Austria then declared war on the grounds that it had not been accepted in its entirety. It has become fashionable (at high school level) to claim that the Austrians had been looking for an excuse to declare war because of lingering disputes between the two countries. It is probably more accurate to say that Austria was trying to clip Serbia's wings and deny it a coastline. On July 5, 1914, Germany (which had reasons of its own for a war) had given Austria a "blank check", or unconditional guarantee of support in its actions against Serbia. Provocations and Disputes 1.
In the summer of 1914 war swept across Europe which turned into a prolonged global struggle. In World War I there were the Allies, which were composed of Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, and the US. The Allies were against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. The Europeans quickly rushed into war but United States at first did not want any part in the war. At the time the President of US was Woodrow Wilson who wanted to stay Neutral.
Firstly, they were, under a ‘War Guilt’ clause, expected to accept all of the blame for the war. The Allies maintained that this was because they had, rather than fight Russia, on whom they had declared war, followed the Schlieffen Plan and opted to invade France first. To do this they marched through Belgium, which was a neutral country and not a part of any major alliances, leading to the British, Belgian and French declarations of war on Germany. The Germans felt that this was unfair because Britain could have kept out of the war as it was not being threatened – they felt that they were expected to accept the blame because they had lost, rather than because it was their fault. Secondly, all of Germany’s colonies were taken away, and Germany itself had its borders redefined.
If Germany had not given Austria the blank cheque or the military backing in the first place Austria would have to have accepted Serbia’s amended ultimatum, but because Germany had pledged their undying support Austria was able to declare war on Serbia thus also dragging a precarious network of alliances with it. By 1900 Austrians were losing their grip on their multi ethnic empire. In response to the Serbians attempt to reduce Austro-Hungarian, Austria-Hungary adopted an aggressive foreign policy in order to reestablish its reign over the empire and crush Serbia’s aspirations. A now determined Austria Hungary continually provoked Serbia by addressing the Eastern Question
The USA did not want to get involved in foreign affairs and foreign wars, especially since WW1 where the people feared another “European death march” so they rejected joining the League of Nations despite the fact that USA was the country who put forward the idea at the Treaty of Versailles. However the USA did try to promote peace where possible such as when they helped Germany with their reparations problems, was a participant in the Washington Naval Conference where the 5 major powers agreed on specific rations of ships for their navies and signed the Kellogg-Briand pact of renouncing war as a method of settling international disputes. Although USA had not directly intervened in world affairs they had helped economically and politically to retain the world peace (to keep to their isolationist policy and not being pressed into intervention). However when war broke out in Europe USA’s isolationist policy was slackened, and treaties such as Lend lease, Atlantic charter showed America’s support for Britain and her allies which shows the difference in attitude compared to the early 1920s. Also USA’s deteriorating relationships with Japan had gone to the limit, even though USA had tried economic sanctions and UN warnings against them.
What are the short and long term effects of the Russian revolution. The short term effects of the Russian revolution are Russia dropped out of World War One. With Russia out the war it meant that Germany could bring more troops to fight in France where there was a stale mate giving Germany an advantage advantage over entente powers. Russia also had to give up one third of its population, one third of its agricultural land and three quarters of its industry to Germany in the harsh peace treaty (Treaty of Brest-Litovsk).They tried delaying the matters by refusing to the treaty. But the Germans just started to invade so Russia had no choice but to accept the treaty.
Now it was clear that Hitler could not be trusted and unlike Studenland, the rest of Czech was never part of Germany before thee war, so this was clearly an invasion. Britain and France told Hitler they would declare war on him if he invaded Poland. * Stalin had been worried about Germany all along cause he read about Hitler’s plans about taking over the east of Europe, he also knew Britain and France would not stand in his way cause they supported his idea of anti communism. So instead he went to Hitler and they agreed on ‘The Nazi Soviet pact’ which was that Hitler would not invade Russia and Poland can be divided in 2 between them. Stalin wanted the east, to take over the Baltic states and he knew that Hitler would not keep his word but he had hoped that the agreement would give him time to build up his forces.
5....30th July | When Kaiser heard that Russia was getting ready for war (Mobilising) he asked Tsar Nicholas to stop. | 4....1st August | Nicholas refused – Germany declared war on Russia and got her army ready. France was an ally of Russia so they mobilised their army on the same day. | 3....2nd August | Germans had the Schlieffen Plan ready and sent their armies to Belgium. | 2...3rd August | 75 years earlier, Britain promised to back Belgium up from any attack by any other country.
It was not until the 4th August, where the British declaration of war was announced. Why Britain joined the Great War is debatable and historians have come up with numerous reasons such as the threat of Germany, due to public opinion and was it over the invasion of Belgium? Each of these reasons and more I will discuss in the following paragraphs. Furthermore the impending threat of Germany was seen to be a reason for Britain going to war. According to Ferro in his book 'The Great War' he suggests that England felt threatened by Germany due to the unprecedented economic strides the country made between 1880 and 1914, although Germany did not have a financial base on the same scale as Britain's economic power.
Since the signing of the Treaty of London in 1839, Britain agreed that it would protect Belgium’s right to be neutral in a European conflict. In the Treaty of London of 1839, all the great powers of Europe, including Britain and Germany, were bound to respect the neutrality of Belgium, and if necessary, defend her from aggression. In 1914, the Germans had requested that Belgium let their troops pass, and when her government refused, Germany invaded Belgium on August 4th, 1914. This was in defiance of the treaty, and in response Britain declared