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