Balkan Problem
The outbreak of a revolution in Turkey in
1908 by a group of liberal patriots, who called
themselves the "Young Turks", overthrew the
Sultan's rule. As fallout of these developments,
Austria decided to annex Bosnia and
Herzegovina, which it had been administering
since 1878. This brought protests from Russia. It
demanded that Austria's action be brought before
an international conference. The Serbians, who
had nurtured hopes of acquiring Bosnia-
Herzegovina some day, joined the Russians in
their protest.
But Germany and Austria held that they
would not agree to a conference unless the
annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina was
recognized beforehand. Ultimately, they had their
way largely because Russia, after its defeat at
the hands of Japan, was in no position to go to
war against Austria-Hungary and Germany at
this juncture. This incident revealed the might of
Germany and its growing ability to strongly assert
itself, though on this occasion on behalf of
Austria. This tendency had ominous forebodings
for the future. Italy entered into a secret
understanding with Russia in 1909 whereby it
promised to support Russia's interests in the Straits
of Dardanelles in return for Russia's support for
Italian designs in Tripoli (Libya).
Run Up to the War
In 1889 England had adopted a "two-power
standard" whereby the British would have a
naval fleet 10% stronger than the combined
navies of the two next-strongest powers.
Germany had in 1898 embarked on a course of
naval expansion which made it the secondstrongest
naval power in the world by 1914. This
was galling for England which felt that Germany
did not really require a navy, especially since it
already had such a powerful army. A naval
build-up could only mean that it wished to
challenge Britain's naval supremacy sometime in
the future. The naval rivalry worsened relations
between Germany and Britain considerably.
1912, Italy suddenly decided to take the
plunge and annexed Tripoli. It had secured the
consent of all the major powers in this campaign
and hence there was no major Moroccan-type
crisis this time. In October 1912 Greece and Serbia
invaded the Ottoman Empire and decisively
defeated it. By the Treaty of London of May 1913,
the Ottoman Empire lost all its European
possessions except the region adjacent to the
Straits of Dardanelles.
In the immediate run-up to the First World
War the growing strength and aggressive designs
of Serbia were an important contributory factor.
This small country was determined to add to its
territories. Immediate cause of the First World
War was the assassination of Archduke Francis
Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne at the
Bosnian capital of Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. A
secret society of Serbian nationalists called the
"Black Hand" was responsible for the killing. Even
though the Serbian government did not have any
hand in the assassination, Austria was
determined to punish Serbia for the murder. On
28 August 1914, it broke off diplomatic relations
with Serbia and declared war on it. Russia,
anxious about Serbia's fate, also prepared for war
against Austria.
Germany, on seeing this, sent an ultimatum
to Russia demanding that it cease its preparations
for war. On receiving a reply from the Tsar that
this was impossible, Germany declared war on
Russia on 1 August 1914. It followed it up with
a declaration of war on France two days later.
The idea was to strike France at its most
vulnerable spot, at the border between France
and Belgium. It was Germany's invasion of
Belgium which brought Britain into the war.
Behind Serbia was the long-standing conflict
between the Russians and the Austrians. Austria
had Germany as a strong ally and Russia had
France. If France was threatened with invasion,
Britain felt vulnerable and was therefore
compelled to come to the rescue of France.
Reasons of World War 1
The beginning of the century witnessed the
division of the world into major international
forces based on distinct ideologies. Since their
conflicts and rivalries could not be resolved
through any peaceful mechanism, they resulted
in the outbreak of the two world wars. The two
wars were caused by a variety of factors. Some
of the most important ones are discussed below.
Industrialization & Economic Rivalries
The opening years of the nineteenth century
saw the industrial manufacturing techniques
extended beyond England to more and more
states, such as Belgium (1815-30), Sweden,France, United States and Prussia (1840-60),
Norway, Russia and Japan (1870-90). Rapid
growth of the American and German economies
began to displace England from this position of
pre-eminence from the 1880s. The growth of
Japan after the Meiji restoration (1868) and
industrialization of Russia further altered the
global economic environment.
A crisis seemed imminent as the expanding
industrialization tended to globalise the economy.
