War of the triple alliance; background and development. The trigger of the outbreak of the First World War was the assassination of the heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. But this was just the last event that led to the conflict.
The forerunners must be conceived in the context of lasting friction between the great powers of time caused by their imperialism and their desire to gain as much power as possible.
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War ended with a French defeat in 1870. This brought a change in the European balance of power. Germany completed its unit and Guillermo was recognized as an emperor.
On the other hand, France has lost some of its enemy territories. The suffering of humiliation, the desire to restore Alsace and Lorraine and his intention to return to great power caused his relations with Germany to be very strained and have always been on the verge of conflict.
Alliance system
Once defeated Napoleon, European forces began the game of alliances and strategies that lasted in the nineteenth century and early years of the twentieth century. Its beginning may be noted in the formation of the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Austria and Russia in 1815, but it was later when it reached its peak ..
The basic figure we understood was the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. In 1873 he advocated an alliance between Austria, Hungary, Russia and Germany, the three most important monarchies at the time. Russia soon withdrew from the settlement due to its differences with Austria-Hungary over the Balkans, constant until the Great War.
Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire continued the alliance, which in 1882 was joined by Italy (Triple Alliance). With the departure of Bismarck and entering the throne of Guillermo II, his system of settlements began to weaken, although some settlements were maintained.
The other powers have also taken strategic steps. France, which is still suffering from the consequences of its lost war with Prussia, has signed an agreement with Russia to fight the Triple Alliance.
The United Kingdom has also signed contracts with France, the so-called Entente Cordial. Then he did the same with Russia.
Armed Peace
The above alliance policy resulted in an epoch known as La Paz Armada. All forces began an arms race to strengthen their armies. First, they detered their opponents from launching hostilities, and secondly, to be prepared in case of war.
Germany set up a powerful Imperial Navy, pretending to oppose the English naval force. They responded by modernizing their ships. Something similar will happen to other nations and all kinds of military equipment. Nobody wanted to stay behind.
According to historians, between 1870 and 1913, Germany and England doubled their military budgets, France multiplied them by two, and Russia and Italy expanded them considerably.
Colonial imperialism
The last decade of the nineteenth century and the first twentieth century were the moment when colonialism became imperialism. All forces, including Japan and the United States, had colonies in Africa and Asia. The main arguments to keep them were trade, cheap labor and raw materials.
Although there were riots in colonized countries, the most important problems for the colonization forces came from the struggle with other forces to increase the occupied territories.
Balkans
The Balkan region has always been the cause of the conflict between the superpowers. When the Ottoman Empire weakened, everyone tried to take a place and gain influence in the area.
It was Austria-Hungary who began the so-called "Bosnian crisis", by annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Serbs reacted angrily. Russia, as a Slavic and Orthodox country (like Serbia), began to maneuver diplomatically. The region was further destabilized and became known as the "barrel of barrels of Europe".
The First Balkan War was fought between 1912 and 1913 and faced the Balkan League and the Ottoman Empire. They were defeated and lost even more territory. By contrast, Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Bulgaria acquired land and Albania.
Hardly any border, the Bulgarians invaded Serbia and Greece in June 1913, leading to the Second Balkan War. The Serbs, Greeks, Romanians and Ottomans ended the victorious territories.
In both conflicts the great powers remained relatively reserved, so the competition did not expand. However, the tension grew steadily.
Home
The outbreak of the First World War finally took place on June 28, 1914. On that day, Archduke Ferdinand, the heir to the throne, visited Sarajevo in Bosnia. A group belonging to Mlada Bosnia, a nationalist group that advocated a union with Serbia, organized a plan to assassinate it there.
One of the conspirators threw a grenade into the car as he passed through the Archduke's retinue. But he did not achieve his goals.
An hour later, Francisco Fernando's caravan mistakenly entered the city street. Chance wanted him to be one of the young people of the attacking group Gavrilo Princip. He took this opportunity to end the life of a nobleman with his pistol.
The Austro-Hungarian government responded by inciting anti-Serbian riots in Sarajevo itself, with several people of this nationality being assassinated by Croats and Bosnians. In other cities there were also riots and attacks against the Serbs, in addition to the detainees in various organized raids ..
July crisis
A month after the assassination was necessary for the beginning of the war. All forces began to maneuver diplomatically, first and militarily.
Austria-Hungary accused Serbia of being a crime and announced on July 23 an ultimatum with ten requirements that the Balkan country could not meet. The next day Russia continued to mobilize all its troops.
On July 25, Serbia did the same with its own and responded to the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum: it accepted all its demands except for those requiring the Austrians to participate in the murder investigation.
The Austrian reaction was immediate: it broke diplomatic relations with Serbia and ordered the mobilization of the army. Finally, on October 28, the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on the Serbs.
