Lead up to WW1

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• 1870 Alsace Lorraine was a strong industrial area for france Germany took it in a war raised tensions between Germany and france

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• 1879 Germany and Austria-Hungary made an alliance

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• 1882 Germany and Italy make an alliance Germany didn't entirely trust Italy Italy was not a strong partener

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• 1894 france and Russia make an alliance they were both worried about the growing power of Germany

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• 1904 Britain and france made several agreements about trade and colonies in Africa not involved in military

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• 1905 Kaiser wanted to take morocco but so did france, he went to morocco and made a speech on independence in order to stop france taking it. he did this also to test the alliance between Britain and france - stronger than he thought it would be 1906 - algercrias conference was held and humiliated the Kaiser + increased tensions +made divide between alliances clear +Kaiser wanted revenge for humiliation

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• 1906 the start of the arms race, especially between british and german navy Kaiser followed a policy known as the weltpolitik - a more aggressive foreign policy to increase military strength and empire Britain built the first dreadnought(big battleship) by 1914 Britain had 29 and Germany had 17

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• 1907 Britain had previously regarded Russia as a dangerous enemy but were now on the same side once again both feared germany

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• 1908 Austria-Hungary take over Bosnia Both Serbia and bosnia were not happy about this as they wanted all slavs to be united together 

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• 1911 People in Morocco rebelled and the leaders asked France for help. France entered Morocco and Kaiser feared he would use this to take over. He sent the Panther gunboat to Agadir, Britain also sent warships and then Kaiser withdrew. Britain feared they wanted Morocco as a Naval base, to get his ships into the medittaranean Another conference was held, Kaiser got land in central afirca and France got Morocco. +brought war a step closer +Kaiser was once again not happy +Britain and france now discussed how they would fight

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• 1912 Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgari and Greece formed to get rid of the Turkish government who were now very weak

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• 1912 Balkan league attacked turkey, they won easily as the ottoman empire was now very weak, known as the old man of europe

1. Britain's Part

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   • In both wars Britain tried to keep the peace rather than supporting Russia and Serbia Germany saw this that the alliance was weak

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• 1913 Balkan league argued Serbia took a lot of Bulgarian land - and so increased in power

1. Britain's part
2. AH

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   • Austria was v ery worried about the threat of Serbia now, especially as they were angry at them for taking Bosnia

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• 28th June 1914, Sarajevo - Serbia Black hand Gange - Gavrilo Princip

1. Why

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   • set up by the Serbian government? in order to publicise that they wanted Bosnia to be untied with Serbia, as Franz was heir to AH throne Set up by the AH government? to have an excuse to go to war with Serbia in order to defeat there growing power

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• 23rd july = Austrian government offers an ultimatum to Serbia 24th july = Serbia agree to some but not all of the terms, suggest that the court of arbitration should decide the rest 25th july = Austria rejects this and begins to mobilise troops 28th july = Austria declares war on Serbia 30th july = Russia mobilises, Germany warns them if they continue then Germany will act, they continue 1st august = Germany declare war on Russia. Italy declares it will stay neutral 3rd august = Germany declares war on france 4th august = Germany invade Belgium, Britain declare war on Germany.