Post on 08-Feb-2016
description
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Origins of WWI
1. Germany2. Balkans3. Arms Race4. Alliance system
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“Shot heard ‘round the world.” 28 June 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. Sarajevo, Bosnia
Gavrilo Princip; Black Hand
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Germany
Empire (1871) Industrial growth Leadership
Bismarck Wilhelm II
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Steel Productions of European Powers, 1870-1914 (in million tons)
1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1914
*Germany 0.3 0.7 2.3 6.7 13.8 14.0
Austria-Hungary -- -- 0.5 1.2 2.2 2.7
France 0.3 0.4 0.7 1.6 3.4 3.5
*Great Britain 0.7 1.3 3.6 5.0 5.9 6.5
Russia -- -- 0.4 1.5 3.5 4.1
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Bismarck (1815-98)
Chancellor )1871-90(
German foreign policy
Balance of power in Europe
1879 Dual Alliance
1881 Three Emperors’ League
1882 Triple Alliance
Isolate France
Otto von Bismarck
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“France will have but one thought: to reconstitute her forces, gather her energy…raise her young generation to form an army of the whole people…to become again a great France, the France of 1792, the France of an idea with a sword. Then one day she will be irresistible. Then she will take back Alsace-Lorraine.”
French writer Victor Hugo )1802-85(
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Bismarck (1815-98)
Chancellor )1871-90(
German foreign policy
Balance of power in Europe
1879 Dual Alliance
1881 Three Emperors’ League
1882 Triple Alliance
Isolate France
Otto von Bismarck
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Kaiser Wilhelm II )1888-1918(
Destabilizing factor
Belligerent foreign policy
Forced Bismarck to resign )1890(
Weltpolitik: “world policy”
Allowed alliance with Russia to lapse )1890(
Focused support on Austria-Hungary
War between Aus-Hung & Russ more likely?
Wilhelm in 1897: “Nothing must henceforth be settled in the world without the intervention of Germany and the German Emperor.”
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“The Emperor is like a balloon; if one did not hold him fast on a string, he would go no one knows whither” - Bismarck
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Balkans
Ottoman Empire (1299-1922)Pan-SlavismSerbia (1878)Austria-HungaryRussia
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Austro-Hungarian Empire 1867-1918
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Balkans
Ottoman Empire (1299-1922)Pan-SlavismSerbia (1878)Austria-HungaryRussia
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Arms Race )militarism(
Germany
Britain
Dreadnought )1906(
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Alliances
1879 Dual Alliance
1882 Triple Alliance
1894 Franco-Russian alliance• ended French isolation
1904 Entente Cordiale
1907 Triple Entente
Bismarck's nightmare
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Europe c. 1907
Europe: two allied camps
Balkans: unstable area – forces of nationalism
Austria-Hungary & Russia: struggle for influence in Balkans
Germany & Austria-Hungary: strong relationship