The Causes of World War 1 - Lecture by Eric Tolman

all right greetings everybody and welcome to what is essentially going to be the starting point of our broad sweeping themes of history in the 20th century certainly there's a lot of things that are going on in Europe between 1919 14 but much of what was dominating the geopolitical landscape at the time was this movement towards what would inevitably be war in 1914 now when we look at the causes of World War one it's multi-layered and multifaceted so what I hope to be able to do is to kind of break things down into small pieces and eventually connect those pieces in giving you an understanding of the complex dynamic that existed in Europe and the complex forces that existed because as I said there was many many layers that were contributing to the cause of World War one from this of course we will continue into the war itself and then look at themes like the Russian Revolution the vive our Republic and Spanish Civil War many many others during that really fascinating interwar period from 1918 to 1939 so lots of really good topics coming up and much of the things that occur in the pre-world War one period and of course the period directly after really sets the tone for much of the 21st the 20th century rather and even to some degree circumstances we find ourselves in in the 21st century our were predetermined by events in this timeframe so wanted to just look at a couple of pictures here of course we're going to talk quite a bit about this fellow here kaiser wilhelm ii of germany here's some pictures of looks like a king maybe a british king imperialism there's some of the symbolism you know the helmet and pickle gruba i don't think there's a pickle group on this helmet but the little pointy thing was called a pickle group and that was strictly ceremonial it goes back to the days of prussia before the unification of germany and this is a very important painting which I had the privilege of seeing in Berlin in all its glory it's a massive landscape this painting but um this is where the new German Empire would proclaim its empire in 1871 and no this was not in Berlin this was in occupied Paris in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles and if that sounds familiar it certainly does certainly when we get to the end of World War one but we're going to talk about why this event is so important when it comes to not only where the Treaty of Versailles was signed but the the punitive nature of this treaty where that stems from and it goes beyond just world as well so all right well let's look at Europe in 1900 now I want to be clear right off the bat that we are going to be focusing on the five main players in Europe at this time and by no means do we mean to disrespect Belgium or Luxembourg or Holland or any others but I wanted to really focus on the nations that were in a major position to set the tone and to offset the equilibrium of this balance of power that existed in Europe at the time so we're going to be focusing on the great powers you can see this map here of course you might be familiar with this here we have of course Great Britain we have France we have the new Imperial Germany that's a big country the austro-hungarian Empire the Habsburg Empire the dual monarchy was also referred to and of course to the far east we have the great Russian Empire which probably extends well extends well past the view of your screen right now so those are the big five that we're going to be focusing on so as I said the great powers remain the comprise of Great Britain France Republican France Czarist Russia Imperial Germany and the Austria austro-hungarian Empire also of course known as austria-hungary so those are the five key players that we're going to be looking at as we lead up to the events that contribute to the causes of or that lead to the breakout if you will a world war one in a very general sense and the details of which we're going to get into thoroughly the war was caused by long-standing rivalries between them which were worsened by a series of events between 1905 and 1913 culminating in the immediate cause that sparked the war the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June nineteen 14 he was the heir to the Austrian throne okay so that's kind of the broad sweeping a spectrum with which we're going to be looking at in this in this lecture so let's look at some of the long-term causes all right well cause number one and we're gonna look at several colonial rock rivalry organ Pirie ilysm the word colonialism is used interchangeably with the word imperialism they essentially mean the same thing the competition for colonies was intensified by 1900 when Germany under the Kaiser as we bailed how ii decided that germany also deserved a place in the sun a place in the sun was basically the kaisers way of saying hey you guys have been taken over all parts of the world for your fur for decades if not centuries we deserve a piece of this pie - so imperialism by its very nature is extremely arrogant it suggests and I want to be clear that all the European colonial powers were beset with this kind of superiority complex so we are a powerful nation we are the most civilized nation it is within our right to head overseas and take over regions of the world that easily fall to us you have to consider that when the Europeans were spreading their wings if you will overseas into Africa Asia and South Pacific and everywhere else you know what was the one thing that separated Europeans from the peoples around the world was gunpowder so if you could roll in your ships and blow off a couple of cannons he could scare the heck out of indigenous peoples around the world the other tragedy of colonialism and this goes way back to the day Columbus and John