Mobilization of Russia
Russia, as an ally of Serbia, mobilized its army against Austria-Hungary, triggering the reaction of Germany, which is an ally. The German Kaiser, William II, tried to mediate with the Tsar, at the time his cousin. But he refused and Germany issued an ultimatum requiring the demobilization of Russian troops and not supporting Serbia.
At the same time, the Germans sent another ultimatum to the French so they would not help their allies Russia in case of war.
On 1 August Russia responded by rejecting German requests that responded by declaring war. On day 4 Austria - Hungary mobilized all its troops.
France
France did not respond to the German ultimatum. However, he withdrew his troops from the borders to avoid incidents. Despite this, he ordered the mobilization of all its reservists, and Germany responded by doing the same.
The Germans who tried to avoid the French attack came and invaded Luxembourg. Day 3 formally declared war on France. The next day he also told Belgium that he refused to allow his troops to cross the French border.
The last great power without the participation of Great Britain demanded that Germany respect Belgium's neutrality. In the face of rejection, he decided to declare himself a state of war.
Causes
The Great War for the first time included all the political and military forces of the planet in a war conflict. Many historians draw attention to the five main causes of this situation.
Militarism
Great European forces embarked on an arms race during the Armed Peace. The development of the war industry in the search for control of international trade was significant especially in Great Britain and Germany.
Imperialism
Africa and Asia became the subject of the wishes of the great powers. The struggle to control their natural resources led to clashes between the colonizing nations.
An example of this was Germany's attempt to build a rail link between Berlin and Baghdad to control the Middle East, causing a significant increase in tensions with Russia.
Territorial claims
The confrontation between the powers was not only due to colonial territories. They also occurred due to old unresolved territorial disputes, such as one facing Germany and France over Alsace and Lorraine.
Something similar happened in the Balkans, where Russia wanted to defend the Slavs and Orthodox.
Nationalism
Nationalism as an ideology that maintained the existence of nations grew very strongly at that time. It was, in addition, nationalism often ethnic, as when Germany declared its claim to create an empire with all countries of Germanic origin.
Something similar happened to Russia and its pan-slavism, although it was content to appear as defender and guardian of various Slavic nations.
Alliance policy
An alliance formed during armed peace, and even earlier, has caused various nations to enter the war to fulfill their obligations.
In general, there were two large blocks of alliances: the Triple Alliance and the Triple Alliance, although there have been variations with years.
Participants
Initially, only European forces, their allies and colonies participated in the Great War. Later entry into the American and Japanese conflicts made him a world clash.
Triple Alliance
The main members of the Triple Alliance were the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the German Empire. Italy joined them, although when he entered the war, he did so by supporting the other side. This block also provided support to another nation, such as Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire was the country that first declared war. This has triggered the signing of defense agreements, causing the conflict to spread across the continent. His defeat presumed the extinction of the Empire and the independence of the several territories that composed it.
The Second German Empire under the command of Wilhelm II. Soon she came to the aid of her Austro-Hungarian ally. In addition, he had the opportunity to face his traditional French opponent again and try to attack him.
Triple agreement
At first it was composed of the United Kingdom, France and the Russian Empire. They ended by joining the United States, Romania, Serbia, Greece and Italy.
In the case of France, he still suffered the consequences of his defeat with Prussia decades ago. His defensive treaty with Russia meant that when he declared war on Austria-Hungary, he immediately joined hostilities.
The United Kingdom was more interested in maintaining and expanding its colonies than in continental policy. When he invaded Germany to Belgium, he realized that his interests could be compromised and proceed to the declaration of war.
Russia was Serbia's main ally and therefore provided support from the outset. However, the Revolution of 1917 caused him to leave the conflict before it was over.
Finally, the United States maintained its neutrality for several years. The sinking of Lusitania by Germany caused the death of more than 100 Americans, but it was a German attempt to persuade Mexico to attack the country that made it enter into a war conflict \ t.
Lets see, War of the triple alliance; background and development
Development
July 28, 1914 was the beginning of the First World War. Millions of people died during the years of the clash.
Initially, the forces of both units were very numerous in terms of the number of soldiers. However, there were differences in resources and equipment. As an example, historians emphasize that the triple settlement did not have long-reaching cannons, but that they had a naval superiority.
War movement
The first military movements were based on rapid and very effective attacks. Germany developed a plan called Schlieffen to invade France and get to Paris in no time. For its part, the French devised plan XVII, which sought to restore Alsace and Lorraine.
Both plans ended in failure and the situation on the front stopped. A large front part of the trenches was created without any progress.
Russia in these early stages invaded Austria and Germany from the east and Austria-Hungary tried to occupy Serbia.
