The Causes of World War One
How Europe descended from peace to the Great War
Throughout the latter half of the 19th century, the established balance of power in Europe began to shift irrevocably. From a period of relative peace in comparison to previous centuries, the tension between Europe’s Great Powers came to a head in 1914 with the beginning of World War One. The Great War was one of the bloodiest wars in human history, only matched by such struggles as the Taiping Rebellion and World War II. While the war itself is a fascinating topic, the events and tension leading up to the Great War are just as captivating and important.
State of the World Powers
In the decades following the Revolutions of 1848, the multitude of small states in Germany and Italy had successfully unified their nations under the leadership of Prussia and Piedmont-Sardinia respectively. The Second French Empire under the leadership of Napoleon III, nephew of the famous conqueror and emperor, had been overthrown in 1871 following a major defeat by the Prussians in the Franco-Prussian War, resulting in the creation of the German Empire. At the turn of the 20th century, the Great Powers of the world consisted of the British Empire, French Republic, German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kingdom of Italy, and the rising powers of the Empire of Japan and the United States of America. Several of the European powers, Britain and France in particular, had enormous empires controlling most of Africa and huge swathes of Asia, while the Russian Empire too was expanding its influence into Asia. The Ottoman Empire, though on the decline, still held sway in the Middle East and Balkans. Simply put, the established Great Powers of the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and Austria-Hungary held vast empires and sought to keep them while the new powers of Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States hoped to carve out their own places in the world.
Alliance System
Throughout the latter half of the 19th century, the Great Powers formed alliances among themselves. While these alliances were constantly shifting, the major alliance systems at the onset of World War One were the Triple Alliance of Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary, and the Triple Entente of France, Russia, and Britain. Britain also formed an alliance with the rising power of Japan in 1902 focused against Russia. Because of these alliances between the Great Powers, what might have been a small, regional war when Austria-Hungary invaded Serbia in 1914, expanded into a global conflict when Russia stepped in to protect Serbia. With Russian involvement, Germany became involved to protect their ally, causing France to intervene against Germany, and so on until the war expanded around the world with fighting from Europe to Africa and from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Nationalism
Following the Napoleonic Wars and Revolutions of 1848, nationalism took hold across Europe. Intense feelings of national pride were overwhelming in the nations and empires of the continent, leading to nationalist independence movements in the multiethnic Russian, Ottoman, and Austro-Hungarian empires. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire in particular, ethnic groups such as Croats, Bosnians, Serbs, Slovenes, and Romanians hoped to join the newly independent states in the region or gain their own independence. In France, ideas of revanchism (revenge) were prevalent as the French people were eager to reclaim the territory of Alsace-Lorraine from Germany which had been conquered in the Franco-Prussian War. Germany too was intensely nationalist and eager to prove itself and eclipse the might of the other Great Powers.
“One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans.”
Otto von Bismarck, 1888
Imperial Competition
While Britain, France, and Russia built enormous empires over the course of the 19th century, Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary were left in the dust with a few minor colonies and concessions. As a result, Germany and Italy (Austria-Hungary was uninterested in a colonial empire because it was already struggling to maintain its continental empire) in particular wanted to expand their colonial empires, which would only be possible at the expense of the British and or French. Germany wanted more territory in central Africa to connect their colonies in southwest Africa and east Africa, and Italy desired more territory in east Africa and more of north Africa. Britain and Russia also had an ongoing rivalry over territory in central Asia, particularly Afghanistan. Russia and Japan had competing claims in East Asia, resulting in a catastrophic Russian defeat in the 1904–1905 Russo-Japanese War.
Militarism
Because of this combination of nationalism and competition for imperial territories, the Great Powers built up their militaries to massive new heights. All of the European Great Powers, with the exception of the United Kingdom, fielded large conscript armies in the hundreds of thousands in preparation for the outbreak of war. Leading up to the outbreak of war, there was a sense of pride in the militaries of the Great Powers, and they grew eager to test the new weapons and technological advances of the last few decades against one another.
