Causes de la grande guerre

FACTOR

YES

NO

Diplomacy

July Crisis

Alliance

Some alliances such as the Franco-Russian Alliance that had been ongoing since 1894 was threatening to Germany because this meant that she was encircled by enemy nations. Which led to the Schlieffen plan as a way to protect herself from a conflict.

The Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente created two power blocks in Europe, which inevitably led to tensions in the continent.

Furthermore, the alliance issue meant that if countries were to start a conflict, the scale of the war would have been enhanced due to the nature of the alliances, which were sometimes done as a mean of self-preservation and protection against stronger neighbouring nations, such as the informal alliance between Russia and Serbia

Alliances did not obviously mean that a war would break out, but more what individual nations were willing to do to support one another, for example, Germany’s Blank Check to A/H set the seed for the large-scale European conflict that occurred. Similarly, France did not declare war on any of the countries in the Triple Alliance when Russia entered a war against A/H, neither did Britain at first, which demonstrates that Alliances were not one of the main cause for the war, but merely a tool that contributed to the scale of the conflict.

Eastern Question

The Balkans were a source of conflict because:

•  the Ottoman Empire, who previously had control over the majority of the area was now in decline so much that it was called ‘The Sick Man Of Europe’, if the empire were to collapse, it would create a power vacuum, with many smaller states now independent, which was seen as a good thing by countries such as Serbia that wanted their independence
• A/H wanted to expand its territory in the Balkan because it could no longer have influence or expand in German territory after the unification in 1871, it gained some territories in the Balkans such as B/H at the Congress of Berlin
• Russia wanted to expand its influence over the Balkan so that it could have an easier access to the Mediterranean Sea, which would facilitate trade. This is why Russia was in favour of Pan-Slavic movements as well as because a lot of Russia’s population was of Slavic ethnic heritage

Germany

Unification of Germany in 1871 disturbed the balance of powers between European countries. And led to tensions

Under Kaiser Wilhelm II, there were several aggressive attempts to break up the Franco-Russian Alliance such as the Moroccan Crisis in 1905-11.

Also, under the Kaiser, Germany’s pursuits of the Weltpolitik could have been to either fulfil The Kaiser’s personal feelings for superiority through a large colonial empire, hence the Berlin Conference, which ensured that Germany had some colonial territories in Africa; or through a powerful Navy (see Militarism).

There was still peace in Europe for 44 years before WW1 broke out, which would suggest that Europe prior to 1914 was the ‘Golden age of security’- Stefan Zweig

Militarism

Nationalism

Movements such as Pan-Slavism in the Balkans meant that more countries wanted their independence from either the Ottoman Empire whose power was significantly declining (see eastern question). This led to numerous conflicts such as the Bosnian Crisis in 1908 → A/H annexed B/H, which had a large Slavic population or the July Crisis in 1914 (see The July Crisis)

Pan-Germanism was also common in Germany, especially after the unification in 1871  

Nationalism was primarily an issue in the Balkans, which means that if this could have resulted in a local conflict, no in on at the scale of WW1