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diplomatic history Diplomatic history deals with the history of international relations between states. Diplomatic history can be different from international relations in that the former can concern itself with the foreign policy of one state while the latter deals ...
, a colour book is an officially sanctioned collection of diplomatic correspondence and other documents published by a government for educational or political reasons, or to promote the government position on current or past events. The earliest were the British Blue Books, dating to the 17th century. In
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, all the major powers had their own color book, such as the German White Book, the Austrian Red Book, Russian Orange Book, and more. Especially in wartime or times of crisis, colour books have been used as a form of
white propaganda White propaganda is propaganda that does not hide its origin or nature. It is the most common type of propaganda and is distinguished from black propaganda which disguises its origin to discredit an opposing cause. It typically uses standard pu ...
to justify governmental action, or to assign blame to foreign actors. The choice of what documents to include, how to present them, and even what order to list them, can make the book tantamount to government-issued propaganda.


Terminology

The terms for individual color books such as the British blue book go back centuries and other individual color books were common in the 19th century and especially during World War I. The collective term ''color book'' appears less frequently, and later. In German, "Rainbow book"("") is seen in 1915, and "color book" ("") in 1928. Attestations of ''color book'' in English go back to at least 1940 and the term was still new enough in 1951 to be enclosed in quotation marks.


History


Origin and early history

In the early 17th century,
blue book A blue book or bluebook is an almanac, buyer's guide or other compilation of statistics and information. The term dates back to the 15th century, when large blue velvet-covered books were used for record-keeping by the Parliament of England. The ...
s first came into use in England as a means of publishing diplomatic correspondence and reports. They were so named, because of their blue cover. The ''
Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...
'' first records such a usage in 1633. During the time of the
Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
in the early 19th century, they were being published regularly. By the second half of the century, Turkey began publishing its own version in red, and the concept of color books spread to other countries in Europe, with each country using one color: Germany using white; France: yellow; red: Austria-Hungary (Spain also used red later, as did the Soviet Union); and Belgium: gray. Green: Italy; orange: Netherlands (and Tsarist Russia). This concept spread to the Americas as well, with the United States using red, Mexico: orange, and various countries in Central and South America using other colors; it even spread as far as China (yellow) and Japan (gray).


Nineteenth century

The 19th century was a period of great development and activity for Blue Books which were published in large numbers in Great Britain under numerous foreign secretaries. In theory, their purpose was to give
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
the info it needed (and sometimes demanded) to provide a basis for judgment on foreign affairs.


Causation and production

They were initially created through one of three paths: by command of
the Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...
, by order of , or in response to an address in the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
or Lords. Pressure was sometimes brought to bear, and papers might be published, which otherwise might not have been. Blue Books were bound and published since the days of Foreign Secretary George Canning. Bound Blue Book sets of the House of Commons are readily available; Lords less so. Documents were often printed on large sheets of white paper, loosely bound, called
White Paper A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. A white pape ...
s, and were presented to the House of Commons or Lords, often unbound and undated. This lack of date would sometimes become problematic later for historians attempting to follow the historical record, and depended on further research to sort it out. Some of the documents were reprinted and bound and known as "Blue Books" after the color of the covers. (See boxed quotation below).


Influence of Foreign Secretaries

No other European state rivaled Great Britain in the number of Blue Book publications. Originally conceived of as a way to "meet the ebb and flow of public opinion", they were handled differently during different parts of the 19th century, under the influence of different Foreign Secretaries. Blue Books are more complete from some parts of the century than others, but a lot was always omitted, and texts were abridged. These were sometimes flagged in the text by the word 'Extract', but that didn't give any sense of scale or what was cut. George Canning's tenure (1807–1809) stood out, as having designed a new system. Canning used it to get public support for his positions, for example, regarding South America. Robert Stewart ( Lord Castelreagh (1812-1822)) was the pivot point between the early years when the government might refuse to publish certain papers, and the later period when it wasn't able to do that anymore. Henry Templeton (
Lord Palmerston Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, (20 October 1784 – 18 October 1865) was a British statesman who was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. Palmerston dominated British foreign policy during the period ...
three incumbencies in the 1830s and 1840s) was unable to refuse the demands of the House of Commons, as Canning had done. Later, when he rose to Prime Minister, Palmerston embodied the "Golden Age" of Blue Books, publishing a large number of them, especially during the Russell Foreign Ministry incumbency (1859-1865). Foreign Secretaries under P.M. William Gladstone (three incumbencies between 1868 and 1886) also issued many Blue Books, but were more restrained; a large number were issued about the Eastern Question.


