During the Roman Empire, the Germans, Slavs and Celts, who originated in northeast Europe, were known by the Romans as the three barbarians of Europe. In different historical periods in Europe, they migrated from east to west, from north to south, and the figure of conquest was everywhere.
From the European continent to the British Isles on the other side of the strait to North Africa, the "three barbarians" who are brave and good at war have each played a piece of the world, not only becoming the representative peoples of today's Europe, but also profoundly influencing and changing the European pattern.
01 Germanic people
Undoubtedly, the Germanic peoples had the most extensive influence on Europe. To this day, most of the so-called traditional European powers are inextricably linked to the Germans. From the south to destroy the Roman Empire to dominate the Holy Roman Empire for more than 800 years, from the establishment of the German Empire through three wars to the launch of two world wars, the Germans always believed that they had the mission to unify Europe. Although they are getting smaller and smaller, the Germans represented by today's Germany are still the ones that no nation in the world dares to underestimate.
02 Slavs
The Slavs, who originated in the plains of Eastern Europe, were also a formidable fighting people, forming East, West and Yugoslavia through constant migration, and gaining a place in both Eastern and South-Central Europe. After continuous superiority and survival of inferiority, the East Slavs represented by Russia eventually became the boss of the Slavs. With the rise of the modern Russian Empire, "pan-Slavism" began to penetrate into Central and Southern Europe, and the geographically located Balkan Peninsula naturally became an important target for the Slavs.
03 Celtic
The Celts originated in today's German-French border area, and around 500 BC, the Celts invaded from the European continent and occupied the British Isles, and some Celts settled in today's Ireland and Scotland, and the other part occupied today's southeastern England. Thereafter, the British Isles were invaded by three Germanic tribes, and the heroic Celts rose up to resist, and the "Germanic conquerors" paid a heavy price.
By the beginning of the 5th century AD, the Roman Empire, facing internal and external troubles, was forced to withdraw its troops from the British Isles, and the Celtic tribes on the island of England gradually merged and eventually formed a modern state. The Cornish, Irish, Scottish and Welsh people of today's England are Celtic. That is to say, the Celts and Germans together became the two major ethnic sources of modern English.
More than a thousand years later, in the 19th century, the "three barbarians" in the eyes of the Romans were still full of vitality.
Britain: With its unparalleled maritime hegemony, Britain has long replaced Spain as the new empire where the sun never sets, and the ambitious British Empire is proud of the European continent on the east and plundering in the west.
Tsarist Russia: After hundreds of years of "extensive development", the huge Russian Empire has become the giant of Eurasia. The two-headed eagle stared westward at Europe while constantly expanding its territory to the east. In addition, Tsarist Russia never stopped coveting the Balkan Peninsula and launched many wars with Ottoman Turkey. In this regard, the European powers were extremely vigilant and always intervened jointly at critical moments, and the expansion of Tsarist Russia to the south was repeatedly frustrated.
Germany: Although the German Empire was only founded in 1871, the Germanic prowess was well known in Europe, and the empire established by the "barbarians" frightened all of Europe from the beginning. Seeing that the world was divided up by the old European empires, the unified German Empire was ready to carry out the mission of unifying Europe.
In the 1860s and 1870s, the Kingdom of Italy and the German Empire were established one after another, and after the defeat of the Austro-Prussian War, the Austrian Empire had to establish the dualistic Austro-Hungarian Empire, and from this period to the outbreak of the First World War, the situation in Europe underwent profound changes.
Among them, the Momentum of the German Empire's desire to dominate Europe was the most obvious, defeating the European hegemon France, and the Germans took a solid step towards the goal of unifying Europe. The Germans looked around, and the only people who could hinder them from accomplishing their "great cause" were Britain in the west and Russia in the east.
