Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The Russian Revolution

The Russian Revolution took place because people wanted change to happen for their country. Czar Nicholas has engaged Russia to the WWI, several lives were lost, and victory seemed possible.  The Russian government was unable to take get out the war which made some people furious. Since Russia is the world's largest nation, people wanted a lot from it, by people i mean the government. The leader was Czar Nicholas, he wanted victory and he was confident he was going to get what he wanted. "Peace, land and bread" was promise by Lenin After several false starts, the Bolsheviks successfully negotiated a separate peace with the Germans, the famous Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Ratified in March, 1918, Lenin ceded the Baltic states, eastern Poland, and the Ukraine to the Germans.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Causes of WWI

There were many causes and reasons for World War I. But the many cause was Nationalism because Europe thought that they were better than everyone else and every other country. So countries like Elba, Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia went against Europe. Another cause of the world war was militarism. It was how each country was able to keep their own military up to standards. This meant that they kept their military ready for war at all times. 

The European countries all had powerful armies. Another reason was the formation of alliances. The alliance system was started by Bismarck, the German Chancellor from 1871 to 1890. After the Franco-Prussian War, Bismarck thought that Germany was in a state which would give up ideas of further conquest. As a result, Bismarck organized a system of alliances designed to maintain Germany's leadership on the European continent. France was determined to challenge the power of Germany because France had been defeated by Germany in 1871 and had been forced to surrender two provinces to Germany. 

Bismarck tried to help Austria, Russia, Italy and Britain in order to get rid of France. Another factor which contributed to the war was imperialism. Great Britain, Germany and France needed foreign markets after the increase in manufacturing caused by the Industrial Revolution. As a result, these countries competed for economic expansion in Africa, looking for spices and other natural resources. Most of the countries did not like another countries imperialism, so they were fighting a lot.