European DiplomacyEuropean Diplomacy

DURING THE PERIOD 1871-1914 WHICH DURING THE PERIOD 1871-1914 WHICH WERE THE MAJOR POWERS  INWERE THE MAJOR POWERS  IN EUROPE AND WHY?EUROPE AND WHY?

Germany, England, France, Russia and the Austrian Empire were the major powers in Europe.

Germany, in particular, once united, had the resources and population to become the greatest European power.

Europe before 1871

Franco- Prussian War 1870-71France defeated and had to sign

the Treaty of FrankfurtTerms:Alsace and Lorraine –rich iron ore

deposits, textile industries, good agricultural land

Indemnity-5000 million francs, german troops occupied parts of France till it was paid.

A victory march through France

Consequences of the WarLed to unification of GermanyKing of Prussia declared German

EmperorConscription was necessary to

pprovide adequate trained reserves.

Europe 1871-1914Parliamentary

monarchyTrade

IndustrySea-power

Empire

Authoritarian state, Kaiser and Chancellor Military power,

industrialisation and population growth, Battle Fleet 1900

Autocratic Tsar, Duma 1905, Rapid

industrialisation (1890’s) and

population growthForeign loans, pan-

Slavism

Sultan rules 1876-1909,

Balkan unrest decline young

Turks 1909

Democratic republic slow economic and

population growth colonial

expansion

Dual monarchy Separate Govt. and

parliaments nationalities

Conflicts Balkan

interests

Otto van BismarckOtto van Bismarck

      WHAT WERE WHAT WERE BISMARCK'SBISMARCK'S MAJOR FOREIGN POLICY MAJOR FOREIGN POLICY

OBJECTIVES AFTEROBJECTIVES AFTER GERMAN UNIFICATION?GERMAN UNIFICATION?

The Prussian military influence caused Germany to emphasize military power and to maintain the highest state of military readiness.

    Bismarck continued to serve as the chancellor of Germany for two decades after unification. Having accomplished unification, he directed policy towards the goal of maintaining what had been achieved. Germany had no further expansionist designs in Europe.

France was seen as the most likely threat. Therefore, Bismarck presided over a military build-up that would always exceed the French. Although, this was for defensive purposes, the French were fearful that Germany was planning further military aggression. France, therefore, built its military capabilities.

An armaments race went on for more than forty years. Together, they amassed the largest standing armies in history with conscription and millions of men under arms. Only the resources of industrialized nation-states could sustain such an effort. The new technology added to the potential of military power.

Bismarck also sought to keep France diplomatically isolated so that they would never be tempted to go to war to recoup their losses. He negotiated a series of alliances with other European powers. These efforts were complicated and eventually frustrated by the unstable situation in the Balkans.

3. WHAT WERE 3. WHAT WERE ENGLAND'SENGLAND'S MAJOR MAJOR FOREIGN POLICY OBJECTIVES?FOREIGN POLICY OBJECTIVES?

England continued to enjoy a predominant position of power throughout the 19th century because of its leadership in industrialization and the benefits of overseas trade.

    English foreign policy was described as "splendid isolationism", a policy of remaining aloof from alliances with other powers while exercising its influence to encourage a balance of power on the continent. So long as the continental powers checked each other, England was secure on the other side of the Channel.

Britain feared Russia’s design on Constantinople and India, therefore British Ministers supported the decline of the ottoman empire. The Crimean war 1854-56 was fought to checkRussian influence over Turkey.

1870-1914- Britain became the greatest imperial power in the world.-”the empire on which the sun never set.’

    England had a small volunteer, professional army, well-trained and disciplined, but relied mainly upon a powerful navy which protected the island nation and its far-flung overseas network of trade.

Throughout much of the century, Russia seemed to pose the greatest challenge to English imperial interests. Periodic Russian expansion towards the Balkans and the Straits of the Dardanelles (the Ottoman Empire) posed a potential threat to the English trade route to India.

    English and Russian imperial interests also clashed in Persia, in Afghanistan and in northern China. There were also conflicting imperialistic goals between England and France in Africa.

Immense importance was given to safeguarding the routes to India- Suez Canal and southern Africa were regarded as areas of strategic importance

1860-1900 – it was a period of ‘Splendid isolation’ when britain stood aside from alliances but later British statesmen realised that britain’s resources were overstretched and she needed allies.

France

After Napolean’s defeat in 1815, France was regarded as a threat to peace due to her size of population, the home of revolutionary ideas

1815-52- pursued a peaceful foreign policy.

She made a rapid recovery from defeat of 1870’s and regained her status as a Great power.

