Mid-Term Recap

Tutorial 4
Western Empires (1860s-1870s) : Causes of Imperialism
• International prestige
• Control waterways and strategic points (military advantage)
• Power game in Europe (zero-sum game)
• Nationalism

• Civilization mission
• Drive for modernisation
• Scientific racism and social darwinism

• Acquire resources: raw materials, workforce, and food

• Market for non-competitive goods
• New markets for huge investments
• Population pressures and emigration
The Berlin Conference on West Africa (1884-1885)

The Scramble for Africa The rationale behind it

• Bismarck uninterested in colonies • Expansionist measure
• No non‐Europeans invited • protection of existing interests (e.g. protection
• Bismarck wanted to ensure that no of Suez canal)
overseas conflicts resulted in a European
conflict • Preventing a rival expansion → Fashoda
incident (FR – GB)
• The conference did not divide up Africa
• Control of waterways (commerce, raw
• Ground rules for establishing “effective materials etc )
occupation”
 Empires in Asia Empires in America
• Latin America:
• Sino-French war 1884-85 → 1885 • Mid-century wave of independence,
Treaty of Tianjin forced China to followed by political turmoil
open its markets • Policy of export-led growth driven by
• France’s defeat of Siam in 1892 → West Europe + USA
French Indochina (Vietnam Laos • Economies dependent on foreign
Cambodia) trade and investments
• 1895 Sino-Japanese war: Treaty of • VARIOUS EUROPEAN INTERVENTION
Shimonoseki → Korea shifts under
Japanese control
• EMERGENCE OF JAPANESE EMPIRE • The US:
(1890 – 1945) • Monroe Doctrine 1823 + Roosevelt
• OPEN DOOR POLICY in CHINA: the Corollary 1904
US advocates an “open door” policy • Spanish-American War 1898: Control
as outside powers carved out over Cuba and Philippines
spheres of influence across China. • Caribbean a “US lake”
• Economic Imperialist in China →
open door policy
From the Concert of Europe to WW1
• Concert of Europe → Existing order: The Central Powers:
managed by the Great Power, based • 1879 →Dual Alliance: Austro-
on the balance of power Hungary + Germany
• Challenging this oder: • 1882 →Triple Alliance: Austria-
1. The Governance gets rigid Hungary + Germany + Italy)
2. Perceived threats and The Entente:
nationalism (Arm race)
• 1894 →Franco-Russian
3. Regional Turmoil (Young Turks, Alliance
Balkan Wars) • 1904 →Anglo-French
‘entente cordiale’
• 1907 →Anglo-Russian
entente*
* Anglo-Japanese 1902 &
1905 alliance
July Crisis:
- German Blank Check to Austria-Hungary 1917: Unlock the situation
- Sarajevo assassination
- Austrian ultimatum to Serbia • February 1917 Revolution in Russia
- SYSTEM OF ALLIANCES
• April 1917 USA declares war against Germany
Home fronts holding up (public opinion) →
Military, Economic, Diplomatic Power

US Intervention
WW1: Triple Stalemate 1914-1917 - Heavy losses for the US merchant marine
• Diplomatic stalemate - Moralising mission
• Military stalemate - Allegation German-Mexican alliance
• Home fronts holding up (public (Zimmermann telegram)
opinion) - Domestic Pressure
- Public opinion turning pro-war
Total War
The Great War debate
The origins of the Great War? A The (still ongoing)
100-year long debate! historiographical debate
• Expansionism Phase 1: Not Germany’s guilt
• Armaments race Phase 2: Solely Germany’s
• Defensive war guilt (The Fisher Thesis)
• Nationalism and people’s Phase 3: Primarily German
enthusiasm responsibility
• Rigid military alliances Phase 4: Everybody/nobody’s
fault
 The most shared view (phase 3)

• From phase 3 historiography (1990s)

• Key historian: David Stevenson 1. Blank cheque to

Austria-Hungary
• Argument: German primarily responsible,
but others to 2. Aware Russia would
get in to defend Serbia
(hence, bigger war)
WHY?
3. Schlieffen Plan: Russia
is slow, let’s quickly deal
with F, cut off UK and
then turn to East
WW I Consequences
1. Borders and power reshuffle in Europe: February revolution:

The war losers: • A quite spontaneous revolution against

the tsarist regime
• Germany now Republic of Weimar
• Austria-Hungary dismantled • Provisional govt + “Soviets” (Councils)
of workers and soldiers in various
• Ottoman Empire dismantled cities
October Revolution:
End of Tzarist empire in Russia
• a coup by Bolshevik faction (Lenin), the
2. A new phonomemon: Soviet only with own armed forces
Revolution(s)
• dismissal of provisional govt, seizing of
3. New power tensions in Asia: East-Asian Soviets, new govt by Lenin
stage → European “absence” →
possiblities for Japan • By March 1918: Communist Party–only
dictatorship
Japan: the Rising Star
Before WW1 WW1
• 1853 opening up and modernisation • Alliance with UK (1902) → declares war vs. Germany (Aug
1914) in China’s Shandong peninsula
• 1894-5 war with China → conquest of Taiwan
• Seek to assert dominance in the region:
• 1902 alliance with UK: • Jan 1915: the 21 Demands to Chinese govt
• 1904–05 defeats Russia → control South • recognition of the secession of Jiaozhou to Japan
Manchuria and Korea • Several economic and political concessions →
• first Asian state to vanquish one of the Great increase influence over Manchuria, the Yangtze
Powers valley and Fujian.
• → fear and admiration in Europe and the • No from Chinese govt + diplomatic pressure from
United States UK and US → only few gains

