This essay will assess the causes of the First World War. The outbreak of the First World War (1871-1914) was a culmination of the short term crisis such as the Balkan crisis, GermanyÃÂs world policy and German aims and the July crisis, the more important issues remain to be long-term factors such as Industrialism, Militarism, Alliances, Nationalism and economical disputes.
The First World War was the culmination of a long-term problem within the European system which had unfolded as a result of the short term crisis.
Dugdale believes that the foreign policy of the new Germany, dominated by Otto von Bismark, the first chancellor of Germany from 1871 to 1890, was designed to reassure Europe that Germany was a ÃÂsatisfiedÃÂ power, with no intentions of disrupting the delicate European balance of power. George further explains that in 1872, the ÃÂLeague of the Three EmperorsÃÂ consisting of Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary, was formed.
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RussiaThis was followed by the ÃÂDual AllianceÃÂ in 1879 between Germany and Austria-Hungary which promised assistance against Russia. Bismark believed that the agreement would help restrain the aims of the Austria-Hungary in the Balkans, but it had an opposite effect, and encouraged Austria-Hungary to take a bolder stand against Balkan nationalism, this point being considered by Brandenburg. The Bulgarian crisis had revealed the complexity of the Balkan problem, which evolved around nationalistÃÂs demands for self-determination, the gradual decline of the Ottoman rule and the designs of Russia and Austria-Hungary. It showed how easily problems in the Balkans could create a delicate international situation. More importantly, the Bulgarian Crisis had put an end to the League of the Three Emperors; severely weakening GermanyÃÂs role as the so-called ÃÂhonest brokerÃÂ in the Balkans; and killed the Re-insurance Treaty.
Brandenburg explains the attempt to balance the irreconcilable differences between Austria-Hungary...
The First World War
This essay is quite poorly written. Consider the second sentence. What does it mean? Having read it several times, I think it is not at all clear in its meaning.
The essay repeatedly refers to people who are never identified. Are these historians, or were they historical figures during this period? The essay fails to make this clear. The essay also refers to any number of historical incidents without explaining what happened, what nations were involved or how these events shaped the eventual outcome: a war. For example: "the July crisis." Was this the assassination of the Arch-Duke Franz-Ferdinand in Sarajevo, or the murder of the editor of one of the leading Paris newspapers over allegations of a tryst involving a key military minister?
The essay mentions Bismarck, often misspelling the name, without mentioning that Bismarck's personal motto was anything but passive ("Blood and Iron"), and he was dismissed from power in 1890, more than 20 years before the outbreak of the First World War. On the other hand, there is no mention of Schliefen, von Moltke, Tirpitz, the development of the German navy, or many other developments leading up to the war.
Finally, the essay dismisses the war as inevitable. This remarkable dismissal manages to avoid any of the complicated machinations of the summer of 1914, when Germany first gave the Austrian Empire a blank check of support in its conflict with Serbia, and then mobilized, an action that the Germans realized would spark a continent-wide war. This conclusion is quite unconvincing.
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