Count Leopold Berchtold: Foreign minister of Austria-Hungary since 1912; one of the wealthiest men in Central Europe; reputed to be a cautious moderate but determined to prevent Serbian expansion; known to have been close to the murdered Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
General Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf: Chief of staff of the Austro-Hungarian Army and Navy since 1906 (aside from a brief interlude in 1911–12); a military hothead who has repeatedly called for war against Serbia and who will certainly do so again in this instance.
István Tisza: Prime minister of Hungary since 1913; defender of the Dual Monarchy but dedicated to preserving Magyar supremacy over Hungary; a determined opponent of Franz Ferdinand’s proposed reforms.
Raymond Poincaré: President of France since 1913; conservative, a native of Lorraine, an implacable enemy of Germany and passionate supporter of the Franco-Russian Alliance.
René Viviani: Prime minister of France and minister of foreign affairs for just over two weeks at the time of Franz Ferdinand’s assassination; a socialist who bucked the party line by supporting increased military spending and a law requiring that all Frenchmen perform a minimum of three years of military service; nevertheless, reputed to be antiwar and skeptical of France’s alliance with Russia.
General Joseph Jacque Césaire Joffre: Commander-in-chief of the French Army since 1911 but disliked by the present left-wing government for his conservative views; experienced mainly in military engineering and logistics but a great believer in the “cult of the offensive.”
Kaiser Wilhelm II: Emperor of Germany since 1888; believer in absolute monarchy; cousin of King George V of Great Britain and Tsar Nicholas II of Russia; a lover of military uniforms and warships and prone to sweeping warlike pronouncements but rumored to be secretly terrified by the prospect of war.
Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg: Chancellor of Germany since 1909; tireless advocate of improved relations with Great Britain; regarded as a moderate in both domestic and foreign affairs.
General Helmuth von Moltke: Chief of the German General Staff since 1906; commonly referred to as “Moltke the Younger” to distinguish him from his uncle of the same name who held the same position from 1871 to 1888; advocate of war to liberate Germany from its “encirclement” by Britain, France, and Russia.
Herbert H. Asquith: Prime minister of Great Britain since 1908; leader of the Liberal Party; preoccupied with the situation in Ireland with comparatively little interest in foreign affairs.
Sir Edward Grey: British foreign secretary since 1905; known Liberal imperialist; champion of the Anglo-French Entente; believer in the balance of power.
David Lloyd George: British chancellor of the exchequer since 1908; leader of the radical faction within the Liberal Party; opposed to imperialism and war; believed to be sympathetic to Germany and hostile toward Russia.
Tsar Nicholas II: Emperor and autocrat of all the Russias since 1892; torn between support for pan-Slavism and fear of what war might do to Russia; cousin of Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Sergei Dmitrievich Sazonov: Foreign minister of Russia since 1910; pro-French, often criticized by nationalists for insufficiently championing the pan-Slav idea; worried about German ambitions in the Ottoman Empire.
General Vladimir Aleksandrovich Sukhomlinov: War minister of Russia since 1909; personally close to Tsar Nicholas; a passionate advocate of the offensive who ordered reallocation of resources away from static fortifications and toward infantry and mobile artillery.
Antonio Salandra: Prime minister of Italy since March 1914; an authoritarian conservative from a wealthy middle-class family; a former professor dedicated to territorial expansion.
Antonino Paternò-Castello, marchese di San Giuliano: Foreign minister of Italy since 1910; scion of a noble family from Sicily; has sought to cultivate close relations with Germany while trying to limit Austrian gains in the Balkans.
Ahmed Djemal Pasha: Turkish minister of the navy since February 1914; rumored to be pro-British but deeply distrustful of Russia.
Ismail Enver Pasha: Turkish minister of war since February 1914; formerly military attaché to Berlin; believed to desire an alliance with Germany.
Ferdinand I: Tsar of Bulgaria since 1908; highly ambitious; regarded as thoroughly unscrupulous; seeks revenge against Serbia for Bulgaria’s losses in the Second Balkan War.
Nikola Pašić: Prime minister of Serbia since 1903 (with the exception of a few months in 1908); believed to be a moderate nationalist but under intense pressure from officers of the Serbian Army; perhaps too inclined to tolerate anti-Austrian activities on Serbian soil.
Carol I: King of Romania since 1866; a member of a branch of the Hohenzollern family; inclined to be pro-German; seeks the return of Bessarabia, taken by Russia after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78.
Ion Bratianu: Eleven-time prime minister and the single most powerful politician in Romania; known to be pro-French and to desire better relations with Russia; seeks to annex Transylvania, a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire inhabited primarily by Romanians.
Constantine I: King of Greece since 1913; brother-in-law of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and therefore believed to harbor pro-German sympathies. As a young monarch he is eager to make his mark on the country and may be tempted to go to war in pursuit of territorial gains.
Eleutherios Venizelos: Prime minister since 1909 and likely the most powerful politician in Greece. A passionate advocate of territorial expansion, he is looking for opportunities to take land from Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire and likely to work with whichever side is prepared to help him achieve that goal.
These aren’t exactly a faction, since each journalist is competing against all of the others. However, they do not fit neatly into any of the other categories. All are from the United States, seeking to explain developments in Europe to their readers back home.
Richard Harding Davis: Probably the world’s best-known war correspondent; originally came to fame for his coverage of the Spanish-American War; also, author of thirty-five books.
Mary Boyle O’Reilly: Daughter of the Irish revolutionary John Boyle O’Reilly; a progressive reformer and “muckraker” who now serves as London correspondent for the Newspaper Enterprise Association.
William Henry Irwin: A well-known muckraking journalist who is trying his hand at international coverage for the first time.
Mary Roberts Rinehart: A novelist, known for mysteries and comedies, now serving as foreign correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post.
Frederick Palmer: Well-known war correspondent who has covered nearly every international conflict since the Greco-Turkish War.