Any study of the Great War’s origins must begin with nationalism (see Chapter 24), one of the major ideologies of the nineteenth century, and its armed companion, militarism, the glorification of the military as the supreme ideal of the state with all other interests subordinate to it. European concerns over national security, economies, welfare, identities, and overseas empires set nation against nation, alliance against alliance, and army against army until they all went to war at once.

Competition between nations intensified greatly when Germany became a unified nation-state and the most powerful country in Europe in 1871 (see “Bismarck and German Unification” in Chapter 24). A new era in international relations began, as Chancellor Bismarck declared Germany a “satisfied” power, having no territorial ambitions within Europe and desiring only peace.

But how to preserve the peace? Bismarck’s first concern was to keep rival France diplomatically isolated and without military allies. His second concern was to prevent Germany from being dragged into a war between the two rival empires, Austria-Hungary and Russia, as they sought to fill the power vacuum created in the Balkans by the Ottoman Empire’s decline (see “Decline and Reform in the Ottoman Empire” in Chapter 25). To these ends, Bismarck brokered a series of treaties and alliances, all meant to ensure the balance of power in Europe and to prevent the outbreak of war.

In 1890 Germany’s new emperor, William II, forced Bismarck to resign and then abandoned many of Bismarck’s efforts to ensure German security through promoting European peace and stability. William refused to renew a nonaggression pact Bismarck had signed with Russia, for example, which prompted France to court the tsar, offering loans and arms, and sign a Franco-Russian Alliance in 1892. With France and Russia now allied against Germany, Austria, and Italy, Great Britain’s foreign policy became increasingly crucial. Many Germans and some Britons felt that the racially related Germanic and Anglo-Saxon peoples were natural allies. However, the good relations that had prevailed between Prussia and Great Britain since the mid-eighteenth century gave way after 1890 to a bitter Anglo-German rivalry.

There were several reasons for this development. Germany and Great Britain’s commercial rivalry in world markets and Kaiser William’s publicly expressed intention to create a global German empire unsettled the British. Germany’s decision in 1900 to add a fleet of big-gun battleships to its already-expanding navy also heightened tensions. British leaders considered the new battleships to be a military challenge to their long-standing naval supremacy. This decision coincided with the South African War (see “Southern African in the Nineteenth Century” in Chapter 25) between the British and the Afrikaners, which revealed widespread anti-British feeling around the world.

Thus British leaders set about shoring up their exposed position with their own alliances and agreements. Britain improved its relations with the United States, concluded an alliance with Japan in 1902, and in the Anglo-French Entente of 1904 settled all outstanding colonial disputes with France. Frustrated by Britain’s closer relationship with France, Germany’s leaders decided to test the entente’s strength by demanding an international conference to challenge French control over Morocco. At the Algeciras (Spain) Conference in 1906, Germany’s crude bullying only forced France and Britain closer together.

The Moroccan crisis was something of a diplomatic revolution. Britain, France, Russia, and even the United States began to view Germany as a potential threat. At the same time, German leaders began to suspect sinister plots to encircle Germany and block its development as a world power. In 1907 Russia and Britain settled their outstanding differences and signed the Anglo-Russian Agreement. This treaty, together with the earlier Franco-Russian Alliance of 1892 and Anglo-French Entente of 1904, served as a catalyst for the Triple Entente, the alliance of Great Britain, France, and Russia in the First World War (Map 28.1).

By 1909 Britain was psychologically, if not officially, in the Franco-Russian camp. Europe’s leading nations were divided into two hostile blocs, both ill-prepared to deal with upheaval in the Balkans.