Reorganized armyDeveloped a powerful navy1914- industrialisation slower than

GermanyA wealthy nation as vast amounts of

capital invested abroad, especially in Russia.

1900’s- French Left (Sicialist and radicals) largely pacifist and French Right very nationalistic and committed to take revenge.

      WHAT WERE WHAT WERE FRANCE'SFRANCE'S MAJOR MAJOR FOREIGN POLICY OBJECTIVES?FOREIGN POLICY OBJECTIVES?

    In France, the Third Republic was established after the Franco-Prussian War. This was a multi-party  democracy which endured, in spite of frequent elections and changes in leadership, until the Nazi conquest in 1940.

    A minority faction in France agitated to regain Alsace-Lorraine from Germany, but the French were always outpaced by German power and this was not a realistic hope until after World War I. The main pre-occupation of French foreign policy was the potential threat of Germany.

Russia

Aim- to defend monarchial authority

Defeated in the Crimean War- forbidden to maintain a navy in the Black Sea

Internally- modernise local govt.,the army and educational system, abolished serfdon

1904-5:Russian economy did not generate

enough taxable wealth to meet the increasing needs of the state.

Russian agriculture- unproductive and grains from richer regions were exported to pay for imported machinery for her industries

Industrialisation was financed by massive foreign loans

Pan- Slavists: believed in solidarity of all Slavs whether in Russia or Balkans

Russia’s mission was to liberate the Balkan Christians from Turkish oppression: and they wished to create independent Slav states under the protection of Mother Russia and the orthodox church.

1890’s- growth of German influence in Turkey- Balkans – tinderbox or powder-keg

WHAT WERE WHAT WERE RUSSIA'SRUSSIA'S MAJOR FOREIGN MAJOR FOREIGN POLICY OBJECTIVES?POLICY OBJECTIVES?

    A consistent goal of Russian foreign policy was to achieve warm water access to the Mediterranean and the high seas through the Straits of the Dardanelles. This coincided with a pan-Slavic drive to expand Russian interest into the Balkans as the self-appointed protectors of the many Slavic nationalities there.

    There was also a Russian expansion across the sparsely-populated Siberian land mass. This brought the Russians into Manchuria (northeastern China), where they gained access to the Pacific.  There was also a significant migration of Russians into Siberia.

    The Balkans was the greatest area of instability. There, the interests of Austria and Russia clashed and threatened the peace of Europe.

Austria - Hungary

Austria-Hungary1815-48- the Austrian Chancellor ,

Metternich had exercised great influence in Europe, working closely with Russia and Prussia opposing revolutionary movements.

Foreign Policy- gave diplomatic support to britain and France in the Crimjean Wars

She was a property of the Habsburg dynasty and contained many different national groups.

1867- Habsburgs compromised with the Hungarians (Magyars) by granting them self-govt.

Austria became Austria-Hungary called Dual monarchy

Austria’s capital- ViennaHungary- government and parliament

at BudapestA common foreign policy, uniform armyTwo master races- Germans in the

West and the Magyars in the EastOther races- Czechs, Slovaks, poles,

Italians, Serbs, Croats and others which were discriminated by the master races.

To check Russian influence, Austrian policy was directed towards creating client states in the Balkans

1900- Serbia posed a threat as it was backed by Russia

WHAT WERE THE REASONS FOR WHAT WERE THE REASONS FOR INSTABILITY INSTABILITY IN IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND IN THE OTTOMAN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE?EMPIRE?

    The Austrian Empire and the Ottoman Empire ruled over six Slavic nationalities as well as the Hungarians, the Romanians, the Albanians, and the Macedonians. There were also Greek and Italian minorities. Three major religions, Roman Catholic, Christian Orthodox, and Muslim also divided the people of the Balkans.

    War erupted in 1877 when the Bulgars rose up against their Turkish rulers and Russia intervened on their side. The Russians defeated the Turks, and would have driven them almost entirely out of Europe had the other great powers not intervened.

    England threatened war against Russia, and Bismarck, concerned that Austria and Germany might be drawn in, convened a peace conference.

Ottoman EmpireSultan ruleBalkan unrestDecline

Research The Congress of BerlinThe Dual Alliance 1879, the

Three Emperor’s Alliance 1881The Reinsurance Treaty 1887The Mediterranean Agreements,

1887

Part II

In 1878, at the Congress of Berlin, the Russians were coerced into relinquishing their gains in the recent war with Turkey. Bulgaria's independence was recognized and the Austrian government made a claim for Bosnia.       Bosnia was a source of concern for the Austrian Empire. Slavic minorities, agitating for independence from Austria, found refuge among their compatriots across the border in Bosnia.

