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Following its 1871 defeat, the Austrian Empire reorganized as Austria-Hungary and accepted Germany’s leadership in Central Europe. France’s defeat in 1871 caused it to lose status, as well as territory, to the new German nation. The French resented both results.
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Germany, which did not become a unified nation until 1871, finished a distant third to Great Britain and France in the scramble for colonies.
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In 1878, the Great Powers recognized the independence of Serbia from the Ottoman Empire and put Austria-Hungary in charge of Bosnia-Herzegovina—a multi-ethnic region of Croats, Turks, and Serbs on Serbia’s border. Russia quickly formed close ties with Serbia and took on the role of Serbia’s protector.
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He reduced the threat from Russia in 1881 by forming an alliance with Russia and Austria-Hungary called the Three Emperors’ Alliance. The following year, to protect itself against France, Germany formed an alliance with Italy and Austria-Hungary. Together, these countries formed the Triple Alliance. These alliances hurt France by depriving it of possible allies.
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However, a new kaiser, the German title for emperor, Wilhelm II, took the throne in 1888.
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Although the United States annexed Hawaii and seized the Philippines from Spain in the 1890s, American attention focused on U.S. business investments in Latin America.
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France took advantage of the Reinsurance Treaty’s end by forming an alliance with Russia in 1894. The French also provided money and other assistance to help Russia build railroads and modernize its army.
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By the early 1900s, all European armies had rifles that could hit a target with deadly accuracy from more than a quarter-mile away. -
Developments on the continent were arousing Britain’s concern.
The British viewed Russia’s expansion in Asia as a possible threat to their control of India. Germany’s naval buildup was also serious. Britain’s naval supremacy was vital to protecting its empire in a time when communication and trade still relied mainly on the sea. Britain responded to the German buildup by increasing the size of its own navy. -
-First to link Europe and Asia -
-Russia and Japan went to war over Manchuria and Korea
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The war went badly for Russia and ended in 1905 when the United States, with German and British support, forced a settlement.
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Russia, France, and Great Britain formed the Triple Entente in 1907. -
Austria-Hungary, which feared that Serbian expansion would stir nationalism and unrest among the empire’s ethnic minority groups. In fact, organizations in Serbia, supported by leaders in Serbia’s government, had been doing just that since Austria-Hungary officially annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1908.
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Manchuria was returned to China, and Russia agreed to respect Japan’s control over Korea, which became a Japanese colony in 1910. Neither Russia nor Japan was happy with the war’s outcome.
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The predominantly Christian Armenian population found itself subject to heightened oppression after the defeat of the empire in the First Balkan War in 1912. The defeat resulted in the loss of 85 percent of the Ottoman Empire’s European territory, forcing a mass flood of Muslim refugees into the Anatolian region, as well as the start of a nationalist movement among the Turkish population. -
Russia also supported Serbia in two short Balkan Wars in 1912 and 1913. The first war ended Ottoman rule on the peninsula, and the second war divided the former Ottoman lands among the Balkan nations. Serbia doubled in size as a result.
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Russia’s empire in 1914 extended from Central Europe to the Pacific Ocean, and from the Arctic to Afghanistan. The colonies it controlled provided Russia with important natural resources to support its industrialization efforts.
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In November, the Ottoman Empire officially entered the war on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary to form what became known as the Central Powers.
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By 1914, Germany, the nation Prussia created in 1871 after defeating the Austrian Empire and France in war, had become the strongest.
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The alliance system made it possible for a minor dispute to ignite war throughout Europe. In 1914, in the Balkans, this possibility became reality. The growing tension between Germany and Russia mainly resulted from Germany’s support of Austria-Hungary in its rivalry with Russia for control of the Balkan Peninsula.
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In June 1914, an act of Serbian nationalism led to the murder of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb who had been trained by a Serbian secret terrorist organization called the Black Hand, shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo. -
-Franz Ferdinand's assassination gave Austria-Hungary a reason to crush Serbian nationalism.