Cabot and Jacques Cartier and many others is that indigenous peoples around the world unfortunately falsely thought these Europeans were gods and it made them that much more easy to overcome and to take over because they worship them initially and we look at the experience of the conquistadors and the Aztecs that tragedy there so so basically you know imperialism is powerful nations going overseas and taking over nations that were easy to overtake you know the interesting thing is is that for example if we use Great Britain as an example what did British people think of the British Empire during the Victorian period let's say let's say the height of the empire really sort of the 1870s - the pre-world War one period 1914 what was it that British subjects understood about Empire well they understood that it was a moral responsibility it was a religious crusade to bring Christian civilization to the darkest corners of the globe that in fact we were doing these people a tremendous favor it was the white man's burden to use a term from Rudyard Kipling's brilliant poem it was the burden and responsibility of of Europeans to civilize all corners of the globe so for public consumption British subjects and the same could be said certainly for the Germans and the French and other colonial powers this was a noble act to bring for us civilizing to four corners of the globe and you could argue that this colonial mentality of course you could draw all sorts of parallels and in the case of Canada when you look at the phenomenon of the residential schools that was an extension of this colonial mentality the more they liked us the better off they will be the more we remove their local or indigenous culture language and teach them English and put them in a top hat became the better off they will be so you know colonialism by its very nature is not only crass because it's it's it's it's about conquest but it's arrogant to suggest that we Europeans are better and therefore we have every right to take countries over you know there's many complex layers to the Imperial mentality but really if you look at sort of the justification we begin to see early signs of what later would become Nazism you know and when you look at something like social Darwinism you know pitting certain races against others some are better than others and therefore it's our right to take from over that in fact Nazism stems from this Imperial colonial mentality and social Darwinist thinking of the late nineteenth century now I am NOT comparing of course the imperial powers of the late 19th century to Nazism what I'm suggesting is that those attitudes towards indigenous peoples around the world or people of other cultures becomes in its most extrusive extreme and hateful form in the rise of we'll come back and look at Nazism another time so what happens by the 1880s is you know Britain and France have carved up a significant portion of the world under their the yoke of their colonial apparatus and of course the British used to gloat that the Sun never sets on the British Empire that you know and India of course would be the crown jewel of the British Empire and that the French were really hunkered down in North Africa in Indochina were the two main ones and other places as well but what happens with Germany is because they get into this race late they get into it at a time where Britain and France have finally kind of found a place where they could somewhat respect each other's territory but when Germany gets into this race particularly in the Scramble for Africa it really throws the British and French off because they're thinking wait a second here who do you think you are coming down here and setting up shop next to me and you know the aggressive nature of German imperialism because they were late bloomers really exacerbates of course tensions at home so therefore imperialism is an important cause of the outbreak of World War one increasing pressure for working-class political movements in rapidly industrializing Europe this cause I believe is overlooked and I want to give you an example so what's happening in Europe particularly in Great Britain and France I rather Great Britain and Imperial Germany we're leading the way in terms of industrial advancement in terms of rapid building of railway systems and so forth I mean everybody else would eventually catch up but really was Germany and Great Britain out of this rapid industrialization is we see a growing proletarianization of the cities that is the birth and expansion of this class the working class and out of this of course rapid growth of a working class stems the birth of Marx's in which we've talked about in previous lectures the rise of socialist communist philosophy and thinking we see communist and socialist parties you know blossoming as well and the reason I think this is important is because the expansion of radical political thought in Europe is creating a lot of tension amongst European powers who are saying oh my gosh we got these radical parties you know how do we how do we take the heat off well then how you take the heat off is you provide them things that make their lives better you give them cheap resources and cheap products that you can provide to them that are a result of the fact that you're exploiting yeah third world nations around the world so there was a real sense that you know an autumn on Bismarck we'll talk about later was the master of this of understanding that to take the heat off the revolutionary nature of left-wing socialist communist parties provide them the things that they claim they want an 8-hour 8-hour workday a minimum wage old-age pension whatever it may be those kinds of things that we need to alleviate the pressure of revolutionary activity by making the