What extent was the alliance system responsible for causing World War One?

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LEE, Soo Gee (Suzie)

11 ABe

What extent was the alliance system responsible for causing World War One?

From the late ninetieth century to the twentieth century, the “Great Powers” of Europe had created relationships with one another through alliances. These alliances were agreements made between countries for mutual military or diplomatic aid. By the twentieth century, the time leading to the start of the World War One, there were two prevalent rival camps or alliance systems: the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. The Triple Alliance, formed in 1882, between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy, derived from the Dual Alliance of 1879 between Germany and Austria-Hungary, which was made against France and Russia. It was made so that Italy cannot be against the Dual Alliance partners. The other main alliance was the Triple Entente, confirmed in between Great Britain, France and Russia. This alliance was made through the minor alliances of the Entente Cordiale (1904) and the Anglo-Russian Entente (1907), which were due to the growing bad relationships with Germany.  The alliances created frosty relations; thus, stemming many crises. We can clearly see that the “ingredients” that produced the First World War were generated through this system of alliances. However, this system of alliances only had partial significance, as there are other factors, which had bigger responsibility for causing World War One.

The alliance system only had a fractional impact on causing World War One. The alliances were considered to have ensured that more than two countries would be involve in a prospect of war as due to the connections and agreements made in the alliances, nations were obligated to join in the situation. Thus, when Austria-Hungary was having troubles with Serbia due to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Germany, on the 5th of July, had given their Dual and Triple Alliance partner, Austria-Hungary, the “blank cheque” to assure their support. This support had created stronger rivalry and bigger tension between the nations; therefore, it can be considered as one of the short-term factors in causing the Great War. However, even though Germany and Austro-Hungary were partners in an alliance, Germany was not forced to support Austro-Hungary due to the alliance system and actually chose to support their partner. Therefore, the alliance system did not actually have the full impact of ensuring that more than one country joins the war. Furthermore, the tension created by the alliances had a certain but again incomplete importance in generating the crises that led to the Great War. For instance, during the Bosnian Crisis of 1908, Austria-Hungary decided that they wanted to annex Bosnia, which had angered the Turks and the Serbians. The Serbians had looked toward Russia for support but Russia could not support the Serbs as they were having some troubles after the Russo-Japanese War of 1904/5, which was an embarrassing situation for Russia as the Germans had supported the Austrians, as they were allies. Furthermore, at the time Russia was allies with Britain and France but they did not show any support towards the Russians. This highlights the low impact of the alliance system on the decisions of the Great Powers. Moreover, it further accentuates how fractional impact of the alliance system on causing the war, as if the alliance system had a big significance, World War One would have began a lot faster as all the crises before the actual war would have resulted in a real war involving all the great powers. It is interpreted by revisionist historians that “war was caused by powerful forces that were pushing Europe into war- nationalism, imperialism, militarism and the system of alliances.” Also, they say that, “all European powers share the blame”. This view supports the idea that the alliance system only had a partial, limited significance, as there are so many other factors with bigger responsibilities for starting the war.

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In addition, the actions of the respective Great Powers had important responsibility, which emphasizes that the system of alliances was not so significant in creating the war. After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, on 28th of June 1914, the Emperor, Franz Joseph was actually pleased, as his nephew had married someone that was part of the royal social circle. The Emperor felt that “God has reasserted the rules”. Yet, after the government found Serbian involvement, they acted against Serbia, through the ten-point ultimatum on 23rd of July 1914, as a “renunciation of our (their) Great Power position”.  The ultimatum was ...

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