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What were the social, political, and economic effects of World War I on Europe
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Three wars determined the fate of Germany, the first one early in 1864 with Denmark, then in 1866 Austria, the final one, France. The last one, Franco-Prussian War in 1870-71 directly led to the founding of Germany after French defeat. The Prussian victory was due much to the isolation of France. A.J.P Taylor commented that "France was isolated in 1870 as Austria had been in 1866", and actually, these two isolations was the art of Bismarck's foreign policies. There is no doubt that the favourable international circumstances benefited Bismarck's foreign policies, but like what Taylor had commented that it is "inadequate to explain Bismarck's success solely by the mistakes of his opponents", acknowledging his contribution to the isolation of France in the …show more content…
Franco-Prussian War.
This essay thus includes the architects of the Iron Chancellor to isolate France before this war, his strategy to bring southern German states into war through French provocation, his superior planning during the invasion of French territory and his army’s advanced use of modern technology.
The causes of the Franco-Prussian War are deeply rooted in the events surrounding the unification of Germany. A consequence of the Austro–Prussian War of 1866, Prussia annexed numerous territories and created the North German Confederation. This new power of the North German Confederation destabilized the balance of power established by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 after the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon III, the emperor of France, demanded compensations in Belgium and on the left bank of
the Rhine to secure France's strategic position, which the Prussian chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, refused. Prussia then began to focus on its southern independent states, Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt, into a unified Prussia-dominated Germany. France was strongly against a unification of the German states, which would have significantly strengthened the Prussian military. In Prussia, officials considered a war against France both inevitable and necessary to spark German nationalism in those states that would allow the unification of a German empire. This goal was epitomized by Otto von Bismarck's later statement: "I did not doubt that a Franco-German war must take place before the construction of a United Germany could be realised.” Bismarck realized that France must also be the aggressor in the conflict to bring the southern German states to side with Prussia, giving Germans numerical superiority. Many Germans also viewed the French as the traditional destabilizer of Europe, and sought to weaken France to prevent further breaches of the peace.
The focus of this study is the effect that Otto Von Bismarck's leadership and politics had on Pre-World War One tensions in Europe. This study investigates to what extent the actions of Otto Von Bismarck led to World War One. The focus of this study is the period between Bismarck's appointment to Minister President of Prussia on September 23, 1862 and the Austro-Hungarian declaration of war on Serbia on July 28, 1914. Bismarck's earlier career is discussed briefly but only as a method to understand his political attitudes. And similarly, as Bismarck was removed from office in 1890, the only events discussed between 1890 and 1914 will be based off of policies instilled by Bismarck, not those of Wilhelm II.
The German confederation backed Austria so Bismarck had what he wanted an excuse
The German state was forged out of the fires of the Franco-Prussian war in 1871 by the Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Prussia was by far the largest and most dominant state of the 25 unified in the creation of Germany, with the King of Prussia automatically becoming the Kaiser (Emperor) of the German Reich. In 1888, Kaiser Wilhelm II ascended to the throne, obtaining absolute and total control of the country. However, there is still debate as to whether Wilhelm II exercised full control of Germany or if true power lay in the hands of others in the years preceding the First World War.
It may seem like wars start abruptly, with little cause, but usually there is a bigger story. New policies, lack of equality, military influence, and too much government involvement usually stir up the peace initially. These turn the country or area into a ‘powder keg’, ready to explode into war at the smallest spark. Although the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand was the spark of World War I, policies at the time like nationalism and militarism were the underlying causes of the war.
In 1914, Europe was diving into two separate powers. One was Triple Entente composed of France, Russia and Britain. Other one was Triple Alliance, consists of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. (Pope 2) Each of the countries was connected with different treaties. The caused of European countries’ unstable political situation and threat of war was present. By arranging alliances with other governments, most countries found ways to protect themselves from assault. While Germany was becoming the center of the struggle, Europe made a spider web of tangled alliance that led most countries into two opposing powers. (Hamilton 16) In the late nineteenth century, the most surprising event in Europe was the birth of united state of Germany. Under the leadership of the Chancellor of Germany, Otto von Bismarck, system of alliances was established to achieve peace in Europe. By 1890, Bismarck succeeded in having every major power into his alliance system...
World War I was a very complicated war. It goes back as far back as 1870. Of course the was didn’t last for that many years, but it had many casues. Not just one spark that started it off. The Franco-Prussian War was one of these casues. There were sevral Franco-Prussian Wars. The last Franco-Prussian War started in 1870. Prussia was in a confederation. A confederation is a group of states that are loosly joined together and have more power than the government of the whole country. Prussia was the biggest state. France and Prussia always fought over Alsace-Lorraince. It was land with very rich soil. It was on the border between France and Prussia. They kept fighting over the land. One time Prussia would win and would take the land. The the next time France would win and would take the land. This kept happening, but in the last war, which started in 1870, Germany finally won Alsace-Lorraine. They signed a treaty in Versailles, France. The Franco-Prussian War ended in 1871. After the Franco-Prussian War, Bismarck, who was Prussia’s leader made the unification of Germany. That meant that all the separate states joined together to be one counrty. After this, Bismarck became the leader of Germany.
