Path to World War I
Economic
needs ???
Strategic/ political motives
- ex: France in N. Africa
1. The New Imperialism
Cultural/ religious
“evangelism”
PRIDE
Result: COMPETITION
2. The German Empire and the
Alliance System
A. Bismarck
– Goal: isolate France
• 1. 3 Emperor’s League of 1873
– Ended because of RussoTurkish War of 1875
– Treaty of San Stefano
– Congress of Berlin (1878)
• 2. Dual Alliance (Ger-Aus)
• 3. 3 Emperor’s League of
1886
• 4. 1882 – Triple Alliance
• 5. 1887 Reinsurance Treaty
with Russia
Russian Resentment
Tension in the
Balkans
2. The German Empire and the
Alliance System
B. William II
Goal: “a Place in the
Sun”
• 1890 – dismissed
Bismarck
• Rejected
Reinsurance Treaty
• “World Policy”
• Interfered in
British colonial
goal
• Naval buildup
• First Moroccan
Crisis
1894 – FrancoRussian Alliance
Entente Cordiale
Anglo-French naval
plans
Triple Entente
3. The Outbreak of War
• Bosnian Crisis –
1908
– Young Turk revolution
in the Ottoman
Empire
– Russia supported
Austrian annexation
of Bosnia and
Herzegovina
– British and French
resisted Russian
opening of
Dardanelles to Russia
navy
German policy forced by
Austria’s actions
Serbian frustration
Russian humiliation
Tensions between
Russia and the
French and English
3. The Outbreak of War
• 2nd Moroccan Crisis -- 1911
– German sent a gunboat to “protect German
interests”
Result:
1. France realized its need for British support
2. Fear of and hostility to Germany increased in
Britain.
3. The Outbreak of War
• Balkan Wars
– Italy attacked the
Ottoman Empire in
order to gain Libya
(1911)
– 1st Balkan War (1912)
-- Balkan states took
advantage of
Ottoman Weakness
• Disagreement over
division of Macedonia
– 2nd Balkan War (1913)
• Austria forced a
conference to keep
Serbs out of Albania
Serbs forced to leave
by Austrian ultimatum
Austria embarrassed by
Serbian public demands
Austrians angered by
failure of emperor to
act
Tsar Nicholas felt
pressure to act to
support slavs
France and Britain
afraid to restrain
Russia in the future
3. The Outbreak of War
• Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand
– Carried out by The Black Hand (June 28, 1914)
• Most Europeans believed the Serbian government was
involved
– William II and Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg gave
the Austrians a “blank check” of support
– Austrian ultimatum to Serbia issued on July 28;
declared war the same day
– Russians quickly began to mobilize troops
– Austrians refused proposals for a conference
– July 30 -- Austria mobilized for war against Russia
– August 1 -- Germany declared war on Russia and
France and put the Schlieffen Plan in motion
– August 4 -- Britain declared war on Germany
4. The War
• The Central Powers: Germany, AustroHungarian Empire, the Ottoman
Empire, Bulgaria
Versus
• The Allies: Russia, France, Great
Britain, Serbia, Italy (1915), Japan
(1916), Romania (1916)
4. The War
• The Western Front:
– German advance on Paris stopped at the
Battle of the Marne (Sept. 1914)
– Germans pushed back toward the German
border
– The battle front quickly evolved into
Trench Warfare with little movement of
troops.
4. The War
• The Eastern Front
– Early Russian success and then continual
disaster
• Battle of Tannenburg – an entire Russian army
captured
• 2 million casualties in the first year
– British Gallipoli campaign failed
– T.E. Lawrence encouraged independence
movements among Arabs in the Ottoman Empire
– Germany encouraged independence movements
in Ireland, Belgium, Poland, and the Ukraine
– Japan took German territory in China and the
Pacific Islands
4. The War
• Naval Blockades
– By 1915, Britain was enforcing almost a
total ban on any goods reaching Germany
– Germany responded with unrestricted
submarine warfare
• May 1915 – the Lusitania sunk
–Wilson forced a promise from
Germany that neutral nations would
not be attacked
– 1917 Germany resumed unrestricted
attacks
4. The War
• 1917
– March 15 -- Tsar Nicholas II abdicated
• Provisional government controlled by Constitutional
Democrats
• As leader of the new government Alexander Kerensky
decided to keep Russia in the war
• Continued failure in the war, food shortages, and
demands for land reform made the new government
unpopular
– (April 6 -- U.S. declared war on the Central Powers)
4. The War
• November 6 - Bosheviks overthrew the provisional
government
• November election -- Social Revolutionaries won a
majority in the Constituent Assembly
• January 1918 -- the Red Army dispersed the
assembly and the Bolsheviks established their own
dictatorship.
• Lenin nationalized farm land, turn factories over to
workers, confiscated banks and lands owned by the
church
4. The War
• March 3, 1918 – Brest-Litovsk Treaty
• Fought a civil war with counterRevolutionaries (White Russians) until
1921
4. The War
• March 1918 – final push of Germans into
France
– Stopped at the 2nd Battle of the Marne
– German government asked for peace based
on Wilson’s 14 points
• November 9, 1918 –William II abdicated
• SPD formed a government and signed the
armistice on November 11
5. The Peace
• The Fourteen Points
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
The end of secret diplomacy
Freedom of the seas
Free trade
Reduction in armaments
Self determination
Removal of occupying armies
Fair settlement of territorial issues in Belgium,
Poland, France, Italy, and the Balkan states
– The establishment of the League of Nations
5. The Peace
• The actual peace agreement:
– Most of the Ottoman empire was divided into
Mandate Territories
• Revolution led by Kemal Mustafa (Ataturk) led
to the creation of the Republic of Turkey
– Self determination ignored in all colonial
territories and for some European ethnic groups
– Germany was disarmed and lost territory to
France and Poland
• Rhineland demilitarized
• Union with Austria forbidden
– Virtually no disarmament by any other nation
5. The Peace
• New European nations established
– Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia
– Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania
• Germany required to sign the “war
guilt” clause, and to pay massive
reparations
– France gained to use the coal mines of the
Saar for fifteen years
• The League of Nations established
– Ultimately without the U.S.
6. Consequences of the Peace
• American isolationism
• France left to protect itself
• Tremendous debt for all European nations
– Especially Germany
• Failure of free trade in the new nation states
– Especially in the areas formerly part of AustroHungary
• Virtually no disarmament (except Germany)
• Dissatisfaction with treatment by European
minorities, Chinese, etc.
• Anger and economic distress in Germany