International Relations Week 2

Great Power

A state recognised by the other Great Powers as part of the inner circle that manages the international system. Status was material (military, economic) and social (who got invited). It carried the right to manage the system and the responsibility to manage it well.

Concert of Europe

The informal system (1815–1914) in which the Great Powers managed Europe through congresses and shared rules after the Congress of Vienna. A habit of mind, not an institution.

Balance of power

The idea that peace is kept when no single state or bloc is strong enough to dominate, achieved through arms and alliances. Wilson blamed it for the war.

Collective security

A system where all members agree to act together against any aggressor, so an attack on one is an attack on all. The core idea behind the League of Nations.

Realism

IR theory: states act in an anarchic system, seek power and survival, and rely on balance of power. Example: Clemenceau at Paris.

Liberalism (IR)

IR theory: cooperation is possible through institutions, international law, trade and democracy. Example: Wilson's Fourteen Points.

Anarchy (IR sense)

No authority stands above sovereign states. It does not mean chaos. Wilson called the pre-war order an 'anarchical and lawless system of states'.

Power (as a relationship)

Power is not something a state owns but a relationship: A has power over B when A gets B to do something it would not otherwise do. Perceptions of power matter (e.g. Japan after 1905).

Self-determination

The principle that nations have the right to choose their own government and state. Central to Wilson; applied unevenly in 1919.

New diplomacy

The 1917–18 challenge to secret alliances and balance of power, from Lenin (Decree on Peace) and Wilson (Fourteen Points).

Secret treaties

Wartime agreements among the Entente on war aims and territory (e.g. Treaty of London 1915, Sykes–Picot 1916). Published by the Bolsheviks in 1917.

Multilateralism

Cooperation among many states through shared rules or institutions, e.g. the Hague Conferences (1899, 1907), administrative unions, later the League.

Globalization (pre-1914)

The integration of the world economy before 1914: gold standard, steamships, telegraphs, trade, migration, industrialisation.

Eastern Question

The problem of what would replace the declining Ottoman Empire, and who would decide.

Splendid isolation

Britain's 19th-century policy of avoiding permanent alliances. Ended with the Anglo-Japanese alliance in 1902.

Two-power standard

British naval policy: the Royal Navy should be at least as strong as the next two navies combined.

Weltpolitik

'World policy': Germany's drive from 1896 for colonies, a large navy and global status. Led to the naval race with Britain.

Pan-Slavism

The idea of unity among Slavic peoples, used by Russia to justify its role in the Balkans.

Cult of the offensive

The pre-1914 belief among general staffs that attack was always best. Combined with the 'short-war illusion'.

Diktat

'Dictated peace'. How Germans across the political spectrum described Versailles: imposed, not negotiated.

Mandate system

League arrangement under which former German colonies and Ottoman Arab lands were run by Allied powers, in theory until ready for self-government. In practice, empire under a new name.

Isolationism

US policy of staying out of European alliances and commitments. Shown by the Senate's rejection of Versailles and the League.

Mutilated victory

Italian nationalist complaint that Italy did not get the territory promised in 1915 (especially the Adriatic coast).

Congress of Vienna (1814–15)

Post-Napoleonic peace conference that redrew Europe's map and launched Great Power management of Europe.

Crimean War (1853–56)

Britain, France and the Ottomans against Russia. Broke the peace that had lasted since 1815.

Ausgleich (1867)

The Compromise that created the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary, with two governments, parliaments and budgets.

German unification (1871)

Germany unified under Prussia after wars against Denmark, Austria and France. Proclaimed at Versailles, 18 Jan 1871; took Alsace-Lorraine.

Bismarck system (1871–90)

Bismarck's network of alliances to keep France isolated and Germany secure. Collapsed after his dismissal in 1890.

Dual Alliance (1879)

Defensive alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary. Built to restrain Vienna; by 1914 it bound Germany to follow it.

Triple Alliance (1882)

Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. Italy left in 1915.

Reinsurance Treaty (1887)

Secret German–Russian agreement. Gave Germany a second option. Lapsed in 1890.

Franco-Russian alliance (1891–94)

Ended France's isolation and created the threat of a two-front war for Germany.

Anglo-Japanese alliance (1902)

Britain's first peacetime alliance, aimed at Russia. Ended splendid isolation.

Entente Cordiale (1904)

Anglo-French settlement of colonial disputes. An understanding, not a military alliance.

Triple Entente (1907)

Britain, France and Russia, completed by the Anglo-Russian agreement on Persia and Afghanistan.

Meiji era (from 1868)

Japan's period of rapid modernisation and industrialisation that made it a Great Power.

Russo-Japanese War (1904–05)

Japan defeats Russia. Changed European perceptions of Japan and pushed Russia back towards the Balkans.

Moroccan Crises (1905–06, 1911)

German challenges to French influence in Morocco (Algeciras conference; Agadir gunboat). Both strengthened the Entente.

