Asher Sisneros

On the eve of WW1, the European balance of power was changing. It was no longer the era immediately after the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and the same men who controlled foreign affairs in the post-Napoleonic world were a dying breed. The spreading nationalism of the Romantic period took hold of European powers, causing the Italian states to unify under the leadership of Piedmont and the German Confederation to unify under Prussia. Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who oversaw the German unification, sensed hostility in the air. To the other Great Powers, a unified Germany posed a threat that upset the balance of power that governed European politics for nearly a century. To avoid war, Bismarck pursued an alliance with Russia. Germany’s biggest fear was encirclement and a two-front war, making a Franco-Russian alliance Germany’s greatest threat. After securing a triple alliance with Austria-Hungary and Italy in 1879 and 1882, respectively, Bismarck succeeded in forming another treaty with Russia, seemingly protecting Germany completely and disenfranchising French aggression. But, once again, the times were different, and Bismarck was soon dismissed by the Emperor William II who failed to renew a treaty with Russia and instead pursued a different strategy.  

Similar nationalist sentiments that gripped Germany spread among the southern Slav nationalists who wished to break away from Austro-Hungarian influence and establish an independent state. The Serbs, Bosnians, Croats, and Slovenes all began to share a kinship with each other rooted in their universal disdain for Austria. And all the regions’ nationalists looked to Serbia for leadership. 

Although Emperor William II of Germany thought a treaty between Russia and France was implausible, they signed a defensive alliance in 1894. Meanwhile, Germany focused on expanding its naval influence. However, this threatened Great Britain which had always retained naval supremacy. To maintain their historic policy of having a navy the same size as the two biggest foreign navies put together, Great Britain found itself entering an arms race with Germany. This policy brought Britain closer to France, forming a triple entente between Russia, France, and Britain, worsening Germany’s situation. 

The Bosnian Crisis of 1908-9 served as one of the biggest catalysts for world war further down the line. Since 1878, Bosnia and Herzegovina were always under Austria’s protection. By 1908, Austria deliberately annexed those territories, hoping to stunt Serbian control over an independent Slavic state. The Russians then promised to support the Serbians, but Emperor William II of Germany intervened and gave an ultimatum: Russia must accept Austria’s Bosnian annexation or face war with Germany. The Russians backed down temporarily, but tensions rose again when Austria intervened in Serbia’s attempt to control Albania for its port by making Albania an independent nation at the London Conference. When a Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Francis Ferdinand on June 28, 1914, peace was over. The road to war was paved.