Despite the fact that European countries tried to maintain their balance of power on the continent, how could the First World War take place? There were six main causes of this European war: abysmal governments, nationalism, imperialism, militarization, alliances and list of events. Moroccan Crisis (1905-06), Bosnian Crisis (1908-09), and the July crisis in 1914 were the examples of the international events that lead up to the First World War. Simultaneously, the list of international events shows the different aspects of the European countries according to the five other key factors mentioned above, so it explains how international events could lead up to the First World War.
The Moroccan Crisis (1905-06) showed us several factors that caused the World War I, the growing imperialism, abysmal government and the increasing antipathy against one another by the formations of alliances. Excellent. The First Moroccan crisis originated from the imperial rivalries of the major European powers, Germany and France. In late 19th century, Morocco was already part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, and both Germany and France had signed the Treaty of Madrid in 1880, promising to prevent land seizure in Africa from any country, and also that the consultation was needed for the participation in taking lands from the continent, so the condition was not quite suitable to the occurrence of Moroccan Crisis. This is terrific stuff, but where are your sources? Where did you find this information? However, while Germany did not, France did have interest in Morocco, infringing the treaty and increasing its influence in Morocco by gaining agreements in 1905 from England and Spain, each on April 8th and October 7th, for protectorate control over Morocco and finally requiring for the control of Sultan’s army on 21 February 1905 but meanwhile France had not asked Germany’s opinion for its action. Although Germany was not interested in Morocco, they thought France could be put into an ignominious situation by wrecking the Entente Cordiale as Chancellor Bernhard von Bullow said to the Kaiser “Through your Majesty I threw down the gauntlet to the French. I wanted to see whether they would mobilize,”[1] a crucial quote, that and furthermore, Russia, Germany’s major ally was defeated in Russo-Japanese war, so Germany did not have to be anxious about Russia for interfering their plan. On 31 March 1905, Kaiser Wilhelm promised the independence of Morocco in "open door" speech in Tangier. Perhaps he was trying to seize Morocco due to his madness about his pride and imperialism as in 1897, he mentioned that Germany would follow a ‘world policy’ and create a large German colonial empire to build strong navy and to use foreign policy success to strengthen the monarchy.[2] Also, King Edward VII of Britain described the Kaiser’s as "the most mischievous and uncalled for event which the German Emperor has been engaged in since he came to the throne."[3] Despite of the Kaiser’s speech, in Algeciras Conference from January 16 to April 7th of 1906, Germany had only one supporting country, Austria-Hungary, and France had support from its ally Britain, especially from British secretary, Sir Edward Grey, and the other countries such as Russia, Italy, Spain and the United States. Germans could get France signed on May 31, 1906 for ceding several changes in Morocco such as trading rights but still France controlled significant areas of the country and it made German dissatisfaction to be inevitable. After the crisis was over, Britain and Russia made an Entente in 1907 as they were concerned about Germany’s reaction. France and Germany, both influential at that time, were ambitious of imperialism, so France probably wanted to have its control over Morocco. As Kaiser Wilhem II was also the one passionate about imperialism and the maintenance of its high position in the whole continent, it lead German government only to be abysmal and awful, with his adviser, Chancellor Bernhard von Bullow, who actually had greatly stimulated the Kaiser to prevent France from taking control of Morocco because as a result, Germany actually could not take much advantage and got isolated from the other countries but have provoked France and Britain. Britain, as an ally of France in Entente Cordiale, firmly supported France but the role of alliance in this situation could only act as a booster of causing the war by worsening the relations between countries and increasing insanity within Kaiser Wilhelm II, who might have also felt terrible by losing its old ally, Russia, who later formed alliance with Britain. Thus, Moroccan Crisis, by involving the countries with strong imperialism, abysmal government and the formations of alliances that provoked both France and Germany, it led Europe to the First World War. I am very impressed with this. You are providing impressive analysis, a wealth of facts from a variety of sources, and all clearly answering exactly what the question demands.
The Bosnian Crisis of 1908-09 could lead up to the war as it was originated from abysmal government of Turkey, and later became a crisis with the imperialism within the major powers, nationalism and the involvement of alliances. In Treaty of Berlin (1878), Austria-Hungary was allowed to occupy Bosnia. However, due to Serbia’s desire of having a port on the Adriatic Sea and the high population of Serbs in Bosnia, they were dissatisfied and furious with the decision made in the treaty because not only they wanted the port but as one of the national groups, Serbia also wanted to rule themselves in the Balkans. In 1908, Turkey, with its corrupt government, was suffering from Young Turk Revolution and Austria-Hungary thought it could be the opportunity for its annexation of Bosnia. Eventually in October of the same year, Bosnia became the part of the Austrian Empire and Austria has increased its influence in the Balkans. Russia, in order to help Serbia, has proposed the conference but it was refused by Turkey and even by the two of its allied countries, Britain and France since they were anxious about risking a war because of Germany standing by the side of Austria-Hungary. Russia was furious about the humiliation it got, so they decided not to back down in the Balkans anymore by improving their defence expenditure and without any help from Russia, Serbia grudgingly had to agree with the annexation, enduring the same humiliation Russia had, as it is shown below in the declaration they sent to Vienna on March 31, 1909: “Serbia recognizes that the situation created in Bosnia-Herzegovina does not involve any injury to the rights of Serbia…… In conformity with this declaration and confident of the pacific intentions of Austria-Hungary, Serbia will bring back her army…… She will disband the volunteer bodies and will prevent the formation of irregular bands upon her territory.”[4] In consequence, the Bosnian Crisis actually began from the opportunity that Austria-Hungary, with enthusiasm of imperialism, got from the revolution in Turkey caused by its abysmal government, and although the triumph for Germany and Austria-Hungary had shown the strength of Triple Alliance, Triple Entente, with two countries who did not help another country for their own safeties indicated that the alliances were in fact formed for the countries’ own interests and that they were not helpful to each other when they felt it useless to themselves. Furthermore, the resentments of Serbia and Russia have developed the feelings between alliances to loathsomeness, incurring another international crisis which directly caused the World War I. The Bosnian Crisis precipitated the war with the abysmal government, imperialism of Austria-Hungary, nationalism of Serbia and the influences of allied countries on the affair. A model paragraph at this level.
