European History Midterm

Issues in Defining “Europe”

• Not really a continent separate from Asia, and is hard to determine where Europe ends in relation to Russia

  • Boundaries are never simply natural

• Myth of Europa: Phoenician princess, daughter of the king of Tyre and slept with Zeus: suggests Europe has its origins in Asia

Defining Europe - Boundaries

• Boundaries are never simply neutral

• Boundaries are cultural constructions, produced by the interaction of collective imagination, religion and moral sensibilities, political decisions and social and economic development

Defining Europe - Greek Influence

• Greek culture begins distinction between Europe and Asia

  • Period of Persian Wars (490-179BC) and reign of Alexander the Great (336-323BC)

  • Europe understood in cultural and political terms as oposed to Asia

  • Europe = land of freedom, Asia = land of despotism

  • Freedom meant participating in public life (right to speak and vote) and living in society governed by laws

  • Aristitle’s Politics: free people live accordingly to laws

Defining Europe - Roman Empire Influence

• Roman Empire is key to foundation Europe

  • Roman law, Latin language, imperial idea, urban and administrative network, material infrastructure, and (from reign of Emperor Constantine (AD 306-337) Christianity and Church of Rome as earthly site of Christian news

  • Fall of Westermn Roman empire allowed new continental political space to emerge

    • More primarily considered themselves Christians than Europeans for much of Middle Ages (5-15th centuries AD)

  • “Republica Christiana” the Christian Commonwealth

• Term European coined by huanist Enea Silvio Piccolomini: strong appreciation fo European values rooted in classical tradition, the study of ancient thought, and the civilization of ROme

Civitas Dei v. Civitas Hominum

• St. Augustine: De Civitate Dei writing “On the City of God”

• We live in two parallel dimensions

  • Civitas Dei: City of God

  • Civitas Hominum: Earthly city

• While we live in civitas hominum, we belong to civitas dei

  • Civitas dei is what our freedom relies on

  • Revolution principle revolves around this: die for something bigger than the world

IMPORTANT FOR EXAM

Importance of Christianity in Creating Europe → Charlemagne

• Crowned Emperor of Rome in year 800

• Carolingian empire brought together big part of Western and Central Europe and helped create enduring idea hat political unity of Western Christendom might be possible

Defining Europe - 9 Crusades

• Launches to liberate the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem from the Muslim “infadels”, motivated by commercial interests and strengthened idea od Christendom as a civilization opposed to Islam

• Ottoman expansion into Balkans established major Muslim power in Europe

• Fall Constantinople 1453 was epoch-making event

Defining Europe - Protestant Reformation

• Divided Europe: showed how difficult it had become to convieve of Europe as a single Christian Community

• 30 Years War (1618-48) started in religious basis and became war driven by territorial power

Peace of Westphalia

• Year: 1648

  • End of the 30 Years War

• Fundamental symbolic turning point: revels transformation of internal relations

  • “Iuxta Causa” Right Reason to start war

    • Defensive War is “Legitimate War”

    • Preventive War → Mobilization

      • Know someone else is planning to harm you

    • Used religious reasons to justify war

    • Westphalia gets rid of this idea

• Europe moving beyond semantic framework defined by Christianity and toward the Jus Publicum Europaeum (Carl Schmidt), European public law whose purpose was not to abolish war but to regulate it and contain its destructive power

  • States expected to respect certain rules in war, or else become justis hostis (legitimate enemy)

  • Allowed for first engagement in balance of power as means of preventing future conflicts

• After Peace of Westphalia, when one European power became to geopolitically prominent, others formed coalitions against it

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Ideas of European Union and Peace after Westphalia, Philosophy

• William Penn: 1693 An Essay Towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe: proposed creation of an “Imperial Dyet, Parliament or State of Europe” where Euro states can peacefully settle any disputes that arise

• Enlightenment ideas

  • Charles-Irenee Castel de Sant Pierre: traditional balance of power not enough for peace, need confederation of European states that accept common rules but maintain ndependent sovreignty

  • Voltaire:

    • 1751: Europe kind of republic divided into several states that share religious foundations and principles of law and politics “unknown to other parts of the world”

    • 1756: wrote a universal history that moved beyond concept of Christianity and acknowledged existence of sophisticated non-European societies. Western societies still above in hierarchy

  • Rousseau: condensed Sant' Pierres proposal for Euro confederation but questioned whether rulers would actually willingly submit themselves to a common authority that could limit right to war

  • Kant: Perpetual Peace, states enter federation governed by international law

• William Penn

  • Founder of the Quakers (and the state of Pennsylvania)

  • Wrote about Peace in Europe: proposing a European parliament or "Diet" to settle international disputes without war

  • Idea of European Union becomes strongly linked with the idea of peace

• Charles-Irénée Castel, abbé de Saint-Pierre (1658–1743)

  •  he was a prominent French writer and philosopher who proposed an early plan for perpetual peace and an international organization in Europe

• Voltaire

  • Wrote that Europe is just one big republic divided into smaller states. Shared civilization united by reason, commerce, arts, and science rather than endless dynastic warfare

  • Same values of ancient greece

• Peter the Great

  • Suggested that Russia was separate from Europe and superior

• Rousseau

  • 1761: Essay accepts idea of Saint-Pierre, but asks whether it would be expected that states would voluntarily submit themselves to common authority → skeptic

  • Natural Man good on his own, becomes evil in society. Believed problem is being in society

• Emmanuel Kant

  • Perpetual Peace (1795): Must create a federation led by common principles of international law

• Suggested consciousness of being European is separate from consciousness of being Christian

• Eliot

  • 1945, argued that the weakening of European Christianity would endanger European civilization itself

The Concert of Europe + Members of Congress of Vienna

System of diplomatic consultation and cooperation among the great European powers that emerged after the defeat of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna (1814-15)

• Preserve british principle of balance of power (William Pitt the Younger) and that this required a collective management of balance beyond the general principle

• Members

  • Austria (Austrian Empire)

    • Representative: Metternich (LEADER) (Foreign Minister)

    • Objective: Preserve the Austrian Empire and conservative order in Euro

  • Great Britain (United Kingdom)

    • Representative: Viscount Castlereagh (Foreign Secretary)

    • Objective: Maintain the balance of power and stability in Europe

  • Prussia

    • Representative: Hardenberg (Chancellor)

    • Objective: Strengthen Prussia and secure territorial gains (Prussia was rising star of the time)

  • Russia

    • Representative: Nesselrode (Foreign Minister)

    • Objective: Extend Russian Influence and uphold principle of legitimacy

  • France

    • Representative: Talleyrand (Foreign Minister), representing King Louis XVIII. (they let France participate bc it was Napoleon himself doing conquering, not France. France frames themselves as victim of Napoleon)

    • Objective: Restore France’s Legitimacy and regain an equal place among the powers

Note: Concert of Europe is not Holy Alliance. Holy Alliance (Tsar Alexander I) has strong ideological, religious, and conservative dimension, while Concert of Europe was pragmatic mechanism for managing international balance of power

Napoleon’s Role

• Key to starting Nationalism in Europe

• Bon Apertis: use modernizer and authoritarianism technique

• Gave occupied regions “Napoleonic Law”

• Napoleon defeated at Waterloo → Congress of Vienna occurs

Congress of Vienna

• 5 Great Powers of Europe (Austria, Prussia, Russia, France, and GB) get together to discuss the future of Europe

