AP Euro: Unit 15.1-15.2 - WWI

M.A.I.N. Causes of WWI

Europe at the turn of the 20th Century (1900’s)

• Spirit of goodwill and cooperation created by working together to first defeat Napoleon then Congress of Vienna, died with the Crimean War

• General feeling of distrust between most European nations.    

England

• Carried the European TEAM when Napoleon took everyone else over.

• Did NOT enforce principles of intervention and legitimacy at Congress of Vienna  

• One of the only liberal governments in Europe (has democracy, not an all powerful ruler) puts them at odds with other COV members

• Used to be the world’s industrial superpower.  

  • Secrets to industrialization were supposed to be secret!  Other nations stole them!

  • Now not even #1 in Europe. Germany surpassed them, and England now fears Germany’s ascension.

• Have the largest world wide empire, but they are losing momentum

• Know that people are jealous of them, want to keep what they have.

France

• Used to be the European powerhouse until the defeat of Napoleon.  

  • Now they are clearly not Europe’s #1

  • Tired of being “elephant in room” in COV

• France has had problems with government stability 

  • revolutions of 1832 and 48

  • Bounces back and forth between democracy and monarchy 

• While it has a ton of overseas colonies, they lost a TON 

  • North America, India, etc. to England.  Probably their #1 frenemy. 

• Also especially afraid of/bitter towards Germany.  

  • Lost the Franco-Prussian War gave up border region of Alsace/Lorraine 

  • Couldn’t close on 7 Years’ War win

• Nowhere nearly as industrialized as others

Germany

• Europe’s new #1 in industrialization

• Best equipped and trained military in Europe, possibly world

• Need raw materials to feed their industry

  • Unified SUPER late and was NOT a huge part of Europe’s imperial colony claiming craze

    • Raw materials are expensive and have to be purchased from rival nations

    • There is nowhere left to colonize and nations like Britain and France will continue to extort them financially

• Thinks if Russia ever industrializes, they will be unbeatable.

• Feel that they deserve a greater place in the world order. Time to get ours!

• Military is proven effective (fought Russia, France, Austria all at same time and survived in 7 Years’ War)

• 1st move is to undo Bismarck’s mistake and build a navy!

Russia

• Feels betrayed by EVERYONE!

  • France, England, and (part of what will become) Italy all defend the Ottoman Empire?? 

  • When Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania broke away from OE, NO ONE lifts a finger to help them

  • Austria promised them help for helping out during Hungarian rebellion. Refuse to help during Crimean War

• SUPER huge territorially, but SUPER weak in nearly all aspects

• Lost to several nations a fraction of its size, because they were not industrialized AT ALL

• Tsars are hated more by their own people than anyone else (Road of Bones anyone?)

  • Rights rescinded after assassination of Alex. II

  • Fear an educated serf class

Ottoman Empire

• Europe’s black sheep (outsider)

• Russia just attacked them (Crimean War)

  • Knows that even though Britain, France etc. saved them, they are NOT friends… 

  • Only saved to stop Russian territorial expansion/acquire unfair trade treaties signed in favor of France/Britain

• Not a Christian nation

• No one helped them when Romania, Serbia, Greece, etc. broke away, even though by the principle of Intervention and legitimacy, others were bound to help

• Contains too many different culture groups

  • People want to break away. Several have: Egypt, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania

• Too busy keeping things together to get involved in claiming overseas colonies.  They have NONE

• Not industrialized

• Lost first Balkan war against Greece, Serbia, and Romania, wants territory back!

Italy

• Unified late.  

• Has a few colonies in Africa

• Somewhat industrialized

• Got into its alliance because it felt vulnerable next to larger industrialized nations (not because it was actually friends with its allies)

• Wants to remain neutral in conflicts but knows this might not be possible

The United States

• Wants to remain neutral in Europe’s wars

• Has trade deals with most powerful European nations (both sides of the coming war)

• Immigrants from all European nations make it hard for America to pick sides

  • Colonized by England

  • France helped us win independence

  • Tons of Irish settlers (HATE the English)

  • Tons of German settlers in Midwest

• Busy doing its own thing in Latin America

• The United States WILL GET INVOLVED when its trade is threatened.

Austria

• Contains too many different culture groups

  • People want to break away

  • Forced to share power with Hungary

  • Too busy keeping things together to get involved in claiming overseas colonies.  They have NONE

  • Want to annex more territory in the Balkans

• Congress of Vienna happened in Austria, and Austria was crucial in helping break it

  • Knows that Russia hates them for not helping them, when Austria owed them 

  • Not consistent 

• A complicated history with Germany

  • Same language, similar customs

  • Germany united central Europe, took power and influence from Austria

  • Had an alliance against Denmark, won the war, but Germany betrayed them later and stole one of these provinces.

Militarism

• Militarism: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interest. Glorification of the military. (Science + Industry!)

• More than just soldiers

  • Disciplined training

    • Even some training weapons on people in colonies (“soft targets”)

  • Military ships and airplanes

  • Soldiers carried lots of weapons

  • Industrialization played a huge role

    • Factories built artillery and other weapons

Alliances

• Alliances: a union or association formed for mutual benefit, especially between countries

• Alliances change

  • Italy Switches sides

  • Russia Surrenders.  Leaves alliance

  • Ottomans join up later

Imperialism

• Imperialism: a policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomatic, military, or economic domination of another country.

• Britain has many colonies

Nationalism

• Feelings of pride in a nation, its history and its people, though not necessarily its ruler.  

  • Germany - get its rightful place in the sun

  • Most European Nations: Propaganda that appeals to your sense of nationalism, make you want to join the military

• Being forced to be part of a larger nation, and wanting to break away to form your own nation.