standard of living better for working working-class people and in many ways I would argue that the birth and rise of militant Marxism in the nineteenth century did a great service to humanizing Western governments by forcing them to make the decision to treat their citizens better or else they're going to be overthrown by revolution so anyway an important part next we have accelerated militarism brought on by the industrial advancements and continental fear and insecurity it's like a vicious cycle Europe is industrializing at around great they're colonizing at a rapid rate there's this growing tension in Europe as a result of this this growing working-class radicalized group of young workers and as a result of rapid industrialization we also know Europeans have they have the technological ability to mass-produce armaments and you know the best way to protect yourself from your neighbor who could potentially be your enemy is to have an arsenal in your in your warehouses at the ready should war break out so we see this rapid acceleration of militarization occurring throughout many of the European countries at the time then you have another factor so once again just to revisit you've got imperialism you've got pressures of working class parties in Europe you have accelerated militarization as a result of industrial rapid industrial advancements and in addition to that you have this hornet's nest of Europe as it's called the Balkans Balkan nationalism but Balkans were kind of landlocked right in between the austro-hungarian Empire in the north and the Ottomans in the south the Balkans were once part of the Ottoman Empire the Balkans were still are inhabited by largely Islamic people who saw independence and you know we'll come back and talk about this but but what makes the Balkans so complicated is you have such a diversity of ethnic groups you have Croatians you have Serbians you have Romanians Albanians you know Macedonians and they're not necessarily all living in one distinct geographical area they're all kind of spread out and mixed in together so when you talk about blocks of Balkan national and you say Serbian nationalism would be the obvious one when we look at the causes of war how do you create nations out of these ethnic groups if they're all mixed in together right it was a fundamental problem when we looked at the partition of India in 1947 because you had Muslims you have n do's all mixed in together well who which one's going to be the Hindu nation which one's going to be the Muslim nation similar set of circumstances we're going to come back and look at how that dynamic of all these ethnic groups desiring autonomy and particularly the Serbians and why that became sort of a powder keg in the Balkan area many of these Slavs were also part of the austro-hungarian Empire who feared the loss of their territories - nationalism you know a couple things we need to put in context Czarist Russia and the austro-hungarian were extremely ethnically diverse British Great Britain was predominantly British you have Welsh Scottish the Irish they're all english-speaking there many of them they're all coming from the same historical background give or take a few variances of course Germany same thing yes the Rhine Landers are very different than Prussians and the Saxons are different than the variants but at the end of the day they all speak Russian a rather German sorry and they all share the same religious history whether it be Protestant or Lutheran a formal process the Protestantism or Catholic and so forth so in many ways nationalism in Germany and Britain and France for that matter to be very much a unifying force because you're bringing together all these people that have so many shared commonalities when you talk about nationalism in the Balkans then you're talking about pulling the things apart and the austro-hungarian Empire because of you have to consider we're dealing with Austrians and Hungarians Czechs and poles and and your list goes on and on rod that once people begin to think in terms of ethnic connectedness and they don't want to be part of me why would the Serbians want to be part of a kingdom in Austria who speak German you know a lot of people of the Balkans would say well I can't even identify with my king he doesn't speak the same language he comes from a completely different place let's do our own thing so nationalism is a very destabilizing force for the austro-hungarian Empire as a result this region became a powder keg between Russia Serbia's protector and austria-hungary see Russia began to see itself as the Slavic proclaiming Slavic leadership in the region because the Serbs for example were Slavic peoples they would say look we'll stand by you guys and the austro-hungarians are saying wait a second here don't get in the way of our internal affairs so really the Balkans becomes a bit of a you know a struggle if you will between the interests of the austro-hungarian Empire and Imperial Russia as well all right the arms race and this is HUS is an extension of vast industrial advancement in Western Europe so massive industrial development has led to these main powers amassing large armed forces and conscription or mandatory service was common so you have large armies at their beck and call you have this mechanization of industry which is now pumping out so many guns and and ships and you know weapons and helmets and so on and so forth just stop piling waiting guns shells bullets other weapons have been stockpiled resulting in a snowball effect of nations competing for military privacy mass weapons and armies increased confidence and later pressure to prove their mettle well this is the one fundamental problem with having an economy that is built around massive industrial development that is