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Example research essay topic: First World War Sphere Of Influence - 2,098 words

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... for several reasons. Germany wanted Britain to join the Triple Alliance, but Britain refused for fear that it would involve her in European conflicts of no direct concern to Britain. Germany's naval expansion after 1898 threatened Britain's naval supremacy and with the Kaiser saying our future lies on the water 9 it caused the British to increase their naval production. Most importantly, Germany's colonial interests clashed with those of Britain in China and the Balkans.

Germany wanted to divide China into spheres of influence but Britain wanted to keep an open door for trade for all nations in every part of China. In the Balkans, Germany wanted to bring Turkey under the economic and political control of Germany. But Britain tried to maintain the integrity of the Turkish Empire for fear that if Germany controlled Turkey; she would threaten the British naval and economic interests in the Mediterranean. Consequently Britain concluded an alliance with Japan in 1902. The Alliance was important in European diplomatic relations in two ways Britain had abandoned her policy of isolation, and since Britain could make use of Japan to check Russian aggression in the Far East, her fear of Russian colonial expansion lessened and this helped to pave the way for their future cooperation. After concluding the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, Britain was still looking for a European ally.

She naturally turned to France, the irreconcilable enemy of Germany. France also wanted Britain as her ally since she did not want to support Russia in a war in the Far East because it would mean a war with both Britain and Japan. Alliance with Britain might absolve France from supporting Russia and settle many conflicts between Britain and France in Africa. In 1898, the conflict at Fashoda in North Africa nearly brought them into a war, but France realized that her greatest foe was Germany and wanted to settle many of her colonial disputes with Britain peacefully and gained the help of the latter in acquiring Morocco. (Morocco was rich in mineral and agricultural wealth, so France wanted to take over it as her colony. ) The last obstacle to the formation of the British and French Entente was removed in 1901. In that year Queen Victoria died and was succeeded by her son Edward VII. Kaiser William II was Victoria's grandson, his mother having been the Queen's daughter.

Thus Queen Victoria preferred an alliance of Germany to that of France. But Edward VII did not share his mother's sentiment towards Germany. Consequently Britain reached a series of agreements with France in 1904. These agreements settled their old colonial disputes in Siam, West Africa, Madagascar, the remote New Hebrides and fishing rights in Newfoundland. The most important agreement was the one by which France recognized Egypt and the Sudan as British sphere of influence and Britain recognized Morocco as French sphere of influence; in addition, both would support each other if their respective spheres of influence were challenged by a third power. The Entente Cordiale (friendly agreement) was not an alliance in name, but it rapidly became something like it in fact.

Kaiser William II was furious at it, both because it seemed to shut Germany out of Morocco and because it indicated that British influence would be used in the interests of France, rather than those of Germany. France had a military alliance with Russia and a friendly agreement with Britain. It now became her concern to draw her two partners together. She finally succeeded in inducing Britain to settle her disputes with Russia in 1907. Britain and Russia had been long-timed rivals in colonial and trade questions in the Middle and Far East. But several factors made possible their agreement.

First, both felt greatly threatened by Germany. The rapid buildup of the German navy challenged Britain's position as the greatest naval power in the world. In the pursuit of imperialism, Britain faced too many enemies 10 and the construction of the Berlin-Baghdad railway meant an extension of German influence into the Balkans and the Turkish Empire, an area that Russia considered as her sphere of influence. Second, both Britain and Russia resented the aggressive nature of William IIs diplomacy, as shown in the First Moroccan Crisis 1905 - 06.

Third, Britain considered that now Germany was a more dangerous rival than Russia to her commercial interests in the Balkans and the eastern Mediterranean. Fourth, the growth of the Balkan states greatly reduced the Russian threat in the Balkans lessening Britain's fear of Russia. Finally, in the Far East Britain did not worry about Russian ambition any more as Russia was defeated by Japan in 1905. Therefore, in 1907, Britain and Russia agreed to settle their colonial disputes in the following manner; Persia was divided into three parts: the north kept by Russia as her sphere of influence, the south kept by Britain, and the central was to remain under Persian control as a buffer zone, Russia renounced her interests in Afghanistan; Russia and Britain were to enjoy equal trading rights in the country while Britain gained control of the foreign policy in Afghanistan (this agreement safeguarded the security of India, relieving one of the major concerns of Great Britain), and both Russia and Britain recognized China's suzerainty over Tibet. They treated Tibet as a neutral state between themselves. Thus England was bound to France and Russia by Entente and France and Russia were held together by a firm alliance.

This group of three great powers was usually called the Triple Entente. The European powers had now aligned themselves into two rival camps, the Triple Entente versus the Triple Alliance. After 1870, the European nations began to acquire colonies in Asia, Africa and the Pacific. Their imperialistic activities accelerated from 1880 onwards.

Between 1895 and 1905 imperialistic expansion reached its climax. Colonial rivalry led to strained relations among the European powers. In Africa, all the European powers except Austria and Russia had colonies there. Thus there were many clashes among France, Britain, Germany and Italy. For example, France rivaled with Italy over Tunis and with Germany over Morocco. The colonial rivalries led indirectly to the formation and strengthening of alliances and ententes, Italy turned to Germany and Austria when she lost Tunis to France in 1881.

