Great Power Conflict 1845-1945

Great Power Conflict

1848 – 1945

Contents

Legacy of political events in Germany 1848 - 90

3

The Eastern Question and Balkan Nationalism

5

Causes of the First World War 1890 – 1914

6

Consequences of the First World War/Causes of the Second World War

9

Causes of Conflict:

Economics

13

Militarism/Security Fears

15

Nationalism

17

Imperialism

19

Alliance Systems

21

Unsatisfactory Peace Treaties

22

Other Factors

24

Structure

26

Timeline

27

Legacy of political events in Germany 1848–90

The impact on the future development of Germany of the failure of liberalism in the revolutions of 1848

The failure of the 1848 revolutions in Germany – and across Europe – sent a clear message to German nationalists: liberal methods would not allow them to fulfil their aims. They developed more ruthless tactics in fighting for a United German Empire.

The legacy of Bismarck, the unification of Germany by military force and its impact on Germany’s future relations with its neighbours

The appointment of Bismarck as Minister-President in 1862 galvanised the militarism of the German nationalist movement. In three armed conflicts – Danish War of 1864, Seven Weeks’ War of 1866 and the Franco-Prussian War 1870-71 – Bismarck and Prussia achieved what could only have been a dream for nationalists a generation before – a unified German Empire. However, the harsh Treaty of Frankfurt (1871), which awarded the victorious Germans the French territory of Alsace-Lorraine led to decades of poor relation between the two nations, which endured through 1914 and beyond.
Moreover, the creation of a German Empire severely destabilised the balance of power in Europe, setting the stage for conflict to erupt as it did in 1914.

The significance of Prussian militarism as a factor in increasing tensions in the period before the First World War

Wilhelm II’s aggressive Weltpolitik foreign policy demanded a naval force that could compensate for his lack of an overseas empire. The military leadership in Germany played a huge role politically as Von Tirpitz’s ‘Risk Theory’ was designed to counteract Great Britain’s ‘Two-power standard’ so that the encirclement of Germany had found itself in by 1914 could not be so easily challenged along its Northern coast. Germany’s lack of allies in the period before the First World War – and the fact that it was wedged between two of the three Entente powers – created such security fears that the Schlieffen Plan, taking nearly a decade to complete, was designed to avoid a two-front war.

The Schlieffen Plan – Germany’s only plan for war – which envisaged Germany invading France through Belgium and ran the risk of bringing Britain into the war, became German policy simply because of an arbitrary decision by its military leaders, without any consultation from Government. In addition, Germany’s ‘Blank Cheque’ alliance to Austria was partially an attempt to protect its militarist values as Junker elites…