Period 4

6/2/08

At the close of the war, the victors declared Germany to be the primary aggressor and forced the country to pay steep reparations.  To what extent was German aggression to blame for the start of World War I?

            It was reasonable that Germany aggression was to be blamed for the start of World War I. Why? For the many reasons of Germany had, wanting to expand it’s power and by doing so affecting countries around the world especially in Europe. What really started a war was the conflict between Austria- Hungary and Serbia and of course the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. However, to my knowledge and many clues that are spread throughout history, the most rational conclusion is that who really carried the responsibility of starting a World War was Germany.

            It all started when, the treaty of the Double Alliance was signed. Germany knew that by joining Austria, most of Europe was coming against it. Leaving behind the fact that even before this treaty, Germany had a lot of problems with many countries including France that lost to Germany in the Franco- Prussian War. No matter what happened, Germany was going to support its ally, “his Majesty referring (to Germany’s emperor), of course, cannot interfere in the dispute now going on between Austria-Hungary and that country, as it is a matter not within his competence. The Emperor Francis Joseph may, however, rest assured that His Majesty will faithfully stand by Austria-Hungary, as is required by the obligations of his alliance and of his ancient friendship.”(http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/blankcheque.htm) Here in a telegram from the chancellor, shows that the country was ready for war. It seems as if they had been waiting for a chance like this for a long time. They were newborn babies with a lot of power, and because of it they wanted to use this power against their enemies. In another article, the idea of Germany encouraging an attack and not caring about what kind of bomb they would start it is showed, “The German government gave Vienna green light for a punitive action against Serbia and even encouraged it.  The German government of Kaiser Wilhelm II and his chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, made it clear that Germany would stand by Austria-Hungary even if an attack on Serbia provoked Russia, Serbia’s ally, to declare war on Austria-Hungary.” (http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/germanresponsibility.htm)    

            Knowing that there was no way out of this trouble hole, even the German leaders, started seeing the war as a profit for their nation, like it is shown in the section of the same article. “German leaders had sometimes considered war as a panacea for foreign and domestic problems; war should split the alliances against Germany and unite the people in a wave of nationalism or even initiate some form of dictatorship based on the military.”(http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/germanresponsibility.htm#German%20War%20Guilt) It seemed as if most of the Germans were approving this war, that even Prince Wilhelm had his opinion on the prospect of war, “Our country is obliged more than any other country to place all its confidence in its good weapons.  Set in the centre of Europe, it is badly protected by its unfavourable geographic frontiers, and is regarded by many nations without affection.”

(http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/crownprincewilhelm1913.htm) Notice how he is arguing that peace is un- advantageous to Germany and that they have to rely on their weapons.

            Next, since Austria did attack Serbia, there was a humor that Russia, Serbia’s ally was moving its troops to the border, The Imperial German Government have used every effort since the beginning of the crisis to bring about a peaceful settlement… but Russia, without waiting for any result, proceeded to a general mobilisation of her forces both on land and sea… If the German Government had failed to guard against this peril, they would have compromised the safety and the very existence of Germany.”

(http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/germandeclarationofwar_russia.htm) Being true or untrue Germans used this incident as an excuse to what everyone knew was coming, declare war against Russia. Like you can see Germany was trying to act like if they were the victims of the whole situation but after all they were the judges of their own destiny.

            Germany’s greatest concern wasn’t only concern wasn’t only Serbia or Russia but another key character in this scene was France. Knowing that after humiliating France in the Franco-Prussian War, France wasn’t the happiest country in the world because everything the Germans made them go through. They knew that what you do always comes back to you, and Germany thought France wanted revenge. Just like with the Russians they declared war with France with a not knowing if true and most likely hardly accurate excuse; French airplanes flying over Belgium. “The German administrative and military authorities have established a certain number of flagrantly hostile acts committed on German territory by French military aviators. Several of these have openly violated the neutrality of Belgium by flying over the territory of that country” (http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/germandeclarationofwar_france.htm) Now, fighting in the East and the West Germany was in big trouble and they even asked Belgium (a neutral country) for a passage trough Belgium territory. “But the passage through Belgium is for Germany a question of life and death.  She must be finished with France as quickly as possible, crush her completely so as then to be able to turn against Russia, otherwise she herself will be caught between the hammer and the anvil.” (http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/belgianreportongermanultimatum.htm)

