France thought the war would not only help by stopping Germany’s increase in power. It would also help Napoleon III to regain his popularity after some of his failures after the commencement of his dictatorship, such as the Mexican adventure of 1867. I will now go onto the short term reasons. Firstly, Spain needed a king and Bismarck saw his chance to send Prince Leopold to become king there. France protested because they thought that having German influence on both sides would be too much if conflict would have occured.
There was a massive loss of resources and income after the recline of land in France, leading to the powerful men of England to take arms in aid of their lords this lead to the battle of St Albans The weakness of royal power can be pin pointed to the king. Henry was never a fit king to rule a country such as England; he was not the man his father Henry V would ever be. And this caused a sense of unrest to the people of England. This can be reflected by his counterproductive peace policy with France, that lead to the loss of royal lands that his father had once gained. Henry was supported and manipulated by William de la Pole, Edmund Beaufort and his French wife, Margaret of Anjou.
Schlieffen’s plan aimed to counter a joint attack and then later in the Great War the Schlieffen Plan was used as a strategy to ensure a swift victory and avoid fighting two-fronted war. In 1914 as war broke out the Schlieffen Plan was put into action but the results were not as hoped, instead the plan failed miserably. Many questioned why Schlieffen had opted to attack a powerful France first instead of a weaker, less mobile Russia which could have been defeated quickly before turning on the more threatening French army. The
He believed he had the support of the English Parliament. Mark Kishlansky states that where previous requests for money and army were pressing, as in the 1620’s, the situation after the First Bishops War was one of “genuine emergency,” and parliament knew this. Parliament was arguing that an invasion of England was not as important as attacks on the freedom of its citizens (Kishlansky, 1997: 140). Kishlansky has highlighted how important the events of the First Bishops War was, Charles was backed into a corner by parliament due to the events in Scotland. David Smith says that it was clear that some members of both houses sympathised with the covenanters and wished to defeat the supply of money in order to encourage a resistance, (Smith, 1998: p111) highlighting that there was a
It was crucial for the Royal Navy to protect British trade interests because even with Britain being an industrial power, it relied heavily on other countries for its agricultural production and thus, Britain would be at the mercy of France if its imports were restricted (in terms of having an internal revolution brew out due to famine, etc). Furthermore, the Royal Navy also engaged in direct combat and secured strategic as well as commercial victories in areas such as the West Indies and most importantly in Copenhagen. The defeat of the Danish in 1801 caused the league of Armed Neutrality to collapse whose main aim was to prevent Britain from using the Baltic. This showed the Navy’s muscle as well as that The Royal Navy’s most important victory came during a period deemed as potentially becoming Britain’s ‘darkest hour’. Napoleon had resumed the war by conquering Italy whilst invading the Netherlands and Switzerland.
The US administration concluded that the French were invaluable allies against Communism in both Indochina and Europe, and therefore deserving of American assistance. The French threatened to be unhelpful about the European defense arrangements and their war against Communism if Eisenhower did not provide more aid. While many viewed the war as America's way against Communism, some historians believed that further US involvement was due to Eisenhower's personal interest. In the presidential election campaign Eisenhower had rejected the Democratic policy of containment of Communism and advocated the liberation of communist states. He realised this was a fatal mistake because not only has he yet to liberate a communist state, the Red Scare was high on the rise and Senator Macarthy was throwing accusations within the
This Alliance consisted of Holland, England, Brandenburg, Portugal, Savoy, and the Holy Roman Empire. At the time England did not want another War following the events of 1698 and as for France, Louis believed that another major conflict would be unnecessary. After Charles II’s death the European powers found themselves in a provocative and ambiguous situation that was turned on its head following Leopold’s declaration of War following the acceptance of the throne by Louis’ grandson in 1700. This ascension to the throne had
This created a problem for Henry because during that time having a female line of succession as seen as being weak and having a Queen as head of the state was seen as a recipe for disaster based upon previous events that had happened within England (civil war under Queen Matilda).By marrying Anne Boleyn in 1533 Henry gave himself a chance of gaining a son that he needed in order to secure his dynasty and fulfil one of the roles he was given in being a king which was to enable the success of his lineage once his reign had come to an end. By not having a male heir to the throne it may have made the position of England in terms of what the future held a bleak one, an England without an male heir may make it an easy target in the future for its enemies such as Catholic France, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire because they could portray the issue as one of having a chance to invade successfully amidst a succession crisis. With Henry’s divorce from Catherine Aragon paving the way so that he could marry Anne Boleyn he had to change the shape of religion within England forever, he cut ties with the Catholics church and
This was surprising to many people, as Britain and France had historically been enemies. The alliance was different to a full alliance in the form that it was an agreement not to attack each other, but did not mean protection from other attackers; this was because neither country wanted to be ‘dragged’ into a war. The alliance was then altered when Russia later joined, and the alliance changed to ‘The Triple Alliance’. This was to aid the prevention of future war, especially with Germany. The alliance would act as a ‘buffer’ towards Germany.
In addition, the States had socially influenced Canada greatly, in terms of culture. Canada did gain some political independence, hampered by the fact that Canada depended on the United States for much of its social and economic success. Canada’s prime minister, Mackenzie King, did not follow the regular rules set by Britain. Instead he refused to send Canadian troops with Britain to invade Turkey in 1922. (Cranny p.55) Normally, when Britain went to war, Canada would automatically be at war as well, but King took a big step in not following orders from the mother country.