• Redraw the map of Europe after defeat of Napoleon and establish new balance of power based on legitimacy, stability, and collective diplomacy

• Successful: peace for 40 years following

• Metternich: leader of the 5, representing Austria

  • Wants conservative order in Europe: does not like France’s liberal ideas because it led to war

  • Need conservativism to maintain international peace

  • Intervention principle: convince all powers (besides GB) to intervene in Europeon unrest

• British idea of Balance of Power: William Pitt the Younger

  • Can maintain peace through balance of power

  • Give money to poor countries to balance out financial differences. Create relations instead of war

  • UK has lots of money and power → perfect example of 19th century capitalism (pragmatic, liberal, rich)

Diplomacy of Congress (1818-1822): German Question + France Treatment

• After Vienna, COngress met across Europe to help maintain peace

• Diplomacy of COngress → management of balance of powers (BOP)

• evaluate how to keep France in control: make German Confederation with 39 small states (among which Austria and Prussia were important)

  • collection of states that keep political autonomy, largely independent

  • Compromise of strength for germany v. france

    • If germany completely fragmented, would have been to weak to prevent French expansion

    • If Germany fully politically unified, may have been too powerful for its neighbors

    • This solution makes strong enough to be barrier to France but not to become a overwhelming power itself

  • Temporary solution

• Also came up with good solution for defeated France

  • France lost the territories it had conquered during Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods, but still remained. great power and a part of the European system

“Powers” Document: What is the difference between a power, a great power, and a superpower?

• Power: A state with sufficient economic, military, or political strength to act independently in international politics.

• Great power: A state with a dominant role in a particular region or historical period, expected to take special responsibility for international affairs.

• Superpower: A state capable of influencing the political order of the entire world.

• Great-power status is based on actual influence rather than international law, which formally recognizes the equality of independent states.

“Powers” Document: Who were the great powers in the 19th century, and how did their status change after WWI?

• Original five: France, Great Britain, Russia, Prussia (later Germany), and Austria.

• Late 19th century: Italy joined, although its status was disputed. The United States and Japan also emerged as non-European powers.

• After WWI: Austria lost great-power status because it was no longer the center of an empire. Germany and Russia were temporarily excluded from the great powers.

• Russia later regained great-power status as the Soviet Union.

“Powers” Document: How did the international balance of power change after WWII?

• The UN Charter recognized five permanent Security Council members: the United States, Great Britain, France, Russia, and China, implicitly recognizing their great-power status.

• In reality, the United States and Soviet Union emerged as the two superpowers, capable of influencing the political order worldwide.

• This created a bipolar international system, dominated by two competing superpowers.

• Their relationship formed a conflictual condominium: both exercised global dominance while competing against each other.

• Although five states held permanent Security Council seats, the US and USSR were the two actual superpowers in the immediate postwar period.

“Powers” Document: How did the international balance of power change after the Cold War in 1991?

• The collapse of the Communist bloc and dissolution of the Soviet Union ended nearly half a century of bipolarity.

• The United States remained the world's only superpower.

• Potential great powers included:

  • Reunified Germany and Japan, both defeated in WWII.

  • Russia, which inherited the Soviet Union's former international role.

• Regional powers increasingly asserted themselves, including Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, Iran, India, and Indonesia.

• The international system became more fluid, with power no longer organized around the US–Soviet bipolar balance.

Assessment of the Relative Power of Great Powers 1830

• There is no single ranking of Power

• Russia

  • Largest army and largest population

  • Russia GDP per capita is less than half GB and industrialization low

• Great Britain

  • Economic strength (GDP per capita) and industrialization

  • Has a small land army (but still have global dominance through tech and control of the sea)

    • Lower military expenditure allows them to save resources

• France

  • Most balanced power: large pop and territory and strong army, good economy and industrialization

• Austria

  • Multinational empire at the heart of Europe, considerable military strength

• Prussia

  • Highly efficient state and military organization

What were Metternich’s main beliefs, goals, and methods?

• Role: Austrian Foreign Minister and later Chancellor; leading figure in the Concert of Europe.

• Central belief: International stability and the balance of power were essential to preserving domestic political order.

• Revolution and disorder: The French Revolution and Napoleon demonstrated that domestic revolutions could cause international conflict, while conquest could spread reforms that undermined traditional European society.

• Opposition to liberalism: Feared liberal revolutions would weaken absolute monarchies and traditional social hierarchies.

• Liberal demands: Constitutional charters, individual rights, and representative institutions for the middle classes.

• Intervention: Believed the great powers had a legitimate right to intervene in other states’ internal affairs to suppress revolutions and preserve political stability.

• Ancien Régime: The traditional pre-revolutionary social and political order, including monarchy and aristocratic privilege, that Metternich wanted to preserve.

• Napoleonic Code: Introduced legal reforms and new capitalist property relations that challenged traditional social and political structures.

• Overall goal: Preserve the conservative status quo and prevent liberal revolution from destabilizing Europe.

What events demonstrate Metternich’s approach to liberal revolutions, and how did Britain differ?

In 1821, Austria intervened to suppress liberal uprisings in Naples and Piedmont. In 1823, France sent the “Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis” to Spain to overthrow the constitutional regime and restore Ferdinand VII’s absolute monarchy. These interventions reflected Metternich’s belief that liberal revolutions threatened both domestic political order and European stability, justifying intervention by the great powers. Britain opposed this approach, arguing that the Concert of Europe should prevent international aggression and domination, not act as a “European police force” controlling individual states’ governments.

Three Principles of the Restoration

Key to the stability achieved in Europe through the Concert of Europe. 5 great powers agreed to share common political culture of Restoration, based in..

1. Legitimacy

2. Tradition

3. Authority and Religion

The Restoration: Legitimacy

• Political power is legitimate when derived from historical nd dynastic continuity rather than from the popular will

  • Contrary idea to Democracy

• Dynastics overthrown by Napoleon were restored

  • France, Spain, Kingdom of two sicilies: Bourbons

  • Piedmont: House of Savoy

The Restoration: Tradition

• Critique of the Enlightenment and revolutionary idea that society could be rationally reconstructed from scratch

• History - Tradition - Authority - Continuity - Status Quo

• Create new entity: nation = mother

  • Use martyr in political context, die for your mother

The Restoration: Authority and Religion

• Monarchy and religion are foundations of social order

  • Note: not all protagonists at Vienna sought to restore monarchical absolutism, such as GB, a constitutional monarchy, and France constitution

  • Ab-Solutus = Freed from restraint: absolute monarch is freed from restraint of the law

• Authority and religion used in an anti-revolutionary sense: clear opposition to the idea that people have the right to overthrow the existing order by appealing to popular sovereignty

Revolutionary Thinking v. Restoration Thinking Graph

“The National Question” Reading: What was the National Question, and how did the French Revolution contribute to modern nationalism?

• The National Question concerned whether every nation should have its own independent state and how national identity should determine political legitimacy.

• Before the French Revolution, political legitimacy was largely based on dynastic rule and monarchs.

• The French Revolution promoted popular sovereignty: political authority belonged to the nation rather than the monarch.

• The French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars spread nationalism across Europe:

  • Revolutionary patriotism emphasized the unity of free and equal citizens.

  • French expansion encouraged national resistance among conquered populations.

