WHICH ALLIANCE SYSTEM WAS THE STRONGEST IN 1914?
In l9l4, the six most powerful countries in Europe became two opposing
alliances. The Central Powers (Triple alliance) consisted of a contracted pact
between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy in l882, of which was followed,
25 years later, by the Triple Entente pact between Britain, France and Russia.
Each country was notorious for their advanced and mass military, and the
initial Central Powers alliance had installed sufficient fear and suspicion to
form an Entente.
Many argue there is certain evidence that The Central Powers alliance was
stronger than the Triple Entente. In l870, Germany gain hold of the flourishing
Alsace-Lorraine industrial area in France, so that in l9l4 German industry was
the 2nd most successful in the world to U.S.A: we can therefore assume that
Germany found this economically gratifying as well as having access to advanced
technological machinery. As a whole, The Central Power’s soldiers in army count
of 3.76 million (approx. 60% from Germany) exceeded that of the T.E’s (Triple
Entente) 3.25 million- securing victory for The Central Powers on that front.
Furthermore, Germany, itself, had an impressive amount of warships (85 and 23
submarines) in naval rivalry to Britain (l22 warships and 64 submarines) proving
a harsh contender with a vast and dynamic military. From a defence view, the
geographical position of the members of T.C.P (The Central Powers) is
concentrated, so it is easy for them to barricade themselves in a large wall of
defence and the transportation or trade of resources, soldiers or information can
be easily and rapidly done since they are extremely close to one another (unlike
the T.P). Most likely, out of all the six countries, Germany is the most developing
since Russia (the alleged first) is said to be developing ‘backwards’ by investing
time and money on short term primary agricultural industries. This is another
advantage for T.C.P. However, Russia has been acquiring vast armament, as is
the same through out the T.E- and the up and coming country of Serbia has now
become allies of Russia: this adds to T.C.P’s fear of T.E’s ‘encirclement’ strategy
(in case of, T.C.P all relied on the single ‘Schlieren’ strategy of war plan, hoping
their assumptions of the T.E’s actions would be correct). Other opposed
arguments to T.C.P is that the current situation within Austria-Hungary is not
stable. The many nationalities inside its borders are demanding independence of
some sort and this may lead to a devastating civil war (a pro for the T.E) or in
the least, the country will not have a united view and this could be potentially
dangerous when entering a war. Not only was Austria-Hungary in a weak
position, Italy had a poor industrial and infantry power- and it didn’t help T.C.P
that Italy had other aims for its country as well (to build up more colonies and
overseas empires) and for this reason Germany nor Austria-Hungary entirely
trusted Italy.
Many also argue that there is certain evidence that the Triple Entente was
stronger. A major point is of the position of the countries (as said above)
enabling them usage of the very effective ‘encirclement’ strategy, attacking
from all sides. However, except from the major theme of encirclement, each
country has their own plan of war, allowing them independence as well as a
complication for T.C.P. The T.E have access to the British Navy- The most
powerful of all six by far- if war was declared: and together they outnumbered
the submarines substantially. This means that they have secured an almost
definite naval sea victory. In addition, Britain has the means from its overseas
empire, including weaponry, money, men and bases.
I believe that in certain ways The Central Powers were in a stronger position as
they are entirely committed to each other and to war (they have signed an
alliance, which is a stronger contract than an Entente- plus, Britain had always
used its excuse of being overseas and majoring in the army as a way of not
getting involved in any land battles).Additionally, T.C.P have a substantially
bigger army that can be more easily transported within the countries, but if war
was declared in the strategy of encirclement, the T.C.P is faced with a dire
situation that they most likely won’t win ergo this puts the T.E in control. In
conclusion, I believe that T.C.P was stronger if they were the first to declare war
and take the T.E by surprise. This will also weaken the T.E’s strategy as they
won’t have the time to transport any resources to each other (as they are so far
apart). Furthermore, as the T.E was at such a non-committal state there is a
chance that one of the countries would pull out at any time, seriously weakening
the other two’s status.