Europe and WWI — balance of power and German foreign policy
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All 12 Flashcards — Europe and WWI — balance of power and German foreign policy
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Question
What does 'balance of power' mean in the context of 19th-century Europe?
Answer
A diplomatic situation where no single state is strong enough to dominate all the others — maintained through alliances and careful diplomacy.
Question
What was Bismarck's central foreign policy goal after 1871?
Answer
To keep France diplomatically isolated so it could not find allies for a war of revenge over its 1871 defeat and loss of Alsace-Lorraine.
Question
Name the four key elements of Bismarck's alliance system (1871–1890).
Answer
Three Emperors' League (1873/1881), Dual Alliance with Austria-Hungary (1879), Triple Alliance with Italy (1882), and the secret Reinsurance Treaty with Russia (1887).
Question
What happened at the Congress of Berlin (1878) and why?
Answer
The powers met to revise the Treaty of San Stefano after the Russo-Ottoman War; they shrank the new Bulgaria and gave Austria-Hungary rights to administer Bosnia-Herzegovina, defusing the crisis short-term.
Question
Why did the Congress of Berlin settlement create long-term problems?
Answer
It left Austro-Russian rivalry over the Balkans unresolved — resurfacing in the 1908 Bosnian Crisis and the 1912–13 Balkan Wars.
Question
Who was Wilhelm II and what change did he make in 1890?
Answer
German Kaiser from 1888; in 1890 he dismissed Bismarck and let the Reinsurance Treaty with Russia lapse, ending Bismarck's careful isolation of France.
Question
What was the direct consequence of Germany dropping the Reinsurance Treaty?
Answer
Russia, with no reason to stay friendly to Germany, signed the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1894 — exactly the two-front danger Bismarck had worked to avoid.
Question
Define Weltpolitik.
Answer
Germany's post-1890 'world policy' of pursuing global colonies, prestige, and naval power to match Britain, driven largely by Wilhelm II.
Question
How did Weltpolitik affect Britain's foreign policy?
Answer
The German naval race (Navy Laws, Tirpitz) alarmed Britain, pushing it to abandon 'splendid isolation' and sign the Entente Cordiale with France (1904) and an entente with Russia (1907).
Question
Compare Bismarck's diplomacy with Wilhelm II's diplomacy.
Answer
Bismarck: cautious, defensive, focused on isolating France and balancing Austria-Hungary/Russia. Wilhelm II: personal, assertive, globally ambitious (Weltpolitik) — and far less careful about alarming other powers.
Question
By 1907, how was Europe divided into rival blocs?
Answer
The Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy) faced the Triple Entente (Britain, France, Russia) — a split driven largely by reactions to German policy.
Question
What is the strongest counter-argument against blaming Wilhelm II alone for the breakdown of the balance of power?
Answer
Balkan nationalism and Austro-Russian rivalry over the declining Ottoman Empire were long-standing tensions that existed independently of German foreign policy.
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Topic 13.6 hub
Europe and the First World War (1871–1923)
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