THE IMMEDIATE CAUSES OF THE GREAT WAR CHAPTER I THE TRIPLE ALLIANCE AND THE TRIPLE ENTENTE DURING the greater part of the first decade and a half of the nineteenth century, the great powers of Europe were united in an effort to curb the imperial ambitions of Napoleon. After years of useless war, Napoleon was sent to a deserved exile, and the balance of power was restored in Europe. A peace congress was then held at Vienna (1814-15), and the map of Europe was rearranged. Europe was sick of war and was anxious for an agreement whereby the nations would be forced to keep the peace. In November, 1815, therefore, the Allies-England, Prussia, Russia, and Austria-concluded a quadruple alliance, pledging themselves to the preservation of "public peace, the tranquillity of states, the inviolability of possessions, and the faith of treaties." For the next eight years, European congresses were held from time to 3 time to enforce this policy. France, too, took part in these meetings, and so there was in effect a sort of league to enforce peace. This league included all the great powers of Europe, and is known as the Concert of Europe. The Concert subsequently declared in favor of intervention to put down insurrections in the various states of Europe, and carried out this policy by sending troops to stamp out revolutions in Spain and Italy. Great Britain dissented from this interpretation of the treaty of alliance and so dropped out of the Concert. Therefore, the Concert, in so far as it rested on formal engagements, did not last many years. There has been a feeling, however, during the entire century following the Congress of Vienna that certain questions are of interest to all Europe and should be settled only by joint agreement of the powers. Such joint action has been taken occasionally, and in a sense the Concert of Europe continued until the outbreak of the war in 1914. This important experiment in internationalism was neither a complete success nor an entire failure. The great aim of maintaining peace in Europe was not realized, but some progress toward world peace was probably made. Peace conferences were held, and the principles of international law were expounded. The fact that only four wars (and most of these short ones) were fought between great European powers during this century-long period is evidence in favor of the partial success of this peace experiment. The Concert might have accomplished its purposes more completely but for certain mistakes made in the early years while it was dominated by a reactionary royalist, Prince Metternich. During this period it ignored two powerful forces-the spirit of nationalism and the spirit of liberalism. In some sections of Europe (notably in Germany, in the Habsburg Empire, and in the Italian and Balkan peninsulas) there was a growing demand for a change in political boundaries in the interest of racial and linguistic unity; Metternich opposed all these aspirations and insisted on the maintenance of the status quo regardless of national feeling. The people all over Europe were clamoring more and more for a voice in the government of themselves; Metternich's policy was one of rigid adherence to the autocracy of the old régime. Thus nationalism was allied with liberalism; internationalism, with despotism. Nationalism was progressive; internationalism, reactionary. Nationalism was going with the current; internationalism was pulling against it. Nationalism was supported by patriotism; internationalism by pacifism. In the struggle between these two ideals, the advantage, though |