التنافس الفرنسي-الألماني على تسليح جيوش دول البلقان وانعكاساته على موازين القوى العسكرية عشية 1914

Abstract

This research examines the phenomenon of Franco-German competition to arm the armies of the Balkan states in the decades preceding the outbreak of World War I. It argues that this rivalry was not merely a commercial or diplomatic conflict, but a decisive strategic factor that reconfigured the military balance of power in the region and directly contributed to creating the conditions that led to the eruption of conflict in 1914. The study traces the roots of this rivalry back to the Congress of Berlin in 1878 and deconstructs the mechanisms of military penetration, embodied by military missions (such as the German mission of von der Goltz in the Ottoman Empire) and arms contracts tied to financial loans (Germany's Krupp artillery versus France's Schneider). It illustrates how the Balkan states became divided into two rival blocs: a German-oriented axis (the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria, and Romania) and a French-oriented axis (Serbia, Greece). The Balkan Wars (1912-1913) served as the field test that revealed the effectiveness of the competing weapons and doctrines, resulting in the rise of Serbia as a regional power and the defeat of Germany's allies. The study concludes that the new balance of power that emerged in the Balkans on the eve of the Sarajevo crisis played a pivotal role in the calculations of the Great Powers; it emboldened Russia and France while pushing Austria-Hungary and Germany towards the option of a preventive war, thereby turning a regional arms race into the fuse that ignited a world war.