World War I, international governance, European Concert, imperialism, rigid alliances, balance of terror, diplomatic tensions, German Weltpolitik, arms race, European powers
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Abstract
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Abstract
The collapse of the European Concert and rise of imperialist rivalries led to a climate of tensions that contributed to the outbreak of World War I in 1914.
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[...] Finally, we will discuss the impact of international governance on the rise of tensions that led to the First World War. I. Le remplacement of the European concert by rigid alliances A. The end of the European concert and the failure of international governance mechanisms As mentioned in the introduction, the Congress of Vienna in 1815 allowed the great European powers to establish a relative balance: it is the European concert. This system of durable peace was based on the idea of diplomatic cooperation between states to prevent conflicts and thus avoid major wars. [...]
[...] These upheavals in international governance created the conditions conducive to the most devastating war the continent has ever known. The multiple and interconnected causes leading to the outbreak of the First World War following a change in international governance can be embodied in this quote from Christopher Clark: 'War does not arise from a single event, but from an entanglement of causes and accumulated tensions.' (Clark, 2013). Bibliography Dickinson, G. L. (1917). The European Anarchy. New York: The Macmillan Company. [...]
[...] In fact, diplomatic mechanisms were seen as 'broken': international conferences failed to find peaceful solutions to try to respond to crises. War was seen as inevitable due to secret diplomacy, power games, or incorrect political calculations. All these elements combined constituted this balance of terror and the escalation of diplomatic tensions. C. The Limits of International Governance in 1914 In conclusion, the year 1914 starkly illustrates the inability of international governance systems to prevent a global conflict. As mentioned earlier, the rigidity of alliances, the rise of nationalism, and imperial ambitions created a context in which war seemed to be the only possible solution to resolve the accumulated tensions. [...]
[...] Dissertation : Europe in 1914 within the framework of international governance. Introduction « Europe in 1914 is a volcano on the verge of eruption. » This quote from historian Georges-Henri Soutou demonstrates the extreme tension that reigns over the European continent at the dawn of the First World War. Indeed, following decades of international governance dominated by the European Concert put in place at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, major changes will operate within the European political game, which will then be radically transformed at the turn of the 20th century. [...]
[...] The collapse of the European concert, which for a century guaranteed stability, will give way to a political scheme of confrontations and competitions between the great powers. We then enter an unstable balance and a climate of mistrust. On one side, imperialist ambitions exacerbate tensions. On the other, military alliances imprison nations in immovable blocks, preventing any diplomacy to defuse crises. In reality, these transformations only intensified a climate that was already tense. Europe then finds itself trapped in a web of mutual responsibilities and reciprocal mistrust due to the alliances. [...]
