Another factor caused by nationalism that greatly affected World War I was the territorial rivalries within European nations and allies. Already heated by the many competitive states and peoples, strong nationalist feelings as well as rivalries were intensified by Social Darwinism and militarism. This nineteenth century theory is basically suggesting “survival of the fittest”, and inspired by the scientific theory of Charles Darwin, this new idea was influential and emphasized on competition of the national groups. This ideology focused on the frantic efforts for existence between the different “races” or “countries” in which inevitably, the weak would be demolished by the strong. However, by an unknown source, it was quoted that "It happened because no one could be bothered to stop it” – referring to the acts taken upon such beliefs; as to some it was seen as just insanity. For instance, German Admiral von Tirpitz refers to the competition among the races as “the greatest insanity in which white races have ever been engaged”. Several of the German and Austria-Hungary leaders had fear in what they saw as an unavoidable battle between the “Slavs” – people of eastern European origin, and the German civilization. Lastly, Social Darwinism also greatly affected competition amongst states for colonies. Expansion was certainly important for the assurance of a country’s economic and military strength in the face of rivals. For a nation to have a slower growing rate in comparison to neighboring countries and territories or to not match a rival state’s military or economic advancement was seen tantamount as to a death sentence. So, Social Darwinism injected urgency, desperation, and strong anxiety over international relations. The race for a vastly growing amount of colonies by each state had competition simultaneously growing. In addition for desperate attempts to establish colonies, militarism was also seeked during this time. By 1914, Germany had always had the best military buildup. Both Germany and Britain increased their navies throughout this time – further in Germany and Russia in particular; militarily establishment had an increasing influence upon public policy. It was this increase that played as a key factor in competition leading to rivalry – which helped push to war.
The present advancements in technology, such as the Industrial Revolution of Britain, had expanded the consumer markets. Just after 1850, this allowed many businesses to exploit these markets. However, it additionally allowed for the expansion of the amount of producers competing for the markets, which increased competition for what at the time seemed to be an inactive economy – by the turn of the century. This intensifying economic competition among European countries eventually led to stronger nationalistic feelings. Even education systems were changed, and later systems would preach superiority over other countries. This was demonstrated in Britain, for example, as stated by George Morgan that “We had been brought up to believe that Britain was the best country in the world and we wanted to defend her. The history taught us at school showed that we were better than other people (didn't we always win the last war?) and now all the news was that Germany was the aggressor and we wanted to show the Germans what we could do.” However, there were two actions taken in attempt to protect themselves. Primarily, the first strategy would be to gain more colonies. As mentioned previously, this caused huge competition. But by around 1900, most places had already been colonized – only strengthening the competition for the territories that were left over. So, rivalry between the nations had only exacerbated during the 1880s due to colonization – which furthermore made most of Asia and Africa under European ruling in the following years. An example of this was the scramble of Morocco, which nearly led to war between France and Germany. Secondly, in further attempt to protect themselves, the nations would turn to protective tariffs. These import taxes raised the costs of foreign aid which made the goods of that nation more appealing to the market. Certainly, this was followed by the other nations using the same strategy. Correspondingly, prices increased, trading declined, and unemployment had increased. All of these factors then led to internal unrest and turmoil among and within the European nations. As a result of this, countries’ politicians and leaders seeked a simple solution – which was most often to place blame on another European nation. This only led up to even more tariffs, further declining trade, increased unemployment rates, and worsened the situation as well as blame.
The last factor that was caused by nationalism – was the countries’ nationalistic idea itself. With all of the earlier mentioned factors contributing together, each country also had their own nationalistic views. Germany, unified in 1871, rapidly became the strongest military and economic power in Europe. Until 1890, Germany attempted to preserve hegemony in Europe by forming alliances with differing powers. However, after 1890, Germany became more aggressive as it was to build influence all over the globe. Because these German ambitions quickly extended around to several parts of the world, the nation entered serious conflicts with other major powers within Europe, with the exception of Austria-Hungary. Also, there were nationalistic views in Italy in a sense that when unified in 1871, it was barely counted as a large power as it was simple not as powerful as other nations such as Germany. The industrial progress was slow, and the parliamentary system was both inefficient and corrupt. However, the ambitions were high as it attempted to colonize Northern Africa’s Tunis and Tripoli. Conversely, these ambitions did not follow through accordingly. In fact, it only started conflict with France, as the French colony of Algeria was just adjacent to Tunis. Furthermore, Italy wanted control of Trieste, Trentio, and Tyrol; as they were inhabited by many Italians. This created conflict with Austria-Hungary, which leads to the next nationalistic power. Established as a dual-monarchy in 1867, Austria-Hungary had rule over a huge empire that included many differing nationalities within it; such as Czechs, Serbs, Croats, Poles, Rumanians, and Serbs. However, it was only the Austrians and the Hungarians that had the right to rule – which later caused the other nationalities to form a desire for their own political independence. Therefore, the dual-monarchy policy had been established for the purpose of suppressing nationalist movements. The objective was being to collect political control over the Balkan Peninsula, as here nationalist acts occurred often and consistently encouraged nationalistic movements within the Austria-Hungarian Empire. The main part of the nationalist movement in the Balkans happened to be Serbia – which desired unification with Serbs of Austria-Hungary to form its own power. Additionally, being a Slav country, Russia always supported Serbia in any Austro-Serbian disputes.
So, as the European powers attempted to dominate each other before the start of World War I, the rivalries were instigated by factors of nationalism. For the most part, in Europe, the nineteenth century was considered one of the most peaceful times in history. This was made possible as European powers were simply preoccupied by internal events – whether nationalistic, political, or liberal; as well as economic development. However, provided these advancements which helped in giving these nations their power, these are the countries that have turned the calm times in Europe into a time of revolution, extreme economic turmoil, and eventually, the First World War.
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