![]() ![]() In response to the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, the German government had assured Vienna of its unconditional support for action designed to overthrow Serbia. The existing international tensions led to an increasingly unstable international system, reduced politicians’ room for manoeuvre, and, at large, had considerable influence on the situation in the summer of 1914. Furthermore, failure to support their allies would seriously question the continued existence of their respective alliances, which neither side was prepared to risk. Altogether, this inflexible constellation of powers left European governments with few options for fear of losing honour and prestige. However, in tandem with the increasingly aggressive nature of the Triple-Alliance ( Dreibund), the ties of the Entente between France and Britain were considerably strengthened by military agreements. Bismarck’s Dual-Alliance ( Zweibund) between the central powers of Austria-Hungary and Germany, originally intended as a defensive alliance, had in the meantime, following Italy’s entry, become an alliance “for the protection and support of imperial ambitions” – not least those of Italy and its aspirations in North Africa. Considerable tension also occurred between Germany and Tsarist Russia, which had established a military treaty with France in 1892-4, presenting Germany with the potential threat of a war on two fronts. Notable tension existed between Germany and France, not least because of the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine following the Franco-German war of 1870-71. Some conservative politicians and military men were even convinced that only a European war would cut the Gordian knot of German “world politics” and thus help to fulfil their ambitions for colonies and for political prestige in the world. The much acclaimed and publicly celebrated building of the naval battle fleet – in spite of its questionable military value – as well as the costly armament programs for the land armies were consistent with this attitude. The extraordinary economic upswing, which by 1913 had made Germany the leading export nation in the world, led the German bourgeois classes to believe that the Empire was more than entitled to an international political standing in line with its economic power and performance. Consequently, military and economic competition between these two great European powers increased and the arms race grew alarmingly, although by 1910 it became clear that Germany had already lost the battle for naval supremacy. ![]() ![]() The German naval program, which Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz (1849-1930) introduced in 1898, challenged Great Britain as the foremost world and naval power. Bismarck had declared that Germany was territorially “satisfied”, but now the German Empire entered the imperial race for colonies together with France and Great Britain and, in addition, built a strong battle fleet in the pursuit of “world politics” ( Weltpolitik). When the young Wilhelm II, German Emperor (1859-1941) dismissed the first Chancellor of the German Empire, Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), in 1890, the basis of German foreign policy changed and with it, political relations between the major European powers. ![]()
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