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World history
Course: World history > Unit 6
Lesson 1: Beginning of World War IAlliances leading to World War I
There are a number of European alliances that contributed to the broad scope of World War I. Prominent among these are the 1839 Treaty of London, which promised that the United Kingdom would protect Belgium's neutrality, the 1879 Dual Alliance treaty between Germany and Austria-Hungary to protect each other in the event of Russian attack, the 1892 Franco-Russian Military Convention that promised mutual assistance in the face of attack, the Triple Entente linking the United Kingdom and France (and later Italy), and the Triple Alliance linking Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy (at first). Created by Sal Khan.
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- Why was Russia considered a threat to Germany/Austria-Hungary in the 1870's?(123 votes)
- In 1870, Germany was not called Germany. It was called Prussia. In 1870, Prussia and France fought the Franco-Prussian War which resulted in a Prussian victory. Previously, there was another war that was fought with Austria which led to a Prussian victory. These were all under the Unification of Germany which saw Prussia as the leading German state. (Modern Germany takes it's shape from the Holy Roman Empire. In the early modern era, the two most powerful German states were Austria and Prussia. In 1867, Austria became a dual monarchy which is why it is called the Austro-Hungarian Empire.) The German unification was complete in 1871 when Prussia along with other German states such as (the North German Confederation, the Kingdom of Bavaria, Wuttemberg, the Grand Duchy of Baden and Hesse) joined the make the German Reich which means German Realm. You can also call this the German Empire. Now to answer your question to as why Russia was considered dangerous to Germany in the 1870s, you have to understand that a man by the name of Otto Von Bismarck orchestrated the alliances of Europe. Russia's influence in Europe was waned in the 1870s because it lost the Crimean War 20 years earlier. However, many officials in the German Imperial War Ministry saw that if Russia were to mobilize, it would be a great threat simply because the Russian Empire could draw up so many troops. As such, Otto Von Bismarck worked tirelessly to keep Russia at Germany's side. In 1873, Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary signed the League of Three Emperors. This alliance also worked to keep France isolated from European politics. However, this alliance failed because Russia and Austria Hungary could not agree on Balkan policy. (This is another topic that you have to read about. Very complicated.) Russia left the League of Three Emperors and left Germany and Austria Hungary to form the Dual-Alliance. This alliance expanded to include Italy to become the Triple Alliance - or Central Powers. Russia and France then signed the Franco-Russian alliance which acted to encircle the German, Italian and Austrian powers. Great Britain also signed an agreement with France called the Entente Cordiale and another alliance with Russia called the Anglo-Russian Entente. This formed the Triple Entente. In short, Russia was considered a threat to Germany and Austria-Hungary in the 1870s and later on leading up to World War I in 1914 because of failure to keep Russia on Germany's side. There are also many issues with German policies especially when Kaiser Wilhelm the II took the throne and Otto von Bismarck was compelled to resign. To understand this more clearly, you should read up on Balkan issues leading up to World War I(231 votes)
- What led the the Italians to Quit from the Central Powers and join in the Allies?(9 votes)
- Well, they were never really IN the Central Powers. They were at first in the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary, but also signed a treaty with France, to stay neutral if war did break out. In my view it was a smart move if your nation was not yet ready for war, and war was just around the corner. They finally joined the allies when they seemed to be winning in 1915. The Italians also jumped at the chance to control, if they win, the Italian speaking areas of Austria-Hungary.(10 votes)
- Why were Austria and Hungary known as one country?(5 votes)
- austria controlled Hungary until the end of ww1 so they were not separate countries - it was part of the habsburg empire(10 votes)
- OK this video tells us why a small aggression between Austria-Hungary and Serbia made Britain, France, Russia and Germany join the war BUT what makes USA come in the middle - greed for land, having future support or just to have some fun with Germans.(6 votes)
- The United States joined because the war was hurting their economy. And they didn't like the fact that Germany was trying to get Mexico to declare war on them.
Other factors include the German submarine warfare and ties with Great Britain.(4 votes)
- why was Russia considered a threat?(6 votes)
- Russia, Prussia and Austria-Hungary had an alliance called the Dreikaiserbund (1873). However, both Russia and Austria-Hungary wanted to expand on the Balkans, so they had differences, thus the alliance didn't last long. Prussia had to make a decision, and she chose Austria to be friends with. After that Russia gravitated towards Britain and France, and started to oppose Prussia and Austria. That's why Russia was eager to enter the war fighting Prussia and Austria.(5 votes)
- Why did Italy not go on to the triple alliances?(4 votes)
- Their official reason was that Germany had invaded France, and was therefor the aggressor, meaning they were not obligated to go to their aid under the defensive terms of the treaty. If you are more cynical though it is very possible that the Italian government simply decided that there was more to gain from joining the allies.(8 votes)
- atSal said skirmish what does this mean? 4:30(5 votes)
- A skirmish is a small battle or raid meant to weaken the opponent. A battle is made of many smaller skirmishes. : )(5 votes)
- why didn´t Italy stay neutral during the war. Spain was neutral weren´t they.(4 votes)
- Ah, yes, but Italy wasn't Spain. Italy had had a deep mistrust of Austria Hungary ever since they kicked the Austrian colonizers out of North-Eastern Italy. The Italians saw a great opportunity to kick the Austrians while they were down. In addition, the Italians had been promised control of desirable territories in the Balkans by the British and the French.
