Causes+of+World+War+One+Revision

The Causes of World War One
Paper 1 Part A will often have questions on the causes of World War One. See the following for examples and use this page as a guide to your responses

The Alliance system in Europe before 1914:


 * Timelines are important as part of the appreciation of the sequence of events. Have a look at this timeline of events, prior to World War One- [|Events leading up to World War One]**

__ Agreement number 1: __ The Triple Alliance was formed between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy in 1882. In this agreement each country committed to supporting one another if they were attacked. __ Agreement number two: __ In 1894 France and Russia signed an agreement. The friendship between Germany Austria- Hungary and Italy worried France and Russia who both feared that they could be attacked and beaten by three powerful countries acting together. They agreed to help each other if either was attacked by Germany. __ Agreement number three: __ In the time that Britain was building her empire they fought a war against the Boers rebel settlers who wanted to be independent. During this war Germany showed sympathy for the Boers, so the British began to mistrust the Germans and looked for a friend in Europe. In 1903 King Edward of Britain signed an agreement with France called the “Entente Cordiale”. __ Agreement number four: __ Britain was no longer in “splendid isolation”. Three years later in 1907, Britain made a similar agreement with Russia who was already in alliance with France. By 1907 the Alliance System divided Europe into two parts, the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy) versus the Triple Entente (France, Russia and Great Britain).

The alliance system can be said to have helped start off the war due to the mobilization agreements in each country. There were many alliances being signed, renewed or broken in the years before the war broke out. The alliances were all done in secrecy causing tension and pressure in each of the six Great Powers. The alliance system that started the Great War was developed by Bismarck for the search for Germany's "place in the sun" and to prevent war. Germany devised a system of alliances to isolate France and to prevent a war of revenge against Germany over the loss of Alsace-Lorraine. The countries of Europe thought that the alliance system would act as a deterrent to war; it tied the countries together so that, when one country went to war, the others felt obliged to follow. The leaders of the other Great Powers were mostly worried about their armies, navies and colonies in the surrounding continents because Germany was looking to expand its empire. The alliance system's development would end up dragging all the powers into war in 1914 whether they were ready to fight or stand aside and watched as the European continent changed.

The alliance system made war more likely because if Europe, most of Africa, and the Middle East are on different sides, it means that it provides a feeling of "you're with us, or you're against us" which was felt on both alliances. Plus there was a big rivalry between Germany and Britain, Germany kept trying to build up its navy to Britain's size, and Britain was not going to let Germany do that. If the leaders of two alliances don't like each other, the members who are supporting on each side of the two alliances are going to dislike the other alliance supporting members because of their leader’s wants. So even before any guns were fired, we already had these two problems put against each other. Hence, this made WWI a lot more likely.

2. The Moroccan Crises

Causes of World War One The Moroccan Crises: **1)** **__The Tangier crisis: 1905__** What caused the crisis? The Tangier crisis was caused as a result of imperialism and nationalism colliding into one another. European countries were all colonizing African countries, and France wanted to bring Morocco into French West Africa. Morocco was weak and the French knew they could colonize them. What happened? Morocco was one of the only countries unoccupied by a foreign Western power, so France, in a bid to control most of north and west Africa, decided to take over this weak and unoccupied country, just as Germany was hoping to expand her empire. Different choatic events took place during a year between France and Germany fighting for Morroco, until Britain pushed France to take over.

What were the consequences? France and Germany were already not getting along, France, Britain and Russia had an alliance and war was approaching rapidly. War was avoided in each case; why? War was avoided because Britain backed France to stand up against Germany. None of the governments took responsibility for their actions and this crisis caused international panic, but, in this case, Germany was forced to back down at the conference in Algerias, Spain.

**__2. The Agadir Crisis__** __(1911)__

What caused crisis?

Kaiser Wilhelm wanted "A place in the sun", although Germany had promised to keep out of Morocco at Algerias. In 1906, the French Foreign Legion went into Morocco. In 1910, France made a huge loan to Morocco and took control of customs and taxes. France sent a gunboat to Agadir in southern Morocco, so the Germans were angry about it.

