2. Arms Race
• Britain and Germany trying to military
‘out-might’ the other and ‘out-colonize’ the
other
• 1906: Dreadnaught launched
• Britain wanted Canada to help by funding
the British navy
3. • The policy of building up military
forces and weaponry and threatening
armed aggression
• Britain: “ruled the waves”
• Germany: most powerful army in
Europe
• Needed to maintain “balance of
power”
Militarism
4. End of the Empire
• Much of Eastern Europe
was dominated by three
weak and crumbling
Empires:
–Russia
–Ottoman
–Austria-Hungary
9. Germany
• Kaiser Wilhelm II
–Before he died he
wanted his “place in
the sun”
–"It is not by his will
that he will unleash a
war, but by his
weakness."
• King Edward VII
writing about his
nephew, Kaiser
Wilhelm II, in 1905.
10. Congress of Vienna (1815)
• After the defeat of Napoleon, major powers
worked together in alliance systems to
prevent another nation’s hegemony
11. WWI Alliances
• 1914: the great powers of Europe were divided
into two alliances
• Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy
• Triple Entente: Great Britain, France, Russia
– Formed because of German threat
12. Entente Cordiale
• Series of
mutual defense
pacts signed
between
Britain, Russia
and France
• Germany
knows she is
condemned to
a two front war
14. Balkan Nationalism
• Struggle for
control over
Balkan
peninsula after
Turkey loses
territories
during Balkan
wars (1812-13)
• A-H wants
Serbia in her
control
15.
16. Balkan Nationalism
• Russia was anxious to curb A-H’s
power, so she supported Serbia
• 1908: A-H took advantage of
Russia’s weakness (Russo-
Japanese War 1904-05) and
annexed Slav territories of Bosnia
and Herzegovina (bordering on
Serbia)
17. The spark that ignited “the war
to end all wars”
• Archduke Franz
Ferdinand was
assassinated while
visiting Sarajevo,
Bosnia on 28 June
1914 by the Black
Hand (a Serbian
nationalist secret
society)
19. Austria-Hungary Reacts
• A-H blames Serbia
• A-H now has a
legitimate reason to
take Serbia
• However, Russia
was obligated to
defend Serbia
• One thing leads to
another…
