Assess Critically Three Causes of World War I.

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                               Assess Critically Three Causes of World War I.

World War I and its consequences have dominated European history since 1914. Because of the bitter controversy over the post-war peace treaties, the origins of the war continued to be an issue of utmost political importance in the years to come. The Great War  had its roots in 1870 in the grand expansion and uncontrolled ambitions of Bismarck and the new Germany (Wolfson et al 1997). Imperialism, which began to emerge around the turn of the 20th century also played a decisive role. Fights over the colonies contributed to the establishment of complex set of international alliances, which helped to destabilize the European balance of power and when combined with the third factor - instability in the Balkan region - inevitably sparked off the First World War. Besides the three main causes, they were also other conditions, like the arms race between Germany and Britain, a process of social-economic modernization in Europe, the increasing importance of international prestige, the underestimation of the counterpart’s power, which also contributed to the outbreak of the war. As Joll (1990) argues, there were also philosophical facts that had great impact in the evolution of the tragic events of 1914. The prevalent Darwinian ideas of the survival of the fittest, of the struggle for existence were among European statesmen prior 1914.

The Versailles Treaty, signed in June 1919 unambiguously blamed Germany, the military regime of the Kaiser, William II and his allies for causing all the loss and damage they imposed upon Europe between 1914-1918.  In the eighty- five years since the war ended however there has been a growing awareness, that the origins of the war were far more complex. Historians have studied not only the tangle of alliances and treaties which existed before the war but also the connections between the political and military spheres, the influence of domestic policies, and the national myths and traditions (Merriman 1996).

Looking back in history, the Franco-Prussian War (1870) completely changed the balance of power in Europe and strengthened Germany’s position as the leading continental power. The annexation of Alsace-Lorraine never healed the wounds in France, and poisoned the relations between the two countries down to 1914. European politics from the 1880s was dominated by a dense web of alliances and treaties, which aimed to consolidate Germany’s position in Europe. However, Bismarck’s international relations were only successful in the short-term and in the long-term they were plagued by insecurity and mistrust. As one alliance developed, it aroused the distrust of those states excluded from it, which then created counter-alliances (Joll 1990). French hostility was inevitable but Britain and Russia had also become deeply suspicious of German policies. But insecurity ruled also between the Russians and the French, the French and the British, the Serbs and the Russians, and the Germans and the Austrians. By the time Bismarck left office in 1890, his only reliable German allies were the Dual Monarchy of Austro-Hungary and Italy, and this remained the position in 1914.

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By 1914 the key European alliances were:

-Germany-Austro-Hungary (1789)

-France-Russia (1893)

-Entente Cordial between England-France (1904)

-The Triple Entente between England France and Russia (1907) and

-Russia-Serbia (1914)

Out of the great European powers only Austro-Hungary entered the war with a clear aim: to end the challenge of the South-Slav nationalism; the other participants fought for their survival as Great Powers. So Austria has to bear also some responsibility for the outbreak of the war. Russia was not ready for war, she desperately needed to avoid another humiliation as in 1905 in the Russo-Japanese war – the ...

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