1. Origins of World War

2. Summer 1914: The Sequence of Events
June 28th - Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo
July 3rd - Kaiser gives ‘blank check’ to Austria
July 23rd – Austrian ultimatum to Serbia
July 25th – Austria mobilizes
July 28th – Russia announces partial mobilization
July 31st - Russia announces full mobilization
Aug. 1st - Germany declares war on Russia
Aug. 3rd - Germany declares war on France
Aug. 4th - German invasion of Belgium brings Britain into the War

3. Broader context
International system regulated by balance of power – with Britain remaining aloof, trying to maintain
Rising nationalism
Weakening of multi-national empires
Ottoman Empire
Austria-Hungary
Russia
Increased rivalries among competing powers - growing rigidity of international alliance system

4. Competing alliances: Triple Alliance: Triple Entente Germany
Austria-Hungary
Italy
Triple Entente
France
Russia
Britain

5. Great powers and their interests:
Full map of Europe AD 1900

6. Germany Anxious to secure its ‘place in the sun’
Weltpolitik (world policy): build up navy in order to rival Britain
Attempts to drive Britain and France apart (1905 & 1911 Moroccan Crises) bring them together
Staunch support for Austria-Hungary
Willingness to consider war as tool of policy
Anxious to fight a war before it is too late – i.e. before Russia completed rearmament

7. Austria-Hungary
Multinational empire – collection of minorities -- threatened by
Demands for popular participation, making it harder to maintain balance among groups
Rising nationalism in Balkans
Dependent on external support
Anxious to contain Serbia & prevent any states on its border from becoming too powerful

8. Russia Autocratic multinational empire Aligned with France, Serbia
Defeated in Russo-Japanese War,
Political system broadened after Revolution of 1905: powers granted to an elected parliament (Duma), then gradually withdrawn
In process of rearming and modernizing its military
Aligned with France, Serbia
Interested in access to Mediterranean – via Dardanelles

9. France Interest in reasserting itself as a great power Interest in
Restraining Germany
Regaining Alsace & Lorraine
Desire to maintain & expand colonial holdings
Alliances with Russia and Britain

10. Italy Interest in colonial acquisitions
Interest in territorial gains from Austria
South Tyrol
Trieste, Fiume
Nominally allied with Germany and Austria
Does not become immediately involved
(when it does, joins Britain and France)

11. Britain Preoccupied with domestic issues
Anxious to maintain naval superiority, freedom of the seas, and the Empire
Preference to remain aloof from continental conflicts – providing the balance in a balance of power system
Guarantor of neutrals – Belgium and the Netherlands

12. Causes? Entangling alliances? German aggression?
The balance of power system
German aggression?
Failure of Britain to make its position clear?
Slide into war, with consequences not fully understood
Inflexible military plans?
Railroad timetables?
Popular pressures, domestic politics?
Munitions industry?

13. Toward an explanation
Limits of balance of power as system of deterrents
De-stabilizing elements:
Crumbling of older empires
assertions of national-self identity
Germany’s weltpolitik
Willingness of small number of leaders to take great risks – partially but not fully understood