Differentiation combinations
In the Franco-Prussian War, Germany defeated France and captured Napoleon III, who was enthroned at the Palace of Versailles in Paris. The Germans humiliated France and single-handedly provoked hatred between the two countries. In order to prevent France's revenge from leading to germany being attacked on both sides, Bismarck adopted a strategy of allying with Russia to isolate France.
Later, the German Empire, Austria-Hungary and Tsarist Russia formed the "Triple Alliance". It should be said that this powerful combination was too powerful, and almost no one on the European continent at that time could beat it. However, at the Berlin Conference in 1878, austria-Hungary fell out with Tsarist Russia over the Balkans.
The Germans, of course, can carry the near and far. The following year, Germany secretly concluded the German-Austrian Alliance with Austria-Hungary, leaving tsarist Russia behind closed doors. Italy also joined after its defeat in the war with France, and in 1882, Germany and Austria formally signed the Triple Alliance in Vienna. After Bismarck's downfall, the new Kaiser Wilhelm II was even more reluctant to pay attention to Russia, and German-Russian relations gradually deteriorated.
In order to break the diplomatic isolation, France formed a military alliance with Russia in 1894, and two hostile camps emerged on the European continent, Germany and Austria, France and Russia. At this time, the other side of the English Channel also smelled the strong smell of gunpowder in Europe, and it was time for the British Empire, which had always been "gloriously isolated", to make a choice.
Britain saw Germany's growing expansion at sea and Russia's growing expansion in the Balkans as a threat to itself. But the British have not yet made up their minds. The French recommended an alliance between Britain and Russia, but Europeans knew that the British were no less wary of Russia than the Germans.
After the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, Tsarist Russia was seriously injured, and Britain temporarily let down its guard, and the two sides finally signed the "Anglo-Russian Entente" in 1907. In the same year, in order to jointly counter the Expansion of Germany in Ottoman Turkey, Britain, France and Russia formally formed the Triple Entente. At this point, the two imperialist camps have set up a confrontation, only to wait for the moment when the fuse of the war is ignited.
Balkan rebellion
In 1908, austria-Hungary openly annexed the long-"mandated" provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a move that provoked strong resentment among the two Slavic brothers, Russia and Serbia. It should be remembered that at the Berlin Conference that year, Austria-Hungary promised Tsarist Russia that as a condition for supporting itself to "reserve the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina at any time", Austria-Hungary would assist Tsarist Russia in "acquiring" the Bosphorus and Dardanelles.
Now, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which has the support of Germany, does not take the Slavic brothers seriously at all, not only does not count the promises, but also does not even greet them. Tsarist Russia was indignant and the consequences were severe, and in the two Balkan wars that followed, Tsarist Russia fully supported the Balkan Alliance with Serbia as the leader in attacking Ottoman Turkey.
After the two wars were fought, the Ottoman Empire completely withdrew from the Balkans, and the peninsula was reshuffled. During this period, as the founding of Albania as a curb to Serbian expansion, Macedonia was divided into three, and Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece were each divided into one. Serbia has made a lot of profits, doubling its territory, and becoming the small bully of the peninsula.
There will be a war
Stirred by Austria-Hungary and Serbia, the Balkan Peninsula was a mess. The two camps that are facing each other are constantly fueling the waves behind the scenes, and this place has become a powder keg of Europe. With the sound of a gunshot in Sarajevo, the fuse was finally ignited, was it extinguished or allowed to erupt? The time has come to test the "three barbarians" of Europe.
There is now a view that the outbreak of the First World War was accidental, and the three cousins at that time did not expect that the situation would be out of control. However, without Princip and Principe, the excuses on the face are too easy to find, and the final showdown between the "three barbarians" for hegemony in Europe is inevitable.
It is not difficult to see from the successive declarations of war at that time that although several relatives were not ready for a big war, they did not hesitate too much. From the Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia on 28 July 1914 to the declaration of war on Russia on 6 August, in less than ten days, the main members of the two camps have completed their declaration of war, and the urgency to join the war is evident.