Midterm -- Honors Global Perspective -- Essay Portion

Causes of WWI (long-term): the Bosnian Crisis

• Sovereignty and administration: Bosnia and Herzegovina had been under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire but administered by Austria-Hungary since the 1878 Congress of Berlin

• Annexation: Austria-Hungary announced its annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908

  • Reaction: Upset the fragile balance of power in the Balkans and enraged Serbia / pan-Slavic nationalists throughout Europe

• Russia’s response: encouraged pro-Russian and anti-Austrian sentiment in Serbia and other Balkan provinces

Causes of WWI (long-term): Imperialism

• European powers in Africa: Britain, France, and other powers held vast control over African territory, and Germany felt it was late to the game

• Germany’s reaction: Germany, in response, set off the Moroccan Crisis of 1905-6 in which Kaiser Wilhelm II expressed support for Moroccan independence, deepening tensions between European powers

Causes of WWI (short-term): the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand

• Who did it: a 19-year-old Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip; a member of a student revolutionary group called Young Bosnia

• Rationale: assassins believed that killing the Archduke would free Bosnia and Herzegovina from Austro-Hungarian rule

  • Hopes for Russia: they believed that Russia would then come to Serbia’s defense, defeat the Habsburg armies, and help the Bosnian Serbs gain independence

• Chain of events: led to Austria-Hungary using the incident as a pretext to declare war on Serbia; Russia mobilizes to defend Serbia; Germany declares war on Russia, which draws other powers into the conflict

Causes of WWI (short-term): Austria-Hungary’s ultimatum to Serbia

• The ultimatum: Austro-Hungarian government settles scores with Serbia by issuing demands that the Serbian government had to follow, under the pretext that the Serbian government was implicated in events at Sarajevo

• Serbia’s response: conceded all demands made except one or two clauses. Nonetheless, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia

Consequences of WWI: the Armenian Genocide

• Wartime security concerns: the Ottoman Empire’s participation in WWI heightened existing fears about internal security concerning the Armenian population.

  • The Ottoman leadership perceived Armenians as potential collaborators with the Russian enemy because of their Christian faith, proximity to the Russian front, and incidents of Armenian resistance

• Radical measures: the Young Turks and the Committee of Union and Progress culminated in the decision to deport and exterminate the Armenian population to eliminate perceived threats to the empire’s stability

Consequences of WWI: Treaty of Versailles

• Terms of the treaty: Germany had to

  • disarm

  • make territorial concessions

  • extradite alleged war criminals

  • agree to Kaiser Wilhelm being put on trial

  • pay reparations to the Entente powers