POSSIBLE CAUSES OF WAR:What would be the best way to prevent each kind of conflict?

1. AGGRESSION: At least one actor in the international system believes that it would profit from war and has a good chance to win. Remedy: deterrence

2. PREEMPTION (as with the Six Day Arab-Israeli War of 1967). Remedy?

3. SPIRAL OF TENSIONS: One actor responds to a perceived threat with what it regards as a defensive measure, but the other actors perceive this as a threat and respond in kind. Remedy?

4. TO COMBAT INJUSTICE (as with the American War of Independence). Remedy?

Israel attacked Egypt, Jordan, and

Syria on June 5, 1967,

but those countries had forged an alliance for the

destruction of Israel. Egypt had just

closed the Gulf of Aqaba, contrary to treaty, and forced U.N. observers to withdraw from its border with Israel.

Europe’s monarchies took war for granted before 1789. The “Great Powers” were France, Austria, Russia, Prussia,

& Britain

THE WAR OF AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION, 1740-48

1. Naval war broke out in 1739

2. Prussia conquers Silesia

3. Franco-Bavarian army captures Prague but must soon retreat

The Seven Years’ War, 1756-63: France, Austria, & Russia seek to destroy Prussia

Some great thinkers of the Enlightenment called for the abolition of war

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), offered a plan for a “League of Nations” in On Eternal Peace (1795).

An admirer of the French Revolution, he argued that monarchy caused war, and that wars could be eliminated when republics based on “popular sovereignty” replaced the monarchies….

The Storming of the Bastille,Paris, July 14 1789

“Louis XVI, King of a Free People”

The Marquis de Lafayette, commander

of the new Paris National Guard

THE “BRUNSWICK MANIFESTO”(Proclamation by the Duke of Brunswick, July 25,

1792) “After arbitrarily violating the rights of the German princes in

Alsace and Lorraine, disturbing and overthrowing good order and legitimate government, committing against the sacred person of the king [Louis XVI] and his august family outrages and brutalities, those who have usurped the reins of government [in France] have at last completed their work by declaring an unjust war on his Majesty the emperor [of Austria] and attacking his provinces in the Low countries….”

“The two allied courts [Austria and Prussia] entertain no other aims than the welfare of France.”

“Members of the National Guard who shall fight against the troops of the two allied courts shall be treated as enemies and punished as rebels to their king and as disturbers of the public peace.”

“Inhabitants of the towns and villages who may dare to defend themselves against the troops of their Imperial and Royal Majesties… shall be punished immediately according to the most stringent laws of war, and their houses shall be burned or destroyed.”

“The city of Paris shall be required to submit at once and without delay to the king.”

The Brunswick Manifesto sparked a new popular uprising in Paris and the overthrow of the monarchy: “The Capture of the Tuileries Palace, 10 August 1792”

Largely untrained French volunteers then defeated the Austro-Prussian invaders:

“Kellerman at Valmy,” September 20, 1792

The French Convention, “Decree Proclaiming the Liberty

and Sovereignty of All Peoples,” December 1792 “The National Convention, faithful to the principles of the

sovereignty of the people, which do not permit it to recognize any of the institutions which bring an attack upon it, decrees:”

“In the countries which are or shall be occupied by the armies of the Republic, the generals shall proclaim immediately, in the name of the French nation, the sovereignty of the people, the suppression of all the established authorities and existing imposts and taxes, the abolition of the tithe, of feudalism, of seigneurial rights, or real and personal servitude, of the privileges of hunting and fishing, of corvées, of nobility, and generally of all privileges.”

“They shall announce to the people that they bring them peace, assistance, fraternity, liberty, and equality, and that they will convoke them directly in primary or communal assemblies, in order to create and organize an administration and a provisional judiciary.”

“There shall be made a list of the expenses which the French Republic shall have incurred for the common defense, and the French nation shall make arrangements with the government which shall have been established for that which may be due.”

Pierre-Etienne le Sueur, “The Execution of the Tyrant, 21 January 1793” (1793)

“The Blood of the Murdered

crying for Vengeance,” James Gillray

(London, 1793):Edmund Burke

had warned since 1791 that

peaceful coexistence with

revolutionary France was impossible

“Napoleon at the St. Bernard

Pass” in 1800

Napoleon completely upset the “balance of power” until 1814

The Congress of Vienna: Aristocrats forged an enduring peace

without any regard for “public opinion”

THESE “LIBERALS” AGREED THAT RUSSIA SHOULD HAVE POLAND, AND PRUSSIA SHOULD

HAVE SAXONY

Tsar Alexander I(1777-1825)

Prince Karl August von Hardenberg,

Chancellor of Prussia, 1810-22

Prince Clemens von Metternich

of Austria (1774-1859)

CHAMPIONS OF “DYNASTIC LEGITIMACY” AND THE “BALANCE OF POWER”

Viscount Castlereagh, British Foreign

Secretary

Europe following the Congress of Vienna in 1815

Cavour

united Italy

(1860)

Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) became Prime Minister of Prussia in

1862 and unified Germany

through wars with Denmark,

Austria, and France---

the foremost practitioner of

Realpolitik

William I hailed as German Kaiser, Versailles, January 18, 1871

Germany now had 65 million citizens, vs. 40 million for France

“France Signing the Preliminary Peace Terms” (March 1871):Alsace & Lorraine ripped from the bosom of their mother…

Anton von Werner, “The Congress of Berlin, June-July 1878”De Launay-Gorchakov-Disraeli-Andrássy-Bismarck-Shuvalov-

Mehmed Ali Pasha

“The Triple Alliance” (1883):

France and Russia are left out in the cold

While Germans and Italians had gained national self-determination, many “captive peoples”

remained

The political map of Europe was much simpler….

Kaiser Wilhelm II (1888-1918) The Pilot Leaves the

Ship,Punch, March 1890