  • Serbs wanted their own Slavic nation of Serbia free from Austria. Supported by Russia who is also Slavic (actually have an informal alliance)

  • Austria sees Serbia as a threat: there are other Slavic people in Austria clamoring for independence.  If Serbia is allowed to exist, Austria will disintegrate.

• Propaganda is the spreading of ideas to promote a cause or damage an opposing cause.

  • Used by basically all governments (even not in war time)

  • A kind of psychological warfare meant to shape public perception in a specific intended way.  

  • There are many different kinds

    • Portrays others as monsters, shows adventure, appeals to almost everything, guilt tripping

The Great War Begins

Militarism

• Most European nations “felt” that there was a war brewing.

• Most nations took time to add men and weapons to their military arsenals.

• Most wars previously fought had been very limited engagements, each nation thought that suing for peace once the conflict started would be an easy process

• MUCH more complicated once you have multiple combatants on each side

Alliances

• Two major alliances form: (major players only, other nations like Serbia or the US might already be, or will become members)

• Entente: Mutual Agreement to follow certain policies, not quite a treaty

• Triple Alliance 

  • Germany (convinced France is going to attack them to avenge FP War)

  • Italy

  • Austria

• Triple Entente

  • France

  • Great Britain

  • Russia (Both France and Great Britain have independent alliances with Russia that merge into one later on)

Imperialism

• Germany felt that it had gotten a “left out” of much of 19th century imperialism 

  • Unified much later than other nations.  

• Not fair for England and France to own everything, other countries conspire to keep them down

• Germans were proud

  • Aryan race: founder of western culture

  • New Industrial, scientific, education, etc. leader of Europe since the second industrial revolution

  • Germany felt that it deserved an empire of its own, the only way to achieve that was through war

Nationalism

• 2 types

  • Feelings of pride in a nation, its history and its people, though not necessarily its ruler.  

    • Germany - get its rightful place in the sun

    • Most European Nations: Propaganda that appeals to your sense of nationalism, make you want to join the military

  • Being forced to be part of a larger nation, and wanting to break away to form your own nation.

    • Serbia, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria win independence from Ottoman Empire.  

      • Immediately fight among themselves over territory.  Balkans are the “Powder keg of Europe”

    • These nations have large Slavic populations (an ethnic group).  Russia feels that it is its duty to support these nations as they just start out.

The Spark that Lit the Powder Keg

• All starts with Bosnia

  • People from Serbia are ethnically Slavic.

  • Used to be a part of the Ottoman Empire, so they have been ruled for nearly 400 years by someone else involuntarily.  Don’t want that ever again!

  • Shares a border with Austria

  • There are Serbs and other ethnic Slavs living in Bosnia (one of Austria’s newest [1908] and most unhappy provinces)

• This is obviously a dangerous world for small non-industrialized nations.  

• Serbian nationalists think it would be safer for them if Serbia were larger

  • Serbs and other Slavs already live next door.  They are unhappy with Austrian rule  

  • Break Bosnia away from Austria

    • Serbia becomes bigger, safer, people from former Austria will be happier with a government of their own.

• Heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand announced that he was making a visit to Bosnia.

  • News of visit was stirring up unrest among nationalist groups

  • One such nationalist group, the “Young Bosnians” sent several men to Serbia.  

    • Once there they met a Serbian nationalist (terrorist?) movement known as the "Black Hand"  who gave them weapons so they could kill the archduke.

• The idea was that if he was assassinated:

  • Austria/Hungary would see how unhappy Bosnia was with the recent annexation

  • Bosnia would be grateful to Serbia and join them, creating a larger, stronger nation

  • Among the assassins was a man named Gavrilo Princip

The Spark

• Takeaways:

  • Franz Ferdinand acted like a moron!  You have lots of warning that these people want to kill you…..maybe follow other people’s advice?

  • The Young Serbs actually assassinated the very person who was both willing and able to prevent a larger scale conflict

    • They would have been a part of a larger nation, thus safer than before

    • Hungary rules its own part of the empire, Serbia probably would have been part of (if not the center of) the Slavic part of a triumvirate style kingdom.  

      • All the benefits of an empire with autonomy.

The Wick

• Emperor Francis Joseph still tried to pursue peace.

  • All anti-Austrian Serbian groups had to cease their activities (Black Hand)

  • Bring people who facilitated this to justice

  • Allow Austria into the investigation

• Unfortunately, Austria arrested thousands of Serbs and other Slavs living in Bosnia

• Germany didn’t help.

  • Wanted war to increase their territory

  • Offered Austria a “blank check” in support of them, should they need to go to war.

• Serbia wouldn’t agree to all of Austria’s terms, so Austria declared war on Serbia (July 24, 1914)

• Austria begins executions of imprisoned Serbs

Boom….

• Serbia asks Russia for help

  • Try to talk Austria out of war.  Fail

  • Russia began to mobilize (get ready) its forces

• Germany takes this as an act of war.

  • Declared war against Russia and Serbia.

• Russia turns to its two allies, Britain and France.

  • France offers Russia a blank cheque of its own.  

  • Germany warns France to stay out. France refuses.  Germany declares war on France

• Neutral (don’t take a side) Nations

  • England, Italy, Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal

The War Begins

• Germany didn’t want to fight another war like the 7 Years’ War (2 fronts) 

• They tried to attack France from the north instead of the east where France was strong.  (Germany and France have a large shared border) 

  • This would “cut the head off the snake” if they could capture Paris 

• In order to do this, Germany launched an invasion of Belgium.

  • This was part of what was called the Schlieffen plan, named so for the German General (former Chief of Staff) who devised it.

• Great Britain had been neutral until the invasion of Belgium (they too have a pact).  This triggered GB entering the war on the side of France and Russia.