• In the German lands, Johann Gottlieb Fichte emphasized shared language, culture, and historical traditions as foundations of national identity.

“The National Question” Reading: What were the two main conceptions of the nation, and how did patriotism differ from nationalism?

• Civic/political conception: The nation is based primarily on citizenship, political rights, and shared political principles.

• Cultural/historical conception: The nation is based on shared language, culture, history, and traditions.

• Patriotism: Attachment to one's country and its independence.

• Nationalism: The belief that the nation is the fundamental source of political legitimacy and should shape the political order.

• Nationalism had two sides:

  • Positive: Could inspire independence, national unity, and political freedom.

  • Negative: Could justify national superiority, territorial expansion, exclusion, and hostility toward other peoples.

“The National Question” Reading: How did Italian and German unification demonstrate the different uses of nationalism?

• Nationalism helped drive the unification of Italy and Germany, but it did not necessarily lead to democracy.

• Giuseppe Mazzini: Connected Italian national independence with republicanism and popular sovereignty.

• Otto von Bismarck: Achieved German unification through military power, diplomacy, and dynastic authority.

• Their contrasting approaches demonstrate that national unity could be pursued through either popular political movements or top-down state power.

• Governments increasingly used nationalism to strengthen their legitimacy and consolidate state authority.

“The National Question” Reading: How did nationalism change with industrialization and mass politics, and what contradictions did it create?

• Railways, newspapers, compulsory education, and military service helped spread common national identities.

• Governments used patriotic symbols, public ceremonies, and historical narratives to mobilize populations and strengthen national solidarity.

• Nationalism created tension with the Social Question:

  • Nationalism emphasized unity across social classes.

  • Industrial society remained divided by economic inequality and class conflict.

  • Socialist internationalism emphasized solidarity among workers across national borders.

• In 1914, major European socialist parties supported their own governments during WWI despite their internationalist commitments, revealing the strength of national loyalty.

• Overall: Nationalism could promote emancipation and participation, but it could also encourage authoritarianism, exclusion, and international conflict.

Turning Point after 40 Years of Peace, 1848

• Metternich’s removal from office in 1848

  • He was retired by his King, Ferdinand, to appease the insurgence of the people. Metternich didn’t want to resign

• Turning point because he was the most important leader in Europe and of the Restoration

• ALSO Springtime of the Peoples

  • Revolution of the youth and bourgeoisie all over Europe against the restoration and absolute powers

Changing Great Five Relations due to Napoleon III (+ His plans)

• Napoleon III attempting to reassert French hegemony in Europe, which required overturning the European order established by Concert of Europe in Vienna

  • problem was that Prussia was getting stronger, and Austria was not taking advantage of economic development of 1850s

• Plans

  • Opposing the Habsburg Empire (cornerstore Euro balance)

  • militarily supportng national movements against Austria (including Italy’s, note that France + Piedmont allies against Austria proved fundamental to Italian Independence)

Factors resulting in the Crimean War

1. Metternich’s departture from political scene decreased Eastern diplomacy keeping 3 Great Powers (Austria, Prussia, and Russia) united against liberal ideas from French Rev.

2. Progressive weakening of the Ottoman Empire,which Tsar Nicholas I Romanov (russian) wanted to exploit

The “Eastern Question”: “the complex of political, ethnic, economic, and religious problems concerning the regionsmwhich, after having formed part of the Eastern Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire, became, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the territorial basis of the Ottoman Empire.”

• Ottoman Empire was getting weaken on the East and Russia is trying to take advantage of this

Crimean War: Russia’s Casus Belli

• Tsar attempted to obtain recognition of Russian protection over 13 million Greek Orthodox subjects of Ottoman empire (an impossible request of the ottoman Sultan) (Feb 1853)

• When request denied, Russian troops occupied the Orthodox Christian principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (July 1853)

• Other 4 Great Powers refused to recognize Russia’s behavior, so Sultan declared war on Russia (October 1853)

Involvement of Great Powers in Crimean War

• France and GB alliance bc fear collapse of Ottoman empire

• Austria and Prussia sign treaty to commit to securing withdrawal of Russian forces from Wallachia and Moldavia

• Allied Armies (France, GB, Italian) land in Crimea and place Sevastopol under 1 yr siege

• Sevastopol captured Sept 1855, Russia defeated and war over

  • Great Five formalized the neutralization of the Black Sea (no more war ships)

    • This had been vital to Russian war movements

  • Serbia, Moldavia, and Wallachia remain under Ottoman sovreighty

  • 1859 Moldavia and Wallachia later united and then took name Romania (1862), Independence Romania and Serbia recognized by Congress of Berlin in 1878

Key transformation in Great Five foreign policy: Prussia economic development + Bismarck

• Until middle 19th cent, economic growth from industr. only affected Britain and France

• 2nd half 19th cent, Prussia experienced this growth

• 1834: Prussia created customs Union, Zollverein, economic integration btw Prussian economy and other German states, but Austria excluded (political sign)

• Prussia only Central-Euro state that, while politiclly authoritarian and soci. conserv. possessed efficient system of internal communications: roads and canals, developed railway network, and high level of elementary edication

  • allowed for war success

  • succeeded bc politically supported by social bloc cobverging the “Junkers” (landed nobility + nationalists) with middle commercial/industrial bourgeoisie class: both want to strengthen power of state and develop military

    • Want Holy Union, lead to rise of “Iron Chancellor” Bismarck

• Count Otto von Bismark (conservative wing of junkers) appointed Chancellor in 1862 by King William I

  • By royal decree (no parliament approval) set to carry out army reform

• Army reform by Bismarck

  • Substantial increase in troop numbers

  • Extension of period of military service

  • Professionalization of the army

• Bismarck motto: problem of German national unity not resolved through speeches or majority decisions, but “through blood and iron”

Great Five Conflict: Austro-Prussian War of June/July 1866

• Cause: Prussia’s aspiration to unify German statesunder its leadership and Austria’s decline in leadership of German Confed.

• Bismarck secured alliance with Kingdom of Italy and neutrality of France and Russia before military action began, allowing Prussia to attack without problem

• War lasted 3 weeks, overwhelming Prussian victory

  • Prussia army organization, Prussian weaponry, and intelligent use of railways allow rapid and devisive movement → German military moving t=forward characterize dby strategy of war and movement

• Results

  • Peace of Prague: brings German Confederation to an end. German states N of River Main in New Germ. Confed.

  • Austria Emperor had nationalities demanding independence so divided empire into two states within Austro-Hungarian Empire where each have separate parliaments and govs but shared Foreign Affairs, War, Finance

  • Bismarck’s win caused a new National Liberal Party to form in support of him. Able to begin unifying all the states of former German Confed. within a great Reich ruled by Hohenzollern dynasty (William I)

French and Prussian War

• France dislikes idea of German Reich through Bismarck’s plan as it would displace them as hegemonic power. France benefit’s from German fragmentation, so German unification is BAD for them

• Catalyst:

  • Meeting at Ems between William I (prussia) and French ambassador. Bismarck alters telegram to make it seem like ambasador was dismissed abruptly, leading to French government (Napoleon III) to declare war on Prussia (Casus Belli)

• War

  • August-Sept 1870, bc Prussia army was prepared and France unprepared, Prussians defeat French and Napoleon taken prisoner at Battle of Sedan

  • War continues bc new French Republic continues resistance. Paris beseiged from Sept. 1870-Jan 1871

  • January 1871, remaining German states agree to join new Reich, William I of Prussia proclaimed German Emperor AT PALACE VERSAILLES (political act)

• Resolution

  • France requests armistice

  • Treaty of Frankfurt: transfer Alsace and Lorrane to the Reich (border regions of economic/strategic importance)

  • France has desire to avenge humiliation of German Emperor declaration at Versailles and defeat: “revanche”

“Realpolitik” Reading: What was Bismarck’s Realpolitik, and what were its main principles and weaknesses?

