HISTORY 322 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Archduke Franz Ferdinand Of Austria, Chemical Warfare, Social Order
Lecture 1:
● Historians and World War I:
● Interlocking alliances and (Im)Balances of Power
○ Germany was not in alliance with many people
○ Russia alliance with w austro-hungary and
○ Alliances don’t “start” anything, can still be allies without actually engaging in WWI
■ Provide justification to say
○ Germany felt encircled and paranoid
■ Flipside of interlocking alliance system
■ Really late as a player on the imperial playground
● Wanted to seize territory overseas to be competitive as a global power
scale
○ East as a territory for German expansion
○ East = russia - powerful and allies with -
■ Britain → had huge imperial reach
■ France
● Germany’s own lack of confidence viewed other countries as threats
■ Hadn’t been a unified nation for a long while
○ Fischer Controversy: Fritz Fischer challenged predominant interpretation of WOrld War I
by German historians in 1961
■ Because of sense of belatedness and thwarted in development, Germans felt like
they had to take a chance and act on the world stage to realize potential
● Feeling of being short handed provoked war when it was not necessary
■ Historians hated this → justified as necessity rather than sense of aggression
○ Explaining the first world war today: Fischer’s thesis remain widely accepted with some
important qualifications:
■ Nationalism run rampant
● Serbia
● Smaller cultural communities that were part of larger empires strived for
natural independence
● France, English, Italians celebrated progress (inspired smaller countries)
■ Technological ability to wage war
● Put new inventions to the test
● Late 19th century - Brits, French, Germans put their weapons of mass
destruction to test in the colonies
○ Technology led to belief in short war
■ Belief in a short war
● Allowed them to wage a different kind of war - however strategies were
built off of older wars
■ Inevitability of war
● So much tension bc people were wrapped up in nationalism
● “War was going to come anyway” - most Europeans view
○ Not if but when
○ When is most opportunistic moment to enter war?
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Document Summary
Germany was not in alliance with many people. Alliances don"t start anything, can still be allies without actually engaging in wwi. Really late as a player on the imperial playground. Wanted to seize territory overseas to be competitive as a global power scale. East as a territory for german expansion. East = russia - powerful and allies with - Germany"s own lack of confidence viewed other countries as threats. Hadn"t been a unified nation for a long while. Fischer controversy: fritz fischer challenged predominant interpretation of world war i by german historians in 1961. Because of sense of belatedness and thwarted in development, germans felt like they had to take a chance and act on the world stage to realize potential. Feeling of being short handed provoked war when it was not necessary. Historians hated this justified as necessity rather than sense of aggression. Explaining the first world war today: fischer"s thesis remain widely accepted with some important qualifications:
