World War I

Introduction

Rapid industrialization which emerged in the 19th century had made Europe the capital, industrial and production center of the world. The nationalist movement that was created by the French Revolution in Europe changed the balance of forces in this continent, leading to the emergence of new “nation-states”. Germany and Italy came out as two important elements of the new balance of power. German-French antagonism, which was shaped during the establishment of the German Union, formed the basis of the developments that gave rise to the First World War. Because, Germany, born under the leadership of Prussia, a Central European power, was established as a result of conflicts with Austria-Hungary and France. Prussian Chancellor Bismarck's purpose was to become the new major power in the center of Europe, between France and Russia. He constituted the North German Confederation, which united all the states except those in the south, and which was joined in 1870 by Hesse, Baden, Bavaria and Württemberg. King Louis II of Bavaria refused to join the other German princes at Versailles, maybe due to his respect for the location and the legacy of Louis XIV. Regardless of the reason, his brother Othon negotiated in his place. Proclamation of German unity had begun (Chateauversailles.fr).

Prince Bismarck, being the Prussian Chancellor, who was the real architect of the German Union, predicted that France would definitely enter a war of revenge, and he applied masterful diplomacy to eliminate this possibility. This policy, which was based on the principle of leaving France alone in Europe, was established on basis of the following logic: It was not possible for France to fight Germany by itself. The Austrian/Hungarian empire was firmly tied to German policies with the 1868 White Guarantee Treaty. In this case, there were only two states with which France could cooperate, that were namely England and Russia. Fear of Germany's growing power encouraged Russia and France to take part in an alliance in the year 1893. German ambitions to build a battle fleet started a naval arms race with Britain that severely strained relations between the two. Britain had considered France and Russia as potential enemies, but from the year 1904 on, they negotiated treaties (IWM) aimed at securing their empire by resolving colonial disputes.

Bismarck's policy can be briefly stated as aiming to prevent France from making an agreement with these states against Germany. For this purpose, on the one hand, while taking care to keep the expansion policies of Russia under control in the Balkans and to act as balanced as possible between the Austrian/Hungarian Empire and Russia, in the ongoing rivalry in the region; on the other hand, he avoided having a conflict with England. The foreign policy followed by England during the 19th century was based on three basic principles as follows (Strachan, 2011):

• 1- To maintain the “balance of forces” in Europe, meaning to prevent any power from becoming dominant in the continent - which was evident that Germany had shaken the balance since the year 1870.

• 2-To maintain its dominance as an unrivaled power in the seas.

• 3-To ensure the security of the ports between the colonies.

Until the early 1890s, Bismarck adapted these principles and avoided taking action to make Germany become a world power. This policy followed by Bismarck, who cared about keeping the conflicts arising from colonial rivalry out of Europe and not frightening England, was successfully implemented until the death of the First German Emperor Willhelm I. Disputes were resolved by means of diplomacy and the union of France with Russia and England was prevented. However, after the death of his uncle in the year 1890, II. Willhelm who dismissed Bismarck, considered that this policy of the Chancellor was cowardly and felt it was time to act to become a world power. In order to achieve these goals, Wilhelm first made preparations to form a strong navy. He tended to threaten British sovereignty on the seas by building large ships in the shipyards established in Hamburg (History.com, 2019).