• Realpolitik: A pragmatic approach to politics based on the actual balance of power and national interests rather than idealistic or purely moral principles.

• Bismarck believed statesmen should assess political ideas and the real forces behind them to determine the best course of action for their country.

• His thinking reflected an evolutionary philosophy based on the survival of the fittest, viewing political positions in relative terms.

• He believed accurately understanding the balance of power would naturally lead to self-restraint.

• Two fundamental flaws:

  • Political behavior and outcomes cannot always be predicted or assumed to be inevitable.

  • Self-restraint depended on exceptional statesmen like Bismarck; his successors lacked the same ability to control German power.

• His successors allowed German power to exceed reasonable limits, contributing to militarism and eventual destruction.

• Realpolitik later influenced 20th-century diplomacy, including Nixon's willingness to negotiate with the aging Soviet leadership.

“Realpolitik” Reading: How did Bismarck's victories and German unification affect Germany's foreign policy and relations with other European powers?

• Prussia's decisive victories over Austria and France greatly increased its power and prestige.

• Annexation of Alsace-Lorraine after the Franco-Prussian War created lasting French hostility toward Germany.

• This antagonism narrowed Germany's diplomatic options and made reconciliation with France difficult.

• After 1871, unified Germany became a potential threat to the European balance of power.

• Bismarck recognized that other European powers might form a coalition against Germany.

• He therefore pursued an extremely cautious foreign policy to prevent Germany's isolation and preserve its position in Europe.

• The danger was that Germany's growing power could become uncontrollable without continued restraint by its leadership.

“Realpolitik” Reading: Why did Bismarck believe Prussia was destined to lead Germany, and what made Prussia powerful?

• Wars of liberation against France: Sacrifices during these wars earned Prussia prestige as a representative of the German nation.

• Geography: Prussian territories stretched across the northern European plain from the Vistula to the Rhine, although they were not always geographically connected.

• Strong leadership: A succession of capable statesmen carefully managed Prussia's military and financial resources.

• Strong institutions: Prussia's power came not simply from conservative values, but from institutions that were resilient and resistant to external influences.

• These strong institutions allowed Prussia to make limited democratic concessions without necessarily weakening the state's power.

• Bismarck believed other countries might imitate Prussia's democratic freedoms without possessing equally strong institutions, potentially weakening themselves, including militarily.

“Realpolitik” Reading: Why was unified Germany not a fully democratic or constitutional state, and how did Bismarck use democracy?

• Bismarck was not a democrat; he viewed democracy as an instrument of power politics rather than an expression of popular sovereignty.

• Unified Germany emerged primarily as a union of ruling dynasties, not as a state founded on the popular will or national self-determination.

• Its legitimacy derived from Prussia rather than democratic national consent.

• Under Bismarck's constitution:

  • The Reichstag was elected through universal male suffrage, a progressive electoral system for its time.

  • The Emperor appointed government members.

  • The Chancellor held extraordinary power and could maneuver both Parliament and the government.

• Consequently, electoral participation did not necessarily translate into effective democratic control over the executive.

“Realpolitik” Reading: What were the fundamental weaknesses of Bismarck's political system, and why did they become dangerous after his departure?

• Overreliance on exceptional leadership: Bismarck's foreign policy restraint depended on his personal diplomatic skill rather than reliable institutional safeguards.

• Limited democratic accountability: The Chancellor's extraordinary power was not effectively regulated by Parliament or democratic institutions.

• Uncontrolled Prussian nationalism: Without objective democratic mechanisms to restrain it, nationalism was likely to develop into aggressive chauvinism (extreme, often hostile belief in one's nation's superiority).

• His successors failed to control German power as effectively as Bismarck had.

• German power politics consequently became more aggressive, contributing to militarism and destructive consequences.

• Central question: Could extraordinary political power regulate itself, or did it require effective democratic and institutional checks?

Bismarck: Concept of Macht

• Bismarck’s victory led to the full acceptance of the logic of power, aka Macht

  • For nationalists, power (Macht) is the primary goal, while culture is a secondary objective

  • To win a war and install a new regime, must use logic of power, a lesson understood by nationalists

  • BUT believe power in itself is evil, so if you want power, you are evil

    • Nationalists = evil

    • This cannot coexist with liberalism bc Nationalists believe in common will while Liberalism believes in individual rights

• Machtpolitik goes hand in hand with rejection of free trade in economic policy and introduction of protectionist measures

  • tariffs on imported goods (relation between politics and economy). Start to close borders and become more self-sufficient

    • The principle that had justified the Concert of Europe was disappearing: no longer cultural and political dimension based on shared values of tradition in Restoration

Viewpoints of Bismarkian-era Great Britain

• “Perfidious Albion” → Treacherous white cliffs of dover

  • term used by French Revolution against GB and by Mussolini

• “Splendid Isolation”: GB maintains a policy of distance from europe: pursuing foreign poliicy that would continue until early 20th century

  • Maintain the balance of power: Britain wanted to prevent any single European power from becoming dominant, but preferred to intervene only when necessary.

  • Rely on naval superiority: The Royal Navy and the English Channel provided strong protection, so Britain felt less need for continental allies.

  • Avoid costly commitments: Permanent alliances could force Britain into wars that did not serve its interests.

  • Focus on colonial rivalries: Britain was more concerned with protecting its imperial interests than committing to Bismarck's complicated European alliance system.

  
  

• GB’s main concerns were imperial and colonial

• Thus Bismarck was the true guardian of continental policy

• Protect its empire: Britain prioritized its worldwide colonial empire and trade routes, rather than getting drawn into European conflicts.

Bismarck’s International Relations Systems

• Leage of the Three Emperors: est. 1873 by Germany, Russia, and Austro-Hungarian Empire

• Triple Alliance, concluded 1882, Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Kingdom of Italy

  • Difficult bc Italy and Austria were fighting over Trentino and Venezia Giulia

• Congress in Berlin (1878) among Five Great Powers; resolving conflict btw Russia with both Austria and GB

  • reducing territoral gains by Tsar

  • preserve independence of Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria

  • grant autonomy to Bosnia and Herzegovina (through under temp. Austrian admin)

  • These resolutions are important reason for cause of WWI

Liberal William Ewart Gladstone’s Influence

• Comes to power in 1880 on campaign against current government’s foreign policy

• Wanted politics to be based on ethics

  • Opposite of a realist, close to the ideas of Woodrow Wilson

• Published pamphlet in response to Ottoman atrocities during suppression of Bulgarian independence uprising of 1876 - “Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East”

  • accused Conservative gov of supporting the Ottoman Empire as a barrier against possible Russian expansion

  • defended legitimacy of Bulgarian national aspirations which he thinks united Europe should support

• Believes foreign policy should be guided by humanitarian principles of Christianity and defend the rights of nationalities, self-goivernment, and right of peoples to be liberated from oppressive rule

• Anticipates Wilsonian foreign policy - Balance of Power is not enough; must be guided by moral principle

• Gladstone’s ideas led to reduction in British involvement in traditional policy of containing Russia in the Balkans

New League of Three Emperors (1881) and Bilateral Agreements

• prganized by Bismarck bc GB is less involved

• New League divided the Balkans into three spheres of influence: German, Russian, and Austro-Hungarian

• After Russia and Austria-Hungary tensions grow over Kingdom of Bulgaria, Bismarck concluded two agreements

  • Reinsurance Treaty with Russia: non-aggression agreement made without informing Austria. Russia undertook not to assist France if France attacked Germany, and Germany undertook not to assist Austria-Hungary if AH attacked Russia

  • Kept German enemies out of an alliance that could reinforce them

“The Social Question” Reading: What was the Social Question, and why did it emerge in 19th-century Europe?

