Chapter 1: Great Power rivalry and the World War, 1900–17
Chapter one introduces the concept of power in states system and the nature of great power politics in international politics. It analyses the decline of the Concert of Europe and the long peace of the nineteenth century as a precursor to the cataclysms of the twentieth century. Chapter one examines the long-term causes of the First World War, including the rise of nationalism, the new imperialism and arms races and war planning. The chapter connects these long-term causes to the immediate decisions for war in the summer of 1914. It also addresses the question of why, despite the plans and expectations of a short war and decisive victories, the war continued for years after it started.
Multiple Choice Questions
Exam Questions
Discussion Questions
Why was it difficult to assess relative status of the Great Powers?
To what extent was the arms race central to the outbreak of war in 1914?
Why did an assassination lead to general war in 1914 where Balkan wars had been managed by the Great Powers?
How did mass politics and nationalism influence diplomatic positions of the great powers?
How did Germany attempt to break out of its security dilemma after the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1894?
What role did the arms races and war plans play in the outbreak of war in 1914?
To what extent were German fears of the Triple Entente justified?
Compare and contrast the war aims of the Entente with those of the Central Powers.
Why was the war so different than pre-war expectations?
Why was the July Crisis different than previous crisis 1890 to 1914?
Exam Questions
Innenpolitik rather than Aussenpolitik was responsible for the outbreak of the First World War. Discuss.
The First World War was won and lost on the home front. Discuss.
Account for the First World War’s escalation in intensity and extent, and for the inability of the powers to end it by negotiation.
Why did an assassination lead to war in 1914 where other major crises had been peacefully managed between 1905 and 1913?
Weblinks
http://net.lib.byu.edu/estu/wwi/1914m/gooch/firstpps.htm – text of British diplomatic documents relating to the outbreak of the First World War
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/frrumil.asp – text of the Franco-Russian alliance of 1892
http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/B%C3%BClow%27s_%27Hammer_and_Anvil%27_Speech_before_the_Reichstag_%28The_English_Translation%29 – text of Bulow’s Hammer and Anvil speech of 1899
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/first-world-war/a-global-view/ – National Archives collection of documents and materials relating to the war
http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060023361 – video of Franz Ferdinand arriving in Sarajevo in 1914
http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_%27Blank_Check%27 – text of the German “blank check” to Austria-Hungary in the July Crisis
https://www.britishpathe.com/groupitem/357/ – Pathé film collection of the Western Front
http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_Austro-Hungarian_Ultimatum_to_Serbia_%28English_Translation%29 – Austro-Hungarian ultimatum to Serbia 1914
http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/The_Willy-Nicky_Telegrams – Willy-Nicky correspondence during the July Crisis of 1914
http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Sir_Edward_Grey%27s_Speech_Before_Parliament – Sir Edward Grey’s speech to Parliament on the outbreak of the First World War
Bibliography
Abbenhuis, Maartje, An Age of Neutrals: Great Power Politics, 1815-1914 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014).
Abbenhuis, Maartje, The Hague Conferences and International Politics, 1898-1915 (London: Bloomsbury, 2019).
Blom, Philipp, The Vertigo Years: Europe, 1900-1914 (New York: Basic Books, 2008).
Dirk Bönker, Militarism in a Global Age: Naval Ambitions in Germany and the United States before World War I, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2012).
Emmerson, Charles, 1913: The World before the Great War (London: Bodley Head, 2013).
Hillis, Faith, “The ‘Franco-Russian Marseillaise:’ International Exchange and the Making of Antiliberal Politics in Fin de Siècle France”, Journal of Modern History 89:1 (Mar. 2017) 39-78.
Neiberg, Michael S., Dance of the Furies: Europe and the Outbreak of World War I (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011).
Pennell, Catriona, A Kingdom United: Popular Responses to the Outbreak of the First World War in Britain and Ireland (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
Verhey, Jeffrey, The Spirit of 1914: Militarism, Myth and Mobilization in Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
Geppert, Dominik, William Mulligan, & Andreas Rose, eds., The Wars before the Great War: Conflict and International Politics before the Outbreak of the First World War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016).