Trench warfare
Despite the plans outlined, all participants understood that the war would not be short. Germany took root on the Western Front and tried to keep conquered. The Hindenburg line had 700 kilometers of trenches separating France from the German army.
During this period, new participants were included in the program. The Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria did so in favor of the imperial powers and Romania and Italy allies.
It is in the Balkans where there has been greater development. Russia, with internal problems, had to withdraw many men and various Balkan territories repeatedly changed hands.
The crisis of 1917
After three years of war and with a relatively stagnant situation, all participants suffered internal problems due to the reaction of their citizens.
In France, which was immersed in a bloody war on trenches and food shortages, industrial cities and rebellions took place in several cities. In the UK, the city also showed signs of fatigue, although the protests were smaller.
Political differences began to emerge in the German Empire, with supporters ending the conflict.
Austro-Hungarians had to fight on two different fronts. In addition, a number of separatist uprisings broke out in good parts of their territory.
Finally, the Russian Revolution broke out that year. The Bolshevik triumph caused the country to leave the war.
Transformation of war
It was in 1917 when the United States joined the First World War. At those moments, the various open queues were very stagnant. Practically, all are limited to resistance without having the ability to defeat their enemies.
The US entry, in 1917, gave new power to the Allies Triple Agreement and was vital to the outcome.
End of War: Victory of the Allies
In the last months of the war, the applicants were very weak, both militarily and internally in each country. This influenced in a special way the two imperial forces, because the Allies were very beneficial to the inclusion of the United States to their side.
One of the last attacks against the Austrohungarian Empire took place in the south, after the Allied troops landed in Greece. From then on, Austria-Hungary began to disintegrate, with subsequent declarations of independence from its territory. In November 1918 remained only the Austrian Empire.
The defeat left Germany without any support and the Allies managed to defeat on the Western Front. 11th November 1918 surrendered to his enemies.
Consequences
The map of Europe has undergone a radical change. In this war, four empires disappeared: Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman and Russian. This caused many new nations to emerge and others regained their independence.
Loss of life and destruction
The size of the First World War died about 10 million people. Another twenty million soldiers were injured. An estimated 7 million civilians were killed.
These figures represented a brutal demographic crisis in aggressive countries. Not only for the dead, but for the number of orphans and widows supposed to.
In addition to human lives, the continent's infrastructure has been destroyed, particularly in the north of France, Serbia and Belgium. The winners tried to pay the losers the reconstruction, but that was not possible.
Great Britain has become one of the most indebted countries and hyperinflation has taken a toll with Germany. The only nation he used was the United States, which before the decline of Europe became a great power.
Territorial
Territorial changes were not limited to the extinction of empires. The German and Turkish colonies were in the hands of the winners, especially France and Great Britain.
The French were also able to restore Alsace and Lorraine, alongside the annexation of the German Rhine zone.
Even before the end of the war, when Austria-Hungary was divided, Czechoslovakia was established. Hungary gained independence. With the defeat and disappearance of the reigning house in the Empire, the Allies created the Republic of Austria, with a very small size due to the loss of territory in the hands of Romania and Serbia ..
Taking advantage of the boom weakness of the newly created Soviet Union, the Allies encouraged the emergence of several countries as a barrier to communism: Lithuania, Latvia, Finland and Czechoslovakia itself.
Economy
Historians point out that there were times of famine and economic crisis throughout the continent. The entire war industry had to be transformed into other types of factories, although it took a long time.
End
Peace treaties
The losers and victors signed several different peace treaties when the war ended. They set the conditions that the defeated forces had to meet.
The first, and the one that brought further consequences, was the Treaty of Versailles. It was signed on June 28, 1919 between the Allies and Germany. This country was forced to demilitarize itself, its colonies went to other countries, had to undergo international supervision and were sentenced to pay huge sums to compensate for damage.
The imposed conditions caused a feeling of humiliation in Germany. Eventually it became the seed of the Nazi Party and the next World War.
The Treaty of Saint-Germain, in Laye, was the next to be negotiated. It was sealed on September 10, 1919 and included the winner and Austria. Through him, the Empire disintegrated and the Habsburg monarchy disappeared.
In addition, other agreements were decided on the loss of the Ottoman Empire and the new borders of the Balkan region.
Germany
Although it was Austria-Hungary who started the conflict, Germany was the country that suffered the most. The republic that followed Kaiser Wilhelm II was born in the context of the economic and social crisis. Left-wing and right-wing groups supported numerous rebellions and social tensions were constant.
Finally, this situation was the perfect basis for the appearance of the Nazis. Hitler, who blamed Communists, foreigners and Jews for surrendering his country in the First War, ended in seizure of power by promising that Germany would win again.
Only two decades after the end of the Great War, World War II began with even more bloody results than the previous ones.
War of the triple alliance; background and development