            In reaction to this Belgian Minister responded by saying, “Contrary to what you think, France has given us a formal promise to respect our neutrality, provided that you respect it too.  What would you have said if, instead of making us this promise of her own accord, she had presented to us the same summons before you, if she had demanded a passage through our country, and if we had yielded to her threats?” (http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/belgianreportongermanultimatum.htm)

Germany knew that England defended Belgium’s neutrality, that if they trespass Belgium they would be in more trouble with England. Diplomatic relations were broken and this is what the British Ambassador had said to the enemy’s government leaders, .”He (referring to the chancellor) held Great Britain responsible for all the terrible events that might happen.  I protested strongly against that statement, and said that, in the same way as he and Herr von Jagow wished me to understand that for strategical reasons it was a matter of life and death to Germany to advance through Belgium and violate the latter’s neutrality, so I would wish him to understand that it was, so to speak, a matter of “life and death” for the honour of Great Britain that she should keep her solemn engagement to do her utmost to defend Belgium’s neutrality if attacked.” (http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/scrapofpaper1.htm) England was not only worried about land movement of Germany but also by sea. They had all the right to because Germany had a powerful navy just like they did. “Britain continued to be concerned about the rise of German naval power and feared German predominance on the Continent.” (http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/germanresponsibility.htm) War with England was also declared but all of this because of the little bomb that Germany started.

            Last, Germans even seek helped from the US (a neutral country) “the war has severed us from the rest of the world, all our cable communications are destroyed.  But the winds will carry the mighty voice of justice even across the ocean.  We trust in God, we have confidence in the judgment of right-minded men.  And through the roar of battle, we call to you all.  Do not believe the mischievous lies that our enemies are spreading about!” (http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/germanappealtoamericans.htm). The US stayed neutral and later on May 1915 the Lusitania was sunk by German U-boats and many Americans were killed when they the Declaration of Admiralty was announced by Germany.  “All the waters surrounding Great Britain and Ireland, including the whole of the English Channel, are hereby declared to be a war zone.  From February 18 onwards every enemy merchant vessel found within this war zone will be destroyed without it always being possible to avoid danger to the crews and passengers. Neutral ships will also be exposed to danger in the war zone.” http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/germanadmiraltydeclaration.htm This not only provoked but angered the US and they went to war against Germany which made them get out f their neutral stage.

            In conclusion, as you can see Germany’s aggression is to be blame for World War I. Even though there were a lot of reasons why a war was started, Germany not only faster those reasons up but provoked other countries to join the war as well. In his three points, a Fritz Fischer, a German wrote why was it that Germany was to be blame, Fischer’s three main theses were: “1) that the German government under the Kaiser’s direction deemed a European war inevitable since 1911/12, prepared for war, and decided to seize the next opportunity to start it.  Fischer points out the expansive aims of the industry and Junkers; 2) that the German government and general staff precipitated an escalation of the Austro-Serb crisis in order to launch what they considered a preventive strike against Russia and France.If war did not come about, Germany at least hoped to weaken the Entente and win a moral victory that would increase the prestige and stability of Germany and the Habsburg Empire.  Bethmann embraced a calculated risk of escalation; 3) that a long-term continuity existed in German aims for expansion, leading right up to the Second World War: an eastern empire, predominance over Belgium and France.” (http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/germanresponsibility.htm#German%20War%20Guilt) All of these theses summarize my point and shows you that even Germans themselves recognize what their country had done to provoke a World War I. This is why it is rational that Germany should be blame for the war; I mean for what more evidence can you ask for? Everything is visible to your eyes!

1) Propaganda- selected bits of information to get people to back or support their nation’s war effort.

2) War of Attrition- a slow process in which two sides are trying to outlast the other.

3) Contraband- war materials supplied by a neutral nation to a warring one.

4) Atrocities- brutal acts against innocent, defenseless civilians. These were told to Americans but in exaggeration.

#2

Central Powers- consisted of Germany, Austria- Hungary, Bulgaria and sometime Italy as well. They were called central powers because most of the countries were in the center of Europe.

Allied Powers – consisted of Great Britain, France, Russia and 32 other countries. They were the ones that were against the Central Powers and had more soldiers and Industrial capacity.

U- Boats- German submarines, the name means underwater boats in German. They were very useful to the Central Powers but mostly to Germany during WWI.

