Nationalism 1

1. After he unified Germany, Bismarck wanted to keep France diplomatically isolated and without allies. He also wanted there to be peace between Austria-Hungary and Russia, who had competed interests in the Balkans. Germany could be dragged into a war with them, so Bismarck established a system of alliances to quell the two countries and isolate France. He created in 1873 the conservative Three Emperors’ League, which linked the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Russia in an alliance against radical movements. At the Congress of Berlin in 1878, he believed that Austria had the right to control the Ottoman provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the expense of Russia’s gains and the formation of independent Balkan states. His actions angered Russian nationalists, causing him to sign a defensive military alliance with Austria against Russia in 1879. With tensions with France, Italy joined with Germany and Austria to create the Triple Alliance in 1882. Bismarck used Austria-Hungary and Russia’s fears to sign a secret alliance with Germany in 1881 that be-came the Alliance of the Three Emperors. It established cooperation among the powers to partition the Ottoman Empire while each state pledged neutrality against one another. Af-ter Russia decline to renew the Alliance of the Three Emperors in 1887, Bismarck formed the Russian-German Reinsurance Treaty, promised neutrality if the other state was at-tacked.

2. Emperor William II was inconsiderate towards other countries, and Britain found Germany’s imperialism after 1897 troubling. After dreams of a racially related alliance failed, Great Britain and Germany became rivals. Commercial rivalry in world markets between the two countries increased greatly in the 1890s. Militarism in Germany’s battle fleet in 1900 was seen as a threat to Britain. After the Boer War caused criticism in many nations due to Brit-ain’s excessive force, British leaders set about covering their image with alliances and agreements. Britain improved relations with the United States, with Japan by signing an al-liance in 1902, and with France by forming the Anglo-French Entente to settle all colonial disputes between the two, like French plans to dominate Morocco. Germany was angry at British support of France, so it threatened and bullied France into dismissing Théophile Del-cassé. In 1905, Germany instigated France by insisting an international conference on the Moroccan question. Germany’s bullying forced France and Britain closer while leaving the Algeciras Conference of 1906 empty and isolated. The Moroccan crisis and the Algeciras Conference caused Britain, France, Russia, and the United States to see Germany as a threat while German leaders became paranoid that the allies were encircling Germany and trying to limit its world power. In 1907, Great Britain settled its disputes with Russia in Persia and central Asia in the Anglo-Russian Agreement. Germany responded to its paranoia by building more heavy battleships to its grand navy, heightening tensions after 1907. German admiral Alfred von Tirpitz applauded the plan while British leader David Lloyd George saw it as a challenge and spent more on Britain’s navy. Journalists and special-interest groups competed in foreign trade and investment as a form of economic warfare.

3. In the Balkan nations, nationalism was destroying the Ottoman Empire and threatening the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the 1875 rebellion in the Ottoman Empire, Bismarck settled the crisis at the 1878 Congress of Berlin by giving Austria-Hungary the right to control Bos-nia and Herzegovina, forming the independent nations of Serbia and Romania, and partially giving Bulgaria local autonomy. Imperialism quelled interest in the Balkans after 1878, but by 1903, Balkan nationalism was high. Serbia was hostile toward Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire and looked to Slavic Russia for support. Austria formally annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908 to capitalize on Russia’s weakness and block Serbian expansion. During the First Balkan War in 1912, Serbia, with Greece and Bulgaria, took Macedonia from the Ottoman Empire, but quarreled with Bulgaria over it, leading to the Second Balkan War in 1913. Austria intervened and forced Serbia to give up Albania. On June 28, 1914, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austria-Hungary throne, was assassinated with his wife by Serbian revolutionaries, the Black Hand, in Sarajevo, Bosnia. On July 23, Austria-Hungary presented Serbia with an unconditional ultimatum or face war. After the Austrian demands wanted to control Serbia, Serbia modestly declined, causing Austria to declare War on Serbia on July 28. Austria-Hungary was influenced by Germany’s unconditional support and urges for aggressive measures, even though it probably meant war with Russia. Emperor William II’s chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, knew that a war with Russia meant also fighting against France, but he hoped that Britain would remain neutral.