The most significant crisis, the July crisis in 1914, directly and dominantly caused the First World War by involving nationalism, imperialism, militarization, alliances in action. The crisis began from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Austrian emperor in Sarajevo on 28 June, 1914. It was a serious problem since the assassin was a Bosnian terrorist who was close with Serbian terrorist organization and as it is mentioned above, Austria-Hungary and Serbia hated each other, so it was obvious that Austria-Hungary must have been suspicious. On 5 July, 1914, as a response to the demand from Franz Josef I, uncle of the dead Austrian emperor, of eliminating the Serbian power, Kaiser Wilhelm II gave a support to them, known as “the blank cheque.” A lot of ultimatums were being sent as many countries’ intervention in order to help their allies and in fact they were all rejected. On 23 July, 1914, Austria sent ultimatum to Serbia for allowing them to arrest anti-Habsburg terrorist groups but after it was rejected, they declared war on Serbia on 28th of the month because they had strong mobilization planned at any outbreak of conflicts. However, Germany, France and Russia were also strong in their militarism, so Austria was trying to avoid Russia’s intervention as it was shown in Germany’s ultimatum sent to Russia on 31 July. Once again, the ultimatum was rejected by Russia, eventually leading Germany to declare war on Russia on 1 August 1914. Germany had also sent ultimatum to Belgium asking for its safe passage of the soldiers but Belgium unfortunately was invaded by Germany, and Britain declared war on Germany for it on August 4th. There was no reason for those countries to avoid the wars since they already had growing conflicts among them, especially between alliances, and the alliances involved a lot of powerful countries as it is shown in the map PLEASE DO NOT USE PICTURES OR MAPS- THEY TAKE TOO LONG TO LOAD AND YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE THEM ON AN EXAM. I AM TESTING YOUR WRITING, NOT PRESENTATION., the European major powers already had its troops prepared in case of an
outbreak of any war, so the First World War was absolutely unavoidable. Serbia, still with its nationalism, hoping to control the Serbs in the region of Balkans, wanted to go against Austria-Hungary, and the other countries that ere regarded as major powers in the continent were actually fighting to gain more territories for themselves, showing
a great imperialism within the countries.
The most important factor that had led the crisis in to the war was the intervention of alliances as a small dispute between Austria-Hungary and Serbia developed into a war because of Russia, Germany, France and Britain supporting their allies. Accordingly, the July crisis could cause the First World War as it showed the European countries’ nationalism, imperialism, militarization, alliances.
As you can see above, international events were able to lead up to the World War I with including several factors among abysmal governments, nationalism, imperialism, militarization and alliances. The several examples of international crises happened in the years 1905-14 such as the Moroccan Crisis, the Bosnian Crisis and the July Crisis. Also it is noteworthy to know that not every crisis included all the factors but that the crises could have grown more severe since the later the crisis was the more countries were in conflict.
An outstanding first essay; I am very impressed, especially for someone whose English is not a first language. This is beyond my expectations and I have to credit you all the more for it.
21/20 (20/20 +1 for first essay)
| Mark awarded > | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Criterion A: Knowledge | Each paragraph contains relevant evidence. | Each paragraph contains evidence, but not all evidence is relevant | There are several pieces of evidence, but not in each paragraph. | There are 1-2 pieces of evidence in the essay. | There is no evidence in the essay |
| Criterion B: Concepts | Understand the key terms and apply them correctly ESPECIALLY LAST TWO SENTENCES | Understand some key-terms | Tries to use the proper key terms (Industrialism, urbanisation, etc.) | Uses wrong key terms | There are no keywords, and poor understand of the topic. |
| Criterion C: Skills | Analysis in all paragraphs, Explanations all strong. | Analysis in all paragraphs, but Explanations are weak or missing. ESP. BEGINNING | Some attempts have been made at analysis. | The essay is a narrative. It is telling a story. | The essay is neither a narrative nor an analysis. |
| Criterion D: Organisation and presentation | The essay makes perfect use of P –E – E in all paragraphs | The essay is divided into paragraphs, with attempts of P – E – E | The essay is attempted divided into paragraphs. | The essay is not divided into paragraphs | The essay has incorrect or missing title The essay is too short. (min. 2 pgs.) |
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