WW1- cause Flashcards
Triple Entente
As Germany grew more powerful, the balance of power between the nations of Europe became unstable. In 1907 Britain, France and Russia signed the Triple Entente, an alliance designed to hem in a powerful Germany.
Triple Alliance
Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy signed the Triple Alliance in 1882.
Why did Germany want to make friends with other countries?
- So they could team up to make an empire
- Kaiser wanted them to be a great power
- worried about encirclement
Why did Britain want to make friends with other countries?
- To help defend if war broke out
- Worried about Germany
why did want France to be in an alliance?
- Worried about Germany
- Needed to protect itself
why did want Austria-Hungary to be in an alliance?
- Needed to keep empire together as parts of the country had different views
- Serbia was becoming more powerful so they were anxious
why did want Russia to be in an alliance?
- Shared France’s concern
- Long rivalry with Austria-Hungary
- built up army in case of emergency
why did want Italy to be in an alliance?
- to gain Empire and set up colonies
What happened in the Morocco crisis of 1905-1906?
- Kaiser visited Morocco and made a speech saying he supported independence for Morocco, even though French had plans to take over Morocco, so they were furious
- A conference was held on Algeciras in 1906, which was supposed to cool things but made the Kaiser humiliated as his views were rejected, and Britain and France surprisingly stuck together to oppose him
- In 1907, because of this, the Triple Entente was formed
What happened in the Moroccan crisis of 1911?
- French tried to take over Morocco again, and said they would compensate Germany if they suffered as a result
- Kaiser responded by sending a gunboat to Agadir- British feared that he wanted to set up a naval base
- Another conference called - British and French stood firm against Germany and French took Morocco, and Germany given some land in Africa as compensation
- behind the scenes, Britain and France agreed that France should patrol Mediterranean sea and Britain should defend France’s Atlantic and North sea coasts
What happened in the Balkans in 1908?
- Austria took over Bosnia, Russia and Serbia protested, but backed down when Germany made it clear they supported Austria
- This meant Austria felt over confident that Germany would always back them
What happened between 1912-1914 in the Balkans?
- a series of local wars, with Serbia emerging as the most powerful in the Balkans
- by 1914, Austria was looking for an excuse to crush Serbia
What happened on June 28th, 1914?
- Franz Ferdinand, son of the Austrian Emperor was killed alongside his wife
- Killed by Gavrilo Princip from the black hand gang, Serbian nationalists who were protesting against Serbians in Bosnia being under Austrian control
- There was a plan, but the actual killing happened by chance
JULY DAYS: What happened on 5-6 Jul?
- Kaiser encourages Austria to take action against Serbia
- Germany promise unconditional support to Austria, encouraging them to be aggressive
- Germans didn’t expect Russia to get involved after Balkan crisis
JULY DAYS: What happened on 23 Jul?
- Austria issues an ultimatum to Serbia, giving them 48 hours to reply
- the demands were very harsh, so Austria expect Serbia to reject them, giving an excuse to declare war
