The balance of power was a race for who was going to be first, and have the most land to give to their people. Russia had the most land but was slow in growth and in industrialization. Germany was growing too fast, but started to run out of land. France lost power when they lost to the Prussian people, which made Germany ready to take land and power. After 1871 the balance of powers changed again and it was war time in 1914. Germany had a great military and with Italy by their side many countries would have been under their rule, but with the two giant powers, Britain and Russia, Germany had no chance to advance.
It was an “arms race.” Because Britain had a large navy, Germany wanted a large navy too. Germany and France competed to build larger armies. Many of the competing nations introduced “universal conscription” (the draft), even in times of peace. For reasons of prestige and self-defense, the more one nation had decided to built up its army and navy, the more other nations felt they had to do the same (Document 8). The expense of the “arms race” fell on civilian populations in the form of high taxes. (Document 9) Between 1870 and 1914, all of the major powers except Great Britain and the United States, doubled the size of their armies (Document 7). Prior to the WWI, Great Britain was the most dominant colonial possession which included Australia, India, part of Africa, and etc. which would help them fight in the war.One of Germany’s greatest goals was to surpass Britain in bot their Army and Navy, which caused tension between the countries. (Document
As shown in document A, it is quite noticeable that the central powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy) were ideally close together which makes them seem even stronger in power. By being so conveniently close to each other, it must have been easier to establish a strong military base and also obtain a lot of armaments for the war. Because these countries neighbored each other, they had more efficient communication between military and also the government where the allied powers did not. Despite the fact these countries were right next to one another, they also had an extreme growth in military weapons and equipment right before the war had started.(Document C). This gave the central powers an enormous advantage. They had gained more power and control over the others which created fury within other countries. This displays great importance because evidence shows that unbalanced military power was not exceptional for the citizens of
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, tension grew between developing countries. Many countries, such as Germany, Italy, and Russia, wanted to expand and become more wealthy and powerful. Tension also grew if one country would start to build up its military strength. This would cause others to do the same. France, Germany, and Russia developed large armies. Germany challenged Great Britain’s naval power causing a rivalry between the two. Several countries began to form alliances.The Allied Powers (Great Britain, France, Russia, and Japan) and The Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman) were the two major alliances that formed. America stayed neutral at this time. However, hostility with Germany caused America to mainly trade with Great Britain. America soon entered the war after Germany attacked several American ships. The war was brutal. Many American soldiers were
This is a result of the cooperations made and it brought about every one of the nations attempting to grow their military so they would be prepared for war. The war got to be inescapable when Russia gathered the most troops and Germany conveyed the man of war which tested Britain to a maritime fight implying that Germany had pronounced the weapons contest war and they were abusing laborers without limitations and enlisting individuals at 18 and over this lone diminished when Germany understood that they were losing mass measure of warriors on the forefront that they began putting more youthful troops in the Army. France expanded her Army from 715,000 to 910,000 somewhere around 1900 and 1914 and Russia expanded her Army from 900,000 to 1.3 million and when Germany understood this they formally announced war implying that Germany and the weapons contest they began contributed enormously to WW1.Germany's choice prompted to 30 million individuals'
The alliances that were going on were either way too strong or too weak and they dominated the alliance with strong armies and with weak they got crapped on. For example the trade agreement that Germany entered into with one of the Allied powers will automatically apply to all Allied powers. Which that almost made them
Before World War One began in 1914, Britain, Prussia, France, Austria, and Russia, otherwise known as the Five Great Powers in Europe, unknowingly built the perfect foundation for a war. During the search for dominance and influence, the Five Great Powers in Europe found themselves in alliances and rivalries with each other and other countries in Europe. Thus, the strategic political decisions made during the years leading up to 1914 influenced World War One.
The German empire was growing and the separate states had joined together to make Germany very powerful. However it was Britain that was the richest nation in the world. Past wars had an effect on who was against whom and increased the tension and competition between countries which might have been unresolved. For example, in 1870 the Germans beat the French in the Franco-Prussian war which was why both countries hated each other. The results and consequences of this war was an early starting point for WWI to happen. There was economic rivalry; the rulers of other countries were jealous of Britain for being rich and powerful which led to the Germany and England having a Naval Arms race. The Great powers had left tensions high and almost to breaking point in Europe with intense competitions and power struggles.
