Austria Hungary And Italy example essay topic

Between 1914-1918, the major Western powers of the twentieth century propelled the world into its first global war. Although the catalyst for warfare was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863-1914) and his wife, Duchess Sophie von Chotkova (on the 28 June 1914, in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo) the actual causes of this international socio-political catastrophe extend far beyond the manipulation of a relatively secondary event. An accurate account of the circumstances leading to war requires a concise analysis of several areas, namely: growing nationalism in Europe (1800-1914); breakdown of the Ottoman Empire (1800-1923); Europe's imperial empires (1815-1914); and European adversaries and alliances (1878-1914). An era of revolutionary wars occurred in Europe and America between 1773-1814, which challenged the old social order of the monarchy's traditional privileges and tyrannical rule. In this radical period, the emergence of a new world order was partially stimulated by the Enlightenment Era / Age of Reason of the 17th and 18th century, which in turn had an influential effect on increasing the widespread popularity of nationalist principles in the 19th and 20th century. Rising nationalism played an important role in facilitating the American (1776-1783) and French (1788-1789) Revolutions, however, in the long term, it was mainly the effects of France's revolt and the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815) that gradually transformed the socio-cultural, geo-political structure of Europe and her global multi-cultural empires.

At the end of 1815, France had invaded large sections of Europe / European colonies, however, these victories were mainly overturned by the rest of the international community, when the Congress of Vienna (1815), was convened to debate a decisive settlement concerning the future of those territories. Napoleon Bonaparte's empire was stripped, legitimism re-established, and many of the affected countries were returned to the control of previous rulers, for example, Italian and German territory were returned to Austria-Hungary. The country, which benefited most from this agreement would appear to have been Great Britain whose colonial acquisitions from the French, Spanish, Dutch, and Danish - particularly Mauritius, the Cape, and Ceylon - were enough to ensure imperial dominance over her European counterparts. The principal aims of the Great powers were to bring down the French Republic and crush any future rebellions by reinstating the hereditary rights of the Bourbon royal family. The initial success of the Vienna Settlement in restoring legitimism - and consequently oppressing political opposition - occurred because most peoples were uneducated or unfamiliar / unaccustomed to the ideas of nationalism. Furthermore, with nationalism still in its infancy - and an agricultural economy still prevalent throughout most of Europe - many remained dedicated to their often-isolated rural regions and their sovereign's conservative monarchical regimes.

This plan was only effective in the short-term, as the political representatives failed to anticipate how deeply embedded revolutionary and nationalist ideals had become among academics and political extremist. In particular, the Burschenschaften (German students) and the republican Carbonari (Italian secret society) caused many problems for their Austrian rulers. In Germany, nationalist troubles became so bad that in 1819 the Carlsbad Decree was issued, which allowed the government to control / censor press releases, ban political meetings, and scrutinise the educational system in an attempt to intimidate anyone who showed signs of supporting patriotic causes. Ultimately this forced nationalist groups to operate in a clandestine environment. Despite this often violently repressive attitude, the idea of people's cultural identity being established through national independence, continued to grow, for several reasons.

Specifically, as rising awareness of nationalist literature became more widespread, so to did its political support, and in the second half of the 19th century many parts of Europe experienced a wave of revolutionary activity caused mainly by economic disasters, harsh food shortages, and rising pressure to revolutionize political systems. With the exception of Greece's independence from the Ottoman Empire (1830) and Belgium's independence from the Netherlands (1831), the majority of rebellions were quickly put-down - for example, in 1831 and 1846 Russia stopped Poland's attempts for self-determination. Hungary, Germany, and Italy also rose up against Austria in 1848, and although, at the time, their efforts failed to achieve liberty or constitutional reforms, the global impact of these events - bolstered by the philosophical writings of men such as, Georg Hegel (1770-1831) - served to firmly establish the political status of nationalist beliefs. Gradually, collaboration between some traditionalist politicians and liberal reformers began to address socio-economic and imperial issues, and as the struggle for autonomy continued over the next three decades (1848-1878), Italy, Germany, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, and Montenegro were given self-rule. This was a period of massive political and socio-cultural changes mainly because the growth and re-organisation of political ideals and institutions led to the decline of the worlds traditional social and political orders, and, as the principles of nationalism spread throughout Europe so too did increasing racial intolerance (xenophobia).