Woodrow Wilson- The president of U.S during the time when German U-boats sank Lusitania and killed 128 Americans who were inside the British ship. He warned the Germans that he will not tolerate another incident like that again.

Arthur Zimmermann-  The high official on the German foreign ministry that send a telegram to Mexico proposing them to join Germany in the fight and promising that they would help them regain Arizona, New Mexico and Texas from the U.S

# 4

a) The new technology changed the way the war was fought in many ways. U- Boats, machine guns, airplanes, usage of gas poison in war, and large artillery weapons changed the war into a more dangerous and bloody one affecting even civilians of the countries.

b) The war principles proclaimed by the US for declaring war were the killings of the 128 Americans in the Lusitania, then later on the telegram send by the high official in the German ministry proposing alliance with Mexico and discovered by Americans. The stop case of ships going and coming from Britain for trading and finally, US fought for democratic ideals in the enemy countries

3) A) The factors that led to the fall of the Qing dynasty were the foreigners’ spheres of influence in China, the many rebellions especially the Boxer Rebellion, and the growth of a new political party (the nationalist party) that wanted a complete brake from the “Old China”

B) The Nationalist movement grew and changed under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek by the army becoming stronger, setting up a one party system with Chiang as the director, there was no promotion of Industrialization by the lack of capital, foreign control China’s natural resources slowed the development of economy, a national bank was established, projects of roads and railroads began and finally education was improved.

C) The factors that led to the rise of Communism in China were the Nationalist’s failure in dealing with changing the oppressive system of land ownership, and changing of tax collection methods; overall they did little to eliminate the suffering and discontent among the Chinese peasants.

4) “I am a member of the true political government, the Chinese Communist Party. In my party we are not worrying about other subjects like who is the leader of our beautiful country, but we do care about the most important subjects like freeing our country from foreign domination and from economic backwardness. Our method for a communist revolution is by getting aid from our own Chinese peasants. They are the ones that will help in the growth and in the maintaining of our strong political party among our people. With their help we can achieve our goals of defeating our enemies, keeping them away and bringing back peace to our homeland.”

Xan-qui Oscar,

member of the Chinese Communist Party

a) The changes that the growth of cities brought to China were that people were trading with foreigners besides the fact that they weren’t allowed to. Also, the growth of cities led to the growth of popular culture in the country but besides the growing of cities a lot of people still lived in the farms.

b) The attitudes that the Chinese rulers might have had towards foreigners during the period of the Ming and the Qing dynasties was an attitude of not liking them that much because the Chinese rulers wanted to keep their own culture and change no ways of living in their country. They thought that foreigners and foreign trade did not bring any benefit to the government.

Pg 421 # 2

a)Opium War- the conflict of 1839-1842 that broke out between China and Britain for the cause that China wanted Britain to stop the trade of Opium. Then the Chinese forcibly tried to stop the trade and the war broke out.

b)Treaty of Nanjing- in 1842 Chinese agreed to negotiate on British terms and gave the Island of Hong Kong to Britain. Also, China opened 5 ports for British to trade.

Taiping Rebellion- was started by Hong Xiuquan in the mid- 1800’s. He declared that he was the younger brother of Jesus and declared that his mission was to establish a new dynasty called Taiping. This caused terrible destruction in China and more revolts happened during this period that weakened China.  

1) Meiji Restoration- The change when the samurai group overthrew the Tokugawa and the Japanese economy benefited and grew.

Diet- One of the two houses of the National Assembly. It was made up of elected officials.

Sino- Japanese War- A War between China and Japan over Korea, an important piece of land that was rule by China.

Treaty of Shimonoseki- the treaty that ended the Sino- Japanese war. It gave Korea to Japan and let Japan trade in China.

Mongkut- A Siamese king who studied Western civilization in order to understand his enemies and he helped in the modernization of his country.

 Emilio Aguinaldo- led Filipinos fight for independence but they failed because U.S. stayed in control.

3)

A) The British rule affected India by changing the culture and making it British-like, for example the schools and the people getting educated with British ideas.

b) The Japanese were able to reform and industrialize their nation so quickly because unlike the Chinese they did study Western ways and made their civilization stronger by learning from them. They also traded with different countries which allowed them to have the latest things in technology.

c) The US expansion in Hawaii differs from its expansion in the Philippines because in Hawaii they got it in a more peaceful way by business treaties and things like that but in the Philippines in the other hand they had to fight a war with Spain in order to get it.