Russia and Britain could patch up their differences and form an entente in 1907 as a result of their mutual fear of Germany's expansionist activities in the Balkans. Russia, Britain and France could become firm friends after 1907 partly because of aggressive attitude of Germany in both the first and the second Moroccan crises. Colonial rivalry also led to an intensification of the arms race. Germany found that, without a navy, she could not send much military help to the Dutch during the Boer War.

Shortly after the event, Admiral von Tirpitz, the German Minister of Marine, proclaimed the need of a strong navy and from 1898 onwards, Germany built more battleships. Colonial rivalry led to much hostility among the powers. In the first and the second Moroccan crises, war nearly resulted, while France and Britain nearly came to war over their rivalry in the Sudan in 1898. But after 1905 colonial issues became less important as the powers turned back to Europe and Europe remained their center of rivalry. From 1904 to 1907, Britain, France and Russia were able to settle their colonial disputes by the Anglo-French Entente and the Anglo-Russian Entente.

By 1914 colonial disputes had greatly diminished. There were economic conflicts between Germany and Britain from 1890 onwards. Since 1871 Germany had been experiencing a period of rapid industrialization, and by 1890 the products of her industry were competing with British manufactures everywhere in the globe and German merchant ships threatened Britain's carrying trade. There were also economic struggles between Germany and France. In 1870 France had already lost two of her coal producing provinces, Alsace and Lorraine to Germany. From 1871 onwards, France had to import coal from other countries.

Thus France had to compete with Germany in Morocco because the place was rich in mineral resources. Germany and Austria also rivaled with Russia in the Balkans for commercial privileges. As early as 1888 Germany began to build a railway in the area. Austria regarded the area as a field for profitable investment and as a big market for her manufactured goods. Russia also hoped to control the area because half of her exports passed through this area. Undoubtedly economic rivalries played a considerable part in creating international tensions in the 43 years before the First World War.

As a matter of fact, the economic rivalries have been much exaggerated. The commercial rivalry between Germany and Russia in the Balkans was not keen, for Russia was not yet a fully industrialized nation with a surplus of products to be sold abroad. The trade rivalry between Britain and Germany had also eased off in the ten years before the war because they developed their markets in different parts of the world, Britain within her own Empire, and Germany on the continent of Europe. Thus economic rivalries played a minor part in causing the First World War.

Militarism denoted a rise in military expenditure, an increase in military and naval forces, more influence of the military men upon the policies of the civilian government, and a preference for force as a solution to problems. Militarism was one of the main causes of the First World War. After 1907, there was an increase in military influence on policy making. This could be reflected particularly in Germany and Russia. The German Army at this period was called a "State within the State" 11. The parliament and the politicians had to follow the General Staff and had no say in the army's design to preserve the Fatherland.

Even though the Schlieffen Plan would incur the anger of Great Britain and bring the latter into a war, it was accepted by the German civilian government as the war plan. In 1914, the Russian generals were also able to force the Czar to accept full mobilization. They threatened him with the danger of defeat if he acted contrarily. After 1871, the war atmosphere engendered by the secret alliances led to an armaments race among the powers. The race was particularly serious between 1900 and 1914, as the international situation became much worse than before. All the Continental European powers had adopted the conscription system since 1870.

France had conscription since the Revolutionary Wars, Austria-Hungary since 1868, Germany since 1870, Italy since 1873 and Russia since 1874. Only Britain did not have conscription. After 1890, the deteriorating diplomatic relations among the powers accelerated their military expansion program. From 1913 to July 1914, Germany increased her standing forces, France lengthened her period of military service from two to three years, and Russia lengthened her term of service from three to three and a half years. Britain did not introduce conscription but had prepared her armed forces for both European expedition and for home defense. In general, all the powers increased their stocks of arms, produced more modern weapons of war and built more strategic railways.

Britain and Germany were the chief rivals at sea. Under Admiral Tirpitz, State Secretary of the Imperial Naval Office from 1897, a long-term shipbuilding program began since his military plans were based on the use of the fleet against England 12. The German Navy Law of 1898 increased the German battleships from nine cruisers to twelve. In 1900 Germany passed a Navy Law that doubled the German battle fleet.

In the meantime, Britain produced her first Dreadnought (meaning fear nothing). Dreadnoughts were large, fast and heavily armed battleships with large guns. They set a new standard in naval armaments and rendered all previous battleships obsolete. The naval race became intense, and between 1909 and 1911 Germany built nine Dreadnoughts while Britain completed eighteen. In 1913, Germany widened the Kiel Canal to allow the easy passage of her Dreadnoughts from the Baltic to the North Sea while Britain built new naval bases for the Dreadnoughts in northern Scotland. Increased military and naval rivalry led not only to the belief that war was coming, the German ruling group felt that only through a war could Germany become a world power, but an increase in military control of the civilian government (particularly in Germany and Russia) also increased cooperation among the military staff of the countries of the same camp.

For example, all the three Entente powers held secret military talks. The British and the French naval authorities agreed that the French navy should be concentrated in the Mediterranean and...


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