geared towards a military framework I just asked the Nazis my gosh between 33 39 their whole economic advancements and reemployment and everything that they did economically was geared towards rearmament and unfortunately in those circumstances the bubble will burst and once economies begin to recede or go into recession then usually in these cases war breaks out as over the Anglin German naval race between Germany and Britain further exacerbated Britain's insecurity their dependence on the Navy for Empire and defense made them fear German competition this was one of the great mistakes I think of Imperial Germany is they really shouldn't they should have laid off on this but well we talk more about the kaisers personality we'll explain why this happened but the Navy was always central to the sense of security of Great Britain because they were vast Imperial nation they needed the ships to control and maintain the control of their Imperial network but they also needed a strong Navy for defense because they are an island nation so the moment you start competing with Great Britain particularly in the case of Germany that's so close and you say well we're going to build ships - then you're creating a lot of instability and you're antagonizing the British in many ways and unfortunately the Kaiser had the very was very good unfortunately at creating these kinds of tension so alright so the launch in the German dreadnought in 1906 created a naval race and salary' any really between the two so the Germans are already focused on what upping the British what we want ships to and so on and so forth so that really sours a relationship between the two all right there he is what a fascinating character and here we go there's this picture again 1871 of German unification in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles so he has seen as the main figure in Fanning the flames of war with his bellicose and aggressive foreign policy I mean I don't really think that any one person can be held accountable for the causes of World War one but I would argue that that if there is one person that is more responsible than any other I would argue that the Kaiser unfortunately takes the award on this one a lot of it is built around his personality and I think almost talking about his personality almost requires another lecture in itself but I will basically summarize some of the main things you know here he was born you know in a very strong Prussian military background he was born with his arm was was severely damaged in birth and he wasn't able to use it and I think it was his left arm and you know when he was a young boy he was taught that you're going to be the king and you've got to be strong and you've got to be proud and you have to be able to ride a horse and he suffered many many punishing experiences of you know sitting on a horse and then falling down because this balance was always off because of his arm and you know so he went through a grueling grueling almost torturous repetitive drills if you will to overcome this disability and as a result of growing up with this sense insecurity combined with this tremendous expectation that you are going to be the Prussian Prussian King and later of course the German King it creates a very interesting dynamic and in the Kaiser himself he really I believe that a lot of his bombast his his you know his metals and his big hats and his pointing he he had this sort of bellicose sort of get in your face point shout I want I want I want I want kind of personality in the end this tendency to really repel people because he was overwhelming he had a very very strong victim complex but this public posturing was was very contradictory to his personal life now his personal life is interesting because his hobbies were interesting and you'll be surprised to learn that he enjoyed in his spare time when no one was around flower arranging he made dresses the majority of his social circle outside of his leadership position we're a group of gay men and later many of his ministers who say you've got to disassociate with these guys that doesn't look good he himself wasn't gay he just I think found in his relationship with these men his ability just to kind of relax and not be a tough guy all the time so you've got this really interesting dynamic now when he becomes king Kaiser in 1888 he is desperate to to get the respect that he deserves and he's gonna run this show I alone rule he used to say and you have to consider that the king the Kaiser always had someone whose responsibility it was to manage foreign and domestic policy know before the Kaiser the second you had Otto von Bismarck and and will come to Bismarck another time but he was he was the preeminent foreign policy guy he was the Chancellor and he was a remarkable diplomat he was able to forge a variety of complex relationships with his European neighbors to maintain peace because when Germany becomes unified in 1871 which is 17 years before the Kaiser becomes King Bismarck once said that Germany had now reached its practical size its largest practical size every effort must be taken to maintain peace and stability in everything that Bismarck did in terms of this foreign policy was built around that idea of maintaining peace and stability so this network of relationships at Bismarck had forged comes to a screeching halt when this young bombastic your curial if you will Kaiser comes in he's 29 years old and he says you know what Otto I'm running the show now thanks for your service in 1890 two years later Bismarck is dismissed I you know I think he was getting very very near the end of his career anyway but when the cousin gets rid of Bismarck as the Chancellor that's where things begin to get very difficult because the Kaiser did not