(These territories, however, were not given to the Italians, instead forming the country of Yugoslavia.)
I hope this helps!(7 votes)
- Why did Britain agree to protect Belgium? I don't see what that does for Britain?(2 votes)
- It goes back to the Belgian revolution (1830 - 1831) where Belgium declared independence from the Netherlands. The french supported the Belgians, but the other great powers of Europe were afraid that France would conquer Belgium if it was independent ( it wasn't long after the Napoleonic wars ). But in the end, they all agreed that Belgium should be independent, and to make sure it was not annexed by France; Britain guaranteed Belgian independence in the "1839 Treaty of London" So it was a quite old treaty that pulled Britain into world war one.(4 votes)
- Is making alliances and treaties hard?(3 votes)
- Yes. This is hard. It requires getting persons to situations wherein they agree.(4 votes)
Video transcript
One of the reasons that's
most cited as to a cause or the cause of why World War
I turned into a world war, as opposed to just a regional
conflict in southeast Europe, is the alliance system that
was developing in the decades leading up to World War
I. And to understand that, I've distilled a bunch
of the alliances that occurred in those decades leading
up to World War I. And this is just a
distilled version. There were many other alliances
that were tangentially related. But I tried to distill down the
ones that were directly related to all of the dominoes
falling in 1914 that led to all of Europe
being essentially at war with each other. So to understand that, we
have to rewind 75 years. So World War I starts in 1914. 75 years before that, in 1839,
you have the Treaty of London. And the Treaty of
London did many things. But Article 7 is what's relevant
to the beginning of World War I, where Britain
agrees to protect the neutrality of Belgium. And if you're skeptical,
you might say, hey, this is a 75-year-old treaty. Why does this matter anymore? And that, actually,
would be a good question. Really, all of these
alliances-- it's a very healthy debate
you can have as to whether these are the
direct causes of why one of these powers
declared war on the other. Or whether these
were just excuses. These were a legal
pretext for saying, oh, I need to
declare war on you. When in reality,
they really did want to declare war for a
whole set of reasons to keep the other
person's empire in check, to flex their
military muscle, to go after more territory
in their empires. Who knows what it might be? But needless to say,
1839 was the legal basis for the British Empire
to protect Belgium. Now, you fast-forward 40
years, you get to 1879. You have a newly
born German Empire out of the Franco-Prussian
War in 1871. That newly born German empire,
they just had-- essentially, it's an extension of
Prussia, fundamentally, a German kingdom. They just had a war with France. They took some very valuable
territory from France. They're paranoid that France
wants to get back at them. They're paranoid
about the Russians. And they have some connection
with the Austrians-- the Austro-Hungarians,
I should say. And so in 1879, they sign
the Dual Alliance Treaty between Germany
and Austria-Hungary to protect each other
if Russia attacks. They have this common enemy
right over here, Russia. So they are going to-- let me
do this in a different color. They are going to
protect each other. So this makes the new German
Empire feel a little bit better about its position
in Europe, in case they were to get into a war
with either of these characters. Then in 1892--
you could imagine, if you ever play a game
of Risk or if you ever play the game of Diplomacy,
which is actually based on what
happened in World War I. If you see some
people that you might be at war with starting
to become friends, you want to look for other
friends, other alliances that you can form in case
they declare war on you. So in 1892, you have an
alliance between the French and the Russians, the
Franco-Russian Military Convention. So this is an alliance. Let me do this in the
magenta color again. You have an alliance
between France and Russia. And then finally, in the
early 1900s, 1904 to 1907, you have a series of agreements. "Entente" essentially
means agreements. Agreements between the
British Empire and France, between the British Empire
and the Russian Empire, to essentially get on good
terms with each other. These weren't as
formally bonding that, hey, if someone's
going to attack you, I'm going to attack them. But they were, essentially,
able to resolve a lot of their issues
on what's going on in their other
imperial conquests. And they formed what is
called the Triple Entente, the triple agreement
between Britain, between the British Empire--
and right here, I just circled the United Kingdom--
France, and Russia. And on the other side of that,
you had the Triple Alliance. You have Germany. You have Austria-Hungary. And you also have Italy. Now, the reason why, even though
entering into World War I, Italy was formerly part
of the Triple Alliance. And there were treaties
between Italy and Germany to become part of
this Triple Alliance. The reason I don't focus on
those is once the war started, Italy did not go on the side
of Germany and Austria-Hungary. It went on the
side of the Allies, on the side of the
Triple Entente. But this will give
you a good background for why what would seem like a
regional skirmish in southeast Europe turns into a pan-Europe
and eventually pan-global war.