Despite having maintained relatively diplomatic relationships since the end of the Napoleonic Wars, economic, political, military, and imperial, rivalries - underpinned by rising nationalism - unsettled the stability of power between the major European countries. A case in point being that, after 1815, British dominance of colonial expansion particularly in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, exceeded that of Germany, France, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. Bolstered by rising patriotic sentiments (which associated colonial development with national power and glory) the main objective of the major European powers was to gain imperial, military, and economic superiority - largely to cope with an increasing population and to facilitate the development of industrialisation. Despite Britain's leading position, and her powerful naval force, the rest of Europe's main powers resumed and sustained their expansionist policies, progressively increasing their colonial territory. Between 1878-1914, the balance of power among these nations changed dramatically, to some extent facilitated by the desire for colonial and economic expansion and the development of new states - especially Germany and Italy. At the same time, Austria's authority was in decline, and the Ottoman Empire, (which had been established in the 13th century) had decayed to such an extent that it became known as: 'the sick man of Europe'.

Italy, and in particular, Germany, began to adopt a more aggressive stance in relation to imperialism, which created hostilities with the existing colonial nations. To secure existing and future domestic / foreign interests, Britain and France responded to this threat with an increased zeal for rearmament. In 'The Great Illusion' (1909), Norman Angell states that: .".. the fundamental motives that explain the present rivalry of armaments in Europe... are based on the universal assumption that a nation, in order to find outlets for expanding population and increasing industry, is necessarily pushed to territorial expansion and the exercise of political force against others; that nations being competing units, advantage in the last resort, goes to the possessor of preponderant military force, the weaker going to the wall, as in other forms of the struggle for life". The volatility of this period was caused by two specific factors, the successful growth of some countries and the decline of others. For instance, post-1815 the main powers had agreed to support the Ottoman Empire - whose decline began with the invasion of Egypt (1798) during the Napoleonic Wars - because if any one country managed to gain territory within this vast nation the balance of power would be unfavourably situated out with their control network. Despite such formidable backing, the Ottoman reign continued to break down, with the loss of territory in the Russo-Turkish War (1875-1878) - when Serbia, Romania, and Bulgaria were released from Ottoman control - causing major problems.

In 1887, Italy, Britain, and Austria tried to curtail further advances by France and Russia into the Turkish Empire, however, it took a decade for an agreement to be reached and it only lasted for 11 years. Although the Congress of Berlin (1878) made provisions for Austria to have governmental control of Bosnia, it was still officially part of the Ottoman Empire, so when Austria decided to take control of Bosnia in 1908 an international crisis erupted. War between Austria and Russia was averted after Germany offered her support to the former, however, any diplomatic relationships involving Austria and Russia were now defunct. The conflict between Russia and Austria simmered for three years during which, aggressive Austrian expansionist policies increased in the Balkans, and Russia retaliated by encouraging the ethnic and political activities of pan-slavish movements, and generating stronger ties with Serbia and Bulgaria. In 1911, there was an infringement on Turkish soil by Italian forces occupying Libya and between 1912-1913 a Russian-backed Balkan League consisting of Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro managed to seriously undermine Austrian authority. The main reason why events took hold so quickly in 1914 was the increasingly hostile relationship between Austria-Hungary and Serbia.

There were a number of motives for war, and events in Sarajevo merely proved to be a means to an end, for instance: Austria-Hungary had placed many of its subject states under military control because of increasingly violent demands for independence by Nationalist Serbians and Croatians under their rule. The cause of its estranged peoples led to Serbia offering them support and asylum, which outraged Austria-Hungary, who feared that Serbia's growing influence / control over events was directly responsible for mounting internal discord among its states ethnic groups. Austria-Hungary knew Serbia - along with Russia - was a major instigator in their domestic problems and believing that the only way to resolve the crisis was war, they seized their opportunity. Ultimately, the Allied Powers of France, Belgium, Russia, Italy, the British Empire United States, Japan, Romania, Serbia, Greece, Portugal, and Montenegro fought against Europe's Central Powers, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria in a horrific war of attrition, the scale or style of which no one on either side could have ever imagined, or been prepared for. The majority of people - including politicians and military leaders - were convinced that the war would last only six months, yet it dragged on for four years, at the end of which, approximately 139 battles (including naval combat) had taken place throughout the Western, Eastern, Gallipoli, and Italian, Fronts, with both sides losing a substantial number of military and civilian personnel..