have the diplomatic prowess that that Bismarck had a lot of diplomacy is not about what you get done it's about how do you to people how do you get people to do what you want them to do diplomatic skill is wrapped around interpersonal skills knowing how to make people feel like they're getting something when in fact you're getting the better end of the deal right that is the that is the magic touch of diplomacy and this work had that you know Bismarck also said of the five major European powers always be on the side of three it's that simple always be on the side of three hundred 1914 Germany was on the side of two so a lot of interesting things still do wrong but so that's certainly the backstory of the Kaiser so if you really have a long tradition of militarism going back to the days of pressure before unification in 1871 you know in many ways the the military sort of stereotype you have of Germany the the helmets the pickle groove the black sea moustaches that really is an extension of Prussian history that if you go to the Varia or you go to the Rhineland or even up north in this basement whole time these are very very different cultural places even though they speak the same language that dialect though is so different I mean Berliners have a hard time understanding people from keel or glued back and there are only six hours away and would give or take by the car so so you know there was definitely a strong strain of Prussian militarism that really projected this sort of stereotypical view that we have of Germany as a whole so with Russia modernizing and France feeling vengeful for their defeat in 1871 with the franco-prussian war we'll talk about that next many German commanders were convinced war was inevitable coming back to this portrait and once again I'll do my best to be brief in 1870 in the final stages of German unification Germany goes to war with France Prussia it's called the franco-prussian work as it was the Prussia this war was instigated by Germany because Bismarck who was Chancellor at that point knew that he could rope the other German states in southern Germany to be part of this greater Germany to say hey look we're gonna go to war with France we don't know what they're gonna do but we can be your great protector you need to join us we need to come together as a single nation and of course they go to war with France the Prussians do they unite the majority of german-speaking areas that had held out in the first phase of unification in 1867 and in 1860 667 and when the Prussians defeat the French in 1870 they then occupy Paris and while they're in Paris is when they finally have pulled in all these other areas of Germany that were not part of its Union and they said now's the time for us to declare our new Empire and hey while we're in Paris let's just do it here we got this beautiful building Versailles a beautiful building we're gonna do in the Hall of Mirrors in Paris so think about this from a French perspective France has just been defeated by Prussia humiliatingly defeated Paris was occupied by the Prussian army and the Germans oppressions now the Germans as a collective whole have the audacity of declaring their new German imperial empire in the most sacred of French architectural structures in the Palace of Versailles so think about that for a minute think about the audacity of the Germans to do this but think about the incredible anger and resentment that that that puts in the people so that day that the occupation of Paris after the franco-prussian war that stuck with France right through till the end of World War one which is why it was so important for Georges Clemenceau the French leader in 1919 to have the Treaty of Versailles side in the very place where German Germany declared its empire in 1871 so by 1905 the Schlieffen Plan was devised to defeat friends quickly by invading through Belgium and then dealing with Russia the one thing that Bismarck did while he had alliances with Austria and Hungary and Russia and Germany it was always trying to kind of isolate France because I don't think the France whatever would have been interested in having some kind of friendship pact with Germany the the anger and hatred bubbles between these two countries and especially you know the region in between these two countries out subtler and Moraine the two French provinces which are now in France but for years they went back and forth between a French control and German control as well all right here's a picture of the Schlieffen Plan you know I'll be perfectly honest the Schlieffen Plan is not anything brilliant I think that what makes the 1905 Schlieffen Plan important was the fact that in 1905 German policymakers were devising strategy for the defeat of France and and and Russia well before there was any talk about war you know so I think that's what makes them even plan more important was the fact that German policymakers were having these conversations and devising these strategies but basically what it suggested is we're going to invade through Belgium we're going to sweep around you can see here I'll take Paris and then boom shoot around and continue over to Russia the assumption was by 1905 that if they're glowing in the world with France they're gonna go to world with Russia so it's gonna have to be quick and it was gonna have to be lightning speed and across but unfortunately when 1914 happens as you may know the Belgian campaign really slowed down to your minis over the Schlieffen Plan didn't really work the way it was expected to so all right let's look now a little bit more into the details of Bismarck I know we've talked about him but I wanted to talk about some of the Alliance systems that existed and the way Europe was carved the way Europe related to each other in terms