1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,440 Hello class, today we are going to explain the European-International relations from 2 00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:23,080 1871 up to 1890. At that time, we are going to travel to the year 1871. At that time if 3 00:00:23,080 --> 00:00:32,320 you remember, Yemeni defeated France in the Battle of Sedan. As a result of that, Yemeni 4 00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:41,320 took over two important industrial territories in France, which were Lorraine and Alsace, 5 00:00:41,320 --> 00:00:51,600 and obviously France became the main rival of Yemeni. The chancellor at that moment was 6 00:00:51,600 --> 00:01:02,560 Otto von Wismar, and it was true that Wismar succeeded, the Yemen territory was created, 7 00:01:02,560 --> 00:01:10,800 Yemeni as a nation was founded, but Otto von Wismar was really really afraid, because he 8 00:01:10,880 --> 00:01:21,200 knew that France became his main rival, and obviously he was really really interested in 9 00:01:21,760 --> 00:01:32,400 consolidating the country. Yemeni was founded in 1870, and Wismar knew that Yemeni needed 10 00:01:32,880 --> 00:01:39,920 several years in advance to consolidate the country, to consolidate the administration, 11 00:01:39,920 --> 00:01:51,120 the state, because if not, one revolution could emerge in Yemeni. So for this reason, 12 00:01:51,760 --> 00:02:06,160 Wismar carefully developed a new system, a new system which was based on different alliances 13 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:17,600 that I'm going to explain in a minute. So from 1871 to 1890, Wismar was the main chancellor in 14 00:02:18,480 --> 00:02:29,280 Yemeni, the emperor was Wilhelm I, and Wismar developed the important Bismarckian alliance 15 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:42,480 systems to protect Yemeni from its enemies. This alliance system, this network of alliance systems 16 00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:54,560 were based on secret diplomacy, secret diplomacy, because obviously if Yemeni was in war with other 17 00:02:54,560 --> 00:03:02,960 countries, Bismarck maintained several of these alliances in secret, and the main objective of 18 00:03:03,120 --> 00:03:15,360 these alliances was to isolate France. France was the main rival, and remember that the French 19 00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:24,720 had lost this important industrialized region, and the main objective of Bismarck was to isolate 20 00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:36,960 France, to avoid the war between Prussia and France again. However, this network of alliances 21 00:03:37,840 --> 00:03:48,000 had a second objective. Bismarck had a second objective in mind. Also, Bismarck, as we 22 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:56,960 have seen before, wanted to avoid the war against France, but also Bismarck was really, really 23 00:03:57,920 --> 00:04:05,360 interested in avoiding war against Russia. Why? Because if you pay attention to the map, 24 00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:14,160 Yemeni was in the middle of Europe, and Yemeni and Bismarck wanted to avoid a two-war front 25 00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:24,160 against France and also against Russia, because in case of a two-war front, Yemeni was 26 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:34,880 in the middle, and they would lose this war against France and against Russia at the same time. 27 00:04:35,840 --> 00:04:50,160 So, for this reason, Bismarck made a proposal, and it was signed in 1881, the Treaty of the Three 28 00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:58,400 Emperors. It was true that the idea came from Bismarck, so Prussia, what is now 29 00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:10,480 Yemeni, promoted the treaty, and also Russia and the main ally of Yemeni, after the unification, 30 00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:19,120 the Strongerian Empire. The Strongerian Empire was created, if you remember, in 1867, and for 31 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:26,400 this reason, the Strongerian Empire and Russia, they agreed with Bismarck, and finally, they 32 00:05:26,400 --> 00:05:34,800 signed the Treaty of the Three Emperors, because Yemeni at that time was very authoritarian, 33 00:05:34,800 --> 00:05:43,600 also Austria, and obviously, the Tsars in Russia, because they had an autocratic system, they were 34 00:05:43,600 --> 00:05:54,880 almost absolutists, despite giving the emancipation of the Tsevs in 1861. So, this is the situation, 35 00:05:54,880 --> 00:06:04,480 broadly speaking, in Europe. After the war against France, Bismarck and the rest of the 36 00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:12,960 countries in Europe managed to maintain one important period of peace, and this treaty was 37 00:06:14,080 --> 00:06:24,080 put in place, this important treaty, the Treaty of the Three Emperors, was put in place almost 20 38 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:34,960 years. So, after being in force for almost 20 years, during which armed conflict between the 39 00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:44,480 major powers had been avoided, these alliances systems, this network of alliances finally 40 00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:52,640 failed. So, after being in place almost 20 years, this network of alliances finally failed. 