Installment #12: On April 14, 1912, at 11:40 p.m., the ocean liner RMS Titanic, en route from Queenstown, Ireland, to New York City, accidentally rammed an iceberg, tearing a series of holes in the side of the massive ship. The world’s largest ship was traveling at 22.5 knots – 26 miles per hour, near its maximum speed – and five of its sixteen supposedly “watertight” compartments were breached by the force of the impact.... READ ON

Installment #10: In the years leading up to 1912, Britain and Germany became locked in a naval arms race based on the two imperial powers’ fundamentally different perceptions and aims. Britain wanted (and expected) to maintain its longstanding domination of the seas, as a fundamental guarantee of its security as an island nation. Germany believed it had to be equal with Britain to gain the respect it deserved as a new, rising world power... READ ON

Installment #8: Tensions were mounting in Western Europe in the first months of 1912, as French and British leaders reacted with alarm to German plans for an arms buildup. But unbeknownst to them, the next step towards war was being taken a thousand miles away, in the Balkans, where a secret pact was in the works, with the goal of despoiling a once-grand, now decaying empire.... READ ON

Installment #6: After his previous attempt was rebuffed, French commander-in-chief Joseph Joffre (pictured) took the opportunity of a change in France’s civilian leadership to ask a second time to be allowed to violate Belgian neutrality in the event of war with Germany. However, at a secret meeting of the French Superior War Council on February 21, 1912, Joffre found the new premier, Raymond Poincare, not much more receptive to the idea than his predecessor... READ ON