of these alliance system was really born out of the end of the Napoleonic Wars the Congress of Vienna of 1815 which were those treaties and negotiations that ended the Napoleonic era you know the understanding was that if you had kind of two solid blocks you know keeping each other in check there'd be a balance sort of a power right the balance of power is you know but the problem with the balance of power of course is the idea that the moment one of those nations goes to war with another then everybody gets dragon because they're all connected which is why the word collective security comes in after World War one with the League of Nations that of course is very contrary to the balance and power type of diplomacy so here we are by 1907 Europe was divided into two rival camps as if as I just said a dispute between two of resulted war between all of them this system started in 1871 by with Otto von Bismarck and was continued until 1890 when he was forced into retirement by wilhelm ii who wanted guide foreign policy more directly here's bismarck here with his pickle group as I said this is a distance strictly ceremonial and I must tell you just as a footnote when I was a kid I you know I'd seen the pic of group helmet I thought that it was like a last-resort weapon so you're in the trenches or something and you've lost your rifle and the enemy's coming you can hold the site here your your helmet put your head down and run as fast as you can at the enemy which is of course ridiculous but but that's what I thought they were for the kid 1871 Bismarck believed Germany as we said had reached its practical size and now peace and stability was paramount you know so in many ways when there are compared I don't see the compare to often but I've heard comparisons between Hitler always like to compare himself to Bismarck the great diplomat but they were nothing alike I mean Bismarck was shrewd he was the iron Chancellor yes but he wasn't a bloodthirsty murderer he was more of a practical pragmatist than anything I mean well maybe pragmatism might be a bit too so we practiced really politics real politics the hard facts of what you need to do to ensure the stability of your nation so after the final stage of Confederation in 1871 or unification as they say Germany had reached its large size the the problem was that his system from 1871 to 1888 a 17-year period this mark was the guy and he's the one forging all these complex labyrinthine alliances throughout Europe but it was the Ascension of the nationalistic and pugilistic wilhelm ii and i say William here in 1888 which threatened future stability if one individual would shape events toward war more than as we said earlier it would be wilhelm ii just as another footnote Wilhelm was also directly linked you have to consider this to that the monarchs of Russia tsar nicholas ii and the king of england george v works v kaiser wilhelm ii and tsar nicholas ii we're all first cousins right they were all related they had the same grandmother in queen victoria and you know when Czar Nicholas was a the wind rather Kaiser Bilhah was a young boy he loved to go visit his English cousins as a child anyway his attitude towards the English changes but as a young boy he used to go and travel and he marveled as a young boy at the ships of the British Navy and he'd asked his grandmother I want to go see the ships and you know he used to say is he young boy when I grow up I don't want to have ships like this and of course his grandmother would say no you don't in fact Queen Victoria had a pretty negative view of him even as a boy she said that he was a rule II he was rude and that he needed to be spanked more frequently as her Queen Victoria said about her grandson Wilhelm so you know the writing was on the wall at a very young age that he was a kid who was who was destined to be as crafts and as arrogant as he later would become the other thing that's interesting about the Kaiser is he was really very very uncomfortable being around people who were comfortable with themselves so for example his uncle Edward who replaced [Music] they replaced Queen Victoria correct and all I have to get our key lineage in order I believe it was Edward from 1901 to 1913 Edward was kind of gregarious he loved to have a good time he loved to party and make people laugh you gotta consider he was a constitutional monarch so he didn't have the pressure of leading in the same way that that's our Nicholas did or even the Kaiser but you know the Kaiser really didn't like his uncle and I think what he didn't like about him was he saw in his uncle qualities that he was not capable of having that he didn't have in the tragedy of the Kaiser is there were times in his journals when he even would recognize his inability to to achieve the kind of social skills as someone like Edward could but he never did anything about it he never tried he seemed to lack the ability to understand that interpersonal skills and how you relate to people it's gonna do you wonders in terms of getting things that you want so very very interesting stuff okay let's move on to Morocco so 1904 Britain in France I'm the Untied cordial this gave France a free hand in Morocco with British approval to complete her empire in the north so the on tonic or do is is a huge turning point because Britain and France had been enemies for well for hundreds of years I mean you look at the colonial wars in North America look at all the struggles with him throughout the world for the previous 200 years and finally sort of begun to come to rest and in fact the colonial robbery and the general rivalry of Britain and France go back to the Hundred Years War so I mean there had been hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years of conflict that are now