AP Euro Project DBQ

How did the nationalism and the buildup of imperial powers lead to World War I?
Doc 1:
Source: Bernhard von Blow in a speech before the Reichstag on 11 Dezember 1899
These times of political faintness and economic and political humility should never
return (Lively Bravo.) We don't ever again want to become, as Friedrich List put it,
the 'slaves of humanity.' But we'll only be able to keep ourselves at the fore if we
realize that there is no welfare for us without power, without a strong army and a
strong fleet. (Very true! from the right; objections from the left ) The means,
gentlemen, for a people of almost 60 million -- dwelling in the middle of Europe and,
at the same time, stretching its economic antennae out to all sides -- to battle its way
through in the struggle for existence without strong armaments on land and at sea,
have not yet been found. (Very true! from the right.) In the coming century the
German people will be a hammer or an anvil.
Doc 2:
Source: Kaiser Wilhelm II, in an interview with the London Daily Telegraph in 1908
"But, you will say, what of the German navy? Surely, that is a menace to England !
Against whom but England are my squadrons being prepared? If England is not in
the minds of those Germans who are bent on creating a powerful fleet, why is
Germany asked to consent to such new and heavy burdens of taxation? My answer
is clear. Germany is a young and growing empire. She has a worldwide commerce
which is rapidly expanding, and to which the legitimate ambition of patriotic Germans
refuses to assign any bounds. Germany must have a powerful fleet to protect that
commerce and her manifold interests in even the most distant seas. She expects
those interests to go on growing, and she must be able to champion them manfully in
any quarter of the globe. Her horizons stretch far away." . . .
Doc 3:
Source: The Constitution of the Ujedinjenje ili Smrt The Constitution of the Black
Hand in Serbia, 1911, Article I Section I and II
Article 1. For the purpose of realising the national ideals - the
Unification of Serbdom - an organization is hereby created, whose
members may be any Serbian irrespective of sex, religion, place or
birth, as well as anybody else who will sincerely serve this idea.

Article 2. The organisation gives priority to the revolutionary struggle

rather than relies on cultural striving, therefore its institution is an
absolutely secret one for wider circles.

Doc 4:
Source: Norman Angell, The Great Illusion, New York and London, 1913, pps. ix-xiii,
passim, 381-82.

It is assumed that a nation's relative prosperity is broadly determined by its political

power; that nations being competing units, advantage in the last resort goes to the
possessor of preponderant military force, the weaker goes to the wall, as in the other
forms of the struggle for life.

Doc 5:
Source: German Artist Walter Trier in 1914

Doc 6:
Source: Narodna Odbrana Izdanje Stredisnog Odbora Narodne Odbrane (Belgrade,
1911). Defense of the People handout by Serbian nationalist group Narodna
Odrana
The annexation [of Bosnia and Herzegovina] was only one of the blows which the
enemies of Serbia have aimed at this land. Many blows preceded it, and many will
follow it. Work and preparation are necessary so that a new attack may not find
Serbia equally unprepared.
The object assigned to the work to be done by the people of every class is the
preparation for war in all forms of national work, corresponding to the requirements
of the present day. This is to be effected through strengthening of the national
consciousness, bodily exercises, increase of material and bodily well-being, cultural
improvements, etc. A new blow, like that of the annexation, must be met by a new
Serbia, in which every Serbian, from child to greybeard, is a rifleman.
The old Turks of the South gradually disappear and only a part of our people suffer
under their rule. But new Turks come from the North, more fearful and dangerous
than the old; stronger in civilization and more advanced economically, our northern
enemies come against us. They want to take our freedom and our language from us
and to crush us. We can already feel the presages of the struggle which approaches
in that quarter. The Serbian people are faced by the question 'to be or not to be?'

Doc 7:
Source: Revision and extended version of the Triple Alliance, Dec. 5 1912
ARTICLE 2. In case Italy, without direct provocation on her part, should be attacked
by France for any reason whatsoever, the two other Contracting Parties shall be
bound to lend help and assistance with all their forces to the Party attacked.
This same obligation shall devolve upon Italy in case of any aggression without
direct provocation by France against Germany.

Doc 8:
Source: Data is taken from Breyer, Siegfried (1973). Battleships and Battlecruisers of the
World, 19051970

Doc 9:
US Naval Historical Center, The HMS Dreadnought

Doc 10:
Source: Encylopedia Britannica, Map of Austria Hungary

Doc 11:
Source: Prince Wilhelms book Germany in Arms, 1914
Upon the German Empire, therefore, is imposed more emphatically than upon any other
peoples of the earth the sacred duty of watching carefully that its army and its navy be
always prepared to, meet any attack from the outside. It is only by reliance upon our
brave sword that we shall be able to maintain that place in the sun which belongs to us,
and which the world does not seem very willing to accord us.
Doc 12:
Source: British Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd Georges reaction to German
naval action against French involvement in Morocco
But I am also bound to say this -- that I believe it is essential in the highest

interests, not merely of this country, but of the world, that Britain should at all
hazards maintain her place and her prestige amongst the Great Powers of the
world. Her potent influence has many a time been in the past, and may yet be in
the future, invaluable to the cause of human liberty. It has more than once in the
past redeemed Continental nations, who are sometimes too apt to forget that
service, from overwhelming disaster and even from national extinction. I would
make great sacrifices to preserve peace. I conceive that nothing would justify a
disturbance of international good will except questions of the greatest national
moment. But if a situation were to be forced upon us in which peace could only

be preserved by the surrender of the great and beneficent position Britain has
won by centuries of heroism and achievement, by allowing Britain to be treated
where her interests were vitally affected as if she were of no account in the
Cabinet of nations, then I say emphatically that peace at that price would be a
humiliation in tolerable for a great country like ours to endure. National honour
is no party question.