1) Enclosure Movement- this is the time that common lands in England began to be enclosed or fenced off into individual plots, also smaller landholdings were being combined into more efficient larger holdings.

b) Crop Rotation- when English farmers used the land that they usually left unplanted to plant different crops each year in a rotation. This way they used the same amount of land and produce more crops.

c) Industrial Revolution- An era of rapid industrial development.

d) Factors of Production- A favorable combination of needed factors-land, capital, and labor.

e) Mechanization- Automatic machinery which was used to increase production.

f) Vulcanization- The process which is the basis of the modern rubber industry.

2) Jethro Tull- The inventor of a seed drill that it made it possible to plant seeds in straight rows.

b) Richard Arkwright- invented the way to drive the spinning “jenny” by waterpower.

c) Eli Whitney- inventor of the cotton gin.

d) James Watt- study and improved the Newcomen’s machine. In 1769 he patented the modern steam engine.

e) Henry Bessemer- Developed what came to be known as the Bessemer process; A cheaper and easier method of making steel.

f) Robert Fulton- was the first to build a profitable steamboat.

g) Samuel Morse- Inventor of the Morse code. He sent an electrical current through a wire, making another machine at the other end to click.

4) The two events that led to new nationalist movements for unification of Italy were the Franch Revolution and Young Italy in which both wanted you could say independence or freedom from tyranns that ruled them from other countries.

B)  The important leaders in the fight for Italian unification were the famous Carbonari Gioppe Mazzini, King Victor Emmanuel of Sardinia, Chief Minister, republican and Italian patriot Camillo Benso Di Cavour,  and Italian Nationalist Giuseppe Garibaldi.

C) The kingdom of Sardinia took the lead in the Italian Unification because it was the only kingdom that was independent unlike other states and also it supported the goals of liberals.

2)Carbonari- a nationalist form of secret society. One of its most famous members was Mazzini.

Giuseppe Mazzini- a famous Carbonari member, leader of the Young Italy Movement which was dedicated to the spreading of the ideas of the risorgimento.

Young Italy Movement- this movement was dedicated to the spreading of ideas of the risorgimento.

King Emmanuel II- King of Sardinia. He wanted to expand his Sardinian Territory.

Camillo Benso Di Cavour-Chief Minister of Sardinia. He took part in the revolt of 1848 and wanted Sardinia to lead the way in uniting and Industrilizing Italy.

Napoleon III- Nephew of Napoleon I and King and Emperor of France. He helped the Italians fight Austria and negotiated to annex Nice and Savoy as a payback for helping in the fight.

Giuseppe Garibaldi- Italian Nationalist devoted to Italian freedom. He recruited more than 1000 men and captured the two Sicilies. He seized Naples the capital city. Also he tried to capture Rome and Venetia but Cavour afraid that Garibaldi would displace Emmanuel II as Italy’s leader stop him from doing so. He asked the king to be governor of Naples but because of his great popularity the king refused.

Pg 642

4)Prussia replaced Austria as the leading German state in Europe by defeating Napoleonand also  by winning the three important wars( the Danish War, Seven Weeks’ War, and the FrancoPrussian War)

b)The German unification was different fromthe Italian unification because the Italian unification happened for a reason of freedom from the other countries’ rulers and it started off with Sardinia and spread throughout Italy while the German unification happened between conflicts first with Austria and Prussia against Germans and the with Austria and Prussia against each other.  This was a unification between each other in the territory unlike the Italian unification.

c) After Unification, the makeup of the German government was an emperor named Kaiser, the Budersrat or upper house which consisted of 58 appointed members and the Reichstag which was the lower house and consisted of almost 400 members.

1) A) Plebiscite- The procedure which was used to submit the constitution of a new government to the people for a yes or no vote.

B) Nationalism- To love your country instead of your native region, this became popular after the 30 Years War.

C) Scorched-earth Policy- Tactic which consists of the burning or killing of crops and anything else value to an invading army.

2) A) Napoleonic Code- System of law in France under Napoleons directory.

B) Concordat- The agreement between Napoleon and the Pope which recognized Catholicism as the religion of most French citizens.

C) Horatio Nelson- Vice-admiral that in 1805 he lead a British fleet that defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain. He was killed in battle but he saved Britain from invasion.