‘Grasping the Nettle’: British-Serbian Relations During the Great War, 1914-1916.

Although a number of monographs examining Britain’s diplomatic relations with its allies during the Great War have been published, to date, there has been no research on British-Serbian relations. As a result, this thesis makes an original contribution to the political, military and diplomatic history of the First World War by undertaking an analysis of British-Serbian relations from 1914 to 1916. It focuses on highlighting the struggle faced by British policy-makers in their efforts to balance their commitment to securing British interests, with the need to support Serbia. This contradictory struggle arose out of the decision of policy-makers to vaguely declare that one of Britain’s war aims was the support of the rights of small nations, giving the Serbian government grounds to consistently frame its struggle against Austria and the creation of a Yugoslav state as being aligned with British interests. However, while British policy-makers acknowledged the need to support Serbia, in some capacity, they were never willing to sacrifice British interests for Serbia’s. This stance was compounded by the underlying prejudice of British policy-makers towards Serbia, leading them to oversimplify the difficulties being experienced by the Serbian government during the war. As a result, British policy-makers had no qualms in sacrificing Serbia’s territorial interests in Macedonia, Dalmatia and the Banat, as well as abandoning Serbia to the Central Powers following the collapse of the Britain’s efforts to force the Dardanelles. In summary, this thesis shows how, in spite of Britain’s rhetorical support for Serbia, Britain’s decision to prioritise its interests over Serbia’s and the influence of prejudicial attitudes in the making of this choice was the prevailing motif that shaped Britain’s relations with Serbia between 1914 and 1916.