• The Social Question was the central political and economic problem of how to reconcile industrial growth with social justice and political equality.

• The Industrial Revolution created unprecedented economic growth and technological progress but also increased inequality, economic insecurity, and workers’ dependence on employers.

• Industrialization encouraged migration from the countryside to cities as factories expanded.

• Two major classes emerged:

  • Bourgeoisie: Owned factories, capital, and the means of production.

  • Industrial proletariat: Workers who owned no means of production and depended on selling their labor for wages.

• Without effective labor legislation, employers held greater power than workers.

“The Social Question” Reading: How did Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels explain the problems of industrial capitalism?

• In The Communist Manifesto (1848), Marx and Engels argued that history was fundamentally the history of class struggle.

• Under capitalism, the main conflict was between the bourgeoisie (owners of the means of production) and the proletariat (wage workers).

• They viewed the proletariat as a potential revolutionary class capable of transforming the economic and political order.

• In Capital (Das Kapital), whose first volume appeared in 1867, Marx developed his systematic critique of capitalism.

• Surplus value: Workers produced more value than was necessary to reproduce the value of their labor power; capitalists appropriated the additional value as profit.

• Exploitation was structural, built into capitalism rather than simply caused by individual unfairness.

• Industrial reserve army: Unemployed or underemployed workers who increased competition for jobs and weakened employed workers’ bargaining power.

“The Social Question” Reading: How did the Social Question expose contradictions within liberalism?

• Liberalism emphasized individual freedom, legal equality, and private property.

• However, formal legal equality did not eliminate economic inequality.

• Workers and factory owners could have equal legal rights but vastly different economic resources and influence over political and economic decisions.

• This raised a fundamental question: Could political freedom be meaningful without social and economic security?

• The Social Question challenged governments to address the gap between legal equality and actual living conditions.

“The Social Question” Reading: How did different political movements respond to the Social Question?

• Revolutionary socialists: Sought to overcome capitalism and transform the existing economic order.

• Reformist socialists: Pursued change through parliamentary politics and social legislation.

• Christian social movements: Emphasized solidarity and protecting workers.

• Conservative governments: Introduced reforms to preserve political stability and weaken revolutionary movements.

• Bismarck's Germany: Introduced social insurance legislation during the 1880s to provide social protection, weaken revolutionary socialism, and strengthen workers' loyalty to the state.

“The Social Question” Reading: How did workers' organization and expanding suffrage transform European politics?

• Industrial workers increasingly organized into trade unions, cooperatives, and political parties to defend their interests.

• The progressive extension of suffrage allowed previously marginalized groups to become political actors.

• Organized workers gained greater influence over political decisions, forcing governments and parties to respond to their demands.

• The Social Question became closely connected to the rise of mass politics.

• Ultimately, it involved more than poverty and wealth distribution: it raised fundamental questions about economic power, political freedom, and social justice.

• The political organization of the working classes helped shape the mass political societies of the 20th century.

Bismarck’s Resignation → Changes Begin

• After Wilhelm II came to throne (1888) and Bismarck resigned (1890), the new German gov led by Leo von Caprivi reversed cautious foreign policy of Iron Chancellor and embarked of “Weltpolitik”

• Weltpolitik: World Politics (compete in world-sphere), Germany starts to think big

  • perception reinformed by Germany’s exceptional technological and industrial development

  • designed to compensate fro Germ structural shortage of raw materials → can use to secure for itself a share of the world’s resources (need a bigger empire for this)

“Weltpolitik”

ADD LATER IF NEEDED

New German Government Moves: Mistake 1

• Reject Tsar’s proposal to renew the Reinsurance Treaty for another three years

• Assumed Tsarist Empire would never ally with republican France due to ideological differences, but was wrong!

• France-Russian Alliance: Tsar Alexander III and French foreign minister reaches initial agreement which turned into genuine military alliance

• Issue for Germany: Now caught between two enemy powers, and Russia believes Germany will support Austrian expansion into Balkans (which they don’t like)

New German Government Moves: Mistake 2

• Germany tries to reach military understanding with GB without considering that British would never bind themselves to a European power due to traditional isolation policy

• Germany begins buildimg powerful fleet in North Sea capable fo challenging GB naval supremacy → causes GB to strengthen their own navy → naval arms race

• Meanwhile, France and GB sign Entente Cordiale to settle colonial disputes in Africa (will avoid war with each other, Germany views as diplomatic defeat)

  • Now Germany essentially surrounded by Russia, France, and GB

Triple Entente v. Triple Alliance

• completes Germany’s diplomatic isolation (1907)

• Angle-Russian Convention completed Triple Entente, linking France, GB, and Russia

  • Franco-Russian Alliance of 1894

  • Franco-British Entente Cordiale of 1904

  • Anglo-Russian Convention 1907

• System of bilateral agreements of different kinds within which only France and Russia were bound by genuine military alliance

• Opposed by Triple Alliance, renewed between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy

  • opposition accelerates arms race and crisis plans/diplomatic systems

Belle Epoque (see footnote page 30)

1871 to 1914, ending abruptly with the outbreak of World War I. [1]

Potential Trigger Point for Two Alliances (Triple Entente v Triple Alliance)

Balkans and Morocco (see pages 31-32 for full breakdown!)

Why were the Balkans a major source of international conflict before WWI?

• The Ottoman Empire was weakening, increasing nationalist and separatist movements in the Balkans.

• Young Turk Revolution (1908): A movement led by intellectuals and military officers to modernize the Ottoman Empire's social and institutional structures.

• The new regime introduced some modernization but established an even more centralized administration, failing to meet demands for independence and intensifying nationalist pressures.

• Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in October 1908, taking advantage of the Ottoman crisis. These territories had been under Vienna's temporary administration since the Congress of Berlin (1878).

• The annexation intensified South Slav nationalism and tensions between Austria-Hungary and Serbia.

How did the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908 increase tensions between the great powers?

• Germany openly sided with Austria-Hungary, warning it was prepared to go to war if Russia opposed the annexation.

• Russia backed down because it was diplomatically isolated; neither Britain nor France was willing to fight over these peripheral territories.

• Austria-Hungary won diplomatically, but the annexation further radicalized South Slav nationalism, worsening tensions in the Balkans.

What caused the First Moroccan Crisis (1905–1906), and what was its significance?

• March 1905: Kaiser Wilhelm II landed at Tangier and announced support for Morocco's independence and territorial integrity against growing French influence.