• Weakening China: 1911 rebellion → 1912 • 1916-1918 financial power (loans) to pressure
Chinese Republic (end of thousands-years of China into concessions
Chinese imperial regime) • commercial penetration into markets in India
→ local power vacuum; checks by European and South-East Asia
colonial powers • Scaling up naval power (response to US Navy large-scale
expansion announced in 1916)
10
New Diplomacy for a New World Order
V.I. Lenin and [Link] both criticed Bolshevik’s failure
“old” diplomacy: Armistice with Central Powers:
• secret agreements Bolsheviks:
• War alliances in time of peace
- rejecting annexations and indemnities
• Autocratic exclusive ruling elites
- calling for application of national self-
determination inside and outside Europe.
→ Need for Germany: ok, but only if Allies also OK
• Public diplomacy
Allies: no
• International law
Germany continues war; Ukraine signs
• Consideration of people separate peace → harsh Brest-Litovsk
peace
Wilson’s 14 points Speech
• a reformist reply to the Bolsheviks’ peace manifesto
• Message to Entente allies: secret agreements on war aims and spoils would have to
be revised
• To create a new peaceful world order:
• Collective security + League of Nations
• ‘open covenants openly arrived at’
• ‘freedom of the seas’
• removal of economic barriers’
• reduction of armaments
• Self-determination of peoples →
• Belgium to be restored
• Poland independent
• Alsace-Lorraine returned to France
• Italy’s frontiers redrawn along national lines.
• German forces to withdraw from Russia
• Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires to grant autonomy to their subject peoples
 Allies’ reactions to Wilson’s Central Powers’ reactions
F and UK In Germany:
• want to achieve their war aims (which • strikes and demands from the
conflict in ME) opposition parties for a non-
• Unhappy with “impartial adjustment annexationist peace. → but public
of all colonial claims” opinion still for negotiated settlement
• Want “peace with victory • ascendancy of Generals over the
civilian leadership

UK: In Austria-Hungary:
• Unhappy with ”freedom of seas” • empire falling down→ more reliant on
Germany
Both: Ok for now, we need US in war • leadership considered a negotiated
effort, we’ll see later… settlement, but:
• No ear from F and UK, who support Italy’s
claims
• wants a general peace, not a separate
one → only if Berlin moderated its war
aims…
Versailles Treaty
Signed on 28 June 1919
Versailles Treaty Clauses
• Territorial Clauses

• Military Clauses

• Reparations

• War Guilty Clause

• Territorial losses:
• Alsace-Lorraine to France
• part of Schleswig-Holstein to Denmark
• west Prussia, Posen and part of Silesia to new Poland
• Memel to Lithuania
• Plebiscite to determine the future of Upper Silesia
• Danzig free city under League of Nations mandate
• Rhineland and Saarland to be occupied by France temporarily to
ensure German treaty compliance
• German unification with Austria not allowed
• All of Germany’s overseas colonies confiscated and redistributed
to victor powers under new League of Nations mandatesd
 The other peace treaties

• Treaty of St Germain with Austria (September 1919)

• Treaty of Trianon with Hungary (4 June 1920)
• Treaty of Neuilly with Bulgaria (27 November 1919)
• Treaty of Sèvres (10 August 1920) with remnant of Ottoman Empire
• replaced by Treaty of Lausanne (4 July 1923) after Mustapha Kemal
launches new independence war and creates new larger Turkish nation-
state; population swap between Greece and Turkey.
 The League Of Nation
• US President Woodrow Wilson’s idea
• League Covenant is part of the Versailles Treaty
• Tasks:
• arbitrate border disputes
• supervise disarmament
• administer mandates
• guarantee ‘minorities’ treaties

• Organs: assembly, an executive council and a permanent

secretariat – based in Geneva, Switzerland
 Weaknesses of the League
• Could never really enforce the ‘minorities’ treaties (25 million minority
population of Germans, Hungarians, Romanians, Jews etc. in the new
Eastern Europe
• Mandates continue empires (e.g. Middle East)
• Never had an army – although the French had proposed
• Decisions had to be taken by unanimous vote
• No compulsory arbitration or compulsory disarmament enforcement
capability
• Germany initially excluded (until 1926)
• Japanese clause on racial equality put forward at Paris for inclusion in the
Covenant is refused by other powers
• US Congress did not ratify the Treaty of Versailles → US no member of
LoN
International politics
• Status quo powers: GB, France and USA

