第63期 The process which develope

Let's go back to 1871 at the end of the Franco-Prussian war between France, and the confederation of North Germany allied with the German states in the south. After this war, France was defeated, and the winners united to form the German empire. Moselle and Alsace-Lorraine are annexed to the new German empire, frustrating the French side. In the next couple of years, Germany built alliances. Firstly with Austria-Hungary in 1879, then with Italy in 1881. These three formed as known as the Triple Alliance (Germany/Austria-Hungary /Italy). 

While the Central Powers were colonizing Africa because of the growth of its power, France allied with Russia in 1891 and signed a secret treaty of non-aggression with Italy to avoid the second front in case of war. Later on, the British feared the rise of the German army, particularly its Navy; so Britain comes out of the isolation, first allied with France in 1904 called Entente Cordiale, then three years later in 1907 with Russia, the three finally formed as known as the Triple Entente (France/Britain/Russia).

In 1914, a time which the whole of Europe was in tremendous tension. France wanted the Alsace-Lorraine back that Germany had taken from it, Germany was building an enormous NAVY which was making the British very uncomfortable because it was threatening the British NAVY's naval control, and it wanted to take more of everyone's stuff. Apart from that, the military had made a long way since the last major war, so an excessive amount of soldiers, weapons, and new technologies suddenly made them pretty eager to beat each other up.

The Austria-Hungary and Ottoman got along very well, but there were lots of different small nations against that. So they declared independent, under Russia's support. 

So here is how it goes. Central Powers in the middle of Europe, Russia at its right, France at its left, and Britain in the North-West. Germany's greatest fear was the encirclement by Russia and France; Britain's greatest fear was this growth of German NAVY; France's greatest fear was this growth of the German army; Austria-Hungary's greatest fear was it was becoming a weak power; Russia's greatest fear was that collapse of its nation, because of all those conditions, invisible, complex, and dangerous relationships soon built up between the Triple Entente and the Central Powers, so all you need to create a war, was a spark.

On June 29, 1914, a Serbian nationalist murdered the heir of the Austria-Hungary (Archduke Franz Ferdinand), and his wife (Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg) in Sarajevo. Austria-Hungary accused the Serbian government of organizing this assassination; sent lists of demands to Serbia, asked for taking the responsibility. Serbia government refused because the demand was unachievable, and that was exactly what Austria-Hungary want. So after the agreement of supports from Germany, Austria-Hungary ignored Russia's threat and declared war on Serbia. In the next few days, the relationships between Triple Alliances and Triple Entente rapidly deteriorate.  

The war began.