What happened?

In March 1911, there was a revolt in Fez, Morocco, against the rule of the Sultan. The French sent an army to defend their interests, which angered the Germans. In June 1911, the Germans said that they need to protect German citizens in southern Morocco even though there wasn't any. In July 1911 Kaiser Wilhelm sent the gunship "Panther" to Agadir, to rescue one German, although no Germans were 'rescued'.

What was the consequence?

The international crisis came, war-fever in Germany and Britain. Lloyd George attacked Germany (Mansion House Speech) and promised support for France. In November 1910, Germany was forced to remove the gunship and accept instead a small piece of land in the Congo. After that Morocco became a French colony.

War was avoided in each case, why?
The first crisis was far more serious than the second, but the situation was resolved when Germany accepted two strips of land in the Congo for recognizing and accepting that France had control over Morocco.

=__ 3. __ __ The Balkans __=

The First Balkan War:
The First Balkan War was started by an alliance made up of Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro, also known as Balkan League. The reason was their wish to expand their territories and a desire to respond to the repressive policies of the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan League agreed to ally themselves to take the offensive. On March 12, 1912, the Ottoman Empire signed a treaty which assigned northern Macedonia to Serbia and southern Macedonia to Bulgaria. Then Bulgaria and Greece signed a similar treaty and made use of military actions against Turkey. On October 8, 1912, Montenegro declared war against Turkey and 10 days later the allies entered the war. The First Balkan War was ended by a Treaty of London in 1913 on May 30th. The treaty was followed with a quarrel of spoils of the war and caused the Second Balkan War.

The Second Balkan War:
The Second Balkan War began when Serbia, Greece, and Romania disputed with Bulgaria over the division of their land in Macedonia. On June 1, 1913, Serbia and Greece formed an alliance against Bulgaria, and the war began on the night of June 29/30, 1913, when King Ferdinand of Bulgaria ordered his soldiers to attack Serbian and Greek forces in Macedonia. The Bulgarians were defeated, and a peace treaty was signed between the combatants on August 10, 1913. Under the terms of the treaty, Greece and Serbia divided up most of Macedonia between themselves, leaving Bulgaria with only a relatively small part of the region.

=
One of the main reasons that the Balkans created so much tension around them was the formation of Bismarck’s Dreikaiserbund. The main intention of this alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia, was for Germany to keep two ‘enemies’ against France, in order for them to be the ‘Greater Power’ against the others. However, two of the members of the Three Emperors’ League had conflicting views about the Balkans. Both Russia and Austria-Hungary hoped to gain control of the area; it was experiencing a drawn-out decline of the Ottoman Empire and they believed they could benefit from Turkey’s downfall. By forming an alliance with both opposing countries, Bismarck hoped to ease the tensions felt over the Balkans. No such thing happened and Bismarck was forced to realise that if a real conflict ever occurred, he would be forced to take a side if he was to remain an ally. He was keen to avoid doing this at all costs and spent a lot of his time trying to convince both countries that the Balkans were ‘not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier’. ===== ==== So the Balkans, situated in south-eastern Europe, had been an area of trouble long before problems arose in the late nineteenth century. However it was not until then that these problems really built up so much tension that they were sure to cause a crisis, which they inevitably did in 1878. This tension was not only a result of one thing; it had been borne from several reasons which had been built up with the events of the countries nearby. ====

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==**Why did the Balkan crisis of 1914 lead to World War I, when many other crises were resolved without a general war in Europe? **==

Well, there are to parts to this question:
= First, why did the crisis lead to a war between Austria and Serbia? = = Second, why did that conflict soon involve the rest of the Great Powers? =

