User blog:Ninjinian/World War I: Planning

Now Swiss Ninja made a blog post on a parody of World War I - everyone agreed. Now the blog post has gone off the blog-list, but is still viewable, and commenting has gone 90+ and is still going - so I made this to do some planning. Anything not related to the war or planning that is commented will be hidden - every comment off topic! Now, there is some history to be recounted this will be in parts to not fry your brain:

History: Part 1
Important Facts:
 * Germany and Austria-Hungary made an alliance to protect themselves from Russia in 1879.
 * Austria-Hungary made an alliance with Serbia to stop Russia gaining control of Serbia in 1881.
 * Germany and Austria- Hungary made an alliance with Italy to stop Italy from taking sides with Russia in 1882.
 * Russia formed an alliance with France to protect herself against Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1894.
 * 1904: Entente Cordiale - This was an agreement, but not a formal alliance, between France and Britain.
 * 1907: Anglo-Russian Entente - This was an agreement between Britain and Russia.
 * 1907: Triple Entente - This was made between Russia, France and Britain to counter the increasing threat from Germany.
 * 1914: Triple Entente (no separate peace) - Britain, Russia and France agreed not to sign for peace separately.

History: Part 2
Alliances:

An alliance is an agreement made between two or more countries to give each other help if it is needed. When an alliance is signed, those countries become known as Allies. A number of alliances had been signed by countries between the years 1879 and 1914. These were important because they meant that some countries had no option but to declare war if one of their allies. declared war first (see Important Facts above).

Imperialism:

Imperialism is when a country takes over new lands or countries and makes them subject to their rule. By 1900 the British Empire extended over five continents and France had control of large areas of Africa. With the rise of industrialism countries needed new markets. The amount of lands 'owned' by Britain and France increased the rivalry with Germany who had entered the scramble to acquire colonies late and only had small areas of Africa.

Militarism:

Militarism means that the army and military forces are given a high profile by the government. The growing European divide had led to an arms race between the main countries. The armies of both France and Germany had more than doubled between 1870 and 1914 and there was fierce competition between Britain and Germany for mastery of the seas. The British had introduced the 'Dreadnought', an effective battleship, in 1906. The Germans soon followed suit introducing their own battleships. The German, Von Schlieffen also drew up a plan of action that involved attacking France through Belgium if Russia made an attack on Germany. The map below shows how the plan was to work.

Nationalism:

Nationalism means being a strong supporter of the rights and interests of one's country. The Congress of Vienna, held after Napoleon's exile to Elba, aimed to sort out problems in Europe. Delegates from Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia (the winning allies) decided upon a new Europe that left both Germany and Italy as divided states. Strong nationalist elements led to the re-unification of Italy in 1861 and Germany in 1871. The settlement at the end of the Franco-Prussian war left France angry at the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to Germany and keen to regain their lost territory. Large areas of both Austria-Hungary and Serbia were home to differing nationalist groups, all of whom wanted freedom from the states in which they lived.

Crises
Moroccan Crisis:

In 1904 Morocco had been given to France by Britain, but the Moroccans wanted their independence. In 1905, Germany announced her support for Moroccan independence. War was narrowly avoided by a conference which allowed France to retain possession of Morocco. However, in 1911, the Germans were again protesting against French possession of Morocco. Britain supported France and Germany was persuaded to back down for part of French Congo.

Bosnian Crisis:

In 1908, Austria-Hungary took over the former Turkish province of Bosnia. This angered Serbians who felt the province should be theirs. Serbia threatened Austria-Hungary with war, Russia, allied to Serbia, mobilised its forces. Germany, allied to Austria-Hungary mobilised its forces and prepared to threaten Russia. War was avoided when Russia backed down. There was, however, war in the Balkans between 1911 and 1912 when the Balkan states drove Turkey out of the area. The states then fought each other over which area should belong to which state.

History: Part 3
The causes of World War One are complicated and unlike the causes of  World War Two, where the guilty party was plain to all, there is no such clarity. Germany has been blamed because she invaded Belgium in August 1914 when Britain had promised to protect Belgium. However, the street celebrations that accompanied the British and French declaration of war gives historians the impression that the move was popular and politicians tend to go with the popular mood.