• Germany believed the timing was particularly favorable: Russia was weakened by its disastrous war against Japan, while the Anglo-French Entente Cordiale (1904) still seemed fragile enough to be broken.

• Germany hoped to isolate France diplomatically, but the opposite happened.

• Algeciras Conference (January–April 1906): Britain gave diplomatic support to France, leaving Germany largely isolated and supported mainly by Austria-Hungary.

• Significance: The crisis strengthened the Entente Cordiale rather than weakening it, deepening Germany's diplomatic isolation.

What caused the Second Moroccan Crisis (1911), and how did it end?

• Following a revolt against the Sultan, France occupied Fez, claiming it needed to restore order and protect European citizens.

• Germany sent the gunboat Panther to Agadir on July 1, 1911, officially to protect German interests but primarily to pressure France and obtain colonial compensation.

• Britain interpreted this as a potential threat to the strategic balance of power and gave firm support to France.

• Germany was forced to compromise: it recognized France's predominant position in Morocco and received territories in Equatorial Africa, incorporated into German Cameroon.

• 1912: Morocco formally became a French protectorate.

• Significance: Germany failed to weaken the Entente and instead reinforced Anglo-French cooperation.

How did the Moroccan Crises contribute to Germany's diplomatic isolation?

• Germany's attempts to weaken the Anglo-French Entente Cordiale backfired.

• First Moroccan Crisis (1905–1906): Britain supported France at the Algeciras Conference, leaving Germany largely isolated.

• Second Moroccan Crisis (1911): Britain again firmly supported France against German pressure.

• Germany increasingly relied on Austria-Hungary as its main diplomatic ally, while relations among Britain, France, and Russia strengthened.

• Overall significance: These crises deepened mistrust, reinforced opposing diplomatic groupings, and increased tensions before WWI.

What was the significance of the First Balkan War (1912–1913)?

• Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria formed an alliance encouraged by Russia and attacked the Ottoman Empire in 1912.

• The Ottoman Empire was quickly defeated and lost almost all its European territory, retaining only a small area of Thrace that allowed it to control the Straits.

• Albania was established under pressure from Italy and Austria-Hungary to prevent Serbia from gaining access to the Adriatic Sea.

• Significance: The Ottoman Empire's decline reshaped the Balkans and intensified competition between Serbia and Austria-Hungary.

What happened in the Second Balkan War (1913), and why was it significant?

• Bulgaria felt it had not received enough territory after the First Balkan War and attacked its former allies.

• Serbia and Greece formed an anti-Bulgarian coalition, later joined by Romania and the Ottoman Empire.

• Bulgaria was defeated and forced to return part of Thrace to the Ottomans and cede territory to Romania on the Black Sea.

• The Balkan territories were ethnically heterogeneous, inhabited by a mixture of Croats, Serbs, and Turks, including Orthodox Christians and Muslims, between the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires.

• Significance: The Balkan states remained divided and antagonistic, while Serbia's growing regional influence alarmed Austria-Hungary.

Q: What caused the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and why did it trigger a major crisis?

• June 28, 1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a young Bosnian student and irredentist.

• Princip wanted to avenge Austria-Hungary's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908 and supported South Slav nationalism.

• He belonged to Young Bosnia, a nationalist secret society connected to Unification or Death, whose leader headed Serbian military intelligence.

• South Slavs and other national groups within Austria-Hungary were increasingly restless because their national identities and demands for autonomy were not fully recognized.

• Significance: The assassination triggered a chain reaction of alliances and mobilizations that led to WWI.

How did the July Crisis turn the assassination into World War I?

• July 25, 1914: Serbia rejected Austria-Hungary's demand that Austrian officials participate in investigating the assassination plot.

• July 28: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. The Russian Tsar ordered partial mobilization against Austria.

• Russia's military leadership had prepared plans for general mobilization against both Austria and Germany.

• Germany demanded that Russia halt its mobilization. Russian military leaders persuaded the increasingly reluctant Tsar to order general mobilization, leading Germany to declare war.

• August 1: Germany asked whether France would remain neutral, but France's response was ambiguous.

• August 3: Germany declared war on France, using alleged French border violations as a pretext.

• August 4: Great Britain declared war on Germany after Germany invaded neutral Belgium.

• Significance: The war broke out not because the treaties were violated, but because they were observed: alliance commitments and military plans helped turn a regional conflict into a general European war.

How did Russia's mobilization threaten Germany's Schlieffen Plan?

• The Schlieffen Plan was based on a rapid war of movement: Germany planned a surprise attack on France through neutral Belgium and expected Paris to fall within eight weeks.

• Germany assumed Russia would mobilize slowly because of its inadequate railway network and limited transportation.

• Belgian resistance slowed the German invasion, while France established a defensive line along the Marne River, forcing German troops to retreat.

• Russia attacked in Prussia and Galicia earlier than the Central Powers expected, forcing Germany to divide its forces between the eastern and western fronts.

• Why it mattered: The plan depended on speed and avoiding a two-front war. Belgian resistance, French defense, and Russia's early attack undermined it, contributing to the failure of Germany's original strategy.

Why did Great Britain enter WWI, despite initially being reluctant to fight over the Balkans?

• Britain was initially constrained by its foreign-policy traditions and public opinion, which opposed entering a war over an issue where no vital British interests seemed at stake.

• However, Britain was determined to prevent Germany from defeating France and establishing dominance in Europe.

• The British government did not initially want to force the issue because gaining public support for war would take time.

• Germany's invasion of neutral Belgium on August 4, 1914, became the turning point: British public opinion was then prepared to support entering the war.

• Significance: Britain's entry strengthened the coalition fighting Germany and helped prevent German dominance in Western Europe.

Why did the United States enter WWI, and how did this affect the war?

• April 6, 1917: President Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany after overcoming strong isolationist opposition in Congress.

• Germany had resumed attacks on civilian shipping using Unterseeboote (U-boats), or submarines.

• An earlier example was the May 1915 sinking of the Lusitania, an ocean liner carrying many American passengers.

• Russia's withdrawal from the war following the Bolshevik Revolution was offset by the entry of the United States.

• Significance: American entry provided important military support, including the arrival of one million American soldiers during the 1918 Allied counteroffensive.

How did WWI end, and what events marked Germany's collapse in 1918?

• March 1918: Germany launched a major offensive on the Western Front, committing its reserves and advancing as far as the Marne.

• The offensive stalled in June because of shortages of manpower and supplies.

• July 1918: The Allies launched a counteroffensive, supported by American troops, forcing German forces to retreat.

• Battle of Amiens (August 8–11, 1918): A decisive Allied victory that marked the beginning of Germany's collapse.

• November 3: German sailors mutinied at Kiel, and revolution spread through factories and cities.

• November 9: Kaiser Wilhelm II fled to the Netherlands, and a republic was proclaimed under Social Democrat Friedrich Ebert. This marked the end of the German monarchy and the Second Reich.

• November 11: Germany signed the Armistice of Rethondes, ending the fighting.

What were Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points, and what kind of postwar order did they propose?

• January 8, 1918: US President Woodrow Wilson presented his Fourteen Points to Congress, outlining his vision for postwar international relations.

• He proposed a liberal and democratic peace based on:

  • Representative governments.

  • National self-determination — peoples having the ability to determine their own political future.

  • Economic freedom and free trade.

  • Disarmament and freedom of navigation on the seas.

  • Abolition of secret diplomacy.

  • Collective security and the peaceful settlement of international disputes.

