These tensions started to disrupt their dual alliance with Austria-Hungary, even with a ‘Blank Cheque’ being given to them. With the Kaiser believing that foreign policy and civil war was increasingly the same, it can be assumed that aggressive foreign policy may have been set to distract the German public away from things at home and more onto how to become a strong world power. A factor that both strengthens and weakens the argument of aggressive foreign policy being the reason for the outbreak of war in 1914 is that of encirclement. Source V mentions ‘They felt encircled not merely by the Triple Entente, but also by the forces of change.’ First of all, Germany became sceptical about the alliance between Britain, France and Russia, the Triple Entente, they thought it was not going to work and did not fear it until they tried to cause problems between France and Britain with the ownership of the Balkan islands, which was unsuccessful. When Germany realised that the entente was a
At the time the United States was hoping to use their alliance with France to gain an advantage over the British, but did not want to lose their much needed trade with the British. At the beginning of the revolution, the Americans were enthusiastic and hoped that the revolution would strengthen their alliance with the French against the British. It was the violent nature of the conflict that divided the United States’ views. The changes in France caused the already present political divisions in the United States to grow. Because Jefferson believed the French had supported the United States during their revolution against the British, the pro-French Republicans lead by Thomas Jefferson should in return support the ideals of the French
The treaty of Versailles was a between Austria-Hungary and Germany being the central powers, British, France and the U.S being the Allied powers. The leaders of the countries that signed the treaty were George Clemenceau, prime minister of France, David Lloyd George, for Britain, and Woodrow Wilson, president of the U.S. All three political leaders wanted different things for the treaty and sometimes did not agree with each other. Georges Clemenceau’s main objective was to ensure France’s security so that they don’t get invaded again. He was determined to keep Germany down and wanted revenge against them. He wanted to punish Germany and weaken them for what they have caused to European countries and wanted them to pay for the reparations so that France can rebuild itself.
When Hitler became the chancellor of Germany, he issued conscription and also began to rearm his army and build up his army capacity in order to invade both countries such as Czechoslovakia and Poland. In conclusion , even though increased militarism was one of the reasons why the second world war started , it was not the main cause of it. I believed that Britain and France hadn’t followed the policy of Appeasement, Hitler would not have the confidence to implement his plans to take over Eastern Europe. By allowing Hitler to reoccupy the Rhineland (which was against the Treaty of Versailles) Britain and France gave the impression that they were weak, and this allow Hitler to rebuild his army to invade other countries. (Note: the title is from a gcse paper but the essay is
Furthermore, the nationalist’s opinion in Prussia and the other German states encouraged Prussia mobilisation on French border and this was a fear for France as they feared a war against 2 great powers. From the armistice, France formed a peaceful move and therefore formed a powerful but calm balance. In terms of the previous powerful European powers, Russia was already defeated from the Crimean war but Prussia, another powerful power also helped balance Austria and France as Prussia was not interested in
This allowed the far right to exploit the Germans hate of the treaty of Versailles and connect the treaty to democracy, so the people wouldn’t blame the loss of ww1 on the army but the democratic politician’s. This led to an increase in public support for a more authoritarian dictatorial system the strengthening the far-right. The other main reason the loss
They were just fighting because they wanted to reform their government. But for America it was much more than fighting to reform their government. It was about fighting to part ways with Britain. It was about fighting for independence. France wasn’t part of the colonies like America was, America was sick of being treated badly, and unfairly so they decided to fight.
If any of the triple alliance attacks either Russia or France, the other will send aid. Russia and France made this treaty because the triple alliance was too powerful to take them on individually. The whole thing went downhill when Russia not France began mobilizing their troops. When Russia began mobilizing, the Germans Callics of the Austro-Hungarian empire decided to declare war on both Russia and its ally France. Even after the Germans declared war, France did not wish to engage in war.
Bismarck’s desire was to alienate France from European affairs, a France which had become resurgent and powerful after the Franco-Prussian war. In order to achieve this, he needed to remain on good terms with both Russia and Austria-Hungary, thus he formed the Dreikaiserbund (1873-1878). However, the significance of this alliance was not so great, as Austria refused to agree to any military help. Furthermore, both Russia and Austria-Hungary were rivals in the Balkans, thus making the relations between them and Germany volatile. A few years later, a crisis arose in the Balkans, as a result of which, the Dreikaiserbund was terminated.
This is implying of course that the decision by Nicholas II to go to war against Germany and it’s allies in 1914 was wrong, but this is not the case. Russia actually had many reasons to risk war again; the war was weighed heavily in the allies favour as the combined forces of Great Britain, France and Russia were far stronger than that of Germany, Austria and Hungary. Russia was aware of it’s major failing though, it’s slow modernisation had left it trailing behind that of the other countries, and Russia would have to be prepared for the rapid social and economic change that a war brings. This was Russia’s best chance to modernise and not be left behind. Russia’s early hopes were soon dashed however.