From what we have seen about risk taking by the Austro-Hungarians and the Serbs, we can say something about why those two states went to war in 1914. I n the first place, both governments believed their prestige and credibility were on the line, not only in the international community, but at home. For the Austrians, a personal attack on the royal family required a strong response. For the Serbian regime, the humiliating Austrian terms would have undone all the progress made since 1903 in achieving independence from Habsburg meddling. In addition, Pasic and his ministers faced a real risk that right-wing extremists would kill them if they backed down. Austria-Hungary had no intention of replacing the Ottoman Empire as the "Sick Man of Europe," and Serbia refused to be treated as a weak country. Second, in 1914 both sides believed that they were in a strong position to win if war came. The Austrians had German backing; the Serbs had promises from Russia. Neither side considered the chance that the war would spread across Europe. Third, both sides focused on the gains of victory, and ignored the price of defeat. Fourth, there was too little fear of war. After the Greco-Turk war of 1897, the ethnic fighting in Macedonia, the two Balkan Wars, and the Italian war with Turkey in 1911, war in the Balkans was not unusual. No one foresaw what the World War would mean.

Finally, why was the local war between Austria and Serbia become a World War? Here, we can draw inferences from what we know of the Eastern Question and past Balkan politics. An essential element of Greek, Serb and Bulgarian nationalism had always been the destruction of the Ottoman Empire: the achievement of national unity necessarily meant the achievement of Ottoman collapse. The same choice pertained to Austria-Hungary. Concessions to Serbian nationalism could only make Vienna's problems worse, not solve them: after the South Slavs would come the Romanians, the Italians, the Czechs and Slovaks, each with their demands. The potential collapse of Austria-Hungary was important not only for the Vienna government, but for Austria's German ally, for the other Great Powers, and for the balance of power system. Because the clash with Serbia in 1914 affected an issue of such magnitude, it is not surprising that all the Powers soon became involved: all of them had interests at stake. The specific steps to the World War, and the division into two sides, reflected local considerations from Poland to Belgium: but the risk of world war, and not just war, entered the equation because of the ethnic issues behind the Sarajevo crisis of 1914

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__4.Franz Ferdinand Assassination: __ -Austria-hungary had an empire including Serbia -Serbia wanted independance from Bosnia -Terrorrist organisation called the Black Hand gets involved -one of the members was Gavrilo Princip, the successful assassin -The Archduke was assassinated in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia -this caused outrage in Austria -Russia was prepared to defend their fellow slavic country

Austrian's Archduke Franz Ferdinand __decided to visit Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovnia, to make an inspection of the Austro-Hungarian troops there. The inspection was scheduled for 28th June 1914. It was planned that Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie would be met at the station and taken by car to the City Hall where they would have lunch before going to inspect the troops.__

__A Serbian terrorist group, called The Black Hand, had decided that the Archduke should be assassinated and the planned visit provided the ideal opportunity. Seven young men who had been trained in b omb throwing and marksmanship were stationed along the route that Franz Ferdinand's car would follow from the City Hall to the inspection. __ __After they had set up along the ro ad with small intervals, they planned to kill the archduke in his car. The first assassin failed and tried to drown himself. This too failed and he was captured. The second person to attempt failed as well. They decided to leave it at that, however when Princip went to buy a sandwich, he found the archduke way off course, so he shot __ __ him in the head, as well as his wife. __

__This was considered a trigger rather than a short term cause it was the lit fuse that blew up the powder keg of tension created from the long term and the short term causes. This assassination brought all of the alliances into motion, making it a world war. without the assassination, none of the long term cause would have come into play.__

**Military Rivalrymedia type="youtube" key="LRWYB2CKEK0" width="420" height="315"**
//‘Naval rivalry was the cause of the First World War’. How far do you agree with this statement?//

Naval rivalry was certainly a cause of the Great War, but it was not the main cause. First of all, it was not the only military rivalry going on at the time: many countries were developing new weapons, including machine guns, tanks and airplanes (these were used almost singularly for reconnaissance, spotting enemy troops and correcting faulty artillery fire). The naval rivalry caused a lot of tension between Germany and Britain, but the war could have happened without it. However, without the naval rivalry, the war would have turned out very different, as Germany’s fleet would have been much less developed than Britain’s. The reasons for the outbreak of war in 1914 are complicated and speculated upon even today. The importance of each reason is not known but can be contemplated; but the reasons for the rising tensions in Europe before 1914 are all essential to the results of the Great War.