WHY GERMANY LOST IN WORLD WAR I

To what extent can it be said that the First World War was caused by the alliance system?

 

In my mind war would have happened anyway or they would have been a war between Germany, Britain, France, Russia and Austria –Hungary. Germany and Britain were the two war – endangered countries because they had a great naval and economic rivalry. An other point is that the people across the world were very eager to let the rest of the world know how strong and important their country was.

Germany for example thought that their country was better then others and they thought that they would be able to win a war very easily if there was one.

And many people lived in countries that were parts of empires, the Serbs for example. They all didn’t like being ruled by people with different languages and religions and this led to conflicts which could involve other nations because off the alliances and their agreement that stated that it was ‘essentially defensive and conservative’ with the aim of stopping anyone who ‘might threaten’ the alliance systems.

 

So you can ask you if the alliances were only a ‘friendly agreement’ between the nations or only an economical useful agreement for the nations. They also needed the help of the others in the war because of the regulation that one helped the others that was developing the domino effect.

 

 

I think that you can say that the First World War was partially caused by the alliance system.

The war broke out six weeks after the assassination, on 28 June 1914 of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, and his wife while they were visiting the present day of Bosnia. They were killed by , he was a member of the black hand, which was a secret society founded in Serbia in May 1911 as part of the

 nationalist movement.

The reason for this assassination was that the Serbs had hoped to conquer Bosnia themselves, but also Austria stopped Serbian pork going through Bosnia.

The Austrians dispatched an ultimatum to Serbia which demanded that Serbia suppress all anti – Austrian ‘subversion’ and accept the assistance of imperial officials in carrying this out. Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward grey described the ultimatum as ‘the most formidable document I had ever seen addresses by one state to another that was independent.’ After the assassination the Austrian government chose to regard this as a rejection of the ultimatum and declared war, with the support of Germany.

The other European states interpreted the oath of allegiance into provided that wrong, that they could not imagine that Austria is the driving force behind the events. The carte blanche provided a stepping in German in the case of one of stepping in Russian. Russia decided to support Serbia with militarily help on 25^th July.

Partial mobilization of the Russian army was carried out on 27 July. The German empire demanded the immediate repurchase of the Russian mobilization in an ultimatum. After this failed Germany declared war on Russia on 1^st August. Whereupon France allied with Russia also made mobile in expectation of a German attack.

So Germany developed the ‘Schlieffen Plan’ which relied on the quick movement of troops and the assumption that once Germany found itself at war with the Russia, it would also be at war with France. However in invading France, Belgium’s neutrality was violated and this brought Britain into the war.

This are the reasons for the domino effect. The alliance had an agreement that they supported each other when they would be attacked by an other nation. So every country tangled itself up into the war

 

 

The Scramble for Africa, when European countries had tried to get as many colonies as they could had, led to many small conflicts around the world. This meant that some of the major European powers were not very friendly towards each other.

 

Between 1905 and 1914, tensions between the European powers centred upon two disputed areas: the North African sultanate of Morocco and the Balkan states that had emerged from the wreckage the Turkish Empire.

Germany first tested the strength of the Anglo – French Entente in 1905 when the Kaiser interrupted a Mediterranean cruise to land at the Moroccan port of Tangier.

He mad a speech there supporting the independence of Morocco and this would upset Anglo – French agreements over colonial status of these territories because international question must be solved by including Germany and Germany might have wanted to weaken French position and so weaken her as an ally for Russia and Great Britain. But the Conference at Algerciras decided that France gained control of Moroccan police because Spain, Italy, Russia, Great Britain and USA thought that Germany was bullying and supported French rights.  So Germany had to accept France predominance and had no support except Austria – Hungary through they felt left out, the ministers were humiliated and Germany turned its back on future conferences. This event provided for a stronger tension.

 

In May 1911, the focus of European tension switched once more to Morocco. French troops occupied Fez a major city in Morocco. They were probably trying to establish a protectorate.

Germans felt their influence was being threatened, so they sent a gunboat the “Panther”. This incident provoked France and brought Europe to the brink of war.

 Britain would strengthen support for France. Germany broke up and they breached a compromise. Germany got land in Congo. There was a tension, too, because France had to give Germany a little strip of their colonial.

 

Britain and Germany were competing to have the most powerful navy in the world. This caused tension in Europe.

Between Germany and Britain was also growing a race who builds more Dreadnoughts as well as Submarines and ordinary battleships. In 1914 Britain was still in the lead. Between the European states were great competitions. They build primitive submarines, U – Boats or airships and planes to use over battlefields. They build also new fortresses, trench warfares and tunnels. So there were great competitions between the European states because everybody wanted to win the war. They only aroused still more interest with that because every country wanted to show who has the strongest naval.

 

A desire for independence many people in Europe lived in countries that were parts of Empires. They didn’t like all being ruled by people with different languages and religions and this led to conflicts that could involve other nations for example the annexation of Serbia. The Serbs didn’t want to be control by Austria and they wanted self-determination. So they could ask Russia for military help because they had interest in this colonial and there would be a conflict between Russia, Austria – Hungary and the Serbs.

 

Allied to this growing militarism was an intense nationalism in most of the great Powers. Germany for example thought that their country was better then other countries and they thought that they would be able to win a war very easily if there was one. The French desire for revenge over Alsace and Lorraine was very strong. In Britain Imperialism and support for the Empire was very evident. This nationalism meant that there was little resistance to war in these countries.

 

Russia wanted to prevent Austrian expansion along their south – western boundaries or expand into the Slav lands. Austrian’s requirements were very similar. They wanted expand into Serbian lands to counter Slav nationalism, which was a threat to the multinational empire and prevent Russian expansion along their south – eastern boundaries. Austria – Hungary and Russia aimed at expansion in the Balkan because the geographically position was strategically important for the trade and defence and still belonged to the declining Ottoman Empire. The Balkan an area between Black Sea and Mediterranean was so popular because of its geographical position makes it very valuable for trade. Through it was so interesting arose also many conflicts and enmities for example the fought over the Balkans by Austria, Russia and Turkey.

1908 Austria annexes Bosnia, thereby aggravating with Serbia and Russia. In this point you can also see the domino effect because normally Russia wouldn’t be involved in this war, but because of the ally from Russia and Serbia and the colonial interests of Russia, Russia would be include. Germany was also brought into the problem because it was bound with Austria – Hungary and it didn’t want Russia into the Balkans. On account of the dissatisfaction and the offence in Serbia, the Black Hand builds up.

 

 

Without  the domino effect the war wouldn’t be extent so much. And the domino effect is arosed through the alliance because everybody was connected with a country who had war. Everbody helped his ally so that all nations got involved in. So in my opinion war had been happened anyway but may be only between two or three nations and not a World War. One example is that one of Germany’s aims was to annex Belgian ports, Luxemburg and some of France. Britain come into this war because Belgium’s neutrality was violated and Russia because it had an alliance with France and Britain.

 

This war was marked by threats, diplomatic faults and political miscalculations. I think that the biggest fault was that the alliance was created because of this alliance arosed immediately a conflict between the Triple Alliance ( Germany, Austria – Hungery and Italy) and the Triple – Entente ( France, Britain and Russia).