Originally published in English in 1929, this second volume of the German Diplomatic Documents covers a much shorter period: 1890–1898. During this period there was no war or revolution in Europe, but the sphere of German and indeed European politics became enlarged. The documents in this volume deal with questions raised by diverse regions such as Armenia, Morocco, Tunisia, Tripoli, South Africa, Crete and Cuba. The papers here reissued show that colonial expansion is a recognised part of the official German programme. As with the first volume, the policy exhibited in the despatches of this volume are governed almost exclusively by the ultimate idea of war.
Table of Contents:
Historical Preface Charles Eliot. 1. The Balkan Question, 1890 2. The Zanzibar and Heligoland Treaty 3. The French opposition to the Heligoland Treaty 4. Renewal of the Triple Alliance 5. Egypt, February 1891 to April 1892 7. Italy and the Mediterranean, April to August 1891 8. The Armenian Question 9. The Tunis-Tripolis Question, 1890–1 10. The German Emperor’s Visit to England, July 1891 11. The Morocco Question, December 1890 to July 1892 12. Italy and Abyssinia, April 1890 to March 1895 13. Italy and the Mediterranean, July to September 1892 14. Mr. Gladstone’s Government and Egypt, 1892-3 15. Liberal Foreign Policy, November 1892 to June 1893 16. The Armenian Question, 1893-5 17. The Siamese Dispute and its Reactions on European Politics, July to December 1893 18. Austrian Anxieties Regarding British Intentions in the Near East, November 1893 to March 1894 19. The Morocco Question, 1892-5 20. The German Colonies and Samoa, June 1893 to May 1894 21. Egypt, April 1894 to March 1895 22. The Congo Dispute May 1894 to August 1895 23. Lord Salisbury and the Future of Turkey, July to October 1895 24. The Armenian Failure, September 1895 to January 1897 25. The Jameson Raid, January 1896 26. The ‘Kruger ‘Telegram’ and its Consequences, January to March, 1896 27. The Near East and Egypt, 1896 28. The Straits Question, and the Turkish Reforms June 1896 to February 1897 29. The Cretan Question, May 1896 to November 1898 30. Anglo-German Relations October 1896 to May 1897 31. The United States, Hawaii and Samoa July to December 1897 32. The Spanish-American War, September 1897 to April 1898.
About the Author :
E. T. S. Dugdale (1876–1964) chose and translated these four volumes of selections from the stupendously large collection of diplomatic documents held in Berlin after the First World War. Dugdale was a keen shot, an academic, a pipe-smoking stamp-collector, and an ardent admirer of Dickens, who for a time made the translation of German texts his métier. On leaving Balliol, he had hoped to join the British Foreign Office; and to that end in the late 1890s spent two years in Germany perfecting his grasp of German – an experience which admirably qualified him for the more literary occupation. In the event, having married in 1902, he instead became an underwriter at Lloyds, and ended the War, wounded, as a captain in the Leicester Yeomanry. The four volumes of Diplomatic Documents were Dugdale’s chefs d’œuvre. The very many and generous contemporary reviews of these are as uniformly struck by their historical importance as by the skill of their presentation and choice.
Review :
Original Reviews of German Diplomatic Documents 1871–1914, Volume 2:
‘The student of British foreign policy will welcome it as a very interesting and helpful collection of source material.’ Dwight E. Lee, The Journal of Modern History, Vol 1, No. 2 (1929)
'...a task of unusual value, discharged with an erudition and a discrimination for which no praise is too high.' The Sunday Times
'Captain Dugdale deserves our warmest congratulations on the skill with which he has selected the documents now widely available in this fascinating volume.' Journal of the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
