Unit 10: World War 1

10.1: The Causes of World War 1

  • 1862- King William I (Prussian king) appoints Otto van Bismarck as Prime Minister
  • Otto van Bismarck dominated German and European politics
  • Conservative junker- (eunker) land owning aristocracy
  • Practitioners of Realpolitik    
  • “Blood and Iron”
  • Sees advantages of war do not justify the risks involved
  • 1862-1866- ruled by ignoring Prussian legislature who does nothing for fear of political and social unrest that would occur as a result
  • Ultimate Goal: Unify Germany (does so by starting 3 wars)
  • Danish War of 1864
  • Fought with Denmark over 2 duchies: Holstein and Schleswig
  • Bismarck wanted the 2 duchies to be a part of Prussia
  • Prussia is aided by Austria
  • The fight was unfair and the Danish quickly lose
  • The 2 duckies are now ruled by Prussia and Austria-Hungary
  • Austria-Hungary controls Holstein (southern duchy)
  • Prussia controls Schleswig (northern duchy)
  • Problem: Bismarck wanted both duchies to be unified under Prussia, so  Bismarck starts a fight with Austria
  • 1866 Prussia versus Austria-Hungary
  • Prussia had advantages of an existing railroad in place and breach loading guns (fired faster)
  • Prussia wins and Bismarck does not make Austria-Hungary pay for war damages. Treats them nicely in comparison to normalcy.
  • Northern German states are ruled by Prussia, but Southern German states remain free and swear to help Prussia militarily in time of need
  • Franco-Prussian War 1870-1871
  • 1870- The Spanish offer the throne to a distant relative of Kind William's
  • King William knows that France will be unhappy with this (Consider geography-- France is next to Spain and Prussia (Germany) and with a relative of the Prussian king on throne in Spain, France would feel threatened)
  • William made his relative not accept the Spanish crown
  • William forced to apologize France to keep relationship intact
  • Bismark gets word of this apology and somehow makes French think that William mistreated French ambassador
  • France declares war because they felt threatened
  • South German states join war to aid Prussia
  • Prussia advances to France and lay siege on Paris
  • France is defeated and official peace treaty signed in may 1871 
  • France forced to pay 5 billion francs to the Prussian government and give up Alsace and Lorraine (France now wants revenge)
  • King William I is declared kaiser in Versailles, France of all Germany. (Holy Roman and Catholic Southern Germany)
  • Germany merges into Prussia and Germany is now the strongest power
  • Race for Colonies  
  • Heightened competition for Europeans to gain colonies-- created tension
  • Each country wanted to gain prestige over the other countries by gaining colonies
  • Imperialism and expansion-- tied to social Darwinism and racism (people felt the need to civilize indigenous peoples
  •  Scramble for Africa (after 1869)
  • Suez Canal made transportation from Europe to Asia easier
  • British and French jointly controlled the canal
  • This gave Britain a base
  • Ethiopia defeated Italy in 1896 to stay independent
  • By 1914 only Liberia and Ethiopia remained independent (Liberia was created by US in the send slaves back to Africa movement)
  • First Moroccan Crisis
  • France wants to make Morocco a French colony, but Germany objects
  • Britain agrees with France that Morocco was in French sphere of control
  • German kaiser makes a speech advocating Moroccan freedom, so that Morocco would be open to trade
  • Tension is created between France and Germany
  • France has 2 allies: Russia and Britain, but Russia was busy with the Ruso-Japanese war
  • Britain agrees to aid France militarily if fighting should occur
  • Ends with France having legitimate rights over Morocco
  • Second Moroccan Crisis (April 1911)
  • Domestic unrest in Morocco, so France sends in troops to reestablish order
  • Germans claim that the agreement between France and Germany was broken, so they send a gun boat to Morocco, trying to persuade France to cooperate
  • David Lloyd George (British Finance minister) makes it clear that France will not allow Germany to bully France, even if the result is war
  • An agreement is reached between Germany and France. France sees Morocco as French territory and France gives some of the French Congo to Germany.
  • Second Moroccan Crisis causes the bond between France and Britain to get stronger and they sign a naval agreement to protect each other
