A calamitous moment in European history...

''Germany must, in fulfilment of a duty to herself, obtain colonial possessions at the expense of France, obtain both colonial possessions and sea-power at the expense of England, and put an end, by campaigns perhaps defensive, but at any rate vigorous, to the menace of Slav barbarism upon the East. She was potentially, by her strength and her culture, the mistress of the modern world, the chief influence in it, and the rightful determinant of its destinies. She must by war pass from a potential position of this kind to an actual position of domination." Such was the German mood, such was the fatuous illusion which produced this war. It had at its service, as we shall see later, numbers and, backed by this superiority of numbers, it counted on victory.

Hilaire Belloc - 'The German Object' - A General Sketch of the European War (The First Phase).