preview

What Caused The Great War Essay

Good Essays

For almost 100 years, Europe was a war torn continent. The Crimean War from 1853 to 1856 was fought to stop Russian expansion, and further the rights of Catholics in Eastern Europe. The Austro-Prussian War in1866 was a war on the road to German unification. The Franco-Prussian War from 1870 to 1871 was Bismarck’s last stage in his German unification plan, and allowed for the capture of Alsace and Lorraine. Many smaller scale wars also happened along side these major conflicts. Then the Great War happened in 1914 and lasted until 1919. The Great War changed the landscape of Europe, and was the most destructive war the world had seen. Then World War II happened 20 years later because of Hitler’s aggressive foreign policy of Lebensraum. Once …show more content…

Self-determination, or the right of a nation to choose what type of political entity as long as it respects equal rights, was the bases for now free countries to form their own governments without the protectorate of the USSR. A prime example of this is what happened in Yugoslavia in the 1990’s. The former communist state had elected a new president in 1990 named Slobodan Milosevic: a communist party member who represented the Serbians of Yugoslavia. As Slobodan pushed for Serbian supremacy, the Yugoslav army, which was Serb dominated, practiced ethnic cleansing. Both sides practiced genocide and nothing was done to stop it. This proves that Europe was still experiencing genocide and war even with the European Union. The EU failed to impose sanctions, which means they were powerless and could not stop the violence. It took bombings from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and intervention from the United Nations peacekeeping forces to bring an end to the violence in Yugoslavia. This helps prove the point the European Union is not the only reason for peace, and that non-member states are not as affected by the EU as member

Get Access