Toward WORLD WAR, 1901-08

Toward World War

Emperor Franz Joseph, Vienna, circa 1910. Despite his sense of propriety, he was the foremost villain in bringing the worst war yet to the world. He had demonstrated only mediocre intelligence for his tutors and a love of uniforms and the military. To the end he was devoted to his duties, his empire and to his Catholic faith.

Conflict in Europe to 1902

Europe's first great war of the twentieth century had roots in a heritage that belonged to all of Europe. That heritage was autocracy. Kings ruled by right of birth. And kings extended their rule where they could and called themselves emperors. Their imperialism conflicted with nationalism -- with people wishing to be rid of foreign rule. This conflict extended into the twentieth century and sparked the Great War that began in 1914. And the Great War became the foundation of World War II and marked political and social developments for the entire century -- to be called the century of hate.

The Great War was an evil created by kings who were looked upon as father figures and as good and decent. These were men who had the support of most of their fellow countrymen in forcing their rule over other people. The Great War was produced in an age of empire.

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia had an empire that extended to Germany's border and included Turkic peoples. The Habsburg monarch, Franz Joseph I (Francis-Joseph I), ruled over an empire called Austria-Hungary that had included Italians and continued to include Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Slovenes, Croats, some Poles, Ukrainians and Serbs. And Turkey controlled an empire -- the Ottoman Empire -- which included Arabia, Palestine, what is now Israel, and North Africa.

Taking the lead toward war was Franz Joseph. As a young man his lack of intelligence had disturbed his tutors. He owed his power to an accident of birth. But he worked diligently, rising to attend to his duties before dawn. He was courteous and kind to those around him, and he loved his wife. He was a fervently devout Roman Catholic. The Habsburgs had ruled since the tenth century, and Franz Joseph believed that rule by the head of his family was ordained by God. As he saw it, he ruled by divine right -- rather than by accident and opportune marriages as some critics suggested. Franz Joseph had ruled since 1848 -- when he was eighteen. In the 1860s, after a short and bloody war against Italians and the French, Franz Joseph was forced to give up rule in northern Italy. But he never accepted the loss of his Italian lands. He believed that it was his duty to leave to his heir an empire as big as it was when he inherited it, and to compensate for the loss of territory in Italy he decided to extend his rule into Bosnia and Herzegovina (Hercegovina).

Bosnia and Herzegovina had been a part of Turkey's Empire. Militarily weak vis-à-vis Europe, Turkey felt compelled to submit to the decisions that Europe's imperial powers made at an international conference in 1878 -- the Congress of Berlin -- a conference to settle a war between Russia and Turkey. It was agreed that Russia would take control of the Turkish lands Ardahan, Kars and Batoum; that Serbia would be freed from rule by the Turks; and that temporary control over Bosnia and Herzegovina would be given to Franz Joseph, while it remained nominally a part of Turkey's empire.

Franz Joseph sent an army of 200,000 men into Bosnia and Herzegovina, believing that he was subduing an inferior people. The Catholic minority in Bosnia welcomed Franz Joseph's army, while Muslims and Orthodox Christians fought the invasion. In Sarajevo the fighting was from house to house and hand to hand. After two months of fighting, Franz Joseph's army overwhelmed its opponents, while suffering more than 5,200 killed in action -- sacrifices for the glory of God and the Habsburg Empire.

Franz Joseph had succeeded in extending his empire to what he saw as its rightful size. He had pushed into an area where for centuries Roman Catholicism had been in bitter rivalry with Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Expanding into Bosnia and Herzegovina, Franz Joseph exacerbated these old antagonisms and inspired the nationalism of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Serb majority. Franz Joseph had not only won Bosnia and Herzegovina, he had won unending conflict with the Serbs -- including the nation of Serbia, where people believed that the Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina should be allowed to be a part of a greater Serb nation.

But the conflict between Franz Joseph and the Serbs was only one ingredient in the making of Europe's first great war of the twentieth century. The other ingredients were all that turned the conflict between the Serbs and Franz Joseph into war between Europe's major powers -- conditions at the beginning of the 20th century that were different from the end of the 20th century.

Germany Loses another Round in the Alliance Game

The twentieth century began while Great Britain was fighting a war to extend its rule into South Africa -- a move that was unpopular across the world, including the United States and Germany. Responding to world hostility, Great Britain decided to make its position in the world more secure by ending what it called its "splendid isolation," and Britain began by looking to an alliance with Germany.

Both Germany and Britain were predominately Protestant, and the Germans and British saw themselves as being of the same superior Teutonic race and as having a moral fiber stronger than that of the Slavic and Latin peoples of eastern and southern Europe. The royal families of Germany and Britain were linked. The German monarch, Wilhelm (William) II, was the grandson of Queen Victoria, and he visited his grandmother and British family frequently. Britain's wealthy sent their young men to German universities and their daughters to Germany for their final polish (what they called being "finished"), and many successful marriages between the British and Germans had arisen from these contacts. And the British went to Germany for vacations.

Germany's diplomats looked forward to Britain signing an alliance with their nation. Germany had a navy that was weaker than Britain's, but Germany's navy was growing. Germany's diplomats believed that Britain's fear of this growing navy would help inspire it to be a partner with Germany rather than a rival. Germany's diplomats believed that Great Britain had no desire to ally itself with Russia because Britain was in conflict with Russia over Russia's advances against Britain's interests in East and South Asia. And they believed that Great Britain had no desire to ally itself with France because Britain and France were old enemies and recent rivals for empire in Africa and elsewhere.

Germany's diplomats believed that they were bargaining from a position of strength, and they asked Britain to join an alliance that included Germany's ally, Austria-Hungary. Britain refused to be tied to an alliance that would commit it to war on the side of Austria-Hungary. Germany's diplomats were over-confident. They were asking too much from Britain. And Britain began looking elsewhere for allies.

Britain settled its differences with the United States, and in 1902 it entered into an alliance with Japan. Then Britain had talks with France to settle their differences. Having finished carving up Africa and other parts of the world, the British and French wanted an agreement that would make their empires more secure. France recognized Britain's position in Egypt. Britain gave secret recognition to France's willingness to divide Morocco between itself and Spain. And Britain and France settled long-standing disagreements concerning territories in the Pacific and disagreements over Thailand.

France also reached an agreement with Italy. Italy extended France a free hand in Morocco in exchange for Italy exercising its will over Libya. And France had a military alliance with Russia -- a defense treaty that had been signed in 1894. France and Russia had promised that should Germany attack the other they would attack Germany. This tie between Russia and France was enhanced by a huge loan from French banks to Russia, money that Russia wanted for building railroads, industry and its military capability.

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