Out of all the other great European powers, Germany and France had the most animosity between them and this begun after France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian Wars of 1871, resulting in Germany taking control of the french region of Alsace- Loraine;”...Bismarck foresaw that France would not rest while she could hope some day to regain these provinces. The very peace therefore, which concluded the Franco-Prussian War laid the foundation of another war in the future.”3 It was enough of a disgrace for France, so grand a country, to suffer such a defeat to the newly created Germany, but with the taking of Alsace-Lorraine Germany accentuated this loss guaranteeing future conflict. In this way Germany gets the ball rolling so to speak, with these early developments paving the way to war. Through their initiating of the chain of alliances and their degradation of France, the Germans successfully set itself and Europe on the path to war long before Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was to inadvertently become the catalyst behind Germany’s causing of World War One.
People believing that their country had a superiority over other countries was an issue because then they wouldn't stop until it was proven; hence the war. The countries strongly believed that they their own cultural, economic and military supremacy and Nationalism in Europe also led to a competition for the biggest navy, army, and industrial development. “Nationalism is profoundly important to an understanding of the origins of the war eventually assumed.” In the early 1900s, the Nationalism between European countries caused a intense competition. The European countries in which competition was fierce between was Germany, Austria- Hungary, France, Russia, Great Britain and Italy and in order for them to show each other how they were the best they needed to have the greatest military and strongest economy. The late Industrial Revolution in Europe caused the Germans to have the best technology. However, the Russians had the worst technology and military due to their location and lack of warm weather ports. The competition between countries for resources was one of their reasons for hatred. Due to their competition for the resources which would help their factories, they began searching for places with better resources such as Africa where they began colonizing and taking over causing one of the main
While reading this chapter I was fed a lot of new information, things I probably should know from 4th grade history. The key concepts I took away were World War 1 was a war trying to balance power. Many would say that balance of power causes stability, but that doesn’t mean peace; more so maintaining independence. Power conversion is the capacity potential power to realized power and is measured by others changed behaviors. Though, power resources are context dependent, for example Mismark’s use of railway technology. The origins of WWI became less flexible as the alliance system did, the balance of power became less and the chances of war started to increased. While understanding that WWI was determining who had power, I still believe that
Europe in the 1800’s was divided into several states and there was no balance of power among them. In the case of Germany, France preferred them to remain in smaller states as they would be easier to control rather than one giant unified nation. As was Italy, but they did not threaten the balance of power in Europe. Both in Germany and Italy, state leaders disagreed on how the unified government should run which prevented any type of unification. Both Germany and Italy also had to overcome Regional differences as Germany was split between East and West and Italy split by North and South. The regions had their own distinct culture which made unification difficult.
So, Germany made a decision, as too much of the world had been claimed they must fight to gain countries, in order to build their much desired Empire. This lead to the war as it created rivalry between Britain and Germany, who were both powerful Empires in their own right. This meant in the case of a war between nations, such as the one which followed, these domains would be on opposing sides and would have a good motive to want to belittle the others status, Empire, National forces and wealth.
The most destructive and consequential war in all of history was World War II. The rise of dictatorship and balance of power in the world caused this horrendous war that involved nearly every part of the world. World War II brought mass destruction, causing tens of millions of people their lives and family members and several millions of people without a place to call home. The Allied Powers weakened Germany and Japan so much in the war, they were no longer major world powers. The end of the war caused an emergence of two new world superpowers: The United States and The Soviet Union. With the destruction of National Socialism with the defeat of Germany, the two world powers argued over the rise of Communist power or Democratic power, which
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Germany's military thought they had a chance of becoming a world power, only if some sort of series of events had occurred which had given them a chance to show their potential. On June 28, 1924, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Archduke Franz Ferdinand had been shot to death by a Serbian nationalist. This incident was used to justify declaring Slav nationalism, and soon this set off a rapid chain of events. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany gave Austria-Hungary consent to declare war on Serbia and promised to have their back if Serbia's ally Russia interfered. In the near future, more allies were made and more powers were brought into the war. Most people thought WWI started with Austria declaring war on
To maintain the balance of powers between countries requires a strict effort to openly communicate and work in unison between nations as opposed to independently. This did not occur in the events leading up to 1914.