(^174) › STEP 4. Review the Knowledge You Need to Score High
Ultranationalism and Anti-Semitism
The international quality of the socialist movement was in direct opposition to the ideology
of nationalism that had dominated the second half of the nineteenth century. At the end
of the nineteenth and at the beginning of the twentieth centuries, a harder, more extreme
version of nationalism came into being. Ultranationalists argued that political theories and
parties that put class solidarity ahead of loyalty to a nation threatened the very fabric of
civilization, and they vowed to fight them to the death.
Nineteenth-century nationalism had always had a racial component, and ultranationalism
quickly merged with the age-old European suspicion of the Jewish people, known as anti-
Semitism. The most notorious example of ultranationalist and anti-Semitic political power
was the Dreyfus Affair. In 1894, a group of bigoted French army officers falsely accused Alfred
Dreyfus, a young Jewish captain, of treason. Dreyfus was convicted and sent to Devil’s Island
prison. The evidence was clearly fabricated, and liberals and socialists quickly came to Dreyfus’s
defense. His numerous trials (he was eventually exonerated) divided the nation, illustrating
how strong ultranationalist and anti-Semitic feelings were in the French establishment.Zionism
In the face of anti-Semitism, a movement for the creation of an independent state for the
Jewish people, known as Zionism, came into being. In 1896, Theodor Herzl published The
Jewish State, a pamphlet that urged an international movement to make Palestine the Jewish
homeland. A year later, the World Zionist Organization was formed, and by 1914, nearly
85,000 Jews, primarily from Eastern Europe, had emigrated to Palestine.The Causes of World War I
The causes of World War I are still debated by historians, but all explanations include the
following to varying degrees:
• The nationalities problem: Ten distinct linguistic and ethnic groups lived within the
borders of Austria-Hungary, and all were agitating for either greater autonomy or
independence.
• The rise of Germany and the Alliance System: After unification in 1871, Bismarck
sought security in the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy); Great
Britain, France, and Russia countered with the Triple Entente. The Alliance System was
supposed to make war between the major powers too costly; instead, its assurance of
military reprisal limited diplomatic options.
• The Anglo-German rivalry: The unification of Germany and its rise as an industrial and
military power generated a heated rivalry with Great Britain.
• The assassination of the Austrian Archduke: The assassination, on June 28, 1914, of
the heir to the Hapsburg throne by a young Bosnian patriot brought the nationalities
problem to a crisis point.
• German military planning: Germany was convinced that war with the Triple Entente
countries was inevitable. Accordingly, it devised a strategy, known as the Schlieffen Plan,
for a two-front war that called for a military thrust westward toward Paris at the first sign
of Russian mobilization in the east. The hope was to knock the French out of the war
before the Russians could effectively mobilize.21_Bartolini_Ch21_171-180.indd 174 27/04/18 1:55 PM