Was much done to avoid the start of the war?

By 1914, Europe had divided into two camps.


 * The Triple Alliance was Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary.
 * The Triple Entente was Britain, France and Russia.

The alliance between Germany and Austria was natural. Both spoke the same language - German - and had a similar culture. In previous centuries, they had both been part of the same empire - the Holy Roman Empire.

Austria was in political trouble in the south-east of Europe - the Balkans. She needed the might of Germany to back her up if trouble got worse. Italy had joined these countries as she feared their power on her northern border. Germany was mainland Europe's most powerful country - so from Italy's point of view, being an ally of Germany was an obvious move. Each member of the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria and Italy) promised to help the others if they were attacked by another country.

History: Part 4
The Triple Entente was less structured than the Triple Alliance. "Entente" means understanding and the members of the Entente (Britain, France and Russia) did not have to promise to help the other two if they got attacked by other countries but the understanding was that each member would support the others - but it was not fixed.

France was suspicious of Germany. She had a huge army but a poor navy. Britain had the world's most powerful navy and a small army. France and Britain joining together in an understanding was natural.

Britain was also concerned about Germany because she was building up a new and powerful navy. The inclusion of Russia seemed odd when Russia was so far from France and Britain. However, Russia's royal family, the Romanovs, was related to the British Royal Family. Russia also had a huge army and with France on the west of Europe and Russia on the east, the 'message' sent to Germany was that she was confronted by two huge armies on either side of her borders. Therefore, it was not a good move by Germany to provoke trouble in Europe - that was the hoped for message sent out by the Triple Entente.

History: Part 5
Certain specific problems also helped to create suspicion throughout Europe. The first was Germany's fear of the huge British Empire.

By 1900, Britain owned a quarter of the world. Countries such as Canada, India, South Africa, Egypt, Australia and New Zealand were owned by Britain as part of the British Empire. Queen Victoria had been crowned Empress of India. Huge amounts of money were made from these colonies and Britain had a powerful military presence in all parts of the world. The Empire was seen as the status symbol of a country that was the most powerful in the world. Hence Britain's title "Great Britain".

Germany clearly believed that a sign of a great power was possession of overseas colonies. The 'best' had already been taken by Britain but Germany resolved to gain as much colonial territory as possible. Her main target was Africa. She colonised territory in southern Africa (now Namibia) which no-one really wanted as it was useless desert but it did create much anger in London as Germany's new territories were near South Africa with its huge diamond and gold reserves. In reality, Germany's African colonies were of little economic importance but it gave her the opportunity to demonstrate to the German people that she had Great Power status even if this did make relations with Britain more fragile than was perhaps necessary for the economic returns Germany got from her colonies.

History: Part 6
A second issue that caused much friction between Britain and Germany was Germany's desire to increase the size of her navy. Britain accepted that Germany, as a large land-based country, needed a large army. But Germany had a very small coastline and Britain could not accept that Germany needed a large navy.

Britain concluded that Germany's desire to increase the size of her navy was to threaten Britain's naval might in the North Sea. The British government concluded that as an island we needed a large navy and they could not accept any challenges from Germany. As a result, a naval race took place. Both countries spent vast sums of money building new warships and the cost soared when Britain launched a new type of battleship - the Dreadnought. Germany immediately responded by building her equivalent. Such a move did little to improve relations between Britain and Germany. All it did was to increase tension between the two nations.

With Europe so divided, it only needed one incident to spark off a potential disaster. This incident occurred at Sarajevo in July 1914.

Planning
These are some ideas made by me and some others:

Storyline:
 * 'It is March 7, 2020, and the Yliaster have kidnap hundreds of penguins from Antarctica in the past month. Then the South Pole Council and the UnitedTerra Parliament get together in Tops Tower/ Council Hall and discuss the problem - then they get a phone call from an Yliaster, giving details on the war, and if Antarctica win, they give back the kidnapped penguins. Fire and destruction will be included. Then they begin the war.

Second Storyline:
 * The parodies of the countries form alliances with others, making some others jealous. Then an important person is killed by the Yliaster (relating to the Austrian archduke) and war begins.