Partly to do with the Industrial society that was happening in the cities bring it to the forefront and also giving people the opportunity of a education system free to all which in turn made people more politically aware by reading of the papers and magazines which took off at the time in a cheap way that was easily accessible to all.
With Germany in several conflicts at the turn of the century, trying to colonise Africa was the main race at the time, but this is was worrying as Great Britain had large trade/resources routes. Under Bismark he was able to cleverly play each of the side off against each other and made it possible to keep a steady balance. ~ After he leaves, a war monger from the military comes in to take his place but doesn’t do a good job in controlling the possible flash points that were to arise.
After the retreat of the Otterman empire from the Balkans there was a power vacuum from the area, due to the Austria-Hungary centre being in Vienna and the people of the said area were keen to gain (return) possible Independent for the people rather than being a member of a larger multi-cultural state, originally Bosnia but it seemed it would spread along /around the area to Yugoslavia + Montenegro. Russia had a similar thing going on with Estonia and Poland~ The movement of nations borders and loss of identity would have created unrest plus seeing others gaining state independence and it seeming supposedly better would have inspired them to take action sooner or later.
Industrialization resulted in the poor subsistence farmers from the surrounding countryside’s becoming city dwellers and doing cheap factory labours work as the industries took off at the time, which in turn created communities that were able to make the passing of information about the rest of the European communities more easily available. Also the arms race would have been prevalent at the time with the contest for the oceans being important to the colonising of the other nations mainly Africa at that moment in time. The UK was doing well as it’s an Island so that was quite important to them to have a decent Navy plus they had done quite well after Imperialism. ~This was useful to increase the awareness of the individuals but also grew the nations industry which is either good or bad depending on perspective.
Overall I think Why Europe was on the brink of change at the turn of the 20th Century is down to some coincidences with what was happening with the down fall of the Monarchy system. I feet that the Alliances were main factor in determining whether change was going to happen, the way it bred the paranoia over cross border tensions, partly with the influence of Bismark's contribution to the stabilisation of Germany. I felt that communism was initial a good idea but that did not inspire the people the way it should have done but it did what it needed to do at that time.
Graeme Armstrong
