In 1878, the loss of Bosnia to Austria caused an increased popular and political nationalist agitation and Serbia’s ruling family, the Obrenovics, was becoming a humiliation however the Obrenovic dynasty came to an end in 1903 after the king and queen were murdered in their royal chamber by a group of young Serbian nationalists. The coup of 1903 had lasting influence on Serbian politics. It made the army a powerful force in domestic politics and by 1908 Serbia had increased in size by 82 percent.
Serbia had now turned her attention north towards Bosnia (who were still under Austro-Hungarian rule), Croatia and Vojvodina. However, in 1908 all of Serbia’s enemies were on the ascendant: Bulgaria declared full independence from Ottoman rule, Macedonia seemed securely in Turkish hands and the Serbs of Bosnia had slipped further away under the rule of Austria-Hungary. For Serbian nationalists only aggressive policies offered a way to catch up.
In 1912 Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Bulgaria declared war on Turkey and liberated Macedonia. This was the first Balkan war. Serbia and Greece divided Macedonia between themselves but when Bulgaria demanded a share; Greece, Serbia and Romania fought the second Balkan war in 1913 in order to keep the spoils.
Now that Macedonia was free, all eyes were on Croatia. South Slav nationalism in Croatia was based on the goal of unifying Slovenes, Croats and Serbs as well as historical constitutional rights of medieval Croatia. Influential figures such as Ljudevit and Gaj believed that Serbs and Croats should work together, however, Croatians felt no need to defer to Serbians in pursuit of their national rights.
Magyar tactics of “divide and rule” successfully isolated the various ethnic minorities in Croatia, but in 1905 a coalition of Serbian and Croatian politicians issued the “Fiume Resolutions”. The program called for autonomy and language rights but most importantly it asserted that Croats and Serbs were a single people. This display of unity alarmed ruling circles but had little practical impact at the time as Belgrade Serbs paid little attention to Croatian politics.
The ethnic tensions that were present in Croatia in the late 19th century were accompanied by a break down in Austro-Serbian relations driven by a crisis over trade. Since 1881 Austria had dominated Serbia’s foreign trade which consisted mostly of pigs driven to slaughterhouses in Hungary. By 1905, 84 percent of Serbia’s exports were going to Austria-Hungary and 53 percent of Serbia’s imports were from Austria-Hungary. However, when they were at war Austria blocked Serbian pigs from entering ports on the excuse that they carried diseases. This gave the Austro-Serbian war the alternate name of the “Pig War”.
Austro-Serbian relations continued to deteriorate over Bosnia as well. Anti-Habsburg secret societies were popular among Bosnian Serbs and upon that “The Black Hand” came to. This was an extremely dangerous Serbian nationalist society. “The Black Hand” was willing to sponsor all kinds of anti-Habsburg mischief in Bosnia and in the end supplied the weapons used in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914.
Nationalism also led on to another cause of the war. It led European countries to compete for the largest army and navy or the greatest industrial development. This is known as militarism and this led onto the Arms Race.
Militarism is when the army and military forces are given high profile by the government and it was a deciding factor in the outbreak of world war one even though it came as an outcome of nationalism. Military expansionist policies helped facilitate the commencement of war and helped make it a global event as many countries became intimidated by Germany’s extensive militaristic goals.
By 1900 Germany had the best trained army in the world and then in 1900 it began to develop a navy to compete with Britain. Other countries followed Germany out of pride and fear. The standing armies of France and Germany had doubled in size between 1870 and 1914 and militaries of each country had drawn up complete plans for mobilization, especially Germany and Russia, before conflict had even occurred. The existence of secret battle plans stimulated espionage which aroused greater hatred and fear.
The menace of hostile division led to the Arms Race and Germany was leader in military organization and efficiency, however, it was Germany’s “Von Schlieffen Plan” which drew more countries into the war as it planned to attack France before Russia in the event of war with Russia.
Britain and Germany were in fierce competition over the development of their navies and Britain established that in order to maintain naval superiority in the event of war they would have to have a navy two and a half times as large as the second largest navy. The competition between Germany and Britain was known as the Naval Arms Race.
The Arms Race increased the influence of armament industries over government policy and huge sums of money were devoted to weaponry which could only be justified if the weapons were used. The Arms Race fuelled national sentiment as the war was said to be mainly a war to put a stop to German militarism however it led to alliances being formed between European nations dragging more countries into the war.
Two main alliances formed in the crucial time before world war one. These were the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance.
The Triple Entente was a coalition formed between France, Britain and Russia. At first it started off as the Franco-Russian Entente which formed in 1891 and then later on in 1894 became an official alliance. The agreement was that Russia would come to the aid of France if she were attacked by Germany or an Italy supported by Germany and France would come to the aid of Russia if she were attacked by Germany or an Austria supported by Germany as tensions grew between Russia and Austria-Hungary due to suspicions with regards to the Balkans.
Furthermore, a build of distrust in Germany on Britain’s part due to the Kruger Telegram resulted in Britain forming the Entente Cordiale with France in 1904 and then later on, in 1907, Britain formed another entente with Russia after Russia had reached an understanding with Japan. The Triple Entente was formed.
On the other hand, the Triple Alliance was an alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. It began as the Dual Alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary and then in 1882 Italy joined the alliance. The alliance formed due to the German leader, Bismarck, taking advantage of Italy resentment towards France. In exchange for Italy’s agreement to stay neutral if war broke out between Austria-Hungary and Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary would protect Italy form France.
In 1907, Germany had alienated Russia by supporting Austrian ambitions in the Balkans and gave Austria a blank cheque by pledging its full support after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in 1914. It was in this year that the triple alliance broke down completely when Italy refused to enter war on the side of her allies, the excuse being that she saw no aggressive act had taken place against Austria-Hungary.
The Triple Alliance and Triple Entente caused a build up of international tensions due to the division of Europe into two armed camps and they also caused more and more countries to be dragged into the war making it a world war.
Nationalism, militarism and alliances were all major causes of world war one and each of the factors led onto the next. Nationalism is probably the most imposing cause of tension leading onto the war and caused a problem ultimately due to the fact that one nation’s goals came into conflict with the goals of other nations. Militarism was encouraged by nationalism and was a deciding factor in the outbreak of war as many countries felt the need to follow Germany’s vigorous militaristic expansionist policies out of pride and intimidation. This fear of Germany led on to alliances being formed which ended up leading more countries into war than there may have been originally. Therefore, all three of the mentioned causes were equally responsible for causing World War One.
