Europe and the World

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Europe and the World

• 1870-1914

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The Politics of Mapmaking

• 1885 only 11 of worlds surface surveyed
• Great leap forward 1890-1900 but no uniform map
  of the world
• Issues of debate
• Units of measurement
• Location of the prime meridian
• Advantages of uniformity
• standardized timekeeping in an age of railroads
• Appropriate that Great Britain the geopolitical
  power the starting point for the measure of time
  and space

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Britains Geopolitical Domination1914
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European Balance of Power1870-1914
THE BIG FIVE
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Balance of Power Bismarcks Plan to Keep the
Peace

• Three Emperors League (1873, renewed 1881)
• Germany
• Austria Hungary
• Russia
• Dual Alliance (1879)
• Germany
• Austria Hungary
• Triple Alliance (1882)
• Germany
• Austria Hungary
• Italy
• Reinsurance Treaty with Russia (1887)

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Problems

• Three Emperors League (1883)
• Three most conservative powers in Europe
• Purpose neutrality and consultation
• Geographic imperative for German Empire
  avoidance of a two front war
• Geographic weaknesses
• Germany North Sea ports and encirclement
• Austria Hungary size and diversity
  agricultural backwardness
• Russia still Catherine's Greek project-access
  to the Mediterranean and warm water ports

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Eastern Question and the Problem with Russias
Answer

• Russo Turkish Wars of the 19th Century
• 1828-1829 Alexander Ypsilantis Greek Revolt
• Russian ambitions provoke England to support
  Greek independence movement Romantic poets
• Treaty of Edirne (Adrianople)
• 1853-1856 Crimean War
• Russia destroys Ottoman fleet and western Europe,
  leery of Russian expansion plans, intervenes to
  prop up sick man of Europe
• Importance of western technology highlighted
• 1877-1878 Russo Turkish War
• Treaty of San Stefano
• Congress of Berlin

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Additional Approaches

• Great Britain
• Acquires Sudan, Egypt, Cyprus, Aden
• Protects the entrance to the Suez Canal completed
  in 1869 and UK majority stockholder 1875) and
  route to India
• Germany
• Berlin to Baghdad Railroad (the Orient Express)
• Balkans
• Various bids for independence by host of ethnic
  groups

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Catherines Greek Project

• Control the Bosporous to prevent blockade
• Create dependent Slavic states in the Balkan
  Peninsula
• Russo-Turkish War 1876 a pretext for intervention
• Serb revolt in Bosnia Herzegovina 1874 forces
  internal Turkish reform
• Serbia declares war on Turkey 1876
• Britain supports Ottomans for geopolitical
  reasons despite atrocities in Bulgaria (Tsvetis
  connection to these)
• Russia supports Romania captures Armenia
• Abdul Hamid II sues for peace 1878

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Treaty of San Stefano March 1878

• Gave Russia territory in the Caucasus, control of
  Kars
• Control of the mouth of the Danube
• Declared the straits leading from the Black Sea
  to the Mediterranean neutral and open to shipping
  in time of war

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Treaty of Berlin Summer 1878

• Revised Treaty of San Stefano more in line with
  western demands
• Bismarck afraid that Germany was losing status as
  a Great Power hosted the Conference as honest
  broker
• UK, France, Austria Hungary, Italy, Germany,
  Russia, Ottoman Empire the signatories
• Recognized independence of Romania, Serbia and
  Montenegro and the autonomy of Bulgaria under
  Ottomans
• Bosnia Herzegovina placed under Austro-Hungarian
  occupation

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Consequences

• Estrangement among Great Powers
• Russia leaves Three Emperors League but renews
  agreement several years later after an agreement
  is reached regarding spoils of Ottoman Empire
• Alliance system revamped
• Bismarck signs series of treaties with Italy and
  Russia as well
• Further problems in the Balkans (1885) contribute
  to increased tension between Austria Hungary and
  Russia

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French Geopolitical Reality

• Tension with Germany as a result of loss of
  Franco-Prussian War
• Loss of status on the continent
• Humiliating loss of Alsace Lorraine
• Industrially, militarily, demographically Germany
  provides threat
• Isolated by Bismarcks diplomacy until 1894 when
  Germanys Reinsurance Treaty lapses with Russia
  and French investment in Russia begins

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Alliance System prior to War
Triple Alliance
Triple Entente
France
Germany Austria Hungary Italy
1894
1902
UK
1907
Russia
A military alliance
A series of independent diplomatic agreements
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New Imperialism

• Acquisition of territories on an intense and
  unprecedented scale
• Industrialization
• Transportation
• Communication
• Advantages of industrial nation-states in
  marshalling resources
• New level of domination
• New level of inequality
• Destabilizing impact of rivalry

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Motivation Technologys Impact

