Essay Example on The Great Powers consisted of 5 European Powers

The Great Powers consisted of 5 European Powers which were Germany Austria Hungary Russia Britain and France A race for imperialism took place as multinational empires were expanding Imperialism is the policy of extending control over another nation through territorial acquisition political or economic through direct or indirect control Every country had different motives behind imperialism These motives included the belief that superior races should dominate inferior races religion economic gain and the responsibility to civilize uncivilized areas It was unacceptable for an evolving world power to show weakness and failing to join the imperialist race was considered a sign of weakness Therefore imperialist actions encouraged competition among the great European powers Germany's unification was basically a success from the start and the weaknesses which were often associated with newly developed states were not visible in the new German Empire Germany was a strong industrial nation and had a system of absolute monarchy Thus meaning that Germany had one ruler who had supreme authority Italy was not considered a Great Power Although Italy was unified it continued to be internally divided People were continuously let down by unfulfilled promises Italy did realize the need to be considered a Great Power which meant there would be an expensive increase in the military 

Austria Hungary was a multinational empire which was controlled by the Germans and Hungarians who wished to merge with the Slavic minorities Geographically Austria Hungary was the second largest country Russia was a police state and had restricted political participation It was also an agrarian nation meaning that Russia was part of a social movement The movements that changed most of European society did not affect Russia This could be due to the fact that Russia was not very involved with the rest of Europe Russia also faced many weaknesses such as an adverse climate poor communication skills extensive ethnic and religious diversity as well as the fact that they were unprotected Britain was the most impressive country and was considered an example to the rest of the world It had a stable government structure which was a two party parliamentary system The only somewhat downfall that Britain had was that they were fearful of Germany's growing industrial power and imperialist acquisitions France desired revenge against Germany due to the Franco Prussian War France felt secluded from the rest of the great powers and was in need of an ally who was strong They were politically weak and stood as a divided society In the early 20th century leading up to World War 1 the tension between the strongest countries in Europe was increasing The world was about to be faced with intense authoritarianism nationalism imperialism and mainly conflict Some nations moved to combine nationalism and socialism 

Nationalism meant that the love of the nation heightened the possibility of war which would certainly conflict with other nations goals Nationalism was the dominate movement and led to the unification of new nations Italy was separated into sections These sections were political economic and cultural The northeastern part of Italy was controlled by Austria Hungary and was the most powerful force against unification King Victor Emmanuel and Prime Minister Camillo Cavour supported the unification of Italy The kingdom of Italy was officially announced in 1861 but total Italian unification did not happen until after World War 1 Germany had a loose confederation of 39 independent states and Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck controlled the course of modern Germany history Germany s confederate states joined with Austria The Austro Prussian war was a result of Prussia s want to control Germany The Austrians were defeated and omitted from German affairs At this point Germany and France had unsettled business The unification of Germany was completed when the German states proclaimed their union This meant that there was a new European balance of power With unification came competition competition to colonize Competition forced relations between the European nations Security was provided by military alliances Politically the Great Powers had reached their limits with regards to controlling the war in Europe Unification also lead to the triple alliance and triple entente Germany Austria Hungary and Italy belonged to the triple alliance France Russia and Britain belonged to the triple entente The coming of the war meant that European nations started constructing their military Although the European nations saw the likeliness of war they didn t know when and what activity would begin the major war The European age of progress and peace would soon come to an end Ecclesiastes 3 3 says a time to kill and a time to heal a time to tear down and a time to build I think this verse means that God did intend for war With saying that I also think that we need to ensure that such life events take place at their correctly intended times Although wars caused harm and destruction they also served as a new start Wars tore down nations but they also lay out a new foundation to build on Our Father has a purpose for every action that we take