COURSE OUTLINE

The First World War 1914-1918

The treaty of Versailles

The League of Nations

The policy of appeasement

The Second World War

The united nations

The Cold War

The integration of Europe

Africa and decolonisation

Globalisation
 THE FIRST WORLD WAR 1914-1918

The year 1914 was a watershed in the history of international relations . It marked the outbreak

of the First World War between 1914 and 1918. The WW1 as the name implies was a war that

affected every part of the world. In terms of the effect as well as the mobilisation of resources.

The closest to it in terms of significance and impact was the thirty years war between 1618 and

1648. The thirty years war was essentially an European affair. However the WW1 was global

because in terms of causes it was heavily European but in terms of spread and impacts it affected

every part of the world. This was because European countries that were the major powers in

international relations controlled those other part of the world as their colonies and also had

significant commercial relations with other part of the world that were not their colonies. Even

though the immediate cause of the First World War has been traced to the assassination of the

crown prince of Austria franz Ferdinand on the 28th of June 1914 by the Serbian nationalist

Gavrilo princip the remote causes went to the last quarter of the 19th century. Particularly, the

remote causes could be said to have started from 1871, in that year as a result of a series of

agitation and nationalist movements between the states that came to Italy and the German

empire, two new powerful states were created on the international scene. These were the

kingdom of Italy and the German empire. The aspirations of the two states disrupted the

traditional balance of power in international relations. Before then the balance of power on

Europe had been held by Britain, France, russia, Austria-Hungary and to some extent Prussia.

With the creation of Germany and Italy, two strong states were emerged on the international

scene. The emergence of Germany and Italy led to a demonstrable decline in the power of

France. In the process of emerging Prussia had to defeat France in the Franco-Prussian war of

1870-1871. As part of the peace settlement in the war, France suffered a lot of reverses. She was
compelled to concede to the cession of Alsace and Lorraine to the newly created German empire.

The loss of those two provinces led to an increase in the strength of the newly created German

empire just as it weakened France. These two provinces were rich in coal, iron and steel

resources that were crucial for military strength in 19th century Europe and indeed the world.

France never reconciled herself with the loss of these provinces. There was a statue in Strasbourg

covered in dark clothes symbolising France's continued mourning of the loss of Alsace and

Lorraine. France had to make up for the losses of these territories. This was the first attempt of

France's aggressive overseas adventure in search of colonies. A demographic survey of Europe at

this time indicated that while France had a declining population the newly created German

empire had an increasing population. Not only this, this survey also showed that the newly

created German empire had a larger percentage of its population between the arms bearing age of

18 and 35 than France. At a time when victory in warfare was likely a function of the number of

men under arms this worried France a great deal and so she was determined to make up for her

demographic deficiency at home from overseas. According to French military experts this was a

major incentive for the creation of the black force by France. This force was made up of black

African troops who were to be ordained Senegalese sharpshooters. The creation of Italy and

Germany in 1871 constituted one of the remote causes of the First World War l. It led to

significant and unacceptable losses by France and a determination to make up for these losses

outside France and overseas. Another remote cause was imperial rivalry among European states

in several parts of the world particularly in Africa. Aware of France territorial losses. The first

chancellor of the German Empire Otto von Bismarck thought of a scheme of getting France to

divert its diplomatic activities to other part of the world. This was a major reason for the

summoning of the Berlin Africa conference from 1884 to 1885. At the conference European
states agreed on the modality for dividing African territories among themselves. In Spite of this

agreement at the Berlin Africa Conference. European states still clashed with themselves over

the issue concerning the division of African territories amongst themselves. This led to several

conferences and dissatisfaction among the respective European states. Apart from Africa,

European states also clashed over colonial possessions in Asia, Turkey and even Europe

(Austria-Hungary). Even though this clashes did not lead to direct confrontation it led to tensions

on the international scene which were to make peaceful resolution of conflict difficult. Apart

from imperial rivalry, there was also alliance formation, An alliance is the coming together of

two or more states in the face of their perception of a common threat to their mutual interests.

Shortly after the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871, Europe embarked on a formation of

mutually antagonistic alliances which will later culminate in the outbreak of the First World War.

The first of these Alliances was the League of three Emperors put together by Germany in 1873.

The Alliance joined Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. This alliance was motivated by

Bismarck’s policy of realpolitik. He had known that sooner than later France would seek the

recovery of its lost territories. So in order to make sure that in case of any war, France will be

isolated, the treaty was to the effect that in case of any war between Germany and a country,

members of the alliance would remain neutral. But if France were allied to those states, members

of the alliance would join forces to fight France. As a result of the diplomatic complication

between Germany and Russia, Bismarck thought it necessary to conclude a dual alliance between

Germany and Austria in 1879. Germany did not relent for her own protection in case of another

complication with France. Ofcourse, France also went on in search of allies in case of another

war with Germany. The first of this was the dual entente between France and Austria in 1894.

France followed this up in 1904 by reaching an entente cordiale with Britain in 1904. By 1907,
France succeeded in joining Britain, Russia and herself in an alliance called the triple entente.

