History Unit 1

Alliance: An agreement between two or more countries to support each other.                                                  Autocratic: having complete Power.                                                                                                                                Tsar: the emperor of Russia - also spelt Czar.                                                                                                     Republic: a goverment chosen by the people with an elected president.                                                                         Britain at the end of 19th Century was in the status of splendid isolation.

Alliances:                                                                                                                                  Triple Aliance- Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary - 1882 - To isolate France from Russia after German victory winning land; fear of revenge - Defensive agreement that thney would fight if two powers attacked.                               Franco-Russian - France, Russia - 1893 - Fr. unable to get revenge solo, Germany recieved land and 5billion francs war dept, also Germany would not ally wiyh Russia - Defensive alliance agreeing to both join war if either was attacked by Germany or Austria-Hungary.                                                                                                                                             Anglo-Japanese - Britain, Japan - 1902 - Prevent Russian expansion in far East - help if one is attacked by more than one power.                                                                                                                                                                           Entente Cordiale - Britain, France - Germany wouldn't join with either Fr. or GB, so created an AGREEMENT - GB; reforms in Egypt & GB promised not to oppose any Fr. action in Morocco.  

France, Britain and Russia later allied together to for the Triple Entente in 1907 as Britain allied with Russia who like Britain was an ally of France. This brought together a stronger alliance.

 Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941)

FACTS: Partly deaf, delivered by forceps; twisted arm , Grandson of Queen Victoria, Obsession with the sea, English Blood, Aged 29 when he came in power

Weltpolitik: meaning "world policy" , phrase often used to describe Kaiser Wilhelm's desire to be a major player in world affairs.                                                                                                A Place in the Sun: Kaiser was jealous of the British Empire and so wanted to create on for Germany.

Kaiser's love for the sea led to him wanting to develope the German Navy so it could rival Britains. This led to the Naval Race.

Dreadnought - Stronger, faster and bigger battle ship more adapt to bring down old battleships (which the British navy majoritaly consiste of).                                                                                    

Kaiser Wilhelm had a passion for the sea and was envious of his British cousins who were known by their strong naval powers. So in 1898 Kaiser ordered Admiral Tirpitz, the head of the German Army to build more dreadnoughts. News reached Britain that Germany were modernising and strengthening their fleet and so felt threatened which lead to the naval race . During the race to increase fleet umbers and strength Britain made a deal with France agreeing that they would concentrate on strengthening their navy if France did the same ith their army. 

Dreadnoughts         Great Britain      Germany                                                                               1906                            1                           0                                                                                       1907                            3                         0                                                                                       1908                            2                         4                                                                                        1909                          2                           3                                                                                       1910                            3                          1                                                                                      1911                           5                         3                                                                                      1912                            3                          2                                                                                 1913                             7                          3                                                                                 1914                             3                             1                                                                                 Total                                  29                                 17

• 1st Moroccan Crises - 1905 - Morocco was one of the few places in North Africa that was not controlledby a European power. As part of of the Entente Cordiale Britain agreed not to oppose French advances. Germany however under the rule of Kaiser who wanted WELTPOLITIK and A PLACE IN THE SUn decided to oppose France's attempts to increase their wn number of colonies.
• 1905 Kaiser visited Tangier riding a white horse while accompanied by a military band and Moroccan troops claiming that Germany supported an INDEPENDENT Morocco.                  
• Thus calling for an international conference to discuss control while also presenting Germany a chance to prevent French occupation and testing the strength of the Entente Cordiale. Conference in Algeciras, Southern Spain 1906 - Austria-Hungary & Morocco supported Germany while Britain and Russia supported France. In the end France got joint control with Spain over the Moroccan Police.      
•  2nd Moroccan Crises 1911 -  In Fez the capital of Morocco between Britain , France, Morocco and Germany.
• The Agadir Crises brought Europe close to war an affected the relationships of the powers; Germany was humiliates and determined not to back down in any crises with German intrest involved; Britain was certain of Germans motives for European Domination; Britain and France made a naval agreement for Britain to protect North of France if attacked by sea and France protect the Mediterraniean; Triple Alliance weakened as Italy opposed Germany.
• Rebellion broke out & Sultan asked France for help. Germany opposed French interfierance but did'nt want another loss over Morocco. So sent gun ship "the panther" to protect German intrests however the act was seen as war like.Germany backed down in return for some land in French Congo to accept French control of Morocco.

In 1908 Austria-Hungary added Bosnia-Herzegovina to its empire. This created a second international crisis.

• Serbia furious with austria, wanted revenge and the return of Bosnia; Russia humiliated; Germany fully commited to supporting Austria even if it meant war;  Germany demanded Russia to accept Austrian control thus Russia had to back down (Germany had a bigger army).

Ever since the Bosnian disaster 1908-09 Russia had tried too get the Balkan States to form an alliance. In this way Russia hoped to block an Austrian takeover of Balkans.

• In 1912 Serbia, Greece, Montengro formed a group called Balkan League.
• In October teh armies of this league attacked the Turks to drive them out of the small area they still controlled. This lead to Turkey being driven out of Europe.
• This alarmed Austria and they then wanted a quick war to crush Serbia once and for all as Serbia appeared to emerge as the strongest Balkan state. The great powers stepped in and forced a peace settlement on the victorious Balkan States.

All the nations of Europe were militaristic, but the governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary were especially so.All the countries of Europe built up their armies and navies.   In 1914, their armed forces stood like this:                                                                                                                                                            •   Germany: 2,200,000 soldiers, 97 warships                                                                                                   •   Austria-Hungary: 810,000 soldiers, 28 warships                                                                                         •   Italy: 750,000 soldiers, 36 warship                                                                                                            •   France: 1,125,000 soldiers, 62 warships                                                                                                        •   Russia: 1,200,000 soldiers, 30 warships                                                                                                        •   Great Britain: 711,000 soldiers, 185 warships                                                                                              As one country increased its armies, so all the others felt obliged to increase their armed forces to keep the ‘balance of power’.Another thing that the countries of Europe did was to train all their young men so that if there was a war they could call, not only on the standing army, but on huge numbers of trained reservists.   One historians has estimated the total number of men (including reservists) that the countries could thus call upon as: Germany- 8.5 million men ;  Russia- 4.4 million ; France -3.5 million ; Austria-Hungary -  3 million.

It is important to realise that - although in 1914 the German army was the biggest and best in the world - the Russian army was growing the fastest, and German generals were worried that, in a few years time, they would not be able to defeat Russia so easily.                                                                               

Source Analysis:                                                                                                                                      NCOP = N ature( what is the source?)  C ontent (What is in the source?)  O rigin (Where does the source come from?) P urpose (For what reason was the source created?)

Steps to War:                                                                                                                                        MANIA = M ilitarisation (arms & naval race and seeing war as a means of foreign policy) A lliances ( European countries group together) N ationalism (pride in ones country and so the freedom to rule ones country) I mperilism (belief that ones country was superior)  A wful govermens (how the country was goverened and ruled).