[Editor Note: This blog was originally posted by John T Kuehn on July 6, 2014]
Today, July 6 marks the 100th anniversary of the Count Hoyos Mission to Berlin wherein the infamous "blank check" was issued by the Imperial German Government to the government in Vienna in the developing crisis with Serbia surrounding the assassinations in Sarajevo the previous month. Ever since scholars have argued as to whether this was the key action that propelled Europe into a cataclysm the next month. Historian Sean McMeekin argues that Berlin misunderstood Hoyos and what Austria intended to do. They