Reaction abroad

Publication meant that not only parliament and the public got to see them, but foreign powers got to see them as well. Sometimes a government might be embarrassed by leaks from foreign sources, or publications from them; but they gave back as good as they got. By 1880 there were some informal rules, and foreign countries were consulted before publishing things that affected them. This prevented them from being used as instruments of policy, as under Canning or Palmerston.


Run-up to World War I

After 1885 the situation altered again, there was less pressure from Parliament, fewer party-based papers, and almost all publications were ordered by the Crown. Towards the close of the century and beginning of the next, at some point there was less disclosure of documents, and less pressure from MPs and the public, and ministers became more restrained and secretive, for example with
Sir Edward Grey Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, (25 April 1862 – 7 September 1933), better known as Sir Edward Grey, was a British Liberal statesman and the main force behind British foreign policy in the era of the First World War. An adhe ...
, in the run-up to World War I. Penson & Temperley said, "As Parliament became more democratic its control over foreign policy declined, and, while Blue Books on domestic affairs expanded and multiplied at the end of the nineteenth century, those on foreign affairs lessened both in number and in interest." There were still numerous publications, but less diplomatic correspondence, and lots of treaty texts.


World War I


Background

The assassination of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria, (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I. F ...
in Sarejevo on 28 June 1914, led to a month of diplomatic maneuvering between Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, France and Britain, called the
July Crisis The July Crisis was a series of interrelated diplomatic and military escalations among the major powers of Europe in the summer of 1914, which led to the outbreak of World War I (1914–1918). The crisis began on 28 June 1914, when Gavrilo Pri ...
.
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
correctly believed that Serbian officials were involved in the assassination and on 23 July sent Serbia an
ultimatum An ultimatum (; ) is a demand whose fulfillment is requested in a specified period of time and which is backed up by a threat to be followed through in case of noncompliance (open loop). An ultimatum is generally the final demand in a series ...
to Serbia intended to provoke a war. This led to Austria partially mobilizing, followed by Russia doing the same in support of Serbia. Austria declared war on Serbia on 28 July, and a series of partial mobilizations and diplomatic warnings followed, including Germany demanding Russia's demobilization, and warning France to remain neutral rather than come to Russia's aid. After various messages back and forth, misunderstandings, and erroneous assumptions about what other countries might do, Germany invaded Luxembourg and Belgium on 3–4 August, and Britain entered the war due to its 1839 treaty with Belgium. Europe was plunged into the
Great War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.


Media battle begins

As their armies began to clash, the opposing governments engaged in a media battle attempting to avoid blame for causing the war, and casting blame on other countries, through the publication of carefully selected documents, basically consisting of diplomatic exchanges. '' The German White Book'' appeared on 4 August 1914, and was the first such book to come out. It contains 36 documents. Within a week, most other combatant countries had published their own book, each named with a different color name. France held off until 1 December 1914, when they finally published their '' Yellow Book''. Other combatants in the war published similar books: the ''
Blue Book of Britain In diplomatic history, a colour book is an officially sanctioned collection of diplomatic correspondence and other documents published by a government for educational or political reasons, or to promote the government position on current or pas ...
'', the '' Orange Book of Russia'', the ''
Yellow Book of France In diplomatic history, a colour book is an officially sanctioned collection of diplomatic correspondence and other documents published by a government for educational or political reasons, or to promote the government position on current or pas ...
'', and the ''
Austro-Hungarian Red Book In diplomatic history, a colour book is an officially sanctioned collection of diplomatic correspondence and other documents published by a government for educational or political reasons, or to promote the government position on current or pas ...
'', the '' Belgian Grey Book'', and the '' Serbian Blue Book''.


Propaganda aspects

World War I color books attempted to cast the issuing country in a good light, and enemy countries in a poor light via numerous means including omission, selective inclusion, changes in the sequence of (undated) documents presented in order to imply certain documents appeared earlier or later than they actually did, or outright falsification. A mistake in the compilation of the 1914 British Blue Book went unattended, and left the book vulnerable to attack by German propagandists. This unrectified mistake then led to certain details falsification in the French Yellow Book, which had copied them verbatim from the Blue Book. German propagandists called the ''Yellow Book'' a vast "collection of falsifications". France was accused of having given its unconditional support to Russia. Germany tried to show that it was forced into general mobilization by that of Russia, which in turn, blamed Austria-Hungary. The Allied documents on the circumstances of the declaration of war, as well as the war crimes committed by the German army, constituted the basis on which the Allies would rely in 1919 to formulate Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles assigning the exclusive responsibility for the outbreak of the war to Germany and Austria-Hungary. A report to parliament by German jurist
Hermann Kantorowicz Hermann Ulrich Kantorowicz (18 November 1877, Posen, German Empire – 12 February 1940, Cambridge) was a German jurist. He was a professor at Freiburg University (1923-1929), and a Visiting Professor, Columbia University (1927), as well as at ...
after the war investigating the
causes of World War I The identification of the causes of World War I remains controversial. World War I began in the Balkans on July 28, 1914, and hostilities ended on November 11, 1918, leaving 17 million dead and 25 million wounded. Moreover, the Russian Civil ...
found that Germany had a large share of responsibility in triggering World War I, and cited the ''White Book'' as one example, in which about 75 percent of the documents presented in it were falsified.


Translations and republications

Translation of the color books into English was often performed or approved by the governments of origin; for example, the English translation of the Italian Green Book was approved by the Royal Italian Embassy. The New York Times undertook the republication of the full text of numerous color books in English translation, including the Green Book, which was translated for the newspaper. In addition, the Times published the British Blue Book, the German White Book, the Russian Orange Book, the Gray Book of Belgium, the Yellow Book of France, and the Red Book of Austria-Hungary.


Color books


British Blue Book

The British Blue Book has the oldest history, going back at least as far as 1633. In the early 17th century,
blue book A blue book or bluebook is an almanac, buyer's guide or other compilation of statistics and information. The term dates back to the 15th century, when large blue velvet-covered books were used for record-keeping by the Parliament of England. The ...
s first came into use in England as a means of publishing diplomatic correspondence and reports. They were so named, because of their blue cover. They were widely used in England in the 19th century. In World War I, the ''British Blue Book'' was the second collection of national diplomatic documents about the war to appear; it came out just days after the German White Book. It contained 159 items and was submitted to
Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
before the session of 6 August 1914, after the British declaration of war on Germany. It appeared later in an expanded, and somewhat different version, and included an introduction and reports from parliamentary sessions in the beginning of August under the title, ''Great Britain and the European Crisis''. This version contained the same 159 items from the first one, plus two more from the British embassies in Vienna and
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
, after the outbreak of the war. Although incomplete (e.g., files on the English promises of aid to France, and on German concessions and proposals are not included), it is the richest of the color books and "despite its gaps, constitutes a true treasure trove of historical insights into the great crisis".