- Germany supported Austria-Hungary
-Russia protected Serbia
Austria-Hungary saw Franz Ferdinand’s assassination as a chance to crush Serbian nationalism. After making sure it had Germany’s support, it made a series of harsh demands on Serbia. Austrian leaders expected Serbia to reject these demands, which would give Austria-Hungary an excuse for war. -
On July 31, Germany gave Russia 24 hours to halt its mobilization. The Germans also demanded that France pledge neutrality in the event of war between Germany and Russia.
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Germany gave Russia 24 hours to halt its mobilization. The Germans also demanded that France pledge neutrality in the event of war between Germany and Russia. When these demands were ignored, Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, and two days later declared war on France. Because of the alliance systems, nearly all of Europe was at war within two weeks.
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When Belgium refused to let German troops enter its territory, Germany attacked it on August 4. Outraged by this violation of Belgium’s neutrality, Great Britain declared war on Germany later that day. Britain’s declaration of war against Germany meant that the entire British Empire was at war. Britain’s action made the conflict a true “world war.”
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Hoping to gain Germany’s colonies in Asia, Japan declared war on Germany on August 23, 1914.
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In November, the Ottoman Empire officially entered the war on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary to form what became known as the Central Powers. They were joined by Serbia’s Balkan rival, Bulgaria, in 1915.
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Britain, France, Russia, and their partners were known as the Allied Powers, or simply the Allies. Italy, which remained neutral when war broke out, joined the Allies in 1915.
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In 1915, Germany began using poison gas. Its first use drove panicked troops from their defenses as the clouds of gas settled in their trenches.
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In early 1915, a naval force landed French, British, and colonial troops at Gallipoli, a peninsula in the European part of present-day Turkey. -
This move to weaken the Armenian people was intentionally designed to spark revolt, which it did in 1915 in the city of Van.
Russian intervention ended the siege but created a popular belief that the Armenians actively spied for the Russians. -
In June, Allied forces launched a similar assault on German lines along the Somme River. The Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme each lasted for months.
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In South Africa, a rebellion by South African officers who fought against the British and were pro-German stalled the fighting there. The rebellion ended in February 1916, but the German colony was not defeated until November of that year.
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In February 1916, German troops tried to break the stalemate by smashing through the French defenses at the town of Verdun.
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In April 1916, the Turks defeated a force of British colonial troops from India. However, that summer an Arab uprising against Turkish rule drove the Ottomans out of much of the Arabian Peninsula.
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But even in Germany, clothing was scarce by 1916, and in cities, people simply did not have enough to eat.
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Heavy battlefield losses led Britain to begin requiring military service from men age 18 to 41 in 1916, while Germany made men of all ages eligible to be called. The high loss of life, combined with the wartime shortages, caused growing unrest in nations on both sides. Britain and Germany, in particular, used propaganda to boost morale and keep the public behind the war
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One battle in 1917, in which the French army lost 130,000 men in 10 days, ended when troops refused to make yet another attack.
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In December 1917, the British captured Jerusalem.
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However, by 1917, peace movements existed in every Great Power—including France—where German forces remained entrenched on the Western Front.
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World War I was largely concentrated on two main battlefronts. The Western Front stretched across Belgium and northern France, while the Eastern Front spread through much of present-day Poland. Russia’s withdrawal from the war in December 1917 dissolved the Eastern Front.
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The airplane was another new weapon in World War I. The first planes were used to spy on the enemy. By 1917, they were directing artillery fire and dropping bombs on military and civilian targets.
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While the Austrians were conquering Serbia (1915) and Romania (1916), German forces advanced deep into Russia. In 1917, the huge number of lives and resources lost caused Russia’s government to collapse. Months of unrest followed until, in December, a new government signed a peace agreement with the Central Powers and pulled Russia out of the war.
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By 1917, it was clear that the victory in the Great War would be decided on Europe’s Western Front.
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By 1917, food riots and strikes happened with increasing frequency.
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Wilfred Owen, a British poet and lieutenant in the British Army, wrote several poems about the war before he was killed in action in November 1918 at the age of 25.
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In German East Africa, however, some 12,000 African soldiers defended against 130,000 Allied troops for three years until finally being forced to surrender in November 1918.