• Steamships replace sailing ships
• Carry more people and goods, more reliably and
  with predictability of railroad timetables
• Navigation of rivers like the Congo now possible
• Engineering feats
• Suez Canal - de Lesseps 1869 Britain has
  controlling interest 1875
• Panama Canal
• New types of firearms
• Breech-loading rifles, repeating rifles, machine
  guns
• Accurate aim, rapid fire from distances reaching
  ½ mile
• Communication
• 2 years to 2 months to hours thanks to telegraph
  lines and cables
• Medical advances

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Motivation Economic

• Profit for industry often predicated on risk
• Cant simply assess balance sheet
• World wide network for investment and markets
• Krupp armaments thrives
• Investment opportunities in diamonds in South
  Africa and railroads in China equally attractive
• Search for sheltered markets at the heart of
  Britains system of imperial preference
• Pursuit of individual fortunes
• Protection of the standard of living of the
  working class
• Joseph Chamberlain, mayor of Birmingham and
  foreign secretary 1895-1903
• Need for new raw materials
• Cotton from Egypt and Asia
• Jute from India for twine, burlap, millions of
  jute bags
• Rubber and petroleum newly important

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Motivation Geopolitics

• Certain geographical areas valuable for political
  reasons
• Strategic imperative
• Sahara occupied by France to protect Algeria
• Proximity to sea routes
• Suez controlled financially by British
  shareholders 1875
• Egypt occupied 1882
• Mediterranean islands, Indian Ocean islands
• Fueling bases and protection of colonies
• Djibouti by France in Red Sea
• Singapore and Hong Kong by UK
• Increase in naval budgets increase in
  military budgets
• Military/industrial complex
• Influence of military in political decision
  making increases

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Motivation Nationalism

• Prestige for large and small nations
• Impact of newspapers
• Expansion as entertainment for otherwise dull and
  dreary lives
• Imperial adventurers teams to root for
• Daily report of square miles gained and peoples
  captured
• Public opinion
• Shaping policy - Public outcry in France to
  offset British advances in Egypt results in
  Brazza planting flags in the Congo basin
• Manipulated by government bread and circuses
  deflect attention from social problems in Germany
• Jingoism willingness to risk war for national
  glory

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Motivation Other

• Missionaries
• Science National Geographic Society, scientific
  expeditions to take meteorological, astronomical
  readings, collect specimens
• Wealthy persons the beginnings of eco tourism
  hunting tigers, see sights need and expect their
  governments protection when they travel abroad
• Outthrust of white mans civilization
• White Mans Burden - UK
• Civilizing mission France
• Diffusion of Kultur Germany
• Buttressed by Social Darminism

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The varieties of control

• Direct
• Military conquest and direct imperial control
• Take over of the economic/productive life of the
  country, transforming large sectins of the
  population into wage earners
• Inequity heightened by racial differences
• Indirect
• Lend money to native rulers khedive of Egypt,
  shah of Persia to prop up thrones or live better
• European advisors to protect the financial stake
• Extra-territorial rights and privileges

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The Scramble for Africa
home 1901 to World War II

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The Scramble for Africa

• French military men seeking to carve out military
  careers in French West Africa
• Valuable minerals in Zimbabwe and Zambia
• Missionaries Malawi and Uganda
• Strategic reasons French Djibouti, British
  Egypt
• Take so others cant Tanzania, Namibia,
  Botswana
• Pseudo scientific racial theories prominent after
  1870 blacks the least developed in the
  evolutionary sequence imperial expansion in
  Africa natural
• Economic downturn after 1873 grab land in
  case economically useful

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Leopold II The Catalyst

• King of Belgium motivated by sheer greed
• 1876 established International African
  Association ostensibly to stamp out slavery
• Trading stations established ivory and rubber
  plantations
• Lobbies for formal European recognition of rights
  in the Congo Basin
• 1884 International Conference held in Berlin
• Congo Free State established and rules for
  colonial acquisitions in Africa established
• Effective occupation involving real presence
  and the plan of economic development

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Nature of the Scramble

• European - Conflict minimal
• Fashoda 1898 Kitchener heads south along Nile
  Marchand heads east for the Red Sea
• results in the Entente Cordiale - Africa not
  worth going to war over
• Moroccan crises
• Africans like shooting ducks in a barrel
• Ethiopia the exception
• The importance of modern weaponry
• Menelik II concessions to France and Italy
  (Russia and Britain) in return for guns
• General Oreste Baratieri and PM Francesco Crispi
• Battle of Adowa 1896

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South Africa

• Afrikaners the original Dutch settlers
• Great Trek (1837-1844)
• Orange Free State and Transvaal established
• British Cape Colony
• German annexation of Namibia (1884)
• 1886 gold deposits found in Witwatersrand
• Need for capital investment
• Cecil Rhodes politician and financier problems
  with Transvaal policies Jameson raid
• Alfred Milners policies to force unification

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Boer War

• 350,000 British troops
• Guerilla warfare
• Scorched earth
• Concentration camps
• Deaths 1902 25,000 Afrikaners, 22,000 British
  troops, 12,000 Africans
• Cost to Britain splendid isolation no longer
  so splendid segregation the model promised to
  Afrikaners

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