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... to give military support to Austria. The Bosnian crisis had harmful consequences for the peace of Europe. Russia felt humiliated and was determined that this must not come again. Immediately after the crisis, the Russian government intensified her armaments program and sent Isvolsky as ambassador in Paris in order to get more support from France. The annexation of Bosnia Herzegovina also made Serbia the irreconcilable enemy of Austria.
Without Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia could never become a united state and could not have an outlet to the sea. The Serbian nationalists foamed a secret society, the Black Hand, in 1911. The society aimed to provoke revolt in Bosnia and war with Austria. Young Bosnian's were trained to assassinate Austrian officials in Bosnia. Finally, as a result of the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria had more Serbs than the Kingdom of Serbia itself, three fifths of the South Slavs were now under Austrian rule. The Slavs were opposed to the annexation, so Austria had great difficulties in ruling these two provinces.
Troubled by the restlessness of the Slavs and encouraged by the German promises of support, Austria wanted to crush Serbia if a new opportunity arose. The French were not satisfied with their partial control of Morocco since 1906. France wanted to have complete control of the country. After 1906 France steadily increased her influence in the country. In 1908, the French installed a pro-French Sultan on the throne. In May 1911, the French forces occupied Fez, the capital of Morocco, in order to suppress a rising against the pro-French Sultan.
The Germans responded by sending a gunboat Panther to Agadir, a strategic port on the Atlantic coast. The British feared that Germany would make Agadir as a German naval base on the British naval route. So Britain protested against Germany and backed up France to fight against Germany. War seemed to be inevitable, but because of British support of France, Germany gave in. In a negotiated settlement, France (together with Spain) gained most of Morocco, leaving a small portion opposite Gibraltar to Spain. Germany was compensated with a strip of the French Congo as a consolation price to Germany.
The Agadir crisis also had harmful consequences for the peace of Europe. On the one hand, as Germany had suffered a diplomatic defeat, she was unwilling to suffer another diplomatic defeat again. On the other hand, the British, French and Russian governments were alarmed by the aggressive attitude of the Germans. They remembered that Germany had tried to dictate the world by force for three times since 1905, firstly in the first Moroccan crisis of 19056, secondly, in the Bosnian crisis of 1909 and finally in the second Moroccan Crisis of 1911.
After the crisis, the Entente powers exchanged information about the conditions of their army and navy. In 1912, Britain and France made a naval agreement that in the event of a war, the British fleet should guard the North Sea and the English Channel, while the French fleet was to be deployed in the Mediterranean. After the Young Turk Revolution, the Turkish government remained weak and inefficient. In 1911 Italy attacked Tripoli.
In 1912, by the Treaty of Lausanne, Italy received Tripoli from Turkey. Exploiting the chaotic political situation following the Turkish defeat in 1912, the Balkan states, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro, formed the Balkan League and declared war on Turkey in October 1912. They aimed to partition the Turkish Empire. From October 1912 to May 1913, the League won series of battles and Turkey could only retain the areas around Constantinople. The victory of the Balkan League states was welcomed by the Russians 16 while the other powers watched the victory of the League with great anxiety. Austria wanted to stop Serbia from becoming too powerful and was determined not to allow Serbia to get a seaport on the Adriatic.
The powers intervened and imposed their own settlement, the Treaty of London. The most important provision of the Treaty was that, on Austria's insistence, a new state, Albania, was created to prevent Serbia from getting a coastline on the Adriatic. To compensate for this, Serbia was given a large part of Macedonia. Bulgaria had long regarded Macedonia as her possession. Her quarrels with Serbia soon developed into a war. In the second Balkan War, Bulgaria alone fought against Serbia, Montenegro, Rumania, Greece and Turkey.
The war was soon over. Bulgaria was soundly defeated and the territorial settlement made after the First Balkan War was largely preserved except that Turkey and Rumania gained some valuable territory. The consequences of the Balkan Wars directly led to the outbreak of the First World War. Serbia was twice victorious in the Balkan wars and was larger than ever, her area doubled as she got a large part of Macedonia. The desire to make herself larger by including all fellow nationals in a united Slav state was intensified. This brought her more sharply into collision with Austria that ruled eight million Serbs and Croats and which prevented Serbia from getting a coastline.
Austria also found that the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina grew increasingly troublesome. She was determined to attack Serbia before it was too late and Germany knowing that Austria was her only dependable ally in Europe assured her of Germany's support. The Russian Czar felt that Russia had suffered a diplomatic defeat because she could not obtain Albania for Serbia due to Austrian insistence. In order to recover her lost prestige in the Balkans, the Czar declared in February 1914, "For Serbia, we shall do everything. " 17 The climatic event that led to the outbreak of the First World War took place on June 28, 1914.
On that day, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife were shot dead by a young Serbian nationalist, Gavrillo Principal, of the Black Hand at Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital. The Serbian Black Hand had to assassinate Archduke Ferdinand because he wanted to convert the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (the Dual Monarchy) into a Triple Monarchy by the inclusion of Serbia. Although the Serbs might gain a certain degree of autonomy within the Triple Monarchy, their long cherished wish of creating a united Serbian state would be dashed to the ground. Francis Joseph, the reigning monarch was eighty-four years old and expected to die soon.