In fact, the world system of capitalism was still
working in the form of competing "national
economies". The closing years of the nineteenth
century did see the crystallization of this trend.
The latecomers in the field of industrialization
(such as Prussia, Russia and Japan) were staking
claims beyond the "national territories". The Pan-
German League, founded in 1893 and
representing right-wing conservative forces
wanted economic and territorial control over
Central Europe. They claimed Belgium, the
French iron ore district, the French channel coast
to the Somme and a Mediterranean base at
Toulon, along with Poland and the Baltic states.
They also envisaged a Central European
federation comprising Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria,
Romania, the Netherlands, Switzerland,
Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland under
the leadership of Germany together with German,
French and Belgian colonies attached to it.
Hitler not only wanted a union (Anschluss)
with Austria but also aimed to get sufficient
living-space (Lebensraum) for the German
'people'. The Italian right-wing similarly used
class-concepts of 'proletarian' (have-nots) and
'plutocratic' (have) nations to redefine
international relations and to claim colonies for
a 'proletarian' Italy. In Japan, similarly, the rightwing
militant nationalists (Black Dragon Society
1901), Empire Foundation Society (1926), and
Japan Production Party (1931), demanded an
"equitable distribution of world resources". They
even favoured military action to establish "A Coprosperity
Zone" in the East under the Japanese
leadership.
Camp Formations and Arms Build Up
In 1879, Germany and Austria-Hungary
agreed to go to war if either country was
attacked by Russia. Italy joined the agreement in
1882, and it became known as the Triple Alliance.
In 1894, France and Russia agreed to mobilize
troops if any nation in the Triple Alliance
mobilized forces. They agreed to help each other
if either were attacked by Germany. In 1904,
alarmed by German naval buildup, Britain ended
their "splendid isolation". It not only settled the
past differences over colonies but also signed the
Entente Cordiale (friendly agreement) with
France. Although the agreement contained no
pledges of military support, the two countries
began to discuss joint military plans. In 1907,
Russia joined the Entente Cordiale, and it became
known as the Triple Entente. These alliances left
Europe divided into two hostile camps.
The First and Second Hague Conferences
(1899 and 1907) failed to achieve anything
concrete on the issue of armament reduction.
The Court of Arbitration set up at Hague to deal
with inter-state conflicts also proved futile. The
armament race and military build-ups by the
European powers, in anticipation of this war,
continued at a frenzied pace.
In the end, on one side stood a united
Germany, already the most powerful land power
militarily and economically, allied with the large
and outwardly confident empire of Austria-
Hungary as also with Italy. On the other side
stood France, bitter in enmity over its defeat and
loss of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany in 1871,
seeking security by allying with Russia in 1892
and forming an ‘entente cordiale’ with its
traditional rival Great Britain in 1904.
Both sides amassed armaments, which were
becoming more lethal as advancing technologies
of explosives, metal design, petroleum fuel, and
shipbuilding were applied to them. Military chiefs
(notably Alfred Von Schlieffen of Germany)
planned strategies that relied on swift
mobilization, rapid offensive strike, and inevitable
escalation, which compressed the time for
political decision making and diplomatic control
of crises. Newspapers stimulated feelings of
danger, deprivation, and patriotism in public
opinion, which came to think of war as possible,
even desirable.
World War 1 Begins
Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on
28th July, 1914. Germany declared a war on
Russian on 1st August and on France on 3rd
August. Belgium was invaded by German forceson the same day and France was invaded on 4th
August. German violation of Belgium neutrality
gave the British a convenient excuse to enter the
war on the side of France and Russia. British
world-wide interests made the war a global
conflict, drawing into it the dominions of
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa
and the greatest British colonial possession, India,
and later the United States, because of close British
links with it.
Austria-Hungry attacked Russia on 6th
August and France and Britain declared war on
Austria-Hungary on 12th August. Italy,
diplomatically aligned with Austria and
Germany since the Triple Alliance of 1882,
declared its neutrality on 3rd August. In the
following months it was avidly pursued by France
and Britain. On 23rd May 1915, the Italian
government succumbed to allied temptations and
declared war on Austria-Hungary in pursuit of
territorial expansion.
