Balance of Power in World War 1.. The First World War of 1914 is regarded as one of the most significant wars in history. As the name suggests, it implies that the world experienced chaos for the first time due to ideological differences. When this war broke out, it surprised many Europeans who were relishing the striking summer in their minds. Since the outbreak of the war, Historians have debated its causes. Some have argued that the immediate cause of World War One was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand while others stated that the war was unavoidable. According to Fromkin, hostilities in 1914 began deliberately. In a fascinating re-establishment of the run-up to war, Fromkin demonstrates how German generals manipulated events to influence a war waged on their terms. Reviewing the individual actions within historical forces, World War I is a riveting ancient story and a dramatic reconsideration of a significant event in the twentieth century. World War I is associated with a balance of power that is evident from the activities of the major forces that were mainly fighting for hegemony.
During the beginning of World War I , nations had different ideologies; therefore, they started a war to determine the nations with superpowers that could win over the ideas of others. In this situation, the participants aimed to reach a state of balance characterized by a balance of power (Fromkin, 281). During the beginning of World War I in 1914, the balance of power became a significant issue. The central powers believed they had much power at the declaration of the war, but the statistics seemed to refute this claim if every nation realized its strength. Unluckily, the mixture of old tactics and new weapons caused the horrors of struggle that the powers did not add to their calculations regarding the balance of power (Lecture Notes). The theory of a balance of power states that a country can achieve a balance of power against its enemies in the revolutionary system through external and internal struggles.
External struggles include the formation of alliances whereas internal efforts include strengthening the military and the economy. In other words, the theory of the balance of power proposes that when all nations are at an equal level of control with same military and armaments, then, no country will be superior over the other resulting in increased national security (Lecture Notes). The balance of power implies that if one party were superior, it would abuse its supremacy to control the less powerful nations, thus, creating a rift in a peaceful ecosystem.
The balance of power also refers to the policy a nation used to protect themselves against another country by weighing its power against those of the others. Many European nations involved in the 1914 war had destabilizing policies that increased their aggression following the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (Fromkin, 113). In the early nineteenth century, Austria-Hungary had historical levels of internal conflict. Several ethnic issues also occurred in the country leading to the division between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. Institutionally, Austria-Hungary had adopted policies to harm Serbians. These two nations engaged in a series of war in Balkan, and it was difficult to establish peace between these nations.
After the assassination of Austria-Hungarian heir, the rivalry between the two countries intensified. The leaders of the Austria-Hungarian Empire believed that taking severe military action against Serbia would make them compelling, and threaten Serbia (Fromkin, 125). They aimed to seek revenge against Serbia for assassinating Archduke and their heir to the throne. From these occurrences, the balance of power comes about as Serbia and Austria-Hungary attempted to show their superiority against the other (Lecture Notes). While Austria-Hungary developed policies to harm people of Serbian descent and other ethnic groups, Serbia retaliated by assassinating Austria-Hungarian heir to protect themselves from the imperialism imposed by Austria-Hungarians.
Nations can also gain a balanced power by increasing its power when engaging in arm’s race during a competitive acquisition of a territory or by forming alliances with other states to prevent the enemy from invading the allied country. According to Lecture notes, the balance of power became a useful tool to measure power relationship in the European nations that actively participate in the World war (Lecture Notes). In this regard, institutional instability plagued central powers in 1914. For instance, Russia and Austria-Hungary experienced extreme volatility being that they were the key players of the 1914 war. These two powers had various domestic issues. They suffered harsh weather conditions, famine, and immense poverty. Although it was believed that internal problems would help establish peace, evidence shows the contrary.
According to the Lecture notes, citizens belonging to countries with high instability and weak institutions feel uneasy due to reduced quality of life. As such, they tend to put pressure on the government to improve their living standards. In turn, the ‘powerful’ government becomes aggressive towards other states provided that the outcome will increase in political, economic and social conditions (Lecture Notes). This seemed to be the case between Austria-Hungary and Serbia.
In contrast, nations like Great Britain and France who, by 1914, had an industrialized economy were contented with their conditions (Fromkin, 8-10). For that reason, they were willing to remain peaceful. Arguments have developed that these industrialized nations could support their constituents and help them overcome their domestic challenges. Nonetheless, this was not the case in 1914. It is because countries with high instability are likely to be more aggressive than others with less uncertainty.
The major powers in World War 1 included Germany and Austria-Hungary. Other than ideological differences, the resignation of Otto Von Bismarck also led to the beginning of this war (Fromkin, 26). His departure gave rise to the need for restructuring new alliances by the former allied and non-allied states. Probing further into Otto Von Bismarck’s identity, one can realize that Bismarck took many small German states and tried, by all means, to turn these stated into the German Empire. He was highly successful in his attempt and was later announced as the chancellor of this empire he had struggled to unite. Prussia, which is located at the apex of this empire, was used to seizure other provinces.
Moreover, Bismarck went to intensify a dispute with France to attain his goals of uniting all the German states. The direct and indirect actions of Bismarck gave rise to the emergence of the First World War. According to Lecture notes, Bismarck’s immediate efforts serve as another example of the challenge with the balance of power and how this scenario can influence peace and war (Fromkin, 28-29). Besides, the indirect actions of Bismarck led to the demand of new alliances between states. Although these efforts were frugal, the results proved to be the imbalances in power that triggered this war.
