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Impacts of imperialism in the 19 and 20th century
Imperialism in the 19th century going into the 20th century
Imperialism in the 19th century going into the 20th century
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“As a result of the world war and of a peace whose imperfections and risks are no longer denied by anyone, are we not even further away from the great aspirations and hopes for peace and fraternity than we were decades ago?” (Hjalmar Branting). After the industrial revolution, countries were in a rush to prove themselves. Each country built up its militaries in hopes of creating peace, but all their effort crashed to ruins when the heir to the Austrian-hungarian throne was assassinated. War broke out over the assassination of this man, and due to the complex web of alliances they had weaved, no country could escape it. The powers of Europe set their own trap, and it had been activated. Looking back on history, there were three main determining factors that caused World War I; one outshone the …show more content…
others. Alliances, militarism, and imperialism were the main underlying causes of the war- with imperialism contributing the most. Having alliances with the right countries can almost always lead to victory. It can also lead to war in the first place. When Austria-Hungary declared war on the Serbs, Russia, being Serbia’s ally, came to defend them. The ordeal seemingly turned to chaos as each country and its alliances were pitted against other countries and their alliances. As shown in Document A, Germany was surrounded on two sides by their enemies who were allied. Knowing they risked attack on their own land, they had allies to assist in the effort. Every country seemed to believe that they were right, while their enemies were horribly mistaken. Document B indicates the countries each pointing fingers at other countries for the blame of the war. The entirety of the Entente has their fingers pointing as members of the Alliance. Though they did not need to fight the war, as it wasn’t their problem, they had allies who needed help and regardless of whether their allies actions were right or wrong, they were going to assist them. When countries do not think about their actions, and instead trust in their allies to always be in the right, it leads to great strain for all. No matter how absurd it sounds, many of the countries truly believed the way to achieve peace was to build up a large military force so that no one would be willing to attack each other.
This obviously turned out to be a bad plan as all the countries were led directly into war with larger military forces than ever. With military efforts, as shown in Document C, the number of money spent on military efforts increased at an exponential rate before the war, and was very high when the war started. It is arguable that this increase in spending assisted in causing the war itself, as each country was eager to test its newfound strength. In one speech by Bernhard von Bülow, he stated that, “the German people will be a hammer or an anvil” (Document D) He truly believes that this is a kill or be killed situation, and that if they have to choose to be the oppressors to keep from being the oppressed, they would do that. Germany is a good example of what many countries thought at the time, and the fear they had if their military could not protect them. The fear brought on by war is one that was known to most of the countries at the time, and it manifested itself in the form of
pride. Lastly, and most importantly, imperialism contributed greatly to the start of the war. While other factors were to blame too, countries with more land and people also had a larger workforce, and more land to land their troops. For example, Britain had colonized twelve million square miles in various areas,with a higher population in those areas than most other countries had (as shown in Document F). Britain was described as “the bloodsucker of the world” by Germany because of their land-grabbing and ownership of such a large empire of colonies. (Document E) Because of their ownership over so many colonies, they were able to get relatively cheap, or even free, materials and labor for their war efforts. This assisted majorly during the war as Britain could keep well supplied as other countries could not. All ideas considered, each one of these causes is interconnected with the other. The war was caused by a long, intertwined system of alliances, militarism, and lastly imperialism. The war could not have occurred without a combination of all of these errors to lead the war into existence. By now, humankind has hopefully learned from their mistakes in the past, and knows that you cannot calm a war with bullets or guns. To achieve peace is much harder than building up a stock of weapons and soldiers, but in the end it is worth the effort.
With nationalistic ideals, countries involved in the war went full force with weapons and men. According to document 6, “In the coming century, the German nation will either be the hammer or the anvil.” The Germans need to have a strong military with warfare to prevent them from loosing to keep their nation alive. Document 12 is a graph that shows the amount of money spent during the war. Germany had the highest increase in expenses from 1890 – 1914, as they were going full force in the war. “I believe that a war is unavoidable, and the sooner the better.” (doc. 15) Germany was a very patriotic country; as the war was not avoidable for them. Militarism helped cause World War I because each country with nationalism in its core was heavily devoted to the
World War I, also referred to as the Great War, was global conflict among the greatest Western powers and beyond. From 1914-1918, this turf war swept across rivaling nations, intensifying oppositions and battling until victory was declared. World War I was immediately triggered by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, however several long-term causes also contributed. The growing development of militarism, the eruption of powerful alliances, as well as the spread of imperialism, and a deepening sense of nationalism, significantly promoted to the outbreak of the Great War.
In order to stop the fighting between countries, Europe needed to put some actions into effect because appeasement was not working. Germany proved that by disregarding the Versailles Treaty. According to Hitler after disregarding the Versailles Treaty, “I look upon this day as marking the close of the struggle for German equality status…the path is now clear for Germany’s return to European collective cooperation” (Document 3, 1936) This quote explains a vast difference between Hitler’s and the other European countries' views. With Hitler’s affirmation to make Germany equal and even more powerful than the other European countries, the other European countries would have to set up collective security because they would have very little insight on what Hitler would be planning; leading to more destruction. Now, Europe would be more prepared if Hitler decided to attack. A quote from Winston Churchill explaining why collective security is the right answer is, “…I think all of the opportunities to stop the growth of Nazi power which have been thrown away. The responsibility must rest with those who have control of our political affairs. They neither prevented Germany from rearming, nor did they rearm us in time…Thus they left us in the hour of trial without a strong national defense or system of international security” (Churchill). That quote explains how collective security is the best answer to stop war and the destruction Hitler is
“War is unorganized murder, and nothing else” (Harry Patch). In World War 1, which was first called the Great War, there were many causes of the war breaking out. The Great War started August 1st 1914 days later after the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophia, when they visited Bosnia. Many soldiers went to war for no reason but to fight for their country. The Great War was not only affected by the soldiers, but also by the civilians as well. Women replaced men in factories, offices, and shops while the men were at war so that everything would be working smoothly. The main underlying causes of World War 1 were the alliances and imperialism in Europe.