The Austrians demanded to annex Bosnia, but the Russians  rallied to their Serbian (Slavic) allies there and refused to accept the annexation. A compromise arranged that Austria should occupy Bosnia but not be allowed to annex it. This was an unsatisfactory agreement imposed upon the parties at the insistence of Germany.

WHAT WHAT CHANGES IN EUROPEAN DIPLOMACYCHANGES IN EUROPEAN DIPLOMACY OCCURRED AFTER THE RETIREMENT OF BISMARCK OCCURRED AFTER THE RETIREMENT OF BISMARCK IN 1890?IN 1890?

    Bismarck's policy was designed to prevent war . The first alliance he had formed was the Three Emperor's League, an agreement between the 3 monarchs of Germany, Russia and Austria to stand against threats to the status quo. This agreement had been annulled by the Balkan conflict.

    In 1879, Bismarck formed an alliance with the Austrians in order to restrain the Russians who were furious over the outcome of the Congress of Berlin. In 1882, Bismarck persuaded the Italians to join in a Triple Alliance. At the same time, working to contain Russo-Austrian hostility, he constructed a second alliance of the Three Emperors (1881-1887), which involved a pledge of friendly neutrality in the event that any of the three powers became involved in war with a fourth power.

Tension in the Balkans led the Russians to withdraw from the agreement in 1887. Bismarck continued his efforts by negotiating a Russian-German Reinsurance Treaty, again pledging neutrality if the other were attacked.

    The circumstances changed dramatically in the 1890's. Bismarck was forcibly retired by the new and young emperor, William II, and German foreign policy became less cautious and more bellicose. The Reinsurance Treaty was allowed to lapse.

    The Russians, looking for western investment, and the French, seeking to break out of their diplomatic isolation, began negotiations which led by 1894 to the Franco-Russian alliance.

Germany commenced a naval build-up which threatened England's primacy on the high seas. A naval armaments race between England and Germany began.

       England shifted its foreign policy from avoiding alliances to actively seeking ways to protect themselves from the rising power of Germany.

    The English improved their relationship with the United States by consenting to accept settlement of a number of differences through arbitration. Upon demand by the United States, they withdrew a naval squadron from the waters of Venezuela where there had been a dispute concerning debt payments to English creditors.

     They resolved a potential colonial

conflict with the French (the Fashoda Crisis) by agreeing to support each others claims to Egypt and to Morocco. England was given support in Egypt by the French, and France was given support in Morocco by the English.

    A difficult war to repress a rebellion in South Africa (the Boer War, 1899-1902) had awakened the English to their over-extended imperial commitments.

    In 1902, England signed the Anglo-Japanese naval agreement which gave the British reassurance that Japan would check Russian expansion in Asia so that the British felt secure in withdrawing some of their Pacific fleet to the Atlantic to face the German threat. For the Japanese, it meant reassurance that England would not intervene against them if conflict developed with Russia.

    In 1904, England and France signed the Entente Cordiale  (friendly agreement) which settled remaining colonial differences between the two powers. It was accompanied by a secret military protocol to coordinate their navies to meet a potential threat from Germany.

    In 1905, the Germans created a crisis by challenging French claims to Morroco. Tensions there led to the Algeciras Conference, presided over by Theodore Roosevelt, an activist President in the United States. Germany had tested the newly signed Entente, and failed to divide the two allies.

    In 1907, the Russians, after suffering a defeat at the hands of Japan (the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-5), settled some outstanding differences with the British, setting the stage for the Triple Entente, a "friendly agreement" between England, France and Russia.

    Now, it was Germany that was isolated, except for its alliance with Austria-Hungary.  Because of the weakness of Austria-Hungary, this was more of a burden than an asset.

    The Germans responded to the potential of a two-front war (with France and Russia) with the Schlieffen Plan. This involved the strategy of attacking France first, defeating it quickly in four weeks), and then turning to fight the Russians. It was considered highly likely that the German army could defeat the French quickly, as they had in 1870, while the Russians, with their inadequate industrial base, would take time to be a threat to Germany in the east. The plan hinged upon time. The Germany military had to attack France the moment the Russians ordered mobilization of their army. Furthermore, to defeat France quickly, the best way to do it, from a military point-of-view was to attack through neutral Belgium. The diplomatic costs of violating the 1839 treaty,  which guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium, were discounted in the interest of military expediency.

     Thus, Europe had become

divided into two armed camps with the great military and economic power of Germany arrayed against the Triple Entente. However, none of the great powers wanted war. Their preparations for war, their armaments build-up, their system of alliances had all been defensive in purpose.

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