Bosnian Crisis (1908–09)

Austria-Hungary annexes Bosnia; Germany backs it with a threat and Russia backs down, vowing to be firm next time.

Balkan Wars (1912–13)

Balkan states drive the Ottomans out of most of Europe. Contained by a London ambassadors' conference, but Serbia doubles in size.

July Crisis (1914)

The weeks from Sarajevo (28 June) to Britain's entry (4 August) when a local Balkan dispute became a general European war.

Blank cheque (6 July 1914)

Germany's unconditional promise to support Austria-Hungary against Serbia, given before Berlin knew Vienna's demands.

Schlieffen Plan

German war plan to knock out France quickly through Belgium before turning on Russia. Put a time pressure on every German decision.

Battle of the Marne (Sept 1914)

Stopped the German advance on Paris; the Schlieffen Plan failed and trench warfare began.

Battle of Tannenberg (Aug 1914)

Major German victory over Russia in East Prussia.

Gallipoli / Dardanelles (1915)

Failed Allied attempt to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war.

Verdun and the Somme (1916)

The great battles of attrition on the Western Front.

Treaty of London (1915)

Secret treaty promising Italy territory (South Tyrol, Adriatic) for joining the Allies.

Decree on Peace (Nov 1917)

Lenin's call for an immediate general armistice with no annexations and no indemnities.

Fourteen Points (8 Jan 1918)

Wilson's peace programme: open diplomacy, freedom of the seas, free trade, disarmament, fair colonial settlement, self-determination, a League of Nations.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (Mar 1918)

Germany's peace with Bolshevik Russia: Russia loses a third of its population and farmland and most of its coal and iron.

Balfour Declaration (1917)

British statement supporting a 'national home for the Jewish people' in Palestine.

Armistice (11 Nov 1918)

The ceasefire that ended fighting on the Western Front.

Paris Peace Conference (1919)

Opened 18 Jan 1919. Victors only; Germany and Soviet Russia excluded. Produced the Paris treaties and the League.

Council of Ten

Early decision body at Paris: two delegates each from Britain, France, Italy, Japan and the USA. Too unwieldy.

Council of Four (Big Four)

Wilson (USA), Clemenceau (France), Lloyd George (Britain), Orlando (Italy). Took the decisions on the German treaty, March–June 1919.

Woodrow Wilson

US President. Idealist; Fourteen Points; chaired the League commission; could not get the Senate to ratify.

Georges Clemenceau

French PM, 'the Tiger'. Realist; wanted security against Germany, reparations, Alsace-Lorraine and a Rhineland buffer.

David Lloyd George

British PM. Pragmatist; wanted Germany beaten but Europe balanced, plus British naval and trade interests.

Vittorio Orlando

Italian PM. Wanted the Treaty of London promises; got South Tyrol, refused the Adriatic, walked out.

Treaty of Versailles (28 June 1919)

Peace with Germany: lost territory and colonies, army of 100,000, demilitarised Rhineland, reparations (Art. 231), League Covenant.

Article 231 ('war-guilt clause')

Affirmed Germany's responsibility for the war's damage. Read in Germany as moral guilt. With Article 232 it actually limited liability.

Reparations

Payments Germany owed for war damage, set in 1921 at 132 billion gold marks.

Polish Corridor

Strip of land giving Poland access to the Baltic, separating East Prussia from the rest of Germany.

Danzig

German-speaking port made a Free City under League supervision.

League of Nations

International organisation created in 1919 (Geneva): Council, Assembly, secretariat. Collective security and arbitration. The USA never joined.

Treaty of Saint-Germain (1919)

Peace with Austria.

Treaty of Neuilly (1919)

Peace with Bulgaria.

Treaty of Trianon (1920)

Peace with Hungary.

Treaty of Sèvres (1920)

Harsh peace with the Ottoman Empire. Rejected by Turkish nationalists.

Treaty of Lausanne (1923)

Replaced Sèvres after Atatürk's victory. Recognised the Republic of Turkey.

Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk)

Leader of the Turkish nationalists who won the War of Independence (1919–23) and founded modern Turkey.

J. M. Keynes

British economist whose 'The Economic Consequences of the Peace' (1919) argued reparations would ruin Europe's economy.

Treaty of Rapallo (1922)

Germany and Soviet Russia, both excluded from Paris, establish relations.

Ruhr occupation (1923)

France and Belgium occupy Germany's industrial heartland after a reparations default. Causes hyperinflation.

Dawes Plan (1924)

Rescheduled reparations with an American loan.

Locarno Treaties (1925)

Germany accepts its western borders; Britain and Italy guarantee them. Eastern borders left open.

Kellogg–Briand Pact (1928)

Agreement renouncing war as an instrument of national policy.

Young Plan (1929)

Further reduction of German reparations.