  • Conflict Between Russia and Austria-Hungary in Balkans
  • Russia is interested in Balkan Peninsula, especially the warm water port (Dardenel Straight) because they do not have one in the Mediterranean
  • Russia feels close kinship to the Balkan Christians and envisions the entire Balkan and Slovak region being controlled by one Russian Tsar, but is controlled now by the Ottoman Turks
  • 1875 Balkans revolt against Turkish rule
  • Turks respond to this by massacring Balkan Christians
  • Gave Russia the opportunity to step in and protect them and go to war with Turkey
  • Austria-Hungary does not oppose Russia in fighting the Turks because Austria wants Bosnia and Herzegovina if Russia wins (Austria feels pinched by neighbors, so look for influence in Balkans)
  • Russia defeats the Turks in a year
  • The Treaty of San Stefano is signed in 1878 as official end to the war
  • Russia now feels it has gained influence over Balkans because they helped
  • Austria-Hungary gets Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • First Balkan War 1912
  • Serbia wants access to Adriatic Sea, which is under control of the Turks
  • Bulgaria and Serbia are encouraged by Russia to fight Turkey
  • As a result, Albania is created to act as a buffer between Serbia and Austria-Hungary because of the tension
  • Second Balkan War 1913
  • Bulgaria and Albania fight against Serbia at will of Austria-Hungary (so they can expand)
  • Effects of Crises and Wars
  • Convinces big countries to expand their own forces and Russia learns if they don't support Serbia, then Russia will have no influence in the Balkans
  • German French War
  • France was most populated superpower with best army until Germany superposed it in 1870
  • 1911 population of Germany: 64 million
  • 1911 population on France: 39 million
  • France wanted revenge from the Franco-Prussian war
  • France wanted Alsace and Lorraine back from Germany
  • Germany wants to protect itself and to expand its territory
  • Only war would solve this!
  • Allies of Germany: Austria-Hungary
  • Allies of France: Britain, Tsarist Russia
  • Naval Race Between Germany and Great Britain
  • Britain has the most powerful navy because it is paranoid that if another country cuts off trade, the people would starve to death
  • Established the 2 power standard: a formula that the government adopts in 1889 that says Britain must have a navy superior to the two next most powerful navies combined
  • In 1900, Germany starts increasing spending to develop better naval force to threaten Britain in order to force them to make a decision to either protect their allies or to protect their own home and leave their allies and colonies exposed
  • Britain responds to German threat by reaching out to the Allies (France, Russia, Japan) and sign alliances with them
  • Actual Spark Of The War
  • The spark occurs between Serbia and Austria-Hungary who both want power (Austria wants extend influence in Balkans)
  • June 1914: an Austrian working for a Serbian terrorist group (The Black Hand) assassinated the Austrian Crown Prince and Austria blames Serbia
  • Austria reaches out to Germany to protect them in case Russia gets involved
  • July 1914: Germany gives Austria unconditional support in order to intimidate Russia
  • Russia cannot let Serbia be destroyed (because they'd lose influence in Balkans) but want to make sure France supports them
  • France is now forced to honor the alliance with Russia so they didn't look bad to the rest of Europe
  • July 28th 1914, Austria declares war on Serbia
  • July 29th 1914, Austria shells Serbian capital
  • Russia orders immediate mobilization of troops
  • August 1st, Germany declares war on Russia and immediately sends troops to France because Germany feels that Russia and Austria-Hungary will stay busy
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10.2 The War 1914-1917

  • Schlieffen Plan
  • made in 1905 (10 years before the war)
  • extremely elaborate plans (precise to the hour) for a German attack on France (included a march through Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg) created by Alfred von Schlieffen in the case of a war occurring
  • Felt that it was vital the France was quickly defeated (within 6 weeks)
  • Brings Britain into the war because they are sworn to protect Belgium August 4th 
  • Men in armies:
  • British Army: 160,000
  • German army: 5 million
  • French army: 4 million
  • within 6 weeks, 6 million men were prepared ...

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