1905
 1914 Europe from USMA
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Jan. 22 - "Bloody Sunday" in St. petersburg when czarist troops fired on a peaceful march of 100,000 workers, killing over 500.
Mar. 31 - Kaiser Wilmelm visited Morocco and voiced Germany's claim, thus beginning the Moroccan Crisis. The First Moroccan Crisis of 1905-6, and the 2nd crisis of 1911, challenged the international system before the war. Germany sought equal colonial status in Africa with England and France, but was perceived by the Allies as militaristic and a threat to world peace. The crises accelerated the naval race between England and Germany. Morocco's independence and integrity was guaranteed by the 1880 Madrid Convention, but French and German companies expanded operations in Morocco 1903 to exploit natural resources. The French Foreign Minister Theophile Delcasse, and imperialist, sought to extend French control over Morocco after 1900. The Entente Cordiale of 1904 with England gave France the opportunity to act in Morocco. Delcasse sent a French mission to expand French control in Jan. 1905, but Germany issued warning. The Russo-Japanese War weakened the French who could no longer depend on Russian military assistance. Delcasse resigned in June 1905. The Algeciras Conference guaranteed Moroccan independence, warned against German interference, but allowed France and England an "open door" to expand their influence in Morocco. The British fear their military weakness will provoke Germany again, and in 1907 begin a reform of the British army and the creation of an Expeditionary Force. In 1907 England and Russia agreed to end their world-wide imperial competition. In 1908 France occupied most of Morocco. In 1911 Spain occupied northern Morocco. In June, Germany prepared a military expedition to Morocco, sent the battleship Panther to Agadir, demanded the French Congo as compensation for Morocco, during July the European powers prepared for war, but the Franco-German Convention of Nov. 4 averted war, granted German recognition of the French protectorate in Morocco in return for France giving Germany a portion of the Congo.
May 28 - Russian Baltic Fleet sent to Asia was destroyed by the Japanese in the Tsushima Straits.
June 27 - Mutineers took over the battleship Potemkin in Odessa harbor
Aug. 19 - Czar created a representative assembly in russia, the Duma.
Sept. 5 - Roosevelt mediates the Portsmouth Treaty ending the Russo-Japanese War.
Nov. 8 - Pogrom in Odessa killed over 1000 Jews
Dec. 7 - Moscow uprising began with a strike by 150,000 workers, but by Dec. 30 czarist troops with cannon had fired on strikers and ended the uprising, leaving over 1000 dead.
Links:
Sources:
- Hale, Oron J. The Great Illusion, 1900-1914. New York: Harper & Row, 1971. 361 p.
- Joll, James. The Origins of the First World War. 2nd ed. New York: Longman, 1992. 264 p.
- Stone, Norman. Europe Transformed, 1878-1919. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1999. 339 p.
- Taylor, A. J. P. The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848-1918. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954. 638 p