• Wilson proposed creating the League of Nations, a general association of states intended to prevent conflict and resolve disputes peacefully.

• Significance: Wilson wanted peace based on cooperation, national self-determination, and collective security rather than simply a balance of power among great powers.

Who controlled the Paris Peace Conference, and why were Wilson's principles only partially applied?

• The Peace Conference opened at Versailles in January 1919, with representatives of 32 nations attending.

• The defeated countries were excluded from negotiations and were only involved when required to sign the treaties imposed by the victors.

• Only four victorious powers had an effective say:

  • France: Georges Clemenceau.

  • Great Britain: David Lloyd George.

  • United States: Woodrow Wilson.

  • Italy: Vittorio Emanuele Orlando and Sidney Sonnino.

• Wilson's principles were often subordinated to the victorious powers' geopolitical and economic interests.

• France particularly wanted to weaken Germany to prevent it from becoming a future threat to French security.

• Significance: The peace settlement reflected a compromise between Wilson's ideals and the victors' desire for security, territory, and compensation.

Why was national self-determination difficult to apply consistently after WWI?

• Central and Eastern Europe contained populations with overlapping ethnic, linguistic, and religious identities.

• Germans, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Romanians, and South Slavs often lived alongside one another.

• Drawing borders that perfectly matched national identities would have required borders that were virtually impossible to establish or massive forced population transfers.

• As a result, new nation-states formed from the collapsed multinational empires still contained substantial national minorities.

• Significance: The peace treaties failed to resolve national tensions completely, creating grievances that could later be exploited by nationalist movements.

What were the five major peace treaties following WWI, and which defeated power did each address?

• Treaty of Versailles (1919): Germany.

• Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919): Austria.

• Treaty of Neuilly (1919): Bulgaria.

• Treaty of Trianon (1920): Hungary.

• Treaty of Sèvres (1920): Ottoman Empire.

• Significance: Each treaty imposed different territorial and political changes on a defeated power, reshaping Europe and the former multinational empires.

Why was the Treaty of Versailles (June 28, 1919) a contradictory document?

• It contained the Covenant of the League of Nations, intended to protect international peace through collective security.

• At the same time, it imposed extremely harsh territorial, military, and economic conditions on Germany.

• France wanted to weaken Germany to prevent it from threatening French security again.

• Significance: The treaty aimed to create a peaceful international order but also imposed conditions that generated German humiliation, resentment, and demands for revision.

What territorial losses did Germany suffer under the Treaty of Versailles?

• Alsace-Lorraine: Returned to France.

• Northern Schleswig: Ceded to Denmark following a plebiscite.

• Posen and West Prussia: Much of this territory went to the re-established independent Poland, helping create the Polish Corridor, which gave Poland access to the Baltic Sea while separating East Prussia from the rest of Germany.

• Danzig: A city with an overwhelmingly German population became a Free City under the League of Nations, while remaining economically linked to Poland.

• Upper Silesia: An industrial region inhabited by Germans and Poles was divided between Germany and Poland after a plebiscite and violent clashes.

• Eupen and Malmedy: Ceded to Belgium after a popular consultation.

• Germany lost approximately one-seventh of its European territory and 6–7 million inhabitants.

• Significance: These losses fueled German resentment and exposed the difficulty of applying national self-determination consistently.

What special arrangements were made for the Saar and Rhineland under Versailles?

• Saar: Important for its coal deposits, it was placed under League of Nations administration for 15 years rather than ceded directly to France. France received ownership of its coal mines as partial compensation for wartime damage.

• After 15 years, the population would vote on whether to join France, return to Germany, or retain its international status.

• Rhineland: Remained German but was permanently demilitarized. German territories on the left bank of the Rhine and several bridgeheads on the right bank were also placed under temporary Allied military occupation.

• Significance: These measures restricted Germany's control over strategically important areas and aimed to protect France from another German attack.

How did the Treaty of Versailles restrict Germany's military, and why was this significant?

• The German army was limited to 100,000 volunteers, and compulsory military service was abolished.

• Germany was prohibited from possessing tanks, military aircraft, and submarines.

• Its navy was drastically reduced, with strict limits on the number and tonnage of ships.

• The production or importation of numerous categories of weapons was prohibited.

• Significance: These restrictions were intended to prevent Germany from rapidly becoming a major military power again. They also contributed to German humiliation and resentment, raising questions about how Germany could defend itself under such restrictions.

What were reparations and the “war guilt” issue under the Treaty of Versailles?

• Article 231 assigned Germany and its allies responsibility for the losses and damage caused by the war.

• The clause provided the legal basis for requiring Germany to pay reparations, but German public opinion interpreted it as a humiliating assignment of “war guilt.”

• In 1921, the Inter-Allied Reparations Commission fixed reparations at 132 billion gold marks.

• Germany struggled to meet payment deadlines, creating international tensions and culminating in the Franco-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr in 1923.

• Reparations contributed to the delegitimization of the Weimar Republic and resentment toward Versailles, which National Socialism later exploited.

• Your notes also emphasize that Germany struggled to pay and that American loans helped Germany make payments to France and Belgium in the following years.

• Significance: Reparations became a major source of economic and political instability in postwar Germany.

What happened to Germany's colonies under the Treaty of Versailles?

• Germany lost all its colonies.

• These territories were assigned to victorious powers through the League of Nations mandate system.

• Formally, the territories were to be administered on behalf of the international community, with mandatory powers expected to promote their development.

• In practice, the system largely allowed European colonial rule to continue under a new legal framework.

• Significance: Although the peace settlement claimed to create a new international order, European imperial control largely continued.

How did the Treaty of Versailles contribute to German revisionism and the rise of National Socialism?

• Germany suffered territorial losses, severe military restrictions, reparations, and the humiliation associated with Article 231.

• German resentment toward the “Versailles Diktat” spread across large sections of society.

• Reparations and the treaty's other conditions weakened support for the Weimar Republic.

• Revisionism meant seeking to overturn or revise the postwar settlement.

• National Socialism later radicalized these grievances, making the destruction of the Versailles order a fundamental political goal.

• Significance: The treaty's harsh conditions helped create resentment that extremist movements could exploit, although they were not the only cause of Nazism.

What territorial gains did Italy receive after WWI, and why was it still dissatisfied?

• Under the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919) with Austria, Italy obtained:

  • Trentino.

  • South Tyrol up to the Brenner Pass.

  • Trieste.

  • Istria.

• However, Italy also claimed Dalmatia, which had been promised by the secret Treaty of London (April 26, 1915), and Fiume, whose urban population was predominantly Italian but which had not been assigned to Italy under that treaty.

• Italy's claims conflicted with those of the newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and with Wilson's principle of national self-determination.

• Wilson particularly opposed Italy's annexation of Dalmatia.

• April 1919: Prime Minister Orlando and Foreign Minister Sonnino temporarily withdrew from the Peace Conference but failed to substantially change the other powers' positions.

• Significance: Italy was a victorious power but believed it had not received all the rewards it deserved.

What was the myth of the “mutilated victory,” and how did it contribute to Fascism?

• The “mutilated victory” was the nationalist claim that Italy had won WWI through enormous sacrifices but had been denied its rightful rewards by its allies.

• The expression was developed and popularized by Gabriele d'Annunzio.

• It simplified a complicated diplomatic dispute into the claim that Italy had won the war but its liberal ruling class had failed to win the peace.