Bismarck resigned with the consequences that were either expected or projected. His eventual resignation from the power beckoned the beginning of such alliances that proved to be fragile resulting in a split in the established balance of power (Lecture Notes). At this point, the balance of power was dispatched, and World War One continued. Next, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, forcing Russia to get involved in maintaining its treaty with Serbia.
The involvement of Russia in war made Germany to declare war on Russia after realizing that Russia was mobilizing this war. France allied with Russia to fight against the central powers: Germany and Austria-Hungary (Fromkin, 24). When Germany attacked France and invaded Belgium, Britain, which allied with France, decided to get involved in the war. This outline of events shows how the balance was demonstrated mainly through Germany’s knowledge of Russia’s mobilization.
Mobilization signalled war without surrendering. Leaders of Russia and central powers believed that ending this grand mobilization was catastrophic because every country wanted to show its supremacy by winning the battle (Fromkin, 268). Therefore, after Russia declared a large-scale mobilization, Austria-Hungarian leaders had a difficult choice to make. To avoid total war, it was necessary for Austria-Hungary to keep their fight with Serbia localized just like they did with Balkans (Lecture Notes). However, the Assassination of Ferdinand and his wife at Sarajevo angered Austria-Hungarians because they wanted to retaliate.
Since Russian leaders knew that Austria-Hungary was power hungry, they know that if mobilized, they would invade Serbia, and then through greed, attempt to conquer Russia. Germany was already on the same side with Austria-Hungary, but if Russia succeeded in mobilization, then, France and Britain would mobilize their troops as well (Fromkin, 274). In this case, Russia showed its balance of power through mobilization because it had a capable army. This made the Austria-Hungarian Empire heed to the demands of Russia regarding reduced military mobilization towards Serbia, hence, maintaining peace with Russia while localizing the war.
According to Fromkin, the mobilization of Russia during the First World War and the actions it took to gain resources led to security dilemmas. The dilemma occurs when several means by which a nation attempts to strengthen its security limits the security of others. It offers the logical framework for a spiral model that describes how the security-seeking states can trigger antagonism and strain political associations.
Simply put, the security dilemma claims that the actions taken by a country to strengthen its military power or make new agreements can make other nations do the same, thus, increasing tensions at the expected changes in the balance of power (Lecture Notes). Also, the security dilemma emphasizes on the happenings of these events. Many European nations that participated in the First World War did not intend to take part, but they responded because of the alliances and the insecurity feelings that developed due to the agreements.
Taking account of the security dilemmas, two factors help in understanding this concept. They include offense-defense balance and offense-defense differentiation. Offense-defense balance describes the extent of hardships involved when a territory is being taken from the targeted nation. Offence-defence differentiation is the ideas that policies enacted, or weapons used to protect the land of a country appear to be the reasons behind the attack (Lecture Notes). These two factors form the theory of the security dilemma.
As such, the balance of power and the security dilemma have a relationship in the context of World War 1. Security dilemma creates a direct interference in the balance of power among the participants. History depicts that such incidences can make people hang in the balance. In such occasions, people may go against evolution and decide to indulge in the war against them. Regardless of whether the results of such activities originate one person, a few men or the entire nation, the outcome is consistent and may be visible when the balance of power and security dilemma are involved (Lecture Notes). Therefore, the security dilemma and the balance of power are the determinants of war and peace which is evident in the activities of the major forces in World War I.
As noted, the security dilemma led to the involvement of some major powers into war. For instance, Russia entered into war after discovering that Austria-Hungary had invaded Serbia. Since Russia and Serbia had an alliance, Russia wanted to protect Serbia from the attack to maintain their treaty, and at the same time, establish (Fromkin, 301). Regarding the balance of power, Russia intervened to help Serbia protect its resources were likely to be taken by Austria-Hungary. In this case, Russia attempted to create a balance of power by preventing Austria-Hungary from being superior. Many similar incidences occurred with the major powers during the First World War.
In conclusion, the theory of the balance of power suggests that when all nations are at an equal level of authority with similar military and armaments, then, no country will be superior over the other resulting in increased national security. Besides, the balance of power is a policy a nation used to protect themselves against another country by weighing its power against those of the others. The balance of power occurred in many scenariosconsidering the behaviors of the major powers during the war. The first instance is when some European nations struggled to protect their territories against invasion by foreigners. The second scenario is when states formed allies and prevented security dilemma and external threats in these allied countries. An excellent example of this scenario occurred in the relationship between Serbia and Russia where Russia prevented Austria-Hungary from attacking Serbia to maintain the alliance between Russia and Russia. Therefore, through the balance of power demonstrated by the major authorities of World War 1, the states either prevented security threats, maintained alliance or established peace with the enemies. In short, the balance of power acted as a defense mechanism against external threats.
Work Cited
Fromkin, David. Europe’s last summer: who started the Great War in 1914? New York: Vintage publishing, 2007.
Lecture Notes.
Balance of Power in World War 1.
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