Transcript World War I Long Term causes

World War I
Long-term causes
Militarism
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Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan: The Influence
of Sea Power on History (1890)
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Taking examples largely from British history,
argued that sea power always been the
foundation of Britain’s greatness
In long run, sea power would always choke off
and ruin power operating on land.
Mahan was feted in England; met Kaiser as well
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Mahan’s book placed on all German ships
Japan also had it translated, adopted as text
at Japanese military and naval colleges
1898: Admiral Tirpitz launches German naval
program
Germans insisted they must have a navy to
protect their colonies, secure their foreign
trade, and “for the general purposes of their
greatness.”
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British: densely populated industrial island,
dependent even for food upon imports, must
at all costs control the sea in both peace and
war.
Traditional policy of maintaining a navy as
large as the next two combined.
Naval race led both sides to enormous
spending
British: sense of insecurity driving them
inescapably into arms of Russia & France
Imperialism
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Berlin Conference: 1885 Partition of Africa among
the European powers
Friction and Near blows of Europeans in Africa
1885-1900
Portuguese: annexed chunks of Angola and
Mozambique
Italians: took possession of 2 barren tracts (Italian
Somaliland, Eritrea on the Red Sea)
They moved inland towards Ethiopia where they
were repelled
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Germans: took possession of German E. Africa,
Cameroons, Togo on S.W. African coast
They had come in late to the race for empires.
French: Most of West Africa from Algeria, Sahara
and part of Sudan towards the Guinea Coast
British: held most of North towards central Africa and
Sudan
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1895: British raided the Transvaal state in South
Africa unsuccessfully
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1898: French and British met at Fashoda in the
Sudan causing a crisis between the two countries.
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France backs down but resentful of England.
1904: British and French agreed to forget Fashoda
and accumulated bad feeling of the preceding years.
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1896: Wilhelm II sent telegram to President of Transvaal
congratulating them for successfully repelling the Invaders.
French recognized British occupation of Egypt and English
recognized French occupation of Morocco.
Agreed to support each other. (Entente Cordiale)
French soon brought England to reconciliation with
Russia
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(over issues in Persia and Afghanistan) and thus was
formed the Triple Entente
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Morocco 1905: French dominated economically with
a freer reign after Entente with England.
1905: Kaiser Wilhelm disembarked from German
warship and gives speech in favor of Moroccan
independence. (1st Moroccan Crisis)
Conference in Algeciras 1906: The only other
country besides Germany that sided against French
claims on Morocco was Austria.
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British stood by France.
German attempt to break Entente only made it more solid.
1911: German gunboat Panther arrives at Agadir in
Morocco "to protect German interests." It was only
stalled but it led to the mounting tension in France.
Alliances
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1871: Treaty of Frankfurt
Bismarck accepted impossibility of making a
friend of France
Tried to make it hard for France to undertake
offensive campaign against Germany
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Large indemnity
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Throw France into financial chaos
Annexation of Alsace-Lorraine
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Rich territory, promising ground for attack
Alliances
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1873: Three Emperors’ League
France must be deprived of the allies she
required for a possible war of revenge
Efforts would be concentrated on AustriaHungary and Russia
Rulers of these countries didn’t regard
Germany as international criminal
Monarchical ties bound together ruling
families against republican France
Alliances
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1879: Dual Alliance
Germany and Austria-Hungary
France’s recovery from war quicker than
expected
Now must deprive France of most likely ally
Offered Austria-Hungary a guarantee against
attack by Russia
Austrians signed (more fearful of Russian
attack than hopeful of reversing 1866)
Alliances
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1887: Reinsurance Treaty: Germany and Russia
Attempt to continue alliance with Russia
Bismarck still intent upon diplomatic isolation of France from all
continental powers.
Secret treaty was split in two parts:
 Germany and Russia both agreed to observe neutrality should
the other be involved in a war with the third. Neutrality would not
apply should Germany attack France or Russia attack AustriaHungary.
In secret protocol Germany declared herself neutral in the event
of a Russian intervention in the Bosporus and the Dardanelles.
As part of Bismarck's system of "periphere diversion" the treaty
was highly dependent on his personal reputation.
Bismarck’s dismissal, the German office of foreign affairs felt
unable to obtain success in keeping this policy.
Alliances
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German complaints of being encircled by
France and Russia with threat of war on two
fronts
French dread of a conflict with Germany
made her cling to Russia
England was intent on having free reign on
the seas
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Austria and Russia were both tottering
empires
Austria with her chronic nationalist agitation:
drew Germany in
Russia with her czarist regime suffering from
revolutionism: drew in France and then
England
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Most backward or politically bankrupt parts of
Europe (Austria-Hungary and Russia),
through the alliance system were able to drag
the more advanced parts (Britain, France and
Germany) automatically into ruin!
Nationalism
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Teetering Ottoman Empire: Where would the
spoils land?
Austria-Hungary: scheduled to be the next
“sick man of Europe” if the Ottoman Empire
fell.
Pan-slavism of the Balkan states
German sense of not having their “place in
the sun” only a place in the “shade”
Schlieffen Plan
Quote
from Schlieffen:
"heart of France lies
between Brussels and
Paris"
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He had been an admirer of Hannibal's double
envelopment of the Romans at Cannae.
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Heavily one sided R wing spreading across
Belgium, sweeping down through the country
like a hay rake, crossing Franco-Belgian
frontier along its entire width and descending
upon Paris along the Valley of the Oise.
German mass would come between the
capital and the French armies which, drawn
back to meet the menace, would be caught
away from their fortified areas in a decisive
battle of annihilation.
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Deliberately weak German L wing on the
Alsace Lorraine front would tempt the French
in that area forward into a sack between Metz
and the Vosges.
Held there by left wing while main victory
would come from behind
Would wipe out French army!