The Alliance System was one of the festering causes of the war. After Germany took Alsace-Lorraine, Bismarck wanted to make sure that France didn’t make enough allies to take back the territory in a war. So he started to form an alliance with Austria-Hungry and Italy. France saw this as a threat, so it started making alliances of its own. France first turned to Russia then to Britain creating the Triple Entente. Now with forces in place on either side, nerves were frayed. What better question to ask next than why. Why were nerves frayed? The nations involved had large militaries.
In the spring of 1940 Europe was enveloped in war. The German military machine had already conquered Poland, Denmark, and Norway. However, not content with northern and eastern expansion, Adolf Hitler wanted to control the western countries in Europe. Hitler had long been obsessed with attacking and controlling France. After their defeat in World War I, the German people, government, and military were humiliated by the enormous post war sanctions leveraged against them from the Treaty of Versailles. Hitler wanted to defeat and humiliate the French people in the same way that his country had to experience. For him, revenge was necessary. The German plan was to swing into France using a new tactic know as Blitzkrieg or “Lightning War”. Blitzkrieg used speed and surprise along with highly concentrated tank corps, supported by mechanized infantry and airplanes.
First, and possibly one of the most crucial of all the reasons, was alliances. The Great War started off slowly, but it started a chain reaction that slowly brought most of Europe into it. The two sides in this war were the Allied forces which consisted of Britain, Russia, the United States, and a few more while the other side was the Central Powers which had Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey. It started with Austria-Hungary and Serbia entering war first after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. After that, the rest of the countries took up arms beside those whom they were allied with at the time. This was the main reason that the war got as large as it did and also how it escalated so quickly.
Causes of the Franco-Russian Alliance During the late 19th century many countries sought an alliance with other countries to guarantee their own safety, preserve peace and sometimes to help their economic position. This is highlighted by alliances and treaties such as the "Dual Alliance" of 1879, the "Dreikaiserbund" of 1881 and the "Reinsurance Treaty". This was also the case for both France and Russia, with them agreeing the "Franco-Russian Military Convention" on August 18th 1892 and later agreeing the "Franco-Russian Alliance" in 1893. France and Russia were animated by a common desire to preserve peace. The only reason it was possible for France and Russia to form this alliance is because Germany allowed the Reinsurance treaty to become invalid.
In order to determine the importance of the alliance system as a cause for the war we must first explore the origins of these alliances. We will take high-point of the Bismarck system in 1878 as our starting point as the Franco-Prussian war is a key factor for the development of this system. The alliance system ideated by the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck kept peace in Europe but its main aim was, however, to forestall the possibility that, in the event of war, Germany would have to fight it on two fronts (basically France and Russia). This was achieved by diplomatically isolating France so that its dream of recapturing its lost provinces of Alsace-Lorraine couldn't be fulfilled.
The Schlieffen Plan is one of the first military plans people learn about when studying World War I. Despite, the plan being common knowledge to individuals who have studied Western military, there is much controversy over why the plan failed for the Germans. In recent decades the main question over Schlieffen’s war plan, whether the plan was meant to be used as a military strategy or not. Since, the reunification of Germany in 1989, document that were once lost are now resurfacing, and with more information, there are more arguments about the reason the Schlieffen Plan failed. The recent argument on why the Schlieffen Plan failed was because Schlieffen was not creating a military plan to follow for war and destroy the French military in one blow, instead he was sketching out the possible ways Germany could defend themselves
The Franco-Prussian War (also called the Franco-German War) was a military conflict between France and Germany that occurred from 1870 to 1871. The idea of a unified German nation was very popular at the time. The other major nations of Europe feared that a unified Germany would be a threat on the global stage. Germany had recently been victorious under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in 1864 against Denmark and 1866 against Austria. These victories helped “establish Prussia as the dominant power among the German states” (“Franco-Prussian War”). Bismarck negotiated an alliance with the southern German states and prepared the Prussian army for war against France because Bismarck saw “French opposition as a major obstacle to German unification” (“Franco-Prussian War”).
Carr, William. A. A. The Origins of the Wars of German Unification. London: Longman Group, 1991. Hamerow, Theodore S. The Social Foundations of German Unification, 1858-1871.
people would argue that the war in 1914 started because there were conflicts about the balance of power in Europe. (Kitchen, 2012) Others would say that policies and military reasons caused the war. The truth is both of these ideas contributed to the start of the war. Prior to the war in 1914, Germany was having issues with Britain, Austria-Hungary, France, and Russia. In 1871, Bismark decided that Germany was not only going to be neutral but also try to make amends with other countries. Both Russia and Austria-Hungary wanted Germany to align with them because they were afraid that France was going to start a war. Bismark refused the offer. In 1875, France began creating a bigger and stronger army forced people to believe that a war was starting. (Kitchen, 2012)