.  Later on, after the Prussian army had won its rapid victories, first over the Danes, then over the Austrians, and lastly over the French, the Prussian people, swollen with pride at what their armies had accomplished, forgave Bismarck for riding rough-shod over their liberties.  But Bismarck was able to do what he did because he had the backing of the king and the great land-owning Junker class.

In 1870 this was the only class in Prussia that had any power.  By 1914, however, a change had come about.  The wonderful development of Germany’s trade and manufacturing had brought wealth and power to the merchant class and these had to be considered when plans for war were being formed.

Naturally, the outbreak of war disturbs trade very much, especially trade with foreign countries.  A great deal of the German commerce, carried on with Great Britain, the United States, South America, and far distant colonies, had to travel over the ocean.  German merchants would never support a war cheerfully if they thought that their trade would be interrupted for any length of time.  So the Junkers, when they made up their minds to wage war for the conquest of France and Russia, persuaded the merchants that after these countries had been conquered they would be forced to give a big sum of money to Germany which would more than pay her back for the full cost of the war.  Then the Russians would be compelled, as a result of the war, to promise to trade only with German merchants and manufacturers, and thus everybody in Germany would be much richer.[6]