'The first world war was the result of a badly mismanaged Balkan crisis in the summer of 1914 rather than the product of long standing rivalries between the great powers' - Assess the truth of this opinion of the causes of the outbreak of world war one.
History Coursework
‘The first world war was the result of a badly mismanaged Balkan crisis in the summer of 1914 rather than the product of long standing rivalries between the great powers’ – Assess the truth of this opinion of the causes of the outbreak of world war one.
The crisis of the 1914 First World War was caused by the assassination of the Archduke Fernadand, this caused the Balkan war. This then raised the Eastern Question regarding the delay of Turkish power in Europe. The result of this was to break up the Turkish Empire. This led to rivalry between Austria and Russia because Russia wanted access to warm water ports in the Mediterranean so they could trade during winter. When war was declared it led to public celebrations. This is evidence to suggest that there were long-term tensions.
Another reason for war breaking out was that there had been long standing rivalries between the Great Powers. France and Germany had become rivalries because of the 1870’s Franco-Prussian war. France felt humiliated because they got defeated. France also got faced with having to pay for war damages, reparations, of £200,000,000. This would be paid in annual instalments. The German Army would remain in France until there payments were paid. To top this off they were punished b the Treaty of Frankfurt and lost territory of Alsace-Lorraine, an industrially rich area. Also Bismarck believed it was the most likely place France would attack Germany. France’s reaction to paying war reparations was different to that of the Germanys. When Germany was faced with there reparations in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and lost territory they didn’t want to pay it so ended up not paying all of them off. Whereas France’s reaction to their treaty was that they saw it as a National honour and they paid it within a matter of two years, well before the deadline. France’s recovery after 1871 was dramatic. They embarked on a massive modernization and rearmament programme jus after they paid of their reparations to Germany. Bismarck believed that France would still try to get revenge, ‘revanche’. He also feared any encirclement by enemies.
