Causes of World War 1

• Long-term
  • Revanchism
    • Alsace-lorraine
    • Franco Prussian War Reparations
    • 2nd Riech proclaimed in Versailles
    • Paris Commune
    • 3rd Republic UMS Elections
    • Bosch
  • Balkans
    • Ottoman weakness
    • Russian Expansion for a warm water port
    • Orthodox Christianity
    • Panslavism
    • Austria- Hungary multinational, weak, large Slavic minority
    • Crimean and Russo-Turkish Wars
    • The congress of Berlin
  • Imperialism
    • field of competition between rival empires
    • In Africa: the tensions between GBR and Germany because of the Boer War and Kruger Telegram
    • Fashoda displays tensions between the French and British
    • In Asia and China everyone are rivals
    • the Trade wars between Germany and GBR. Merchants, marines, and navies fight.
• Short-term
  • Alliance System
    • The Triple Alliance
      • Bismarckian Diplomacy keeps the peace in Europe and keeps France isolated.
      • Bismarck erects the Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy (who flops in 1915)
      • France war further isolated by Bismarck's Secret Reassurance Treaty, which keeps Germany our of Austro-Russian war, and Russia does not ally with France.
      • GBR lives in Splendid Isolation
      • In 1890 Kaiser Wilhelm II "drops the pilot" and drops the Reassurance treaty, and in 1894 the French and Russians ally themselves.
    • Preparing for war
      • Germany now faces a two front war, and increases its military exponentially. This creates a large number of reserves.
        • in 1914 the Germans only have 750,000 men in their army, but they have 4.5 million in trained reserve.
        • a key term for war in Europe is mobilization.
      • Every country in Europe increases the size of militaries
      • The Germans change their entire war strategy. They posit that if the Germans fight a two fronted war, they will loose unless they adopt a first strike and offensive strategy.
      • Count Alfred von Schlieffen creates the Schlieffen Plan: Germany will attack in a pre emptive strike against France 1st since they can mobilize the fastest, and then turn on slow mobilizing Russia with Austria-Hungary keeping them in check.
      • In July 1914, Germany activates the plan and fires the first shots of WW1, which leads to their later War Guilt.
      • The Germans are victims of their own strategy.
    • Cornerstone alliance is between France and Russia
    • Great Britain:
      • why no alliance?
        • they live in splendid isoaltion
        • problems with their colonies such as China and India
        • They think Russia is sucky because they are rivals in China, Asia, E. Mediterranean, the Crimean and Russo-Turkish War
        • France sucks because of Fashoda, Egypt/Suez Canal, and China
      • Why does GBR abandon splendid isolation?
        • By around 1900 everybody hates the British
          • French
          • Russia
          • German because of colonial ambitions (The Kruger Telegram and Trade wars)
          • The US because of Venezuela (two times)
          • Dynastic Rivalries
          • In the Boer War Britain has Vietnam and Dutch killing settlers. They actually have concentration camps
          • In short, the world hates the British.
      • As a result, Germany starts to build a navy from 1898-1909 that threatens GBR's Great White Fleet. Germany's navy is calledThe High Seas Fleet (Hochseeflotte)
      • The British policy since Trafalgar was that the Navy was the #1 most important thing. It was bigger than #2 and #3 navies in the world. In 1902, Britain will leave Splendid Isolation and sign an allegiance with Japan.
      • Japan has the 5th largest navy in the world. Japan agrees to protect British interests in China, since France, Russians, Germans, and Americans are present there.
      • Britain can then concentrates their fleet, from the Pacific, closer to home. In 1904, the British patch up differences with France in Africa and sign Entente Cordiale.
      • France covers the Mediterranean navally, and the Brits cover the North Sea and English Channel.
      • France mediates between Russia and GBR in 1907. They partition Persia into spheres of influence.
      • in 1907 GB and Russia sign an entente

China and Imperialsim

Shoutout to Kevin Tran for helping me out with the tail end of the notes. He's a swag dude!

• Regional imperialism
  • There are spheres of influence, meaning there are sects of exclusive markets that foreign powers attained through purchase/bribes or loans to Chinese Emperor
• Financial and territorial imperialization of China are divided into 3 main parts
  • The Great Divider is the Yangtze river
    • South of the Yangtze speaks Cantonese (Hunan). Two of the main cities in this area are Hong Kong and Guangzhou.
    • North of Yangtze speaks Mandarin (Szechuan). Two prominent cities are Shanghai and Beijing.
    • North of the Mandarin-speaking area regions is Mongolia, which is an iron and coal rich province of Manchuria.
• Pre-imperialism
  • Since 14th century China has been ruled by the Manchus (Ch'in dynasty), so the Chinese feel like they are ruled by foreigners.
  • So, by the early 19th century China's periphery begins to rebel and set up warlord states. The Manchus have weak control of China.
• British
  • By the 1830's the Brits appear and are eager to trade, but the Chinese have no desire for western products
  • British are interested in obtaining tea, and they know that China will take opium.
  • The Emperor refuses and British fight a war to force china to allow opium imports: "Talk about trap or die" -Courts
  • After 1839 and 1854 (1st and 2nd Opium Wars) the Cantonese White Lotus Society began an anti-Manchu, anti-British, and anti-Christian revolt.
    • this led to the Tai ping Rebellion (estimated 30-40 million Chinese deaths)
  • By 1860, China is the weakest it has been since 650 BC
  • The British in the 1860s secure the entire Yangtze as their exclusive market
  • Their Sphere of Influence includes Hong Kong, which the British lease from China.
  • Impoverished Europeans take loans/sells concessions for exclusive rights/ports in the area
  • British wealth from China rivals India by the 1870s
  • The region is pacified by British Troops commanded by Chinese Gordon
• France
  • Have a sphere of influence in Southern China, they established permanent colonial rule in Cochin China or Inchina
    • Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia
  • The French maintain their hold until 1954
  • HoChin Minh- Dien Bien Phu
• Russia
  • After the congress of Berlin in 1878, the Russians decide to find a warm water port on the Pacific Coast
  • Builds a 6000 mile long transcontinental Railroad from Moscow to "land of the East"
  • Vladivostok is Courts's favorite place in Russia. Currently it is 18º in Vladivostok.
  • Single rail through Siberia that a lot of Russians die building
  • Russia establishes sphere of influences in Mongolia, which is rich in Iron and coal (Manchuria)
• Germans
  • extorts a Sphere of Influence on Shantung (Shandong) Peninsula and major port of Tsingtao in 1890s
  • Germans build a western style Brewery, in fact the Tsingtao Beer still exists.
• Japan
  • after the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese are unable to immigrate to Western European countries
  • They expand into the Korean Manchuria since they lack natural resources.
  • In 1895, they declare war on China. The first Sino-Japanese War
  • As a result of the Treaty of Shimonseki, the Korean Part of Manchuria and the Liastung Peninsula are overturned by West territory
• The US
  • 1898, "the year that a lot of stuff happened"
  • The US demands an Open Door policy
  • Boxer Rebellion
    • By 1899 The Chinese had a growing nationalist movement featuring Xenophobic and anti-Christian sentiment
    • It coalesces in the Literary and Patirotic Society of Harmonious Fists
    • the name resulted in the Americans calling it the Boxer rebellion of 1899
    • Foreigners killed indiscriminately and a multinational force is sent to pacify the rebellion and protect foreign investments
    • After the Boxer Rebellion the Chinese Manchu warriors were heavily indebted to the West, so they attempted to reform; however, these reforms were too little and too late.

