and the
alliances that precipitated it can only be understood if we look at what happened in Europe in
at least the hundred years or so prior to 1914.
Europe had not seen a
massive, continent-wide war since the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in June, 1815. The
victorious powers at that time then did their best to turn back the clock and restore the
status quo ante bellum as it had existed in 1789, prior to the French
Revolution. But this proved impossible. Apart from the fact that liberal social changes had been
introduced throughout continental Europe by the French armies when they had been victorious, a
major change in the overall balance of power was the emergence of Russia as a near equal to
Britain and (restored monarchical) France.
At the same time, the dissolution
of the old Holy Roman Empire that had constituted the German states meant, ironically, that the
Germans, spurred on by the nationalism animating all of Europe, were in a better position to
attempt unification, which had been an on-and-off dream since the Middle Ages. Once Germany did
become unified in 1871, the British and French now saw this new power as
the principal threat to the stability of Europe.
By the end of the nineteenth
century all the major powers of Western EuropeBritain, France, the Netherlands, Germany, and the
also newly unified Italywere scrambling to colonize as much of Asia and Africa as they could get
their hands on. Russia was not participating in this "great game" but was nevertheless
in continued conflict with the Ottoman Empire. Russia's partly genuine effort to liberate the
non-Muslim people of the Ottoman Empire (as it was) was accompanied by their desire to free the
Slavic peoples who were still under the thumb of Austria-Hungary, which of coursefor historical
and ethnic reasonwas allied with the new Prussian-dominated Germany.
Fear of
Germany brought about an alliance, known as the Triple Entente, between Britain, France, and the
previously feared Russia. Germany was seen as the greater danger. Especially because the Germans
had now formed an alliance with the Ottoman Empire, Britain felt its routes to the exploited
Asian continent threatened. In addition to cynically propping up the Ottomans in their continued
oppression of non-Muslims, the Germans in their new colonial activity were carrying out
massacres of indigenous people, such as the Herrero in Southwest Africa. Russia was against the
Germans and Austrians both because of the Ottoman connection and because of its wish, as stated,
to liberate Slavic peoples such as the Serbs, who were (partly) still under Austrian
rule.
If all of this seems enormously complex, it is. The basic fact that
emerges, however, is that principally because of their own ambitions, by 1914, alliances had
been created with Britain, France, and Russia on one side and Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the
Ottoman Empire on the other. These powers were waiting for a fuse to be lit that would set off
the explosion they needed in order to settle their differences through war. That explosion
occurred in June, 1914, when a Serbian nationalist assassinated the heir to the Austo-Hungarian
throne. Within weeks, the Great War had started that would result in the deaths of millions.
When an armistice was finally made four years later, nothing had really been settled, and
instead, the seeds of the next World War were planted.
No comments:
Post a Comment