Reasons of WW1

intorg

New Member
One of them, according to some historians the lack of power in the Balkans especially after the weakining of Ottoman Empire had laid foundations for the WWI. The famous Eastern Question between the Great Powers begun actually following the Russo-Turkish War in 1774. The scenery after the war made the Great Powers to think on the future.
 
There is an argument raised in the book "The Origins of WW1 by Luigi Albertini" that Germany utterly misread the diplomatic situation.

Although there seems to be a genuine casus belli against Serbia from Austria-Hungary's perspective, Germany calculated that Russia would not intervene because a royal was assassinated. This completely ignores the fact that Russia would have believed that the Austro-Hungarians (and their German backers) were making a play for Constantinople, which was a fixture of Russian foreign policy for centuries further to that Germany thought that even if England could intervene, it could only do so at a late stage. This was an accurate assessment, but only if you concluded that the war would be short.
 
Germany wanted to destroy the French-Russian alliance which was blocking the attempts to dominate the continent .

The tactic was,as usual,threatening and bullying:if the opponent gave away,he would lose face,if not,Moltke would have his war .

During the 2 Morocco crises,Germany was provoking France ,not because it was interested in Morocco,but it hoped to isolate France:if Russia was not helping France,this meant the end of the alliance,if if helped France,it would mean war .But France choosed not to fight for Morocco.

There were also 2 big Balkan crises:

In 1908,Austria,with the connovance of Germany,annexed B/H,which was a challenge for Russia and Serbia.When Serbia protested,Germany demanded that Serbia should recognize publicly the annexation,otherwise Austria would invade Serbia . Russia advised Serbia to yield.
An other "diplomatic victory" for Germany .

In 1914,Germany used Sarajevo (for which it did not care) for an other Russian humiliation :Austria would invade Serbia (although the Austrian emperor said that there was no evidence for a Serbian responsability) and ,Russia received the order to remain idle .
But ,this time,Russia said :enough is enough:it would not be humiliated again and mobilized;which the Germans used to start the world war .
 
Germany had this huge Army of around two million men, which was well equipped and well trained. When push to shove they used it and with great effect.
 
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