Was Germany A Threat To European Peace In The Years 1814-1914 Analysis

To what extent was the foreign policy of Prussia, and later, Germany a serious threat to European peace in the years 1814–1914?

From the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to the outbreak of war in 1914, the foreign policy of Prussia has changed enormously due to a number of political and geographical factors. Bismark’s unification policies provoked much uproar from major European powers and Germany’s imperialistic “Weltpolitik” of the late 19th century was blamed for an increase in hostilities across Europe and a military arms race. It is clear that such imperialistic and aggressive policies threatened the European status quo and meant that peace was threatened, but could such policies be considered a “serious threat” to peace in Europe? Many have …show more content…
Alliances between countries were rapidly changing and this meant that any form of Prussian/German aggression was more likely to disrupt the peace. An example of this was after the Crimean War when Russia formerly ended the Holy Alliance and was therefore no longer tied to protecting Austria. This meant that Bismark was able to start a war with Austria without the threat of Russian intervention and allowed Bismark to make ties with other countries. However, such alliances were sporadic and changed very quickly. After alliances between France and Russia, Bismark immediately signed the Dual Alliance of 1879 with Austria–Hungary which meant the two would attack Russia if need be. This alliance was taken further by the Triple Alliance, which recognized France as an enemy. These alliances, although designed to prevent war, were incredibly antagonistic to other countries that felt threatened by Germany’s increase in power. The fact that these two alliances were “secret” increased suspicion and such alliances (clearly fuelled by German foreign policy) worsened European relations as a whole and eventually pulled Britain out of “splendid isolation”. However, whether such alliances and policies seriously threatened European peace is debatable as many of Prussia’s directly aggressive actions (like the Franco-Prussian war) were not the direct result …show more content…
The growth of the Austro-Hungarian since 1867 had enraged a large number of people in the Balkans, particularly Bosnian Serbs who were outrage that Bosnia had been taken and could therefore never become part of the “Greater Serbia” that they wanted. The annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina by Austria in 1908 also led to very poor relations with Russia who was traditionally the “protector of Serbs”. This helped fuel such nationalistic attitudes. A key feature that differentiates the problem of nationalism from other factors was that it caused a number of underground organizations to be set up which threatened the security of Austria and which could commit war-like actions without government approval. This independence from government meant that very powerful “underground” organizations gained power like the “Black Hand Gang” from Serbia. Their assassination of the Arch Duke of Austro-Hungary in 1914 meant Austria¬¬–Hungary blamed the Serbian nation as a whole. This caused a declaration of war, which, together with other factors including alliance systems and German foreign policy, led to the start of the First World War. This effectively ended European peace for four years. It is no doubt that nationalism was one of the biggest factors in disturbing peace in Europe and was the trigger for the Great War, but it could be argued that without