Ohne Titel

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS BEFORE WW1

• 1890-1914
• THE DEVELOPMENT OF GREAT POWER RIVALRIES-
• European relations during this period 1890-1914 were dominated by CONFLICT AND TENSION!!!!!
• GERMANY=IMPORTANT COUNTRY-POLITICALLY AND ECONOMICALLY
• Alliances that Germany signed caused great powers to feel challenged
• Alliances cause tension
• Tensions in the BALKANS reached boiling point
• The BALKANS was an area of south east Europe where major empires such as AUSTRIA-HUNGARY and Russia were challenged by the rise of smaller nations particularly SERBIA.
• The assassination of the heir to the AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN THRONE in 1914 brought AUSTRIA-HUNGARY,RUSSIA,SERBIA into conflict.
• A-H HEIR TO THRONE WAS FRANZ FERDINAND
• THE ALLIANCE SYSTEM ENSURE OTHER NATIONS WERE BROUGHT INTO THE WAR 1914

THE GREAT POWER**************

• BRITAIN
• FRANCE
• GERMANY
• RUSSIA
• A-H
• ITALY*NOT REALLY
• Italy desperate to be considered a Great Power.
• Each country had its own characteristics.
• Britain=first industrial nation,Europe's richest country.It had a vast empire and the world's largest navy.
• France=lost Franco-Prussian War(1870-71)to Germany.France was forced into a humiliating position of signing the TREATY OF FRANKFURT and crowning Kaiser Wilhelm 2 as emperor of newly unified Germany at Versailles. Germany took Alsace Lorraine and 5,000 million francs in war reparations. France sought revenge on Germany above all else.
• Germany=was a newly-unified country following the Franco-Prussian War. WILHELM 2 adopted the foreign policy of WELTPOLITIK or WORLD POWER. Wilhelm believed this would bring the social classes together.
• WELTPOLITIK-WORLD POLICY WAS A FOREIGN POLICY ADOPTED BY KAISER WILHELM 2 OF GERMANY.
• RUSSIA=VAST COUNTRY WITH RICH ARISTOCRACY AND DESPERATELY POOR PEASANTRY WHO HAD ONLY BEEN RELEASED FROM SLAVERY IN THE 1860s

changing european alignments pre 1914