Download Balance of Power - Annapolis High School

European Diplomacy
Warm Up:
Define Balance of Power.
Then, define 5 of the Great Powers
DURING THE PERIOD 1871-1914 WHICH WERE
THE MAJOR POWERS IN
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 1870-71
France defeated and had to sign the
Treaty of Frankfurt
 Terms:
 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.
 German victory march through France

Consequences of the War
Led to unification of Germany
 King of Prussia declared German
Emperor
 Conscription was necessary to pprovide
adequate trained reserves.

Europe 1871-1914
Parliamentary
monarchy
Trade
Industry
Sea-power
Empire
Democratic
republic slow
economic and
population
growth
colonial
expansion
Authoritarian state, Kaiser and
Chancellor Military power,
industrialisation and population
growth, Battle Fleet 1900
Dual
monarchy
Separate
Govt. and
parliaments
nationalities
Conflicts
Balkan
interests
Autocratic Tsar, Duma
1905, Rapid
industrialisation
(1890’s) and
population growth
Foreign loans, panSlavism
Sultan rules
1876-1909,
Balkan unrest
decline young
Turks 1909
Otto van Bismarck
BISMARCK'S FOREIGN POLICY AFTER GERMAN UNIFICATION

The Prussian military influence caused
Germany to emphasize military power and
military readiness.

Bismarck served as the chancellor of
Germany for two decades after 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.
◦ military build-up that would always exceed the
French for Defensive purposes.
◦ 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.

largest standing armies in history with
conscription and millions of men under
arms.

resources of industrialized nation-states
made this possible.

The new technology added to the potential
of military power.

Bismarck also sought to keep France
diplomatically isolated
◦ Prevent a war to recoup their losses.
◦ Negotiated a series of alliances with other
European powers.
 These efforts were complicated and eventually
frustrated by the unstable situation in the Balkans.
Warm up:
T/F – Bismarck was interested in expansion
in Europe and imperialism abroad.
Review: what was the main purpose of
Germany’s foreign policy?
How did the Franco Prussian War affect
Germany’s foreign diplomacy?
Preview:
What was Britain’s foreign policy?
What was France’s?
England Foreign Policy

England continued to enjoy a significant
position of power
 leadership in industrialization and the benefits of
overseas trade.

English foreign policy was described as
"splendid isolationism“
 Refraining from alliances with other powers
 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 Istanbul and
the Near East

British Ministers supported the decline of
the Ottoman empire.
◦ Crimean War

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,

Naval Power was the backbone
◦ protected the island nation and its far-flung
overseas network of trade.

Biggest Threat to Britain?
 The Balkans
 Straits of the Dardanelles (the Ottoman Empire)
 English trade route to India.
Other Reasons:
 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
Summary:
 1860-1900 – it was a period of ‘Splendid
isolation’ when Britain stood aside from
alliances but later British statesmen realized
that Britain's resources were overstretched
and she needed allies.
France

Napoleon Bonaparte’s Legacy:
◦ France was regarded as a threat to peace due to
her size of population
◦ Home of revolutionary ideas

1815-52- Relatively peaceful foreign policy
◦ Algeria 1st African Colony 1830
◦ Assistance to Muhammad Ali – 1810-1830’s

She made a rapid recovery from Franco
Prussian War
◦ regained her status as a Great power.
How did she do that:
Reorganized army
 Developed a powerful navy


1914- industrialization slower than Germany
◦ Missing what valuable piece of land?

A wealthy nation as vast amounts of capital
invested abroad, especially in Russia.

1900’s- French Left (Socialist and radicals) largely
pacifist and French Right very nationalistic and
committed to take revenge.
FRANCE'S FOREIGN POLICY OBJECTIVES

Third Republic was established after the
Franco-Prussian War.
 multi-party democracy which endured
 frequent elections and changes in leadership, until the
Nazi conquest in 1940.

French foreign policy focus on the potential
threat of Germany
 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.
Russia

Aim- to defend monarchial authority

Defeated in the Crimean War- forbidden to
maintain a navy in the Black Sea

Internally- modernize local government, the
army and educational system
◦ abolished serfdom
1904-5:
 Russian economy did not generate enough
taxable wealth

◦ increasing needs of the state not met

Russian agriculture- underutilized
◦ grains from richer regions were exported to pay
for imported machinery for her industries

Industrialization was financed by massive
foreign loans
◦ Who was supporting this?

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
◦ create independent Slav states under the protection of
Mother Russia and the orthodox church.

1890’s- growth of German influence in TurkeyBalkans – tinderbox or powder-keg
RUSSIA'S FOREIGN POLICY OBJECTIVES?
warm water access to the
Mediterranean and the high seas
through the Straits of the Dardanelles.
 Pan-Slavic drive to expand Russian
interest into the Balkans

 self-appointed protectors of Slavic
nationalities

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.
 interests of Austria and Russia clashed and
threatened the peace of Europe.
Austria - Hungary
Austria-Hungary Foreign Policy

1815-48- the Austrian Chancellor Metternich had
exercised great influence in Europe,
◦ Russia and Prussia opposing revolutionary movements.
Foreign Policy- gave diplomatic support to Britain
and France in the Crimean 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.

Austro-Hungarian Empire:

Austria became Austria-Hungary called Dual
monarchy
◦ Austria’s capital- Vienna
◦ Hungary- government and parliament at Budapest

A common foreign policy, uniform army

Two master races- Germans in the West and the
Magyars in the East

Other races- Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Italians, Serbs,
Croats and others which were discriminated by
the master races.
Austrian Foreign Policy

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 INSTABILITY IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY
AND IN THE OTTOMAN 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,
 Would have driven them almost entirely out of
Europe had the other great powers not
intervened.
England threatened war against Russia
 Bismarck, concerned that Austria and
Germany might be drawn in, convened a
peace conference.

Ottoman Empire
Sultan rule
 Balkan unrest
 Decline

Research
The Congress of Berlin
 The Dual Alliance 1879, the Three
Emperor’s Alliance 1881
 The Reinsurance Treaty 1887
 The 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 CHANGES IN EUROPEAN DIPLOMACY
OCCURRED AFTER THE RETIREMENT OF BISMARCK 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 buildup 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 overextended imperial commitments.

In 1902, England signed the AngloJapanese 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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