It was military plan for outlined to tackle with a threats of Russia and France if Russia declared war on Germany. Germany had fear because France was militarily stronger at that time. First, Germany would set up a defensive line of military on the Russia and German border to secure their eastern side. This plan involved German troops entering France through its more lightly defended northern borders—but most would instead invade via the small nations of Belgium, Luxemburg, and Netherlands. The plan was strategically important to play a defensive role in the
World War 1 was a deadly battle with millions dead, but do you ever wonder what caused world war 2? There are many causes for world war 2, but the item that caused an impact on the war the Treaty of Versailles. World war 1 started on August 1914 and ended on November 1918 it lasted for 4 years and 3 months. World War 2 lasted for 6 years with even more people dead and injured. So how did the versailles treaty help cause world war 2. The treaty of versailles punished Germany too harshly in four key ways: Territorial losses, showing how Germany is weak, and vulnerable, making the Germans pay, and the germans also wanted to destroy the treaty.
So when asking the question what the causes of World War One are its important to remember that the rivalries between European states were intensified by the imperialism of the 19th century. Which lead to tension which became fear of invasion that in turn resulted in an intricate system of alliances “ensured what might have been an isolated crisis in the Balkans became a general war”. Whilst the effects of imperialism may not be the single cause of the war, it was undoubtedly a contributing
Schlieffen Plan, the arms race and vital miscalculations on behalf of the German leaders have all been cited as causes for WW1 that were solely Germany's fault. In the face of this almost overwhelming evidence against Germany other factors that led to war must be examined in which Germany played little, or no, part. These consisted of the trouble in the Balkans, the growth of nationalism, the denial of self determination to minority groups, the alliance system, traditional imperial rivalries, secret diplomacy and the popular theories of Social Darwinism. If the war guilt clause is to be believed Germany and her allies were totally responsible for war, planning and instigating a chain of events that lead to the crisis of July 1914, independent of any outside influence. This is certainly not true it and absolute proof that Germany was planning and instigating a war is extremely difficult to find.
Warfare between two parties has always been a major catalyst of world history today. Specifically, Word War I had many dictators and world leaders that were not satisfied with the way things had played out, including Hitler, dictator of Germany. World War I began during 1914, and was between the Allied Forces and Axis Forces. It was the result of tension building up in the European front for decades prior to WWI. However, although Germany was punished terribly for WWI, it did not stop her from joining forces with Italy and Japan. These three powerful countries took action against the rest of the world, beginning in 1939, and initiated WWII. The League of Nations, designed to keep peace between the European fronts, failed to do its job. Therefore, the main reason world was plunged into World War II in 1939 was because of the League of Nations’ failure to act promptly. This brings to light that the effective response to aggression is collective security, and not appeasement.
War is inevitable in any country, it has transpired in our past, in our present, and will continue to transpire in our future. Being a country, the United States has been involved in many wars that including the Vietnam War. The Vietnam war began in the 1960’s and lasted about 15 years. There are many questions to be asked about this war such as, why did we get involved in the war in the first place, what impact did this war have on American society, and what was the impact on our foreign policy due to this war?
The German Weimar Republic was an attempt to make Germany a more democratic state. While this was a very good idea in theory, the Weimar Republic was ineffective due to the instability that came with it. Several factors contributed to the instability of Germany’s Weimar Republic, such as the new political ideals brought forward and the government’s hunger for war.
Europe has seen many wars over its vast and broad history, some of which being quite immense and destructive. One such war would undoubtedly be World War One. A war powered by the brainwashing ways of militarism and the stubborn pride of nationalism. Once engaged in a war a country’s militarism will produce fine soldier ready to drop like dominos on the battlefield, while the nationalism works as fuel providing the naive determination to fight the war. This naïve determination and soldier production is why World War One, like every other war, continued with such persistency. But what started World War One? Was it militarism that trained young men since they were kids to become soldiers, nationalism propelling a nations pride forward or was it neither? While both of those aspects could be potential reasons their still not the main pillars of cause. The true reason’s that made World War One inevitable were the intimidating alliances, avaricious imperialism, and tedious tensions.
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
World War I was a conflict that claimed over 10 million peoples’ lives, ravaged all of Europe and engineered modern warfare, as it is know today. The Great War has been scrutinized and examined through many complex theories in order to understand how such a conflict escalated to one of the most epic wars in history. This essay, like many works before it, looks to examine WWI and determine its causes through two distinct levels of analysis, individual and systemic. The individual level of analysis locates the cause of conflicts in individual leaders or decision makers within a particular country, focusing on the characteristics of human decision-making. The systemic level of analysis explains the causation of a conflict from a system wide level that includes all states, taking in to account the distribution of power and the interaction of states in the international system.
Throughout history, there have been several conflicts that have disturbed the peace in various areas. One of these gruesome events happens to be World War I, which was evoked by many different causes. The most significant and immediate causes of this catastrophe was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie. Numerous nations were involved in this war, and two examples of opposing forces are Germany and Russia. World War I was resolved to an extent with the Treaty of Versailles, but it was not entirely settled. This is clear because World War II was a result of World War I.