Tension Between France Germany And Britain example essay topic

Why tension increased during 1900 and 1914. Tension in Europe started in 1870-1 when Germany declared war on France. This war was obviously a short one but that meant nothing to the Germans. This meant nothing to the Germans because they had control of France's two main industrial cities, which were Alsace and Lorraine. After this the event gave France a thirst for revenge against Germany but could not face another war.

Tension increased between France and Germany again after the first Moroccan crisis in 1906 when Kaiser Wilhelm 2 tried to test the reliability of Britain and francs agreement. He did this by visiting morocco for support of morocco's independence. This made France furious because they wanted to set up colonies in morocco. Britain stood by France and the Kaiser was humiliated at the fact that Britain and France where in such a tight agreement. Tension increased furthering 1911 due to a second crisis in morocco between France and Germany. The sultan of morocco asked France to help him against a revolt within tribes men, as soon as the Kaiser heard of this he sent in a panther gun boat to attack the port of agadir.

Britain then held a peace conference with morocco, France, Germany and Russia. It was agreed that Germany had no say whatsoever in morocco. Due to this tension between France Germany and Britain it was quite likely that in 1914 these countries would be going to war. Germany where growing as an empire. They where improving their army their navy and their weapons. they where also improving on producing products such as cotton coal and still. This was good news to the Germans because they where taking customers of Britain because they where selling products for a lower price.

This also was good for Germany because they had more steel than Britain and any other country in Europe. This meant that they could produce more munitions than any one else in Europe. This growing improvement made Britain worried about what Germany had up their sleeve. This did not worry Britain in some aspects, because Britain's navy was twice or even three times as strong as Germany's. This played to Britain's advantage, as they are an island and not as easily assessed.

The rivalry continued when Britain became founders of gold that was found in South Africa. The only thing that was stopping Britain from digging for the gold was people living near were it was founded. The people living here at the time were people called the Boers? The Boers were Dutch farmers living in South Africa. Britian rowed for months with the Boers over the gold, so in the end Britain declared with the Boers. Britian thought they would only be at war for a couple of weeks, but a couple of weeks soon turned in to three long years of fighting.

This was of course when Germany decided to stick their noses in the situation. The Germans decided to send a telegraph to the Boers. This telegraph said 'keep defending your land and try and fight off Britian. Germany were also secretly involved in this war because they were secretly protecting the Boers. But in the end Britain finally won the war against the Boers and started digging for their gold.

Britain felt that war was blooming in Europe. So they decided to take action and started building the ultimate war ship. This war ship was called a 'Dreadnought'. The dreadnought was being built somewhere in Britain but to Britain's surprise the blueprints to the dreadnoughts were stolen by a German spy.

This lead to the construction of an even more powerful warship that the Germans were planning on building. Britain became anxious and started building their dreadnoughts a lot faster than the Germans. This reversed the fear and made the Germans worry of a possible naval strike by Britain. While this was going on elsewhere in Germany a team of German engineers were producing a large amount of heavy artillery weapons. This build up of artillery made Britain anxious of an on land attack by the Germans. The process begun again.

Germany had a formal agreement with their allies. Their allies were Italy and Austria-Hungary. But Britain on the other hand didn't. Their special alliance agreement was verbal. In other words Britain's alliance with France and Russia was not a written agreement but a spoken agreement. The reason Britain didn't sign an agreement was because for many years they had been in 'splendid isolation'.

This meant that they were an independent country that didn't sign any written alliances. Though the alliance system seemed a pretty good idea it also had its drawbacks. For example if France was attacked by Austria-Hungary, Britian and Russia would have to help France and also Germany and Italy would have to help Austria-Hungary. So as you can see it would go from an argument between two countries to a trans-European war which Europe did not want what so ever. Secretly Britain had an agreement of naval support with Japan. In Bosnia there where a l 9 ot of Serbs and Germans.

There for Serbia thought as there people occupied most of the country they should have their say in what happens to Bosnia. On the other hand Austria, due to their alliance with the Germans, also wanted a piece of Serbia if not the whole thing, as this would increase the possibility of support for them off of Germany. Serbia called on Russia for help and their answer to this was that they should have a conference with Austria and Serbia to agree on what should happen in terms of Serbia and whom it should belong to. Austria refused and was backed by Germany. Germany demanded that Serbia and Russia should accept the take over of Serbia by Austria- Hungary. Due to their in superior army Russia was forced to back down and Serbia where left to fight for Bosnia on their own.

In the end Austria declare war on Serbia. The reason this event occurred was because of Austria demanding Ten Commandments from Serbia and Serbia could only meet nine of them. This made Austria angry and they where son forced to a war with the Serbs. Although Russia backed down they where unlikely to back down in another situation like this one. Germany was now fully committed to supporting Austrian policy in the Balkans even if it led to a war between the great powers. My final thought of the issues that occurred in the late 1800 and early 1900 led to fall outs between all the great powers in Europe. in my view it was only a matter of time before a major war took place..