41 00:06:52,720 --> 00:07:02,800 And I'm going to explain why. We are going to travel now to 1890. In 1890, Wilhelm I, the emperor 42 00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:13,520 in Germany, died, and he was replaced by Wilhelm II, and his young son had another idea about 43 00:07:13,520 --> 00:07:24,320 Germany. He was the grandson of Queen Victoria in England. He used to travel to the UK, 44 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:32,240 together with his families, because there were many, many ties between, family ties, between 45 00:07:32,240 --> 00:07:43,120 the emperors in Germany and Queen Victoria in the UK. And when he was there, Wilhelm II basically 46 00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:53,440 had envy, he was jealous of the UK. He wanted to have the same empire as in the UK, and for this 47 00:07:53,440 --> 00:08:03,120 reason, he had other ideas comparing to Bismarck. Wilhelm II, when he came into power in 1890, 48 00:08:03,120 --> 00:08:11,840 he wanted to develop, he wanted to get an empire for Germany, and obviously Bismarck was against 49 00:08:11,840 --> 00:08:25,920 that, because he knew that if Germany broke the situation in Europe, Wilhelm II would provoke 50 00:08:25,920 --> 00:08:37,360 another war in Europe. Bismarck gave several advice to Wilhelm II in order to avoid the war, 51 00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:44,800 but Wilhelm II didn't pay attention to Bismarck, he was younger than Bismarck, and Bismarck was 52 00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:55,360 replaced as a chancellor in 1890. At that moment, Wilhelm II gave his confidence to General Molke, 53 00:08:56,000 --> 00:09:03,200 and General Molke was more in favor of war, he was in favor of creating an empire for Germany. 54 00:09:04,160 --> 00:09:12,880 As a consequence, there was a rivalry, a strong rivalry between the UK and also 55 00:09:12,880 --> 00:09:17,840 Yemeni, and I'm going to explain that in the second part of the class. 56 00:09:19,760 --> 00:09:26,320 Before that, I would like to explain how was the situation in Europe in 1890. 57 00:09:27,280 --> 00:09:37,920 In 1890, basically, France fears Yemeni, and Germany and Austria fear Russia. Russia at that 58 00:09:37,920 --> 00:09:48,320 moment was isolated for the reason they sucked, the Tsars sucked allies, they sucked allies. 59 00:09:49,040 --> 00:10:00,640 They sucked allies because Russia was completely isolated, and basically, the main reason of that 60 00:10:00,640 --> 00:10:09,360 was that, if you remember, that Russia had an autocracy system, they were close to absolutism. 61 00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:21,280 Absolutism. That's why Russia didn't have any allies. So, basically, this is the situation in 62 00:10:21,840 --> 00:10:28,160 Central Europe, and what happened at that time in Great Britain? What happened in the main 63 00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:38,720 island in Europe? Great Britain pleased if the balance of powers prevails, and it was true that 64 00:10:38,720 --> 00:10:47,120 they maintained the balance of power during the time of Bismarck. Bismarck controlled the situation 65 00:10:47,120 --> 00:11:00,000 from 1870 up to 1890, and Great Britain was happy with this situation. They were pleased with this 66 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:06,720 situation because if Bismarck controlled the situation in Europe, they would have the chance 67 00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:15,600 to control its main empire overseas. And in the rest of the countries in the Mediterranean Sea, 68 00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:23,920 regrettably for them, it was true that they were strategically located, but they were really, 69 00:11:23,920 --> 00:11:31,600 really weak at that moment. In the case of Portugal, Spain, Italy, and also the Ottoman 70 00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:41,120 Empire, remember that the Ottoman Empire had a strong decline. So, after explaining the situation 71 00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:51,120 in Europe, now I'm going to explain the second period in the international relations from 1891 72 00:11:51,120 --> 00:12:00,080 up to the First World War. This period was called peace through strength because it was true 73 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:12,720 that it was a period of peace, but anticipating the war, the European countries started to rearm. 74 00:12:12,720 --> 00:12:25,280 They rearmed. This situation led to an armed race because many, many countries in Europe, they 75 00:12:25,280 --> 00:12:38,880 mistrusted each other. They mistrusted each other because different countries in Europe were buying 76 00:12:39,600 --> 00:12:54,640 step by step more pieces of weaponry. So, I would say that from 1891 onwards, the countries 77 00:12:54,640 --> 00:13:02,320 spent vast amounts of money on manufacturing new weapons, building warships, and strengthening their 78 00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:10,960 armies, and they all prepared themselves for war, which could be started by any future conflict. 79 00:13:12,560 --> 00:13:20,640 And as a consequence of that, the countries in Europe made two important alliances. 80 00:13:21,360 --> 00:13:27,600 That's why this period was called peace through strength, because on the one hand, it was a period 81 00:13:27,600 --> 00:13:38,560 of peace, but anticipating war, the countries in Europe developed a situation of armed race, and they 82 00:13:38,560 --> 00:13:47,760 made two important military alliances. The first alliance was the Triple Alliance, when 83 00:13:48,400 --> 00:13:55,600 Yemeni and the Austro-Hungarian Empire made an alliance, and the Italians joined them, 84 00:13:56,560 --> 00:14:04,240 because also Yemeni and Austria wanted to control the Western Mediterranean Sea. 85 00:14:06,080 --> 00:14:14,240 As a consequence of that, also Great Britain and France made an alliance in 1904, 86 00:14:15,120 --> 00:14:22,400 and due to different tensions and crises in Morocco, because the Yemenis 87 00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:31,120 wanted to control Morocco, and obviously the French and the British were against that. 88 00:14:31,920 --> 00:14:42,880 As a result of this tension, of this crisis, Great Britain made an alliance in 1907, 89 00:14:43,040 --> 00:14:52,720 not only with France, but also with Russia. This alliance was called the Triple Entente, 90 00:14:54,000 --> 00:15:02,320 and what was the consequence of that? The consequence was that Yemeni was surrounded. 91 00:15:03,760 --> 00:15:11,680 They were surrounded by France, by Russia, and also by the United Kingdom, by the British. 92 00:15:13,520 --> 00:15:24,400 Later on, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, in Bosnia in 1914, triggered 93 00:15:24,400 --> 00:15:31,760 regrettably the First World War, but the true causes of war had been developing for decades. 94 00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:35,120 Thank you so much, it has been a pleasure. 95 00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:38,480 Thank you for your attention, and have a good day. Bye bye!