The Scramble for Africa

• Where it all began
  • David Livingstone was a Scottish missionary and doctor in 1841. He was the 1st European to penetrate Sub-Saharan Africa.
  • Livingston is known across Southern Africa, but in 1860 he becomes lost. His story becomes popularized by an American journalist R.M Stanley.
  • RM Stanley writes a few popular serials on Africa in the West. He eventually finds Livingstone.
  • Stanley popularizes the concept of imperialist Africa.
• Most of Africa is a terra nullius, meaning that it doesn't have much of its own political organization
  • Stanley discovered a vast natural resource in the Congo: Rubber Trees, and sells this idea of a commercialized Rubber plantations to King Leopold of Belgium.
  • King Leopold borrows from the Belgian treasury to fund his private venture in the Congo and with Stanley establishes the Congo Association (1879)
  • Between 1879 and 1895 all of Africa is divided and claimed by European imperialists
  • There is a mad dash for land which leads to tensions between European states. The rush to acquire colonies is disorganized so in 1885, Bismarck will convene the Berlin Conference to regulate the colonization of Africa.
• Berlin Conference Results
  • The Congo Association lands are renamed the Congo Free State. Free meaning free trade, open door, and an internationalized Congo river.
  • The same happens for a region of South Africa which had been settled by Dutch farmers in 1840s and established as the Orange Free State.
  • Formally there are three conditions for colonization
    • Colonizing country had to have access to the sea
    • You had to occupy territory with settlers
    • had to inform immediate neighbors of your intention
    • it was an attempt to regulate the partition of Africa
• Great Britain
  • Penetration of the Nile Valley via Egypt in the 1870s led to the colonization of Sudan, Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda.
  • 1870s the Brits established a coaling station at the Cape of Good Hope called the Cape Colony. Capetown was established. The British settlement lead to wars in 1870 with the Zulu people.
  • The British establish a colony at Natal. In the 1880s gold was discovered in South Africa at Kimberley- the largest diamond mine in the world.
  • The English entrepreneur behind the fabulous wealth was named Cecil Rhodes. He was an imperialist racist who had a grandiose plan of a vast African Empire which will rival India in wealth.
  • The key concept to this plan was a transcontinental Railway from Cairo to Capetown, which by the way is still not established.
  • Rhodes faces two obstacles in expanding Northward out of South Africa
    • Germany has a colony on the coast of the Indian ocean. Germany's presence in East Africa in Tanzania which blocks the north-south connections
    • Problem with dutch farmers, the orange free state, and transvaal
  • Rhodes wants to take Orange free state for British rule. In 1895 he organized an irregular military force to invade the OFS and establish a pro-Rhodes regime
  • Was called the Jameson Raid, however it fails and causes international incident.
  • Kaiser Wilhelm II decides to send a congratulatory telegram to Kruger (who is the President of the OFS) for defeating the British and also offering help form Germany if he ever needs it. Eventually the Boers and British go to war 1898-1902 in the Boer War.
  • The British eventually win and consolidate its empires in South Africa and Rhodesia.
• Germany
  • Bismarck despised colonies since he thought they were sources of conflict and financial loss.
  • The Germans have a small navy.
  • Their colonies have Tanzania, German South Africa (Namibia and South Africa), Kamerun (Cameroon) and Togo (Ghana) all lost after World War 1
• France
  • Gained access to Algeria and Tunisia in congress of Berlin in 1878.
  • French claim almost Entire Sahara desrt and move French Equatorial Africa
  • They move SE toward Indian ocean and Madagascar
  • There is a South Eastern french movement that clashes with the British Movement southward at the Sudanese town of Fashoda in 1898. The showdown results in a stalemate. The French and British almost go to war; however, France backs off but resent British colonialism in Africa.
• Italy
  • has a sphere of influence in Tripolitania, Libiya and also control of Somalia and Enitea
  • In 1896 the Italians declare war on Ethiopia. and in the town Adawa the Italians are slaughtered. For 40 years the Italians want "Revenge for Adawa"