Central and Eastern Europe

around 1900
General
Europe 1914
Central and Eastern European powers
 Problems
• Separatist movements inside Austria-Hungary:
conflicts between Slavic minorieties (sth. Slavs
– Serbians, Croatians, Slovenians and Slovaks)
and Hungary (the politics og magyarization)
• Polish desire to unite (independence?)
• Growing nationalism
 Peasant problem
• Overpopulated villages
• Landhunger – large land areas concentrated in
the hands of aristocracy, Church and Crown –
growing number of landless peasants
• Poverty
• Discrimination
• Land reform demanded (idea of distributing
the land among peasants)
 Political programmes
• Liberal ideas of democratization, limiting the
power of the Church, freedom, autonomy,
independence
Austria-Hungary
Ethnic map
The Balkans
 Political system
• Empire
• Dual constitutional monarchy based on personal union
of Austrian Empire and Hungarian Kingdom
• Universal suffrage (from 1907)
• Civilian and political liberties
• Dominated by aristocracy, catholic church, rich
bourgeosie
• Domination of Austria and Hungary, autonomy of some
provinces
• National conflicts (better position-Czechs, Poles,
autonomy)
Emperor Franz Joseph Habsburg
Label on a bottle of wine
 Foreign policy
• Conflicts with Serbia (Serbia’s plan to unite all
southern Slavic people - a threat to
monarchy’s integrity)
• Rivalization with Russia on the Balkans
• Friendship, alliance with Germany
Serbia, 1913
Russia 1863
Ethnic map
 Political system
• Empire
• Constitutional monarchy (from 1905)
• Limited political freedom
• Powerful political police (ochrana)
• Civilian liberties
• National conflicts: struggle for autonomy,
independence (Poles, Finns, Ukrainians, Caucasus)
• Peasant problem
• Antisemitic policy (discrimination, pogroms)
• Lack of democratic traditions and habits  terror
Nicolas II Romanoff
Coronation of Nicolas II
Tzar Nicolas II blessing soldiers leaving
to front, 1904-1905
Internal discontent
 War with Japan (1904-1905):
• lost territories at East Pacific
Russian soldiers
Japanese celebrating the victory at
Kobe
• Internal weakness revealed (weak and old-
fasioned economy, disintegrated society,
radicalism, peasants discontent, revolt in the
army)
 Revolution 1905
• Economic disaster during the war 
revolution 1905
• Workers, peasants, soldiers and liberal elites
against the tzar
Demonstration in Skt. Petersburg, 22
January 1905 („Bloody Sunday”)
Bloody sunday
Street fighting, Moscow
 War+revolution: results
• Russian weakness as a colonial power
revealed  better relations with UK (alliance
1907)
• Internal reforms: Russia transformed into
constitutional monarchy; a parliament
established (Duma); strong position of the
tzar.
Demontration, november 1905,
painting by Ilia Repin
Nicolas II opening the Duma session
(1906)
 Foreign policy
• Expansion on Balkans – rivalry with Austria-
Hungary
• Growing conflicts with Germany
• Economic ties with France  military alliance
• Rivalry with Great Britain in Central Asia (until
1907); after that alliance
French-Russian alliance, 1893, a
satyrical cartoon
Military manouvers of French and
Russian army (1901)
Nicolas II and French PM Emile Laubet
(1901) – a postcard
German Empire
 Political system
• Constitional monarchy
• Political freedom, civilian liberties
• Conflicts with national minorities (Poles,
Danes, Alsacians and French)
• Growing strenght of SPD (German social-
democracy), representing the German
working class
Linguistic minorities, 1900
 Foreign policy
• Expansion – „searching a place under the sun”
• Colonialism (Africa, Asia – China), Middle East
• Hegemony in Europe
• Militarism (landed army based on
conscription, building a strong navy)
• Conflicts with France, GB, Russia
• Alliance with Austria-Hungary, Turkey
Emperor William II Hohenzollern
William II (1861)
French caricature (1915) Too hard…
Polish question
Europe 1914
Polish lands, 19th c.
A check-point on the border between
Russia and Germany
 Change: Partitioners countries on the
opposite sides
• Russia (cooperating • Germany
with western • Austria
democracies)
Who will win?
• Polish society – different attitudes
(progerman, prorussian, proaustrian,
independence, world socialist revolution)
• Activity during the war (political, military,
selforganization)