By the late 1800 century Europe countries including Germany, Great Britain France and Italy known as the superpowers had gained an immense amount of power because at the time they had colonized many states around the world and with no surprise they were greedy for more. The Europeans countries were in search of new land, wealth and the desire to explore the world. It was an attempt to expand and develop Europe’s Imperialism, however think that quickly escalated into a race to capture the most land and the superpowers set out to compete. One main interest for the Europeans was Africa.
It became a target because the vast continent had so much to offer including gold, diamonds and endless territory in which the Europeans could establish naval vessels and trading ports for merchants. This proved to be crucial in the development of each of the country’s military as well as economies. A major goal for each of Countries was to build a more powerful economy. The African Continent had been vastly unexplored for centuries due to its harsh and rugged terrains they served as a barrier and kept the Europeans from navigating the inner lands of Africa.
Even though the Europeans had zero understanding and completely different perceptions of human kind as the native Africans they met at the coast they went on and traded with African merchants. Considering their safety the Europeans would only occupy the beachfronts of Africa due to the fear of catching a foreign disease, which could end up being lethal and since medical science was vastly unexplored subject at the time, it was a reality that Africa could kill you. Therefore the Europeans did not take the risk and for many centuries kept their distance from the inner lands of Africa.
The industrial revolution marked a major turning point in Europe’s imperial conquest with the introduction of new navigating technologies, being unable to navigate Africa became a problem of the past, in the same light the scientific revolution brought knowledge and medical technologies medicine and vaccines became readily available. This shaped the world and allowed for the imperial conquest of Africa. The advancement in Medical science and the industrial revolution changed history and cleared the path for Europeans to conquer Africa.
The European super powers invaded a weak and dysfunctional Africa and initiated the so called “scramble for Africa” it established a sort of competency to see which country could conquer the most land. The Europeans portioned the entire African continent to prevent conflict between the countries, on the other hand this would induce collision between the native African villages a extravagate example would be the Rwanda genocide because it shows the impact that European segregation inflicted.
Different enemy tribes even though they knew it would bring more conflict within the native Africans. The Europeans had to consider that immense amount tension between the natives and they knew that segregating tribes around the region would cause chaos and bring a period of oppression and violence to the continent. Not surprisingly, the Europeans did not care because they believed they were the superior race and that nature intended imperial conquest for the improvement of the human species.
I think it left us with the question whether “The scramble for Africa” was more of a pursuit of pride and personal benefits such territory and adventure rather than economic motives. The European superpowers used the Industrial revolution to their advantage they did this by fully militarizing their armies and equipping them with modern weapons that gave them the upper hand against the natives. Figuratively it was the case of bringing a knife to a gunfight, for the natives because they had sharp sticks while the invading armies had modern weapons such as rifles and pistols.
Without a doubt the Europeans went on to win many decisive battles and continued to control Africa they did so with impunity by killing, torturing or trading any oppositions into slavery. The Europeans conquered the continent with zero remorse for the people, the land or the culture. Equally important the superpowers faced heavy resistance as numerous African tribes and societies violently confronted Europe’s colonial conquest, they fought eagerly in hopes of preserving their freedom and independence, nonetheless they were outweighed by superior firepower.
A satisfying Example would be the Zulu tribe which had modernized African weapons and old military tactics were surprisingly able to defeat an invading British Force of 1,500 troops they accomplished quite an achievement, However the British forces later ramped up their army and destroyed The Zulu. This conflict turned Africa into a bloodshed because the British divided Zululand which caused greater conflict between the native tribes. The Africans were violently enslaved, abused and massacred by the European invaders and were not strong enough to defend themselves and their land against a more powerful nation.
The Europeans even went as far to turn the natives against each other they used enlightenment to seduce the Africans and managed to build an African army to fight under the European colonial powers. For example French expedition commander Jean-Baptiste Marchand who explored the African continent with African troops at his command. The Europeans were able to seduce the Africans and turn them on their side by telling the natives lies and giving them false hope of freedom as well as independence.
A period of battles and conflicts between the native Africans left the continent powerless and vulnerable to European imperialism. The Zulu wars brought a period of warfare between the native tribes in South Africa and strong presence for Islam and its influence on the slave trade it turned Africa into time bomb ready to explode as there was so much tension and rivalry between the tribes that occupied the regions. All those conflicts and the influence of Europe dismantled Africa and left the natives with no chance of defeating the Europeans and putting a stop to European imperialism.
It is evident to say that the native Africans were set up for failure, but in contrast how could the Africans defend themselves against a greater nation if they could not settle their differences and break any conflict between them? 2) The Great War was caused by many factors and was a time bomb ready to explode within the European nations. The War was portrayed as the war that would end tension between the nations and determine the superiority of each country, however at a tremendous cost. The Great War completely shattered the progress the nations acquired over centuries.
The Great War introduced a new era of warfare that will go on change the face of warfare, even this day it is described as the bloodiest war in history and had a dramatic effect on the world, however I would disagree that it solved anything contrariety it left a negative influence something that would lead to substantial complications problems in the 20th century. The European nations were doing exceptional prior to the war and it is appropriate to say they gained a lot of progress through imperialism and sticking together as a nation, However all good things come to an end right.