Shifting Alliances and Rising Tensions
In the years preceding the Great War, several smaller wars and diplomatic incidents took place which continuously raised the tension between the Great Powers. In these years of relative peace, there were several potential flashpoints for a great war. However, none sparked the conflict until 1914. From the 1880s to the early 1900s, Britain and Germany were actually aligned as they shared common rivals, France and Russia. From 1898 to 1901, there were three rounds of negotiations between British and German diplomats which might have had Britain join the Triple Alliance, but these talks ultimately failed. Increasingly aggressive German foreign policy and the expansion of the German Imperial Navy lead to a falling out between the two powers, culminating in the 1904 Entente Cordiale, a treaty between France and Britain aimed at improving relations between the two powers. In 1904, war broke out between the Russian Empire and Japan as the two powers fought for control over Korea and northeastern China. This conflict threatened to bring Russia’s ally France and Japan’s ally Britain into a war, but the two ultimately agreed to avoid coming to blows over a war between their allies. Taking advantage of the distracted Russian Empire, Germany challenged French control of Morocco, triggering the First Moroccan Crisis. This crisis was manufactured by the German government in hopes of isolating the French and defeating them in a war, killing their friendship with Britain before it could be entrenched. Instead, the crisis only served to improve cooperation between the French and British as the two aligned against the Germans in the crisis. The First Moroccan Crisis was another potential spark of a Great War until it was resolved in the 1906 Algeciras Conference.
In the meantime, Russia was astonishingly and soundly defeated by the Japanese. The Russo-Japanese War came to an end with the 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth negotiated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. While this defeat was greatly destabilizing for Russia, it also showed Britain that Russia was not the major threat that it had been perceived as for decades. As a result, relations began to improve between the two powers and the Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 settled their disputes in central Asia and aligned the two against Germany. With this agreement, the loose alliance of the Triple Entente of Britain, France, and Russia was finalized. In 1908, Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina, a territory officially under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Again, this sparked a crisis that nearly caused a war between Austria-Hungary and Russia, which would have spiraled into a Great War. In the Summer of 1911, a Second Moroccan Crisis pitted the French and British against Germany, bringing the Great Powers to the verge of war once again, although the issue was settled with Morocco becoming a French protectorate and France and Germany exchanging some minor colonies in central Africa. With each crisis and smaller war in the decade preceding World War One, tensions between the Great Powers increased as compromises failed to appease everyone. In the end, these compromises and crises only served to increase tension which would explode in 1914.
The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the July Crisis
On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was assassinated in Sarajevo by Bosnian-Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip. From the gun of a 19-year-old student, one of the bloodiest wars in human history began. While this assassination would spark the much anticipated Great War, it would take an entire month to do so. From the end of June to 28 July 1914, a series of events known as the July Crisis culminated in the “War to End All Wars.” On 19 July, the Austrian government sent an ultimatum to Serbia, blaming their government for the assassination and demanding Serbian submission to Austria-Hungary. When Serbia refused, Austria-Hungary had justification for an invasion of Serbia. Serbia, a Slavic nation, was unofficially under the protection of the Russian Empire. From there, the alliance system caused what could easily have been another local war and crisis similar to those throughout the previous decade to balloon into a worldwide conflict. While there were attempts to compromise as with previous crises, they simply failed this time around.
Was it Preventable?
While World War One as we know it might have been preventable, another compromise could have settled the July Crisis, or Franz Ferdinand might not have been assassinated, a war between the Great Powers was inevitable. The underlying causes of the war made conflict unavoidable, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand was simply the spark. If Franz Ferdinand was not assassinated, a Great War would likely have still occurred because of the alliance system, intense nationalism, imperial competition, militarism, and rising tensions. Essentially, these causes made a Great War inescapable and one more diplomatic incident is all it took to light the powder keg.
Sources
Bridge F. R and Roger Bullen. 2005. The Great Powers and the European States System 1814–1914. 2nd ed. Harlow England: Pearson Longman.
Joll James and Gordon Martel. 2007. The Origins of the First World War Third ed. Harlow England: Pearson Longman.
