World War One (100 Years Later)

World War One


The conflict of World War One resulted in huge, prodigious changes in the world. It evolved from battles among some European nations into a global configuration. WWI lasted from July 28, 1914 to November 11, 1918. Before the war, imperialism, colonialism, and forms of pernicious oppressions globally existed. Africa was dominated heavily by the UK, France, Germany, etc. They promoted the evil Berlin Conference of the 1880’s which promoted European imperialism explicitly. Even the Czars of Russia had imperialism in Central Asia including Siberia. European empires competed against each other for the resources of Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, etc. Many peoples of color were victims of genocide, colonial abuse, and the vicious deprivation of human rights in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Oceania, etc. During the early 20th century, Germany increased its military and political power. Germany’s army, navy, and infrastructure increased its strength. England and France didn’t like this, because they wanted a monopoly of geopolitical power over Germany. More developments existed in the world too. Subsequently, nationalist movements had expanded worldwide. Nationalism is the movement that takes pride in one’s nation or ethnic identity nationally.

Nationalism ran in contrary to empire since empires want to dominate large nationalities into one centralized power. Serbians wanted independence from the Austro-Hungary Kingdom. Serbians are heavily Slavic like the Russians are too. Chinese nationalists wanted Europeans to stop ruling over them, which caused the Boxer Rebellion. The Boxers were the name of the Chinese nationalists. America and other European nations united to end the Boxer Rebellion back in 1901. It started in 1899. In Africa, people fought for independence too. A Serbian nationalist named Princep murdered King Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in 1914. Afterwards, World War I transpired immediately. France and England allied with Russia as the Allied Powers against the Central Powers (made up of Austria-Hungary, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire).  Italy, Japan and the United States joined the Allies, while the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers. The beginning of the war resulted in a stalemate. Gas attacks, trench warfare, and tanks consumed the atmosphere throughout the battlefield. Americans came to fight in the war late because of isolationist feelings. The war cost the lives of millions of human beings, the growth of nationalist movements, the creation of revolutions, and a new society globally. The League of Nations was created after WWI, but it didn’t resolve longstanding issues related to reparations, border disputes, and socio-economic tensions. So, World War I was a new war which was one important prelude to World War II and a crucial back drop of the long story of world history.

Prelude

By the 19th century, Europe changed. Major European powers formed alliances to establish a balance of power. There were complex groups of political and military alliances all over the European continent by 1900. This reality evolved from the Holy Alliance of 1815. This was when Prussia, Russia, and Austria united in an alliance.  Germany grew by the late 1800’s. It united with Prussia in 1871. Later, the German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck on October 1873 negotiated the League of Three Emperors (called Dreikaiserbund in German) between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia, and Germany.  The agreement didn’t work, because Austria-Hungary and Russia didn’t agree over Balkan policy. This left Germany and Austria-Hungary to form an alliance by 1879 called the Dual Alliance. Some viewed this clique as countering Russian influence in the Balkans (as tons of Slavic peoples lived in the Balkans back then and today) as the Ottoman Empire continued to get weaker in power. This alliance grew in 1882 to include Italy in evolving into the Triple Alliance. Bismarck had especially worked to hold Russia at Germany's side in an effort to avoid a two-front war with France and Russia. When Wilhelm II ascended to the throne as German Emperor (Kaiser), Bismarck was compelled to retire and his system of alliances was gradually de-emphasized. For example, the Kaiser refused, in 1890, to renew the Reinsurance Treaty with Russia. Two years later, the Franco-Russian Alliance was signed to counteract the force of the Triple Alliance.  The UK signed agreements with France via the Entente Cordiale by 1904. In 1907, Britain and Russia signed the Anglo-Russian Convention.

These agreements didn’t create Britain to be an ally with France or Russia. What it did do was it made British forces to enter into any future conflict involving France or Russia. These agreements in term are called the Triple Entente. During this time, there was a massive arms race. German economic power and industry massively increased after the unification and foundation of the Empire in 1871. This came after the Franco-Prussian War where Germany defeated France. Wilhelm II built up the Germany Navy which was established by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz in rivalry with the British Royal Navy for world naval supremacy. The UK then built capital ships. They launched the HMS Dreadnought in 1906 to expand the British Empire’s influence in completion against Germany. The arms race existed throughout Europe. The major powers developed their industrial based resources. Weapons and equipment agitated many nations to prepare for war. Between 1908 and 1913, the military spending of European power increased by 50%. A pan-European war would soon come about.

There were conflicts in the Balkans too. The Austria-Hungary was involved in the Bosnian crisis of 1908-1909. They annexed the former Ottoman territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It occupied the lands since 1878. The Kingdom of Serbia was angered by this action including the Pan-Slavic and Orthodox Russian Empire. Russian political maneuvering in the region destabilized the peace accords. The Balkans in that time was very contentious. The First Balkan War was created in 1912 and 1913. It was fought between the Balkan League and the crumbling Ottoman Empire. The Treaty of London resulted from the war. The treaty decreased the size of the Ottoman Empire further and an independent Albanian state rose up. The territories of Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece increased. When Bulgaria attacked Serbia and Greece on  June 16, 1913, it lost most of Macedonia to Serbia and Greece, and Southern Dobruja to Romania in the 33-day Second Balkan War, further destabilizing the region. The Great Powers were able to keep these Balkan conflicts contained, but the next one would spread throughout Europe and beyond.

 

The spark that ultimately caused World War I would be the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914. His assassination was a product of a conspiracy. Archduke Ferdinand was visiting the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. There was a group of six assassins in the area. Their names were  Cvjetko Popović, Gavrilo Princip, Muhamed Mehmedbašić, Nedeljko Čabrinović, Trifko Grabež, and Vaso Čubrilović. They were from the Yugolavist group Mlada Bosna. They gathered on the street where the Archduke’s motorcade would pass. They wanted to assassinate him. They were supplied with weapons from the Serbian Black Hand, which was a secret military society. Čabrinović threw a grenade at the car, but missed. Some nearby were injured by the blast, but Ferdinand's convoy carried on. The other assassins failed to act as the cars drove past them. One hour later, Ferdinand returned from a visit at the Sarajevo Hospital with those wounded in the assassination attempt, the convoy took a wrong turn into a street where, by coincidence, Princip stood. With a pistol, Princip shot and killed Ferdinand and his wife Sophie. The reaction among the people in Austria was mild, almost indifferent. As historian Zbyněk Zeman later wrote, "the event almost failed to make any impression whatsoever. On Sunday and Monday (June 28 and 29), the crowds in Vienna listened