The Germans also continued by ensuring that herself italy and Austria-Hungary also competed

by 1907. Hence by 1907, Europe was essentially divided into two mutually antagonistic alliance

groups. These alliances tested their strength at various part of the international system from 1906

until 1913 before the outbreak of WW1. Hence the formation of antagonistic alliances was

another remote cause. There was also arms rivalry, with the completion of the franco German

war of 1871, the German army showed itself to be the strongest military in Europe. This was at a

time when the British navy from the 16th century had established itself as the strongest in the

world this was what earned Britain the appellation of great Britannia ruling the waves. Britain is

an island country that is also seafaring. Britain had a large network of maritime trade all over the

world and this was why it established a very strong navy. The shrewd German chancellor Otto

von Bismarck had carefully and tactfully any hint of naval rivalry with Britain. However, shortly

after the establishment of the German empire, the first German emperor Wilhem I died and was

succeeded by his son who prematurely died of cancer. His son was succeeded by his grandson as

Wilhelm II. Unlike Bismarck and his grandfather, he nursed the ambition of a commercial

Germany that would be heavily involved in maritime trade. For this, he was reputed to have said

that the future of Germany was to be found on water. By this he meant that Germans

sustainability will depend on international maritime trade. For this he reckoned would need a

strong navy. On this position, himself and Bismarck did not agree. Moreover, the young German

emperor who was in his late twenties found a way of bypassing chancellor Bismarck in taking

crucial state decisions, Bismarck felt bitterly about this and directed the emperor’s attention to

the Constitutional provision of the German empire that it was only the chancellor who had the

power to advise the Emperor on issues of crucial decision taking in the Empire. The Emperor
replied by asking Bismarck to advise him to change that constitutional provision which

empowered only Bismarck to advise the Emperor. In frustration, Bismarck had to resign in 1891.

Thereafter, the Emperor appointed chancellors that were agreeable to his policy of naval arms

build up. Britain interpreted German naval arm build up as a challenge to its naval supremacy.

This inaugurated a period of intense arms rivalry particularly between Britain and Germany. This

rivalry was expressed in the rival building of battleships known as dreadnoughts by both Britain

and Germany. And so there was a demonstrable increase in arms built up by European powers

from the late 19th century. closely related to this was the increase in the defence budget of all

European states Leading to Military expansion in all spheres. All attempts to ensure a reduction

in arms build up by European states did not succeed. Russia took the initiative of calling

disarmament conferences aimed at getting all European states to reduce that level of armament.

This was done at the Hague conference initiative. As events unfolded however, no meaningful

thing came out of the conferences that were held under this initiative before the outbreak of

WW1. Another major remote cause of WW1 was the rivalry between Slavonic nationalism and

Habsburg imperialism. Habsburg imperialism was headed by Austria initially but after the

Austro Italian war of 1864-65, Austria had to share power with Hungary, one of the major

principalities within the empire. The Slavs constituted another major group within the Austro

Hungarian empire. Like Hungary they also wanted independence. This aspiration was

vehemently opposed by Austria. Several of the Slavonic states like Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia

and Czech were joined by alliances to Russia. Russia presented itself as the champion of

Slavonic Nationalism. The desire for freedom by Slavonic groups and corresponding opposition

by Austria was a major cause of WW1. As a matter of fact, the immediate cause of the First

World War, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist Gavrilo
Princip was an attempt to avenge the continued subjugation of his homeland by Austria Hungary.

From the foregoing, even though the single shot by Gavrilo Princip that eliminated the Archduke

of Austria was to be heard all over the world in the form of WW1, the causes of the war went far

back into the 19th century.

Course of the WW1

By the time the Archduke of Austria was assassinated, ordinarily events should have been a local

after, however as a result of the web of alliances mentioned above, the events regenerated into a

global conflict of unprecedented dimensions. By the time the guns were silent on the 11th of

November 1918 the world changed radically. The history of the world became totally different

from what it used to be. By the time the war ended, it was estimated that at least ten million souls

had died and twenty three million others were rendered useless for life. The mobilisation of

manpower and material resources to prosecute a war was an unprecedented scale. At the end of

the war, most of Europe were in ruins. The amount spent on prosecuting the war was calculated

to be enough to modernise Europe and America . As a result of this the war was described as a

war to end all wars. With the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Austria consulted with Germany

which gave it the go ahead to issue an ultimatum with difficult and impossible conditions to

Serbia. While Serbia was meaning to comply with most of this conditions to avoid war as much

as possible, there was a particular one that could not be complied with by any sovereign country.

This was the one that required Serbia to allow Austria to physically come in and supervise the

investigation and apprehension of the culprits they were responsible for the assassination of the

Archduke. This was a condition that no sovereign independent country meets. Serbia then

consulted with Russia with who it had an alliance and Russia embolden Serbia to decline this
condition. Serbia hence refused to oblige Austria l. Germany had thought that even though an

alliance existed between Russian and Serbia, Russia would not mobilise to come to the

assistance of Serbia. This was a miscalculation when Germany learnt about Russian

mobilisation, it sent an ultimatum to Emperor Nicholas of Russia…..