• Revisionist powers:

• Among the wartime allies: Italy; Japan; China

• The defeated countries: Turkey; Germany (myth of harsh

Versailles Treaty)

• Revolutionary powers: USSR

 The “Spirit of Locarno”, 1924-29
Security: Diplomacy and cooperation policy led by Aristide
Briand (F), Gustav Stresemann (G), Neville Chamberlain
(GB)
• Locarno Treaty (1925): Germany accepts Western borders
→ 1926 Germany joins the League of Nations
• Kellogg-Briand pact (1928): US guarantee on Locarno Treaty
(but no enforcement provisions)
Reparations: US involvement in economic matters
• 1924 Dawes Plan: to help G repay; boost G steel industry
• 1929 Young Plan: fix the total amount of reparations
Collapse of the World Order
• Great Depression → 1929 Wall street crash
• Problems with Versailles Reparation
• Ends cooperation between status quo powers
• Protectionism
• Isolationism
• Radicalization:
• Italy & Japan: from mildly revisionist into expansionist powers
• Germany: extremist fringe National-socialist Party turns into the
largest political party
REVISIONIST REVOLTS 1931-1935
 Revisionist Block
IDEOLOGICAL COMPONENT
• Concept of “Living Space”
(Lebensraum) 25 Oct 1936: Rome-Berlin
+ Axis
• Idea of racial superiority
→ New World Order:
25 Nov. 1936 Anti-
• Nazi Germany in Continental
Comintern Pact: Germany +
Europe
Japan;
• Fascist Italy in the Mediterranean
6 Nov. 1937: Italy joins in
• Imperialist Japan in the Far East
Hitler’s Moves in Europe: 1938
• 13 March 1938 Anschluss (G annexation of Austria):
Austrians cheered deliriously when Hitler declared Austria a province of the
Reich
• Sept 1938 Munich Agreement: German annexation of the Sudetenland (→
Chamberlain “Appeasement policy” )
• March 1939: Hitler invades CZ
• Next Poland… Abrogation of:
• Non-Aggression Pact with Poland (signed 1934)
• Naval Agreement with Britain (signed 1935).
• Hitler asks for Danzig and the Polish corridor; propaganda that Poles are
oppressing the German minority
1939:
• 22 May 1939: Italo-German Steel Pact (allies in case of
whatever war)

• G’s non-Aggression Pacts signed with Latvia, Estonia and

Denmark

• 23 August 1939: „Molotov–Ribbentrop” = Nazi-Germany-

Soviet Union pact (!)
• Non-aggression
• Secret protocol on partition of Poland
25
 1 September 1939: WW II begins
• 1 Sept 1939 Germany invades Poland (pretending Polish
provocations)
• UK ultimatum to Germany rejected
• 3 Sept 1939: F & GB war to Germany (Phoney War”)
• 9 April 1940: Germany takes Denmark and Norway
• 10 May 1940: G invades Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands
and France
• 10 June 1940 Italy enters War against F (“Stab in the back”)
• 21 June: Armistice G-F – France Kaputt in only 6 weeks…
• 27 Sept 1940: Tripartite Pact (Germany, Japan and Italy:
common defense)
26
WAR IN ASIA
1931-1941: Japan expands in East Asia, invading Manchuria in 1931 and China in
1937. This leads to the Second Sino-Japanese War.
July 1941 Japan invades southern Indochina
26 November 1941 US send "Hull note”:
Non-aggression pact among Japan, US, Britain, the Netherlands, China, the USSR,
and Thailand
Japanese withdrawal of all forces from China and Indochina
Negotiations for trade agreement "based upon reciprocal most favoured-nation
treatment and reduction of trade barriers” + stabilisation $/¥ ratio
7 Dec 1941 Japan attacks US Pearl Harbour

27
WW II strategic & military turning point

• 22 June 1941 → Nazi Invasion of the USSR

• 5 December 1941 → Germany army attack Moscow -→ pushed
back by massive soviet conuterattack
• 8 December 1941 → United States enters in the conflict declaring
war to Japan (after Pearl Harbour)
• Since summer 1942 the Nazi-Fascists lose more and more battles (and
territories)
• The Allies’ imperative is “unconditioned surrender” and no separate
peace
SUMMITS
Teheran Conference: November – December 1943
• Opening new Fronts:
• USSR against Japan when UK-US invade France (“Op. Overlord” (D-DAY))
• Soviet to get Baltic coast territories from Germany
• USSR to get the territories annexed in 1939–40
Joint declaration guaranteeing postwar restoration of Iran
• Yalta Conference: February 1945
• The order after the war: 1) Germany 2) Asia 3) United Nations 4)Eastern Europe
• Postdam Conference: July – August 1945
• Terminal Conference
1) Japan 2) Peace Settlement Details 3) Europe (profound desagreements)