German White Book

''The German White Book'' (german: Das Deutsche Weißbuch) was a publication by the German government of 1914 documenting their claims for the causes of
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. The British institution of political blue books with official publications of diplomatic documents found its way to Germany relatively late. There was a lively debate about whether it was appropriate and necessary long before the first German one appeared, and also afterward among the German public, and especially in the state parliaments (). The full title was "''The German White Book about the outbreak of the German-Russian-French war''". An authorized English translation appeared in 1914. The book contained extracts of diplomatic material intended to portray the war's cause to other sources. There were many fewer dispatches in the White Book than in the British Blue Book, and those that were there, were mostly to illustrate a point in the narrative of the White Book.


Russian Orange Book

The Russian Orange Book came out in mid-August. On 20 September 1914, the NY Times published excerpts. The article said that examination of the Russian Orange Book in conjunction with reports in the British Blue Book conclusively establish responsibility on Germany and Austria for the war.


Serbian Blue Book

Study of the Serbian role in the war was slowed by delays in publication of the Serbian Blue Book. Some began to become available in the mid-1970s.


Belgian Gray Books

The two Belgian Gray Books came out after the Russian Orange Book and Serbian Blue Book. The second was issued in 1915.


French Yellow Book

The French Yellow Book (), completed after three months of work, contained 164 documents and came out on 1 December 1914. Unlike the others which were limited to the weeks before the start of the war, the Yellow Book included some documents from 1913, by shedding light on their mobilization for a European war. Some of the documents in the Yellow Book were challenged by Germany as not genuine, but their objections were mostly ignored, and the Yellow Book was widely cited as a resource in the
July crisis of 1914 The July Crisis was a series of interrelated diplomatic and military escalations among the major powers of Europe in the summer of 1914, Causes of World War I, which led to the outbreak of World War I (1914–1918). The crisis began on 28 June 1 ...
. It turned out after the war was over, that the Yellow Book wasn't complete, or entirely accurate. Historians who gained access to previously unpublished French material were able to use it in their report to the Senate entitled "Origins and responsibilities for the Great War" as did ex-President Raymond Poincaré. The conclusion set forth in the report of the 1919 French Peace Commission is illustrative of the two-pronged goals of blaming their opponents while justifying their own actions, as laid out in two sentences: Later, publication of complete archives from the period of the July crisis by Germany, Britain, and Austria, as well as some from Soviet archives, revealed some truths that the Yellow Book conveniently left out. In particular, was Yellow Book document #118, which showed a Russian mobilization in response to Austrian mobilization the day before on 30 July, but in fact, the order of mobilization was reversed; Russian mobilized first. After a contorted explanation by
Quai d'Orsay The Quai d'Orsay ( , ) is a quay in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. It is part of the left bank of the Seine opposite the Place de la Concorde. The Quai becomes the Quai Anatole-France east of the Palais Bourbon, and the Quai Branly west of t ...
, confidence in the Yellow Book was ruined, and historians avoided using it. In her essay for the April 1937 issue of Foreign Affairs, Bernadotte E. Schmitt examined recently published diplomatic correspondence in the and compared it to the documents in the ''French Yellow Book'' published in 1914, concluding that the Yellow Book "was neither complete nor entirely reliable" and went into some detail in examining documents either missing from the ''Yellow Book'', or presented out of order to confuse or mislead the sequence in which events occurred. She concluded, In the German ''White Book'', anything that could benefit the Russian position was redacted.


Austrian Red Book

The ''Austrian Red Book'' (or ''Austro-Hungarian Red Book'') goes back at least to the 19th century. An 1868 version was printed in London, and included cables and other diplomatic correspondence during the reign of Emperor Franz Josef, and covering such topics as the Treaty of Prague, the Luxembourg Crisis, the
Treaty of London (1867) The Treaty of London (french: Traité de Londres), often called the Second Treaty of London after the 1839 Treaty, granted Luxembourg full independence and neutrality. It was signed on 11 May 1867 in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War a ...
, the Treaty of Vienna between Austria, France, and Italy in October 1866, five-power relations between Austria and France, England, Prussia, and Russia, as well as relations with the east (Greece, Serbia,
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
). Last among the great powers, Austria-Hungary published its files on the outbreak of the war in February 1915 in the Austro-Hungarian Red Book, entitled: "K. and k. Ministry of Foreign Diplomatic Affairs on the Historical Background of the 1914 War". Simultaneously, the Austro-Hungarian government published a compact popular edition of the Red Book, which included an introduction, and translations into German of the few documents written in English or French. The Red Book contained 69 items and covered the period 29 June to 24 August 1914. It is not clear why the Austro-Hungarian government let over six months of war elapse before it followed the example of the other powers. This was unlike the case of the delayed French Yellow Book, whose later publication meant that the French public had no files for judging the diplomatic events before the war. For Austria-Hungary, the war was primarily an Austrian-Serbian war, and there was never any lack of documents about it from the outset.


