However, Austro-Hungarian expansion in Europe worried Tsar Nicholas II, who saw Russia as both the historic guarantor of the Slavic nations in the Balkans and the competitor for territories governed by the Ottoman Empire.īy 1914, the Austro-Hungarian Empire had control of Bosnia and Herzegovina and viewed Slavic Serbia, a nation protected by Russia, as its next challenge. While the leaders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire showed little interest in colonies elsewhere, Turkish lands on its southern border appealed to their strategic goals. The other great threat to European peace was the Ottoman Empire, in Turkey. (The alliance between Great Britain, France, and Russia became known as the Triple Entente.)
Day of defeat source trenches map series#
Britain’s Queen Victoria remained unassociated with the alliances until a series of diplomatic crises and an emerging German naval threat led to British agreements with Tsar Nicholas II and French President Émile Loubet in the early twentieth century.
In 1892, German posturing worried the leaders of Russia and France and prompted a defensive alliance to counter the existing triple threat between Germany, Austro-Hungary, and Italy. Wilhelm’s maneuvers and Germany’s rise spawned a new system of alliances as rival nations warily watched Germany’s expansion. The British viewed the prospect of a German navy as a strategic threat, but, jealous of what he perceived as a lack of prestige in the world, Wilhelm II pressed Germany’s case for access to colonies and symbols of status suitable for a world power. He admired the British Empire of his grandmother, Queen Victoria, and envied the Royal Navy of Great Britain so much that he attempted to build a rival German navy and plant colonies around the globe. Wilhelm II rose to the German throne in 1888. In Germany, however, a new ambitious monarch would overshadow years of tactful diplomacy. And it laid the groundwork for a global depression, a second world war, and an entire history of national, religious, and cultural conflict around the globe.Īs the German empire rose in power and influence at the end of the nineteenth century, skilled diplomats maneuvered this disruption of traditional powers and influences into several decades of European peace. The war simultaneously stoked national pride and fueled disenchantments that burst Progressive Era hopes for the modern world. The war heralded to the world the United States’ potential as a global military power, and, domestically, it advanced but then beat back American progressivism by unleashing vicious waves of repression.
The United States entered the conflict in 1917 and was never again the same. On the battlefield, gruesome modern weaponry wrecked an entire generation of young men. World War I (“The Great War”) toppled empires, created new nations, and sparked tensions that would explode across future years. The Fourteen Points and the League of Nations
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