DBQ Sources: Causes of the First World War
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT1750/ LESSON 6.2ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: CAUSES OF THE FIRST WORLD WARUnless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit: “DBQ Sources: Causes of the First World War”, OER Project, https://www.oerproject.com/1PurposeUse a variety of primary and secondary sources to deepen your understanding ofthe causes of World War I.ProcessAnalyze the following sources. If you are using these sources to respond to an essay prompt, you should underlineor highlightany evidence that will support your claim. You can also use theQuick Sourcing Tool.Document 1This excerpt is from a published speech, “National Life from the Standpoint of Science,” by Karl Pearson a Professor of Applied Mathematics at University College, London (November 19, 1900).... You will see that my view—and I think it may be called the scientific view of a nation—is that of an organized whole, kept up to a high pitch of internal efficiency by insuring that its numbers are substantially recruited from the better stocks, and keptup to a high pitch of external efficiency by contest, chiefly by way of war with inferior races, and with equal races by the struggle for trade-routes and for the sources of raw material and of food supply ...The national spirit is not a thing to be ashamed of ... If the national spirit takes the form of a strong feeling of the importance of organizing the nation as a whole, of making its social and economic conditions such that it is able to do its work in the world and meet its fellows without hesitation in the [battle] field and in the market, then it seems to me a wholly good spirit—indeed, one of the highest forms of social, that is, moral instinct ...Science is not a dogma; it has no infallible popes to pronounce authoritatively what its teaching is. I can only say how it seems to one individual scientific worker that the doctrine of evolution applies to the history of nations ... The path of progress isstrewn with the wreck of nations; traces are everywhere to be seen of the hecatombs of inferior races, and of victims who found not the narrow way to the greater perfection. Yet these dead peoples are, in very truth, the steppingstones on which mankind has arisen to the higher intellectual and deeper emotional life of today.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1750 / LESSON 6.2ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: CAUSES OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR2Source: Pearson, Karl. National Life from the Standpoint of Science: An Address Delivered at Newcastle, November 19, 1900. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1901. Reproduced here:https://wellcomecollection.org/works/qnhft6v8/items?canvas=1
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1750 / LESSON 6.2ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: CAUSES OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR3Document 2This excerpt is from an 1898 article by Mark Twain, “Stirring Times in Austria,” in which he describes a volatile atmosphere in Vienna, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire where he lived for over a year.Here in Vienna in these closing days of 1897 one’s blood gets no chance to stagnate. The atmosphere is brimful of political electricity.All conversation is political; every man is a battery, with brushes over-worn, and gives out blue sparks when you set him going on the common topic. Everybody has an opinion, and lets you have it frank and hot, and out of this multitude of counsel you get merely confusion and despair. For no one really understands this political situation, or can tell you what is going to be the outcome of it ...Nearly every day someone explains to me that a revolution would not succeed here. “It couldn’t, you know. Broadly speaking, all the nations in the empire hate the government—but they all hate each other, too, and with devoted and enthusiastic bitterness; no two of them can combine ... in Austria-Hungary there are nineteen public opinions—one for each state. No—two or three for each state, since there are two or three nationalities in each. A government cannot satisfy all these public opinions.”Source: Twain, Mark. “Stirring Times in Austria.” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine Vol. 96 (March 1898), pp. 530-40. Reproduced here: https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/2170/Twain_Austria_1898.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1750 / LESSON 6.2ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: CAUSES OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR4Document 3This in an excerpt from a May 8, 1909 letter from Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to his third cousin, Czar Nicholas II of Russia. The “Willy-Nicky” correspondence reflects an affectionate exchange between the two monarchs.Dearest Nicky,... May Heaven bless and protect you and your wife and children ...A few weeks ago, when affairs threatened to become dangerous your wise and courageous decision secured peace for all the nations ...Personally I am totally indifferent to newspaper gossip, but I cannot refrain from a certain feeling of anxiety, that if not contradicted at once, the foul and filthy lies which are freely circulated about my policy and my country, will tend to create bitterness between our two people by virtue of their constant uncontradicted repetition ... When I set out for Corfu I was looking forward to a quiet holiday. But alas it was no to be! Another revolution broke out at Constantinople! We poor rulers it seems arenot entitled to holidays like other simple mortals ... The east is a regular nightmare a “boite à surprises [surprise box].” I would be most grateful if you could kindly write to me what your opinion is about the general outlook in Turkey. An exchange of our views is urgent and necessary lest fresh events should again take us by surprise ... If you and I join in loyal and open cooperation for the maintenance of Peace—which is my most fervent wish—I am thoroughly convinced that Peace will not only be maintainedbut not even be troubled.Now goodbye dearest Nicky, best love to Alix and the children, especially the boy, God bless and protect you, au revoir I hope and believe me Ever your most affectionate and devoted friend and cousin,WillySource: Letter from Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to Czar Nicholas II of Russia, May 8, 1909 (Willy-Nicky Letters between the Kaiser and the Czar, LXII, Corfu 8/V/09). Reproduced here: https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/LXII_Corfu_8/V/09
