World War I

1. World War I Long-term causes

2. Militarism • Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan: The Influence of Sea Power on History (1890) • 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

3. 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.”

4. 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

5. Imperialism • 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

6. 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

7. 1895: British raided the Transvaal state in South Africa unsuccessfully • 1896: Wilhelm II sent telegram to President of Transvaal congratulating them for successfully repelling the Invaders. • 1898: French and British met at Fashoda in the Sudan causing a crisis between the two countries. • France backs down but resentful of England. • 1904: British and French agreed to forget Fashoda and accumulated bad feeling of the preceding years. • 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 • (over issues in Persia and Afghanistan) and thus was formed the Triple Entente

8. 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. • 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.

9. Alliances • 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 • Large indemnity • Throw France into financial chaos • Annexation of Alsace-Lorraine • Rich territory, promising ground for attack

10. Alliances • 1873: Three Emperors’ League • France must be deprived of the allies she required for a possible war of revenge • Efforts would be concentrated on Austria-Hungary and Russia • Rulers of these countries didn’t regard Germany as international criminal • Monarchical ties bound together ruling families against republican France

11. Alliances • 1879: Dual AllianceGermany 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)

12. Alliances • 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 Austria-Hungary. • 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.

13. Alliances • 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

14. 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

15. 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!

16. Nationalism • 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”

17. Schlieffen Plan • Quote from Schlieffen: "heart of France lies between Brussels and Paris" • He had been an admirer of Hannibal's double envelopment of the Romans at Cannae.

18. 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.

19. 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!