The European nations once expressed as the Superpowers divided and turned against each other. throughout the nation’s imperial conquest they seemed to have a had it figured out except the idea of competency and the drive for further imperialism never died which eventually led the nations to become greedy and turn against each other. From this point on the fuse was ignited and nothing could be done to reverse the fuse and therefore reduce tension that would ultimately spark the Great War.
The nations were no longer working together and a nationalism feeling was established, each nation set to compete against the others for superiority and patriotism it escalated into an arms race and revolved around Militarism. Each nation’s ramped up military spending and boosted their industrialization. From one day to another the European nations were engineering new weapons, equipment and explosives as well as motorized vehicles such as planes, tanks, and submarines. It was a competition to build the most efficient and powerful military artillery and motorized vehicles it revolutionized warfare and wars would never be the same again.
It is important to note that not all, of the countries became enemies each nation picked its allies and signed peace treaties to support the allied countries in case of a war breaking out. By 1914 Europe was divided in two armed alliances the Triple Alliance (Germany, Italy and Austria Hungary) and the Triple Entente Russia France and Great Britain. I think that the treaties only made the conflict worst, evidently when the war finally kicked off each of nations were tangled and therefore pulled into a deadly war that only a few people wanted.
All these factors contributed to the war but one crucial factor took place on June 28, 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated by a member of the Black Hand the assassination was ordered by a Serbian military officer. They were assassinated in Sarajevo as Franz Ferdinand was proposing a peace treaty that might have stopped the war as well as mass populations from dying. The assassination prompted Austria to declare war on Serbia a month later, the start of the Great War. A new era of warfare The Great War completely transformed old wars into modern warfare.
A new era of warfare was introduced Warfare would no longer be restricted to land, but skies and oceans would turn into warzones. Each nation’s carried out the war mainly by using high caliber Machine guns and explosives that had been introduced by industrial revolution. Airplanes were first introduced as spotters or drones but were later engineered with mounted machine guns. Giant Tanks made out of metal and first generation submarines were also introduced to warfare. Even though the artillery planes and tanks weren’t developed and deadly as the ones today, they caused a massive death toll.
After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Austria declared war on Serbia on July 28 1914. If no treaties existed at this point it would be a war between Austria Hungary and Serbia which might have not caused massive casualties. Russia then declared war Austria and begun to mobilize in defiance of Germany which caused the German to declare wars on Russia and France. The Germans became determined to fight the war and defeat the rival countries they carried out the Schlieffen plan which was to invade Belgium and from there launch a surprise attack on France.
Great Britain was then pulled into modern warfare and declared war on Germany in defiance of the Schlieffen plan, nonetheless Germany engaged in war with Belgium and even though Belgium put up a good fight they were outmatched by the Germans. France and Great Britain found themselves with reasonable amount of time to mobilize and fight Germany just outside of Paris a war that would last three years and introduce trench warfare for the first time. The Germans were struggling in the western front but they were dominating the Russians and on the east front and managed to conquer west Russia including Poland and the Baltic coast.
Furthermore Russia drops out of the war the war became unpopular and controversial in Russia they were low on supplies and could not feed their troops. In other words they were done and did not want to fight anymore. The United States had remained irrelevant for most of the war, until conflicts arose between the U. S. and Germany. The U. S. restricted the Germans from Engaging in submarine warfare. In defiance of the U. S the Germans carried out attacks and furthermore sunk a British ship which was occupied by 128 Americans on May 1915 in the coast of Ireland.
The Germans did this because they believed that the Americans were aiding the enemies by smuggling weapons and artillery to the British. After a discussion in class it was revealed that the Americans were in fact aiding the Triple Entente by sending them weapons and explosives and using the cruise ship and travel company as a front. The Idea of America engaging in a foreign war was very controversial many Americans did not think America should join the war, however others were in favor of a war but not against Germany instead they felt America should aid the triple alliance and declare war on the Triple Entente.
The U. S had to convince Americans that declaring war on the Germans was the right thing to do and that the US must aid countries with good relationships. The U. S government launched mass propaganda during the war in hopes of turning the Americans against the Germans and give way for declaration of war. And in 1917 Woodrow Wilson Declares War on Germany in an attempt to make way for democracy across the globe. As the U. S. entered the war the Triple Entente alliance gained the advantage with American troops, supplies and funding the balance was tipped off and Germany was defeated.
At the End of the war all more than 10 million lives had been lost over 300 billion dollars had been spent on the war and Millions of people were left disabled. The war caused a mass destruction of Europe and all progress was lost, it left the feeling that the war brought more problems than it had solved and most of the nations blamed it on Germany. The Great War was supposed to establish a feeling of redemption and freedom but at the end of long depressing war nothing had changed no conflicts had been solved, contrariety more problems arose, revolutions broke out, people revolted and violence continued to spread throughout the region.
Even though we can longer hear the shots or feel the trauma from the Great War we can continue to see the impact it left. In the aftermath of the war Germany entered a revolution and replaced monarchy with a new system of government this would ultimately clear the way for Adolf Hitler and his nationalist socialist party to take control of Germany and rise to power. The Rise Of the nationalist party would evidently lead to the holocaust and even a second world war.
Losses in the war also led to the fall of a Russian monarchist in 1917 it allowed Bolshevik to rise to power and therefore bring vast influence of communism to Russia. Without a doubt the US became the largest industrial power after the war because the European countries ended in ruins and economically dismantled. The U. S was seen as the savior of the war as it prompted to fix the Ruined Countries.