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1750 / LESSON 6.2ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: CAUSES OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR5Document 4This excerpt is from a July 21, 1911 speech by David Lloyd George, then British chancellor of the exchequer (chief economic minister). Lloyd George’s speech is in reaction to the “Agadir Crisis” in which war nearly broke out following a German naval challenge to French influence in Morocco. (Lloyd George would become prime minister in 1916.)Personally I am a sincere advocate of all means which would lead to the settlement of international disputes by methods such as those which civilization has so successfully set up for the adjustment of differences between individuals ... and by a more just [settlement] than that of the sword.But I am also bound to say this—that I believe it is essential in the highest interests, not merely of this country, but of the world, that Britain should at all hazards maintain her place and her prestige amongst the Great Powers of the world. Her potent influence has many a time been in the past, and may yet be in the future, invaluable to the cause of human liberty. It has more than once in the past redeemed Continental nations, who are sometimes too apt to forget that service, from overwhelming disasterand even from national extinction. I would make great sacrifices to preserve peace. I conceive that nothing would justify a disturbance of international good will except questions of the greatest national moment. But if a situation were to be forced upon us in which peace could only be preserved by the surrender of the great and beneficent position Britain has won by centuries of heroism and achievement, by allowing Britain to be treated where her interests were vitally affected as if she were of no account in the Cabinet of nations, then I say emphatically that peace at that price would be a humiliation intolerable for a great country like ours to endure ...Source: “David Lloyd George’s Mansion House Speech.” The Times, London, July 22, 1911. Reproduced here: https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Agadir_Crisis:_Lloyd_George%27s_Mansion_House_Speech
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1750 / LESSON 6.2ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: CAUSES OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR6Document 5This excerpt is from the December 1912 update to the Triple Alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, originally signed in 1882.ARTICLE 1. The High Contracting Parties (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy) mutually promise peace and friendship, and will enter into no alliance or engagement directed against any one of their States. They engage to proceed to an exchange of ideas on political and economic questions of a general nature which may arise, and they further promise one another mutual support within the limits of their own interests.ARTICLE 2. In case Italy, without direct provocation on her part, should be attacked by France for any reason whatsoever, the two other Contracting Parties shall be bound to lend help and assistance with all their forces to the Party attacked. This same obligation shall devolve upon Italy in caseof any aggression without direct provocation by France against Germany.ARTICLE 3. If one, or two, of the High Contracting Parties, without direct provocation on their part, should chance to be attacked and to be engaged in a war with two or more Great Powers non-signatory to the present Treaty, the casus foederis [case for the alliance] will arise simultaneously for all the High Contracting Parties ...ARTICLE 6. Germany and Italy, having in mind only the maintenance, so far as possible, of the territorial status quo in the Orient, engage to use their influence to forestall on the Ottoman coasts and islands in the Adriatic and the Aegean Seas any territorial modification which might be injurious to one or the other of the Powers signatory to the present Treaty. To this end, they will communicate to one another all information of a nature to enlighten each other mutually concerning their own dispositions, as well as those of other Powers.Source: “Amended Version of the Triple Alliance.” December 5, 1912. Reproduced here:https://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Amended_Version_of_The_Triple_Alliance_(English_translation_of_the_above)
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1750 / LESSON 6.2ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: CAUSES OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR7Document 6This 1914 Russian propaganda poster is titled “Concord,” with the personifications of Russia (center, leading with the Orthodox Christian cross), Britain (right, with anchor to symbolize naval abilities), and France (left, shown with a heart tosymbolize love or charity), allies of the Triple Entente.Source: “Concord/Triple Entente,” Russia, 1914, author unknown. Found in the Collection of Russian State Historical Library, Moscow. Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images via Getty Images.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT 1750 / LESSON 6.2ACTIVITYDBQ SOURCES: CAUSES OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR8Document 7This excerpt is the beginning of the official Austrian report into the June 28, 1914 assassination in Sarajevo of the Austro-Hungarian heir, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie.Gavrilo Princip, Nedeljko Cabrinovic [and confederates] confess that ... they contrived a plot for the murder of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and, armed with bombs and in the case of some of them with Browning pistols, laid wait for him on June 28, 1914, on his progress through Serajevo for the purpose of carrying out the planned attack.Nedeljko Cabrinovic confesses that he was the first of the conspirators to hurl a bomb against the Archduke’s carriage, which missed its mark and which on exploding injured only the occupants of the carriage following the Archducal motor car.Gavrilo Princip confesses that he fired two shots from a Browning pistol against the Archducal motor car, by which the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the Duchess Sophie of Hohenberg received fatal wounds.Both perpetrators confess that the act was done with intent to murder.These confessions have been fully verified by means of the investigations which have taken place, and it is established that the deceased Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the deceased Duchess Sophie of Hohenberg died as a result of the revolver shots fired at them by Gavrilo Princip.... The execution of an attempt on the Archduke’s life was a frequent topic of conversation in the circle in which Princip and Cabrinovic moved, because the Archduke was considered to be a dangerous enemy of the Serbian people.Source: Horne, Charles F. and Walter F. Austin, eds. Source Records of the Great War: Volume 1. New York: National Alumni, 1923. Reproduced here: https://www.firstworldwar.com/source/austrianreport.htm