about to shift because of their mutual concern about the behavior coming out of the kaisers government all countries were concerned about this new Germany in 1871 because it was this model within the center of Europe and they were used to all these fractured link dramatics some 360 autonomous principalities and there was never much of a concern there but now it is this monolith and it really begins to mess with the equilibrium in in Europe and in addition to that the fact that the Kaiser was so bellicose and and pugilistic for lack of a better term created a lot of problems so they're now friends Britain says hey France you got free hand in Morocco everything's good the Kaiser is watching this and of course he's annoyed because he's like why the heck are the French and the British you know friends and the tragedy of course is at the Kaiser could have charged a much more positive relationship with the British but unfortunately his behavior got in the way he wanted to test the new alliance by supporting Moroccan independence evil Britany would not back France so he went to Tangiers which is the capital of Morocco to support Moroccan independence sparking off a crisis which led to an international meeting which led to French the French getting a free hand in Morocco so get this I'll clarify this the Kaiser goes down to Tangiers to support Moroccan independence hoping to put a fissure between Britain and France and pull them apart when everybody in Europe will look at what on earth are you doing and when he gets to Tangiers you know he has to ride a horse that is not broken into him this was very interesting because of course because of his disability with his left arm and by the way you'll notice that in video footage or pictures on his arm is always kind of resting like this and I don't know if you can see stand up like this usually his elbow sort of sitting on the butt of a sword and it's kind of resting he's always got a glove on so so the horses he rode had to be broken in specifically to his disability so when he's riding this horse in Tangiers there's people standing around here's a picture there he is here there's usually someone directly behind him ready to catch him in case he slipped and fell off so so he he makes this procession into Tangiers and unfortunately the rest of Europe shakes their head and says this is ridiculous you don't give a hoot about Moroccan independence and at what it does is is this just solidifies the alliance between Britain and France only austria-hungary supported the Kaiser which became a profound embarrassment to him while solidifying the ontong Cordiale now you've got Britain France and Russia and what was it bismarck said on the side of five major players always be on the side of three so things were moving in a bad direction in 1907 Britain concluded an agreement much lengthy on time Cordiale this time with Russia so what's what's Britain and Russia become firm friends feelers had been sent out for quite some time anyway before this but now you've got those three are united in a single the trip along Todd a break Russia and France were aligned against the Triple Alliance of Germany austria-hungary and an unreliable Italy because they were always kind of waffling in fact they waffle in 1914 they don't quite know what to do who decide with so well by 1908 nationalism was destroying on an empire in Europe and threatening to break up the austro-hungarian Empire I failed to mention of course at the Ottoman Empire was equally equally as ethnically diverse as the Tsarist Empire in Russia and the austro-hungarian so nationalism is kind of tearing these three major empires apart in the Balkans Serbia led the way by becoming openly hostile to the US to austria-hungary and the Ottoman Empire so Serbia is becoming the loudest and most vocal opponent against Austria against the Ottomans they want their own thing Serbia was independent but wanted to annex Bosnia where many Serbs lived austria-hungary occupied Bosnia Herzegovina in 1908 inflaming both the Serbs and the Russians okay this confuses a lot of people so I want to make this really clear Serbia was an independent state but within an imported on the austro-hungarian Empire within the austro-hungarian Empire was a province I'll call it called Bosnia and within Bosnia was the majority of people there were serves so if you were a Bosnian Serb you're looking over the border of Serbia with a great deal of envy and you want to be part of that you can identify with an independent Serbian nation more than you can your Austrian monarch so Bosnia becomes a real problem because the austro-hungarians do not want to let go of kasnia but the Bosnian Serbs don't want to be part of the austro-hungarian Empire Serbia sought support from their Slavic neighbors in Russia who were careful not to antagonize working Austrians and the Ottomans it was becoming clear why the Balkans was center stage Bismarck was correct this is very interesting another thing that makes Bismarck a remarkable leader in 1888 when he was still Chancellor of Germany that was the year that of course Kaiser Bell came into power he sent this the great European war will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans now that's not prophetic I don't know what is he understood thirty years before the outbreak of world war one that when and if war comes it's going to come from somebody making a stupid mistake in the Balkans so there you have it after two Balkan wars from 12 to 13 nationalism had finally destroyed the Ottoman Empire which had been a retreat for four decades if not centuries which empowered any later the bulkan nationalists and dismayed the leaders of multinational austria-hungary the stage was set for 1914 because ethnic loyalty was challenging dynastic