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| Franco-Prussian war broke out and lasted until January of 1871. Germany's usurpation of Alsace and Lorraine. |
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| Unification of Germany (including Alsace and Lorraine). This completely upset the balance of power in Europe by threatening France, Russia and Britain's navy and industrial output and in terms of European hegemony. It initiated new colonial rivalries thus causing the Scramble for Africa. Germany was based on Militarism. |
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| The Triple Alliance was formed by Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy who promised each other mutual support in the event of an attack by any two other powers. |
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| The Triple Entente was formed by France, Britain and Russia in response to the Triple Alliance. ended Britain’s foreign policy of ‘splendid isolation’ which had lasted the past decade, a policy which aimed to retain the balance of power in Europe by Britain diplomatically isolating itself. |
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| Colonialism 1905 and 1906 |
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| The first Moroccan crisis, caused by Germany and France's battle for power in Morocco. Kaiser Wilhelm used 'brinkmanship'. . The international Algeciras conference met where Russia and Britain supported France, who as a result gained joint (with Spain) control over the police forces of Morocco. |
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| The Bosnian Crisis began in 1908 when Bulgaria declared its independence and Austria-Hungary announced the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The following day, Serbia mobilized its army and demanded that the annexation be reversed or Serbia should receive compensation in the form of a small strip of land; these demands were rejected. The annexation and Bulgarian declaration were viewed as violations of the Treaty of Berlin. The Ottoman Empire boycotted Austro-Hungarian goods and France, Britain, Russia and Italy wished to organise a conference regarding the matter but German opposition made this impossible. |
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| In 1909 the Powers reached an agreement and the Treaty of Berlin was amended, thus ending the Bosnian crisis. The crisis permanently damaged Austria-Hungary’s relations with Russia and Serbia and the solutions to these crises were only temporary. The European powers treated citizens and resources of the countries they ruled as their belongings; this era of colonialism is now referred to as ‘New Imperialism’ and the building of ‘empires for empires sake’. |
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| In 1907 Europe’s militarism developed to a higher degree, especially in Russia and Germany who employed increasing military influence on policy making. As the sense of impending war grew the arms race became particularly serious. At this point Germany’s government was referred to as a “State within a state” because the military rulers refused to respond to the civilian leadership. |
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| The decline of Turkey came in 1911-1912 when they lost the Italo-Turkish war and the ‘Young Turks’ fell from power. The Balkan countries saw this as an opportunity for attack and empire expansion. By 1912 Serbia had gained complete Russian support as Russia felt a cultural obligation to defend its Slavic brothers. Serbia became pan-Slavic and sought to unite all Slavic people into one geographic location by the name of Yugoslavia (or Jugoslavia) under Russia’s protection. |
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| The first Balkan war occurred in 1912 when Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia attacked the Ottoman Empire, ending its rule over the Balkans which resulted in the Treaty of London. |
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| The Second Balkan War broke out when Bulgaria, was dissatisfied over the division of Macedonian land. Serbia and Greece attacked Bulgaria. After this Bulgaria lost most of the territories gained in the First Balkan War. |
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| On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, were shot dead in Sarajevo, by Gavrilo Princip, an insurgent from the Serbian Pan-Slavist group The Black Hand. The Austrio-Hungarian government believed that the political objective of the assassination was to break Austria-Hungary's south-Slav provinces off so they could be combined into a Yugoslavia. They believed that the Serbian government was behind it and sent Serbia a ridiculous ultimatum which if agreed to, would give A-H full control of Serbia. This was rejected and A-H began shelling Belgrade. The Russian army mobilised in defence of Serbia and the German army mobilised in defence of Austria-Hungary, following the Schlieffen plan. This breached the Treaty of London, which David Lloyd George chose to uphold, as Belgium would be attacked by Germany. Britain sent Germany an ultimatum; do not enter Belgium or Britain would declare war on Germany. Germany did not reply to Britain’s ultimatum. |
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| Colonialism was a factor that brought Europe to the brink of war several times. Germany wished for a ‘place in the sun’ as Britain had in India but Germany had to work very hard for this as they were behind all the other powers in the race for the largest empire. During the scramble for Africa the partitioning of land caused many imperial disputes between the powers as each of them wanted the largest share of land for their empire. |
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