Ferdinand's ideas might have a chance for realization very soon. The Black Hand thought that they should kill Ferdinand before it was too late. Some members of the Serbian cabinet knew the assassination plot in advance but did nothing to stop it. Austria considered the murder of the heir to the throne an open Serbian attack on the existence of the Dual Monarchy because if Francis Joseph died Austria would be left without an heir. Although she could not find any evidence that the Serbian government was connected to the assassination, Austria consciously exploited the occasion to destroy Serbia as a state to put an end to the Serbian threat to the existence of the Dual Monarchy forever.
Knowing a war with Serbia might lead to a war with Russia, Austria wanted to be assured of German support. The German Kaiser decided to support Austria because he regarded Austria as the only ally of Germany and because he believed that the Russian Czar would not come to help Serbia in a war involving the death of a future monarch. On July 6, Germany assured Austria that should there be an Austro-Serbian war, Germany would stand by her (Austrian) side and give her unlimited support as an ally. This was called the Blank Cheque. Having received the wholehearted support from Germany, Austria sent an ultimatum to Serbia on July 23, 1914.
The ultimatum was to be answered within 48 hours. The note demanded that Serbia should agree to a number of Austrian conditions including the suppression of anti-Austrian propaganda in Serbia, the dissolution of the Serbian nationalist association Naronda Odbrana, the purging of officers and officials who were guilty of propaganda against Austria demanded that representatives of the Austro-Hungarian government should participate in the enquiry which the Serbs were to carry out into the origins of the assassination plot. 18 These demands infringed Serbian sovereignty and Austria expected that Serbia would reject, thus giving her the excuse to declare war. Serbia accepted the first two demands but rejected the third. Serbia suggested submitting it for arbitration by the Hague Tribunal. William II was satisfied with the Serbian reply and did not feel the need to punish Serbia with a war. He declared, a brilliant performance for a time limit of only 48 hours!
A great moral success for Vienna, but with it, all reason for war is gone 19 Austria was still determined to destroy Serbia. After declaring the Serbian reply unsatisfactory, the Austrian government declared war on July 28. The bombardment of Belgrade began on July 29. The Serbian ally, Russia, learnt of the ultimatum on July 24 and on July 26 the Czar reassured the Serbian crown prince that "if such a move were to appear useful, several Russian army corps be mobilized against Austria. " 20 Russia certainly could not bear humiliations from Germany any more; if she failed to defend Serbia again and again, Russia could no longer set her foot on the Balkans as the leader of the Slav nations. The Russian Czar was encouraged by the French to take a firm stand against Germany, for France had learnt of the Schlieffen War Plan. France urged Russia to mobilize for fear of an immediate German attack.
After the bombardment of Belgrade on July 30, the Czar was persuaded by his ministers and Chief of staff to order full mobilization. Germany feared that she would face attacks from both Russia and France. Germany demanded Russia to stop her mobilization at once. Russia refused. Germany at once declared war on Russia on August 1. According to the Schlieffen Plan, Germany had to attack France at once.
Germany sent an ultimatum to France demanding her to be neutral. After receiving a French reply that France would side with Russia, Germany lost no time and declared war on France on August 3. On August 4, according to the Schlieffen Plan, the German troops crossed the Belgian frontier. On the same day the British government declared war on Germany.
There were two reasons that prompted Britain to take action at once. Firstly, German invasion of Belgium had aroused British opinion against Germany because the country had been guaranteed as a neutral state by all great powers in 1839 in the Treaty of London. Now the German invasion had treated the treaty as a scrap of paper 21 and so committed a moral crime. Secondly, no British government would tolerate the domination of Belgium by any powerful continental nation because it directly endangered the security of Britain. (Belgium was separated from Britain by a narrow channel only. ) The Origins of the First World War by James Joll and The Origins Of World War I 1871 1914 by Joachim Remak both describe the events and the political dealings of the European countries of the time. There is a wealth of more specific information on the historical developments in the areas of imperialism, nationalism, militarism and the alliance systems of the European powers. However, Remak question the extent that any of these factors had on the start of World War I.
As Remak says, too much was right with the world of 1914: the nations, on the whole, had learned to live with the differences that divided them. 22 and let us avoid the fallacy of saying that because the First World Wars consequences were so momentous, its causes must of necessity have been equally significant. 23 Joll on the other hand believes that each previous crisis had contributed to the decisions of 1914. 24 The only thing that Joll questions is the amount of influence that these factors played in the decision to go to war. The approach of a timeline history for the causes of World War I made Joachim Remak's book hard to follow. Each section has references to a factor that had been started earlier in the book which made it difficult to trace the full impact of each. James Joll's book is based on concentric circles with the assassination starting of and each of the chapters dealing with only one of the factors he believes contributed to the cause of the war. The Origins of World War I, 1871 1914, by Remak is a good book for a person who would like a factual timeline of the causes, but The Origins of the First World War by Joll is essential source of information to study the causes of World War I. Notes Joachim Remak, The Origins of World War I, 1871 1914, (The Dryden Press) Hinsdale, Illinois (1967), page 8 James Joll, The Origins of the First World War, Second Edition, (Longman House) Essex, England (1992), page 45
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Research essay sample on Causes Of World War I