power so now the forces of nationalism were destroying the Ottoman and the austro-hungarian Empire and the irony is is that the more unstable the Austrians felt the more they felt the need to clamp down like it was almost the opposite thing that they should do you know but that was part of that insecurity and I mean the austro-hungarian Empire had had problems for generations as a result nationalism but it was really coming to the throw to the front rather in 1914 all right so the heir to the Austrian throne meaning the next came to be was the nephew of the current monarch Franz Josef who in 1914 had been in power for oh gosh since 1867 if not he for a long long time he's assassinated in Sarajevo which at the time is part of Bosnia with the aid of Serbian nationalists okay Serb the Sarajevo was technically within the boundaries of the austro-hungarian Empire because the province of Serbia was there so what the Archduke does is he says let's go extend an olive branch to these uppity Bosnian Serbs by saying hey were your monarch we love you we don't want you to go anywhere I'm going to prove my good faith and come for a visit and a lot of people in his entourage in the Austrian and Hungarian governments that do not go to Sarajevo you are a sitting duck you cannot be someone will knock you off you must wear bulletproof vests you and your wife and he refused I'm not gonna work bulletproof vest I don't need such a think I don't want such a thing I'm going to extend an olive branch to my bosnian serb brothers well when the assassination occurs outrage in europe occurs but Austria was slow to respond to Serbia which it was determined to invade Jeremy Germany now it's interesting journey was not part of process here Germany pledges to support Austria and Russia building up its military was likely to defend Serbia while drawing in France now before we continue a lot of to talk briefly about the the events of the assassination because what's interesting is there was an assassination attempt on him before he was killed and he demanded to go to City Hall and register a complaint which I think he did and he and his wife got back in the car and they were convinced to take a different route than the main drag in Sarajevo and what's interesting is as they do this sort of loop-d-loop route they end up bumping into a fellow Gavril principal who is heading to the main street to assassinate the Archduke and there he is walking up the street heading towards the main street and he sees this entourage go by he's like oh my gosh what are they doing here he pulls out his gun pow pow pow and he kills them both so you know the fact that they took this other route may have been a major factor as to how they were so effectively assassinated but so Sara austria-hungary blamed Serbia and it's not unreasonable to suggest they were part of it when Serbia or austria-hungary declares war on Serbia Russia says wait a second you can't do that their Islamic brothers we're gonna mobilize when Russia mobilized Germany went what whoa whoa wait a second you can't mobilize right and so that's kind of how the whole thing rolls out you know because Britain France and Russia were on the same page as soon as Russia mobilizes then that makes Germany feel concerned about and frets to their left flank Austria okay here's the series of events Austria mobilized and what mobilization means is that you're demonstrating evidence to your neighbor that their troop movements and tents and preparations so Austria mobilizes as a result Russia mobilizes because of Russia mobilization Germany declares war on Russia and you can only imagine how difficult this would have been for the Kaiser because his first cousin is our Nicholas and him were quite close nonetheless and on the next day denied Germany declared war on France then at this point Britain hoping to stay out of this Germany invades Belgium as part of their Schlieffen Plan strategy drawing Britain into the war and Germany invaded France and then Britain declared war on Germany okay that's it's okay dog basically hope that doesn't confuse you what's interesting with Belgium is that Britain had signed a neutrality pact with Belgium in 1839 I believe it was guaranteeing their neutrality so basically when Germany invaded Belgium as part of their sweep into Schlieffen Plan motion Great Britain felt they had no choice but to declare war because they were there to defend the honor and neutrality of Belgium so all of a sudden what starts in a regional conflict in the Balkans explodes into a massive war and you have to consider a couple of things we did not have a continental war of this nature in Europe since 1815 since the end of there was nobody alive who remembered the Napoleonic Wars and the European powers go into this war with a nineteenth-century mentality but now they've got 20th century technology and this is why the Great War World War one becomes so tragic so next time we are going to do our first part of a series on World War one and I know it's a narrative often told but I hope to have the opportunity to share some insights with you maybe that you had never heard and once again if you have any questions or any comments you're almost welcome to make any comments on a YouTube I'm happy to reply and I want to thank you again for continuing I will continue to load my lectures and they may not necessarily come in order on my youtube channel because I'm sort of doing them in a variety of times based on what I'm teaching in my classes but either way I do appreciate you coming and we'll see you next time thank you

Channel: Eric Tolman's History Lecture Series

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Id: Lq3ezmsyT4k

Length: 57min 20sec (3440 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 17 2020