Big 5 Alliances

What I found interesting in the video was how five nations, Germany, Russia, Britain, Austria-Hungary and France, all came to be known as the "Big Five" or the "Central Powers" I was curious how this happened and what it took for these countries to get this title. I was also interested in the different alliances these countries formed with others.

Watching the movie, it was obvious that the reason these countries got so much recognition and why they were so feared was simply because, as the name Central Powers implies, their wealth, economy and population was so large and also very stable before the war started that they were the most powerful. During the war, this meant that they were able to have a bigger, more powerful army. As Freddie's chart shows, these were the countries who had the most casualties, but also the most people in the war. They had large armies and unfortunately this meant more casualties, but not necessarily less power.

As for alliances, we learned in class today that Germany was aligned with Austria-Hungary, partly because they shared a border and the same language, but mostly because all the other countries in Europe rejected Germany because Germany was so power-hungry and violent. Because the "rule of alliances" is to form alliances with three, Germany and Austria-Hungary both sided with Italy, who was not very powerful or of major importance in the Great War, but made it so Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy could form the Triple Alliance.

England, France and Russia all banded together against the Triple Alliance as the Triple Entente. Although England and France had a history of disagreement, during this time period they were relatively on the same page. They both shared an Industrial Revolution, they liked to colonize, and they were also close to each other in geography. They sided with Russia because they all shared ideas in the Enlightenment and had gotten along relatively well. Also, all three nations agreed that Germany was too power-hungry and out of control to side with.

Based on this, we can see that alliances that formed shortly before the Great War were based off of geography and past-shared experiences. Once the Great War started, the fragile alliances were subject to change.