Europe After Napoleonic War & Nationalism PDF

Europe after the Napoleonic War - Nationalism in Europe Nationalism had been spreading across Europe during the French Revolution and under the Napoleonic rule. ○ During the French Revolution, French philosophers and revolutionaries sought to mobilize the peop...

Europe after the Napoleonic War - Nationalism in Europe Nationalism had been spreading across Europe during the French Revolution and under the Napoleonic rule. ○ During the French Revolution, French philosophers and revolutionaries sought to mobilize the people to support the creation of a new popular sovereignty. They sought to create an idea of a single national identity ****based on a combination of shared geographical location, ethnicity, language, culture, religion, traditions and beliefs in a shared, though sometimes imaginary and historical background. ○ To the Italians and Germans, who were living in a fragmented area under different rulers, sought to create a nation-state under a unified sovereignty to enhance their national strengthen and promote the interests of their own nations. Such attempts led to the unification of Italy and Germany in the late 19th century. Nationalism became a tool for the governments to strengthen the popular support for their policies. ○ They often attempt to manipulate public opinion by nurturing patriotism, which upholds the feelings of love, devotion, and a sense of attachment to one’s country, to encourage a sense of pride in national identity and achievements, and to support national policies without questioning. ○ The manipulation of nationalist movement, however, could easily be mishandled, as the ideas of nationalism were sometimes created based on imagination. By nurturing an affiliation to a particular national identity through an emotional attachment, it could sometimes radicalised the ideas of nationalism ****and led to the creation of irrational policies and behaviours. Although the development of liberalism could sometimes counterbalance the radicalisation of nationalism, as it upheld individual freedom and rights, and rationality in government policies, the development of liberalism was not yet mature in some European countries, such as Italy and Germany, at the turn of the 20th century. Europe in the Industrial Revolution - The Rise of Imperialism Following the Industrial Revolution in Britain at the turn of the 19th century, industrialisation was promoted in other European countries and in the United States. ○ The newly-born Germany, and the United States after the American Civil War (1861-1865), experienced a rapid growth of the industrial sector and became the leaders of the Second Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century. ○ While the First Industrial Revolution occurred in the fields of light industry and the iron industry, using coal and steam as the power source. The new industry and technology developed in the Second Industrial Revolution were powered by oil and electricity, and contributed to the development of fields such as the heavy industry, the electric industry, and the non-ferrous metal industry. ○ As the construction of these new industrial fields required a huge amount of capital, the market tended to be dominated by a small number of large enterprises, and led to the rise of capitalism in major European countries. The  rise of capitalism also intensified the competition between European powers, as the importance of colonies was re-evaluated as suppliers of resources and as overseas markets. ○ With the unprecedented development of science and technology, which led to the much superior means of transportation, more information and a greater military force, the major European powers started to build and expand their colonies and territories in Asia and Africa, resulting in the rise of imperialism in the late 19th century. Imperialism is a state policy, practice or advocacy of extending power and dominion by direct territorial expansion or by gaining political and economic control of other areas. ○ Unlike the colonialism, which refers to the establishment of settlements on a distant territory for economic reasons, in earlier times; the imperialism in practice was also driven by political reasons, which sought to enhance national glory through territorial expansion**.** ○ As the United States government adopted the Monroe Doctrine as its foreign policy in the 19th century, the European powers could no longer seek expansion in the Americas, and thus they turned their attention to Africa and Asia. ○ As the competition between major European powers intensified at the turn of the 20th century, the international relations between them was slowly deteriorating in the early 20th century. The Alliance System in Europe - Its Origins and the Risks it Entailed In January 1871, Wilhelm I assumed the throne of German Emperor in Versailles, France, and the German Empire was established. Otto von Bismarck exercised autocratic power as Chancellor for about twenty years, directing all local and foreign policies. ○ As the new-born German Empire was in the heart of continental Europe, there was a risk of the surrounding powers united into an opposing coalition limiting Germany’s ability to act or even destroying it. He repeatedly expressed that German territorial ambitions were fulfilled and dedicated his work to create a network of alliances to prevent a war on two sides at the same time. ○ He revived the alliance that had once formed in 1815 by creating the League of Three Emperors in 1873. ○ When the relationship between Russia and Germany and Austria-Hungary turned sour in the late 1870s, Bismarck managed to create a new defensive alliance, the Dual Alliance, with Austria-Hungary in 1879, and successfully revived the League of Three Emperors in 1881. The Dual Alliance was later joined by Italy, and expanded into the Triple Alliance in 1882. When the League of Three Emperors could not longer be maintained in 1887 due to the worsening relationship between Austria-Hungary and Russia, he convinced Russia to sign a secret Reinsurance Treaty in 1887 to secure the relationship with it. In 1888, Kaiser Wilhelm I died at the age of 90, followed by his son Friedrich III who had reigned for 99 days only.  ○ The new Kaiser Wilhelm II came to the throne at the age of 29, who sought to take control of his empire without ruling under the influence of Otto von Bismarck. ○ Otto von Bismarck was forced to resign in March 1890. As Kaiser Wilhelm II and his administration distrusted Russia and saw the relationship with it as incompatible with the principles of the Triple Alliance, ****they allowed the Reinsurance Treaty to be expired in the same year. The reaction to the German foreign policy After Bismarck’s forced resignation, a sharp turnaround in German foreign policy took place. ○ As Germany underwent a rapid industrial growth in the Second Industrial Revolution, there was a growing urge for the development of overseas markets and the securing of resources to ensure the future of economic prosperity. ○ Germany started to expand its fleet by the mid-1890s and adopted an offensive naval policy. At the same time, the search for a “place in the sun” was repeatedly emphasised and Germany started to establish colonies in Africa. ○ Unlike the early days of the German Empire, the German armed forces became more confident of fighting a two-front war, making the government less cautious in handling foreign affairs. The drastic change of German foreign policy concerned other European powers, the relationship between them became more fluid. ○ As the relationship between Germany and Russia worsened gradually, the Russian government looked for other options to support its modernisation. It eventually approach France to gain capital for industrialisation, and concluded the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1894. ○ As German’s foreign policy became more aggressive, the British government abandoned its old policy of “Splendid Isolation” and concluded the Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902, to check the Russian expansion of influence in East Asia, and the Entente Cordiale in 1904, to prepare for the potential threat posed by Germany. ○ After the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), it was no longer a threat to Britain in Asia. A settlement was reached between the two countries by concluding the Anglo-Russian Convention in 1907. ○ The closer relationship between Russia, France and Britain was often regarded as an opponent of the Triple Alliance, and was thus called the “Triple Entente”. The formation of Triple Alliance and Triple Entente divided the major European powers into two rival camps. Any friction between their member-states could escalated into a general conflicts between all of them. A Case Study of the Conflict between Two Camps - The Moroccan Crises (1905-06, 1911)  After the First Moroccan Crisis, France and Germany agreed to uphold each other’s economic interests in Morocco, while France had exclusive control over the country. ○ When a rebellion broke out in Morocco in 1911, the French government forced the Sultan to seek help and dispatched an armed force in April to help put down the rebellion. ○ The German Foreign Minister Alfred von Kiderlen-Waechter and Kaiser Wilhelm II decided to send a gunboat to Morocco in June, claiming that French expeditionary force in Morocco destroyed the agreements made in the Algeciras Conference. However, this move agitated Britain and worsened the relationship with it. ○ Germany was later hit by a financial crisis and decided to negotiate with France instead. They agreed in November 1911 that Morocco would become French protectorate and in return Germany was compensated with some territories in Congo. ○ Although the Second Moroccan Crisis was seemingly resolved with peaceful negotiations, the distrust between the two countries, and the camp they belonged to, was intensified. Could national security be strengthened by expanding its armaments? Militarism is a belief that a state should maintain a strong military presence and use it aggressively to expand or protect its national interests. ○ The technological advancement during the Second Industrial Revolution made lots of military innovation possible, and allowed mass production of such innovations. ○ The tremendous wealth created by rapid industrialisation and colonial expansion made a sustained military expanion affordable. At the same time, naval strength was deemed crucial to protect overseas interests. The major European powers continuously invested in military modernisation, hoping to strenghten the security of their interests by achieving and maintaining superiority over their rivals. ○ However, the development of education system, global trade, communication and transportation allowed the transfer of scientific and technological knowledge at an unprecedented speed. While the military planners strove for achieve superiority over their rivals through innovations, they soon found themselves being surpassed easily by others. ○ The spiral effect brought by the desire for superiority and the fear brought by equilibrium prolonged their armaments race, the frustration that it entailed slowly intensified their sense of insecurity and led to a constant mutual distrust between the European powers. How did the First World War start by two shots? The First World War was eventually sparked by a regional conflict in the Balkans. ○ Although the major European powers were divided into two camps due to the formation of alliances, and tension between them occasionally intensified by colonial and territorial conflicts and armaments race, a balance of power was kept between them and the uncertainty it created made war risky.  ○ However, the decline of the Ottoman Empire destablised the situation in the Balkans, as those who were subjected to the Turkish rule sought to become independent, while Austria-Hungary and Russia wanted to expand their influence in the Balkans at the same time. Austria-Hungary sought to expand its territories in the Balkans to revitalise its national glory. Russia also sought to expand its influence in the Balkans by assisting the Slavic nations to gain independence from the Ottoman Empire. ○ Serbia, one of the Slavic states created under the influence of Russia, wanted to take over the region of Bosnia-Herzegovina, a place under the control of Austria-Hungary since the late 19th century. In 1908, when Austria-Hungary formally annexed the region, a confrontation between Austria-Hungary and Serbia was resulted. The Bosnian Crisis of 1908 permanenetly damaged their relationship. ○ In 1912, Serbia formed the Balkan League with Greece, Bulgaria and Montenegro and expelled the Ottoman Turks from the remaining Balkan regions. However, Austria-Hungary was unwilling to see the expanion of Serbia and interfered with the creation of Albania, the tension between the two countries further intensified and the anti-Austrian sentiment led to the Sarajevo Assassination in 1914. Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated on 28 June 1914 by a Bosnian Serb student Gavrilo Princip during his visit in Sarajevo. ○ After the Bosnian Crisis of 1908, there was a rise of anti-Austrian sentiment in Bosnia. A group of young male students formed a radical group Young Bosnia in 1911, they were supported by other Serbian nationalist organisations. Serbia’s military success in the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 further encouraged Pan-Slavism and anti-Austrian activities. ○ The annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina paradoxically destablised Austria-Hungary as the population of Serbs increased. Assassination and unrests were common in Bosnia, some Austrian military officers were determined to destroy Serbia to minimise the influence of Pan-Slavism. ○ The Sarajevo Assassination was seen as an opportunity to destroy Serbia even though they lacked evidence to show Serbia’s responsibility for the assassination. How did the First World War escalated into a total war? After years of modernising and expanding their armaments without major conflicts between the major European powers, most of the military planners underestimated the fire power they possessed with when the First World War broke out. ○ All belligerents expected that the war would end by the Christmas 1914, but all military plans failed and severe casualties were caused, the war became a stalemate in late 1914 instead. ○ German, French and British troops dug trenches to hold their frontline, and turned the war on the Western Front into a trench warfare.  As the war escalated to an unprecedented level and brought tremendous loss to all side, all belligerents started to use various measures to utilise all resources to continue the war effort. The First World War thus became a total war. ○ Military necessity was given the top priority, and all resources (e.g. natural, social and human) were mobilised to sustain the war. People’s living standards started to deteriorate, and governments slowly intruded their daily life to ensure their support for war. ○ To wear down the enemy to the point of collapse, attrition warfare was thus resulted. Both sides introduced naval blockade to break each other’s supply line. The global trade was disrupted and living conditions in Europe further deteriorated. The promotion of nationalism and patriotism often romanticised the war and created an illusion about war, which was eventually shattered by horrors of war they faced in the battlefield. ○ As the war continued, passion of soldiers slowly gave way to frustration. They saw the prolonged war as senseless, awful and aimless struggle between the governments who paid little attention to those who suffered from the war. ○ Some soldiers were traumatised by their experience or suffered from shell shock or permanent physical injuries. They were often subjected to the influence of post-traumatic stress disorder after the war, rejected social interactions and remained silent about their experience for the rest of their life. ○ A new movement of internationalism emerged after the First World War, believing that humans should unite across national, political, cultural, racial or class boundaries to promote the common interests for all. The internationalists advocated the creation of the League of Nations to promote peace and respect to different culture and customs. The Fourteen Points and the Big Three During the First World War, the German Admiralty introduced submarine warfare to disrupt the British shipping. ○ At first the attack on shipping was not fully unrestricted, only the Allied vessels were attacked. However, as the war went on, the German submarine often attacked without warning and did little at identifying targets, causing civilian casualties. ○ The sinking of Lusitania in May 1915 and the US protests led to a temporary suspension of the unrestricted submarine warfare. However, the German Admiralty resumed it at a greater scale in early 1917. leading to a widespread discontent in the US. ○ At the same time, a secret diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign Office to Mexico, which invited Mexico to join the First World War in case of the US participation, was revealed. ○ The combining effects of the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram resulted in the US participation of war in April 1917.  