4. Because Russia believed that any war would be between Austria and Germany, it was forced to order a full mobilization on July 29 and in effect declare general war, but this would take a while due to Russia’s vast size. The German general staff also thought only in terms of a two-front war so Count Alfred von Schlieffen formulated the Schlieffen plan, call-ing for knocking out France first with a lightning attack through neutral Belgium before turning on Russia. On August 2, 1914, General Helmuth von Moltke demanded that Belgium allow German armies through. Belgium refused, causing Germany to attack the next day and Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany the following day. • June, 28, 1914: Archduke Francis Ferdinand assassinated. • June 23: Austria-Hungary offers Serbian an unconditional ultimatum. • July 28: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia after it does not follow all its terms; Tsar Nicholas II orders partial mobilization against Austria-Hungary. • July 29: Russia orders full mobilization. • August 2: Germany demands entrance through Belgium, Belgium refuses. • August 3: Germany invades Belgium. • August 4: Great Britain and France declare war on Germany.

5. Many scholars believe that Austria-Hungary started what would become World War I while Germany expanded World War I to include Western Europe. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia to keep Austria-Hungary united and to diminish the negative effects of national-ism. Germany pushed and goaded Austria-Hungary in the Balkans, escalating the war. After Bismarck resigned in 1890, German leaders felt their world power was declining at the hands of Britain, France, Russia, and the United States. These countries were also checking Germany as well as strangling Austria-Hungary, Germany’s only real ally. Domestic conflicts and social intensions also increased Germany’s aggressive foreign policy after the late 1890s. Though Germany had a popularly elected parliament after 1870, its society was not democratized and power remained in the hands of the monarchy, the army, and the Prus-sian nobility. Determined to hold on to power and frightening by rising socialist movement, the German ruling class was willing to take changes and gamble on diplomatic victory and war to rally the masses to its side. It is said that nationalism was at the center of the Great War, as it was at the heart of the Balkan wars, in the form of Serbian dreams and race do-mination. It also led to militarism.


1. The will to power is a way of achieving power over the self by acting on one’s natural de-sires, impulses, and beliefs. It affirms life through action and is the motivation to live a life unencumbered by the rules of others. Nietzsche condemns the practice of philosophies of judging the objects of analysis to be either positive or negative because it is based on the assumption of absolute truth and morality, which he denies.

2. Nietzsche believes truth is only what the majority wills it to be. Philosophers believed in the existence of opposite values, while Nietzsche doubts that there are opposites. To be able to expand knowledge, it is sometimes necessary to resist truth. Truth should be judged on the strength of the will behind it. Sometimes truths are made out of people’s insecurity and ig-norance. Universal morality destroys the life of the individual by conforming everyone to what is believed to be right. Religion also conform people into its dogma, which teaches meekness and humility and ideal. Religions state that there is no ultimate meaning, unity, goal, or purpose in life.

3. The two fundamental types of mentality are master mentality and slave mentality. The masters determine what is good and defines what the society values. Slaves perform out of a sense of moral obedience but at the same time despise their masters. Slave mentality de-scribes evil as individual power and strength, while good is seen as that which is nonthrea-tening. Masters are weak because they derive their strength only from power over others, while true power is power over the individual self. Christian morality is a slave mentality that placates the weak and serves the interests of the manipulative.

4. A true philosopher is one who insists on profundity, multiplicity, and thoroughness. One must sacrifice comfort and security for the higher goal of knowledge. Most philosophers of the past studied values that have long been assumed to be truths.


1. The Sickness Unto Death reflects Kierkegaard’s intellectual and spiritual maturity. It represents his investigation into the corruption of human nature, or despair. He sees Chris-tianity as the only cure for it.

2. Man is spirit, which is the self, which is a relation that relates itself to its own self. It is not the relation but consists in the fact that the relation relates to its own self. Man is a synthe-sis of the infinite and finite. In the end, man is not yet a self.

3. The true sickness unto death is only achieved by Christians since religious men acquire a unique courage against the really horrible, or the sickness. The true sickness consists of despair, which is a sickness in the self. The specific despair in this text is despair at willing to be oneself. The despaired really yearn to tear his self away from the Power that constituted it.

4. Sensing despair is man’s advantage over animals, since having an erect posture indicated his loftiness of spirit. An understanding of his sinfulness is the Christian’s advantage over the natural man, since he can be healed of this sickness.

5. The common view is that most men are not wallowing in despair, since it is very rare. How-ever, the opposite is true: the person who is not in despair is a rare exception. Socrates de-fines sin as ignorance, while Kierkegaard says that he misses the essential meaning of sin because a person could know what was right and still do what was wrong.