• Although Italy gained significant territory, nationalists used the dispute to delegitimize the liberal state.

• September 1919: D'Annunzio occupied Fiume against the wishes of the Italian government.

• His movement emphasized war veterans, the cult of the fallen, the rhetoric of a betrayed nation, glorification of violence and direct action, and the weakness of parliamentary institutions.

• Treaty of Rapallo (1920): Fiume became a Free State following d'Annunzio's occupation; in 1924, it was annexed to Italy.

• Significance: The myth of the mutilated victory helped undermine liberal Italy and anticipated political language and practices later associated with Fascism.

How did Italy's postwar dissatisfaction compare with Germany's?

• Italy: A victorious country that felt it had been denied some of the territorial rewards it deserved. Fascists exploited the myth of the mutilated victory.

• Germany: A defeated country that resented territorial losses, military restrictions, reparations, and Article 231's assignment of responsibility for wartime damage.

• German rejection of the “Versailles Diktat” fueled revisionism, which National Socialism later radicalized.

• Significance: Both victorious Italy and defeated Germany became dissatisfied with the postwar settlement, but for different reasons. Both forms of resentment helped destabilize postwar Europe.

How did the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Treaty of Trianon reshape Central and Eastern Europe?

• Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (September 10, 1919): Established the postwar settlement with Austria.

• Treaty of Trianon (June 4, 1920): Established the postwar settlement with Hungary.

• Together, the treaties legally recognized the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

• A small Austria and an independent Hungary emerged from the former empire.

• Czechoslovakia and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes were formally recognized.

• Significance: The multinational Habsburg Empire was replaced by a new political order of smaller states, but national minorities remained within their borders.

How did the creation of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia demonstrate the limitations of national self-determination?

• Approximately three million German-speaking inhabitants of the Sudetenland were included within Czechoslovakia, even though they had belonged to the Bohemian lands of the Habsburg Empire rather than Germany.

• Czechoslovakia was itself multinational, comprising Bohemia, Moravia, part of Silesia, Slovakia, and Subcarpathian Ruthenia.

• The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia) contained Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Montenegrins, Macedonians, and other peoples with significant religious, linguistic, cultural, and political differences.

• Significance: The new states did not neatly correspond to individual national identities. The German-speaking Sudetenland minority later became one of the instruments Hitler used in his campaign against Czechoslovakia in 1938.

What territorial losses did Hungary suffer under the Treaty of Trianon?

• Hungary lost approximately two-thirds of its former territory.

• Slovakia and Ruthenia went to Czechoslovakia.

• Transylvania and part of the Banat went to Romania.

• Croatia-Slavonia and other southern territories became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

• Millions of Hungarians found themselves living outside Hungary's new borders.

• Significance: The treaty created lasting territorial and national grievances, demonstrating again the difficulty of applying self-determination to mixed populations.

What did the Treaty of Neuilly require Bulgaria to give up?

• The Treaty of Neuilly (November 27, 1919) imposed peace terms on Bulgaria.

• Bulgaria was required to cede territories to Greece and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

• It also had to confirm the loss of Southern Dobruja to Romania.

• Significance: Like the other defeated powers, Bulgaria lost territory under the postwar settlement, contributing to the broader pattern of dissatisfaction among defeated states.

What was the human cost of WWI, and how did it affect women?

• The war caused approximately 8–10 million military deaths, more than 20 million wounded, and millions of civilian deaths.

• These losses produced profound psychological and social consequences.

• The mobilization of millions of men increased women's presence in sectors previously dominated by men, especially the arms industry, transportation, and services.

• Women had already worked in agriculture and industry before 1914; what changed was the scale of female mobilization and access to occupations from which they had previously been excluded.

• These developments strengthened existing women's emancipation movements and accelerated the extension of voting rights to women in several countries.

• Significance: WWI helped accelerate changes in women's economic roles and political rights.

How did WWI transform technology and military warfare?

• The war became a major period of technological and military innovation.

• Machine guns, heavy artillery, submarines, poison gas, and aircraft were used on an unprecedented scale.

• Tanks appeared as a new weapon.

• Significance: WWI transformed the scale and technology of warfare, contributing to the devastating human cost of the conflict.

How did WWI change the relationship between the state and the economy?

• Total war forced governments to exercise greater control over raw materials, industrial production, trade, prices, consumption, and labor.

• Liberal economies experienced forms of economic planning and state intervention that had previously been almost unimaginable.

• Rather than simply describing the postwar period as one of nationalization, the key change was the enormous expansion of the state's economic functions.

• Significance: Wartime economic controls established precedents that influenced economic policies throughout the twentieth century.

How did WWI change European political institutions and political culture?

• Many countries formed coalition or national unity governments that brought previously excluded or marginalized political forces into government.

• Wartime emergencies expanded the powers of executive governments and administrative institutions, often reducing parliamentary control.

• Senior military commanders gained prestige and political influence.

• Political language and values increasingly emphasized discipline, mobilization, and the militarization of society.

• Significance: These changes left a lasting mark on postwar European political culture and institutions.

How did WWI shift the global balance of economic power?

• European states emerged from the war enormously indebted and weakened.

• The United States transformed from a debtor into a major international creditor and greatly increased its financial and economic power.

• Significance: WWI marked the beginning of Europe's declining central position in world affairs and the rise of the United States as a major global power.

What was the historical significance of the Bolshevik Revolution, and how did the Bolsheviks view its purpose?

The Bolshevik Revolution was the most important historical attempt to construct a socialist alternative to capitalism. The Bolsheviks viewed it as a universalization and deepening of the French Revolution’s principles of emancipation: liberation from the Ancien Régime became liberation from capitalism. They believed the Russian Revolution would be the first stage of a future world revolution. The October Revolution occurred in October 1917 according to the Julian calendar used in Russia, but November according to the Gregorian calendar.

What caused the 1905 Revolution, and what were its major consequences?

In January 1905, approximately 150,000 people peacefully marched toward the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, demanding political freedoms and relief from poverty. The army opened fire, killing around 100 people and wounding many more in an event known as Bloody Sunday. The repression triggered widespread protests across cities and the countryside and involved sections of the armed forces. Soviets emerged as directly elected councils of workers, soldiers, and later peasants. The Tsar eventually suppressed the revolution, but rural poverty, the land question, and the lack of genuine political freedoms remained unresolved.

What were soviets, and what was their significance during the 1905 Revolution?

Soviets were councils directly elected by workers, soldiers, and later peasants. They could form in factories, neighborhoods, cities, or military units, and their representatives could be recalled by those who elected them. They claimed to embody direct democracy, recalling the Paris Commune of 1871. The most important was the St. Petersburg Soviet. However, they did not constitute a genuine division of power because the Tsar still controlled the state; the soviets functioned as revolutionary centers of counter-power.

What was Stolypin’s agrarian reform, and why did it fail to fully stabilize Russia?

In 1906, Pyotr Stolypin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers under Nicholas II, attempted to save the regime through political repression and economic modernization. His agrarian reform allowed peasants to leave the mir, traditional rural communities where land was managed collectively, and encouraged individual farms. He hoped to create a productive class of small landowners who would defend private property and potentially remain loyal to the Tsar. Although the reform produced significant results, it failed to completely transform the Russian countryside. Stolypin was assassinated in Kyiv in 1911.