In January 1918, the US President Woodrow Wilson outlined 14 principles of maintaining peace in the future. This was known as the Fourteen Points. ○ Woodrow Wilson aimed at creating a sustainable peace through a system that can resolve international differences by peaceful measures. He suggested the creation of the League of Nations to promote the resolution of international disputes through peaceful means. He also upheld the idea of equality between nations and promoted the concept of self-determination to resolve the ethnical issues in Eastern Europe. ○ When its defeat became inevitable in October 1918, the German government accepted the Fourteen Points as the principles of the peace conference and signed the Armistice on 11 November 1918. ○ However, the French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau and the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George saw Germany as an aggressor instead. The Big Three and the Treaty of Versailles The Paris Peace Conference was opened on 18 January 1919 in the Hall of Mirrors of the Versailles Palace. ○ Although delegates of over 30 countries and nationalities attended the conference, the decision-mkaing was dominated by the US President Woodrow Wilson, the British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and the French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, the so-called Big Three. ○ Woodrow Wilson sought to create an institution to settle international disputes through peaceful means, and thus insisted in creating the League of Nations. ○ Georges Clemenceau experienced German invasion twice in his lifetime, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 and the First World War of 1914-1918, he insisted in weakening Germany significantly so that the security of France could be ensured. ○ David Lloyd George promised to punish Germany in the General Election of 1918, but he feared that a weakened Germany would affect British economy in the long run. The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919. Out of the expectations of the German delegates, they were not allowed to make counter-proposal or reject the Treaty. ○ Germany had to cede territories that did not have German majority, such as Upper Silesia and Posen to Poland, and Schleswig to Denmark; return Alsace-Lorraine to France; and cede the Polish Corridor to give Poland an access to the Baltic Sea. All colonies were handed over to the League of Nations. ○ Germany was forbidden from uniting with Austria in future to prevent the rise of Pan-Germanism. ○ German armed forces was largely reduced, the army was limited to 100,000 men, no tanks, submarines or military aircrafts were allowed, and the Rhineland was demilitarised. ○ Germany had to pay for the loss and damages done to the civilians of the Allied powers, the amount was later fixed at 6.6 billion British pounds in 1921. The Treaty of Versailles and the New International Order As Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia collapsed during and after the First World War, the outlook of Eastern Europe was reshaped after the Paris Peace Conference. ○ Germany and Russia → Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia ○ Germany and Austria-Hungary → Czechoslovakia ○ Austria-Hungary → Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia As Woodrow Wilson insisted in the Paris Peace Conference, a new international organisation was established to maintain peace in the future. ○ The League of Nations was founded in 1920, with Britain, France, Japan and Italy as the permanent members of the Council, the decision-making body of the organisation. All major European powers were weakened by the First World War, it took them years to recover. ○ Post-war recession was common the Europe in the 1920s. With the increasing unemployment and the success of October Revolution in Russia, some of the European countries faced the impacts of the rise of socialism and communism. ○ As the United States was largely unaffected by the First World War, it experienced a rapid economic growth in the 1920s instead, which was often called “the Roaring Twenties” As the Germans were frustrated by their defeat in the First World War and the unfair treatment faced by the German delegates in the Paris Peace Conference, some nationalists became radicalised in the 1920s and 1930s. ○ Veterans, right-wing politicians and extreme nationalists created a myth of “November Criminals” and denied their defeat by the Allied Powers and refused to accept the responsibility for the war. They blamed on ethnic minorities in Germany instead, especially the Jews, for causing the defeat. ○ Open violence broke out between the socialists and communists and the nationalists at the beginning of the 1920s, extreme nationalists also plotted against the German government, resulting in the Kapp Putsch of 1920 and Beer Hall Putsch of 1923.