SHORT-TERM CAUSES OF WWI The Crisis Years (1905 – 1913) Several crises between 1905 and 1913 increased the tension between the two alliance blocks in Europe and created greater instability in the Balkans.

The Moroccan Crisis (1905) Morocco was one of the few African countries not controlled by a European power. Germany worried about the alliance between Britain and France and attacked France. Germany wanted to expose the weakness of the friendship of France and Britain. Britain supported a French takeover of Morocco, in return, France recognized Britain’s position in Egypt. Germany would help the Sultan to maintain their independence and demanded an international conference. Throughout 1905 Germany threatened of war until France accepted to hold the conference in Algeciras, Spain 1906. Britain decided to support France’s plans to take Morocco and Germany had little support to back up Morocco’s independence. As a result Germany didn’t get territories in northern Africa, which was a failure for Weltpolitik and a hit for their pride. The entente became stronger instead of breaking. British foreign policy was now directed to support French interests. Germany was now seen as a threat to British interests.

The Bosnian Crisis (1908) After the Moroccan crisis, Russia signed an entente with Britain. Germans thought this was a plan of Russia, France and Britain to encircle and contain them. Germany became closer with their ally Austria-Hungary. In 1908 there were internal problems in the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). Austria-Hungary took advantage of this and decided to annex Bosnia and Herzegovina. Serbia had had interest in these territories as well because they wanted access to the sea, but now this was not possible for them. Secretly, the foreign ministers from Russia (Alexander Petrovich) and from Austria (Aehrenthal) had talked and agreed Russia would support the annexation. Aehrenthal acted without waiting for Russia to get the international community’s support for the annexation. France, Britain and even the Russian Tsar and Prime Minister didn’t agree. Germany stated they would support Austria-Hungary if a war with the Serbs started. Russia didn’t get support from Britain and France and had to accept the annexation of Bosnia to Austria. Russia was once again humiliated (they had lost against Japan in a separate conflict). Russia started a rearmament program. The Serbs were very angry and their nationalist feeling increased. This ended the cooperation between Russia and Austria over the situation in the Balkans.

Second Moroccan Crisis (Agadir – 1911) In 1911 Morocco was having internal problems and asked France for help to contain them and France accepted. Germany thought France was going to take over Morocco so they sent a gunboat to Agadir in order to stop them. Germany actually wanted to get benefited from this: they demanded the whole Congo territory occupied by France. Britain thought this was a war threat and was worried Germany could take Agadir and threat their naval routes. Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer gave a speech warning Germany to back off. Now the conflict was between Germany and Britain. Finally the crisis was resolved and Germany accepted to receive two strips of the French Congo. Germany’s public opinion was hostile towards how the government had handled the crisis. The entente between Britain and France became even stronger. Tension and hostility grew between Germany and Britain.

A german cartoon «The mailed fist of Agadir»

First Balkan War (1912) Russia encouraged Greece and Montenegro (Balkan states) to form an alliance. Their objective was to take Macedonia (which belonged to Turkey but was in the Balkans) and divide it between themselves. Turkey was weak because of a war they fought with Italy the previous year. In only 7 weeks they were almost driven out (sacados) of the Balkans. Austria was horrified because they didn’t want Serbia to be stronger and declared war to Serbia. However, they feared that Russia would support their Balkan friends and that the war could spread to other European countries.   Sir Eduard Grey (Britain’s Foreign Secretary) wanted to stop the war from spreading and called a peace conference in London. As a result the Turkish lands were divided up between the Balkan states. However, Austria got what they wanted and Serbia didn’t get as much territory as they wanted. Instead Albania was created and placed between Serbia and the Adriatic Sea. This created more resentment between Serbia and Austria-Hungary.

Second Balkan War (1913) In July 1913 another Balkan war broke because of the results of the first war. This time Bulgaria was in war against Serbia and Greece over territory occupied by Serbia. The Bulgarians wanted all the Bulgars living in Serbia and Greece to be in Bulgar territory. The Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, Count Leopold Berchtold asked Germany for assistance because he feared Russia would get in the conflict to help the Serbs. Turkey joined Greece and Serbia in the fight against Bulgaria because they wanted to get back part of the territory they lost in the first Balkan War. Bulgaria was defeated and in the Treaty of Bucharest singed in August 1913 they lost almost all of the territory they won during the first war. Even though the crisis didn’t spread through Europe, the tension among the powers increased. Serbia won again and encouraged even more their nationalist feeling, plus they were almost as twice bigger now. Serbia’s victories represented diplomatic wins for Russia and encouraged them to stand by the Serbs. Austria-Hungary was convinced they had to crush Serbia. Both Balkan wars were diplomatic defeats for Germany who became close to Austria-Hungary. As a result of all these crises the tension and hostility between the two alliance blocks grew more. They were also arming and getting ready for a war they thought was near.

Other developments 1900 – 1913 The press and education prepared the public of Europe for war by showing it as something that would be short and heroic. Nationalism had become stronger and aggressive in the major states. The press exaggerated the international incidents to inflame the public opinion about an upcoming war. The powers were all in an arm race (not only naval but general). Between 1870 and 1914 the military spending of the European powers had increased by 300 per cent. The population had also increased and it allowed countries to form bigger armies. All the European powers made detailed plans of what they would do if the war started. The German field Marshal Count Alfred Schlieffen’s war plan intended to deal with the Triple Entente and the difficulty of fighting war in two fronts.

Schlieffen knew it would take six weeks to Russia to mobilize so he made a plan that involved crushing France. They thought they could invade France through Belgium, Holland and Luxemburg and then encircle Paris. Taking Paris would allow them to move easily to face Russia in the Eastern Front. In 1911, Schlieffen’s successor, Helmuth von Moltke modified the plan but still had errors: the impact of marching through Belgium, the time Russia would need to mobilize, and Britain’s effectiveness in coming to help France. France planned a high-speed mobilization of most of its forces and a quick attack to capture Alsace and Lorraine before crossing the Rhine into Germany. Russia planned to attack Austria-Hungary and Germany. Austria-Hungary had two plans: They differed in the amount of troops allocated to fighting Russia and Serbia.