Britain, Bismarck, and Bad Guys

Britain and India:

In their imperialistic pursuits, Britain had come to control India. Select Indians retained a lot of power, however they remained British puppets. 

Britain had brought improvements to the India. For example, the British created a unified powerful state where none had existed before. The British thought the Indians should thank them for bringing the white man’s culture to India and “civilizing them.” 

As we all know, this is wrong on many levels. In the previous era of imperialism, countries would extract resources from their colonies to improve their economy. In this era of imperialism, countries like Britain were expanding their sphere of influence and in turn taking away the culture, and therefore the identity, of the areas they gained control over. 

Bismarck and Europe:

Bismarck wanted to keep the peace in Europe through a system of alliances. He had this system in order to restrain Russia and Austria-Hungary (who threatened the peace). He first created the Three Emperors’ League, which linked the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Russia in an alliance against radicals. Bismarck thought it was crucial for Germany to be in an alliance with at least three of the Five Great Powers (Germany, France, England, Austria, and Russia). At the same token he believed on should not be caught in too small of an alliance. Bismarck’s alliance system was working until Kaiser (or Krazy) William fired Bismarck and began to mess with the balance of power. First, he refused to renew the Russian-German Reinsurance Treaty, which lead France to become military allies with Russia. As a result, Europe was divided into two. Second, Krazy William stuck it to the British by increasing the German navy, which caused a bitter Anglo-German rivalry. This gets the ball rolling for Britain, France, Russia, and the US to become allies and view Germany as a threat. Eventually, Germany ends up in an alliance of just two (Germany and Austria). In essence, Krazy Kaiser William touched the but. Kaiser William’s actions got the ball rolling for World War I. So, does this mean the punishment Germany received from the Treaty of Versailles (which was would eventually lead to WWII) justified?

Bad Guys vs. Good Guys 
World War I was a war of attrition. This means that both sides kept fighting while making little to no advances. The straw that broke the camel’s back which lead to war was the assassination of Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist. The Balkan era had been a war zone among ethnic and religious groups since the fall of the Roman empire. Soon, countries began to take sides. The bad guys or the Central powers consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman empire, and Bulgaria. The Good guys or the Triple Entente consisted of France, Russia, Finland, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, and Ireland.