Others

Other color books were used in other countries, including: * ChinaYellow Book * FinlandWhite Book * ItalyGreen Book * JapanGray Book * MexicanOrange Book * NetherlandsOrange Book * Russian EmpireOrange Book * SovietRed Book * SpainRed Book * United StatesRed Book


Contemporary descriptions


World War I

Edmund von Mach's 1916 "Official Diplomatic Documents Relating to the Outbreak of the European War" gives the following introduction to the color books of World War I:


See also

*
British propaganda during World War I In the First World War, British propaganda took various forms, including pictures, literature and film. Britain also placed significant emphasis on atrocity propaganda as a way of mobilising public opinion against Imperial Germany and the Centra ...
*
Causes of World War I The identification of the causes of World War I remains controversial. World War I began in the Balkans on July 28, 1914, and hostilities ended on November 11, 1918, leaving 17 million dead and 25 million wounded. Moreover, the Russian Civil ...
*
Centre for the Study of the Causes of the War The Centre for the Study of the Causes of the War (in German: Zentralstelle zur Erforschung der Kriegsursachen) was a think tank based in Berlin, funded by the German government, whose sole purpose was to disseminate the official government positio ...
*
German entry into World War I Germany entered into World War I on August 1, 1914, when it declared war on Russia. In accordance with its war plan, it ignored Russia and moved first against France–declaring war on August 3 and sending its main armies through Belgium to captu ...
*
History of propaganda Propaganda is information that is not impartial and used primarily to influence an audience and further an agenda, often by presenting facts selectively (perhaps lying by omission) to encourage a particular synthesis, or using loaded messages ...
*
History of the United Kingdom during World War I The United Kingdom was a leading Allied Power during the First World War of 1914–1918. They fought against the Central Powers, mainly Germany. The armed forces were greatly expanded and reorganised—the war marked the founding of the ...
*
Home front during World War I The home front during World War I covers the domestic, economic, social and political histories of countries involved in that conflict. It covers the mobilization of armed forces and war supplies, lives of others, but does not include the military ...
*
Italian propaganda during World War I In Italy as in other countries the outbreak of the First World War created new opportunities and channels for propaganda. The unusual circumstances of Italy’s entry into the war meant that the government played no active role in propaganda work d ...
*
Opposition to World War I Opposition to World War I included socialist, anarchist, syndicalist, and Marxist groups on the left, as well as Christian pacifists, Canadian and Irish nationalists, women's groups, intellectuals, and rural folk. The socialist movements had ...
*
Propaganda in World War I World War I was the first war in which mass media and propaganda played a significant role in keeping the people at home informed on what occurred at the battlefields. It was also the first war in which governments systematically produced propagan ...


Works cited

* * * * * * * * * * * Horne, John, and Alan Kramer. ''German atrocities, 1914: a history of denial'' (Yale University Press, 2001). * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * *
Electronic copy
from HathiTrust.


References

;Notes ;Citations


Further reading

* * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * *


External links

{{Authority control Austria-Hungary–Serbia relations Causes of wars Causes of World War I Diplomatic correspondence Government reports Napoleonic Wars Politics of World War I Propaganda books and pamphlets Propaganda Serbia in World War I Serbian books Weimar Republic World War I books World War I documents