Monday, January 13, 2014 (Vanessa)

Week Two, Day 1
The Stage is Set for War (pages 110-111) 

• Casual Relationships (like Domino Effect)
• In 1900, most people agreed that they must colonize other countries to be known as a great nation.
• Germany took some land from France and because of that, France wanted revenge.
• In 1800, countries like Spain, Portuguese and English were very aggressive in colonization and expansion. That was why there was a little bit of Spanish.
• Germany and Italy became united in 1870s to develop overseas.
• In 1900s, there was a strong competition between European powers for expansion, especially for Africa. There was a lot ganging up for power. 
• By 1914, large parts of the world were controlled by various European powers.
• This competition was caused by several disputes, one of which was the "Morocco Incident".
• In Germany, emperor is called Kaiser. Wilhelm II, the German Kaiser, said in 1898: "Our future lies upon the ocean," and started building up an navy.
• In 1900, Britain's navy was the largest among all of the navies.
• They developed a race between two countries to build ships. It was called "Race of the Dreadnoughts".
• Britain launched the HMS Dreadnought in 1906, which started the race to build more powerful battleships.

Notes from Ashura's presentation 

• In 1914, the World War I began. People from other countries already prepared some preparations, like navies.
• Even though the Europeans were the most active continent, the French had the most power to take all lands. You can say that French was the most powerful.
• Before the World War I started, it was said the sentence: "To be a powerful nation, you must colonize."
• Aside from French, the Brits also had big empires.
• So Britain and French had large empires. They took most of the lands like Africa.
• Because of this, the world also recognize the statement: "To be a powerful nation, you must colonize," and thought it was true.
• Germany did not want revenge for Britain. They increased their navy powers.
• By this, Britain felt challenged because they wanted to be first.
• Germany's power was increased by 50%.
• Comparing Britain and Germany, Britain was still more powerful because it controlled a quarter of the world.
• Britain and French--and all the European countries--wanted to colonize Africa because Africa was a really rich country.
• The Russians also got involved around that time. At that time, Austria and Russia became united and that was the first time it happened.
• Italy and Germany were enemies.
• Since Britain felt challenged because Germany was catching up and before building the biggest navy ever, they were thinking about how to make it.
• By then, a German politician said: "Our future lies upon the ocean." That means that they were just focusing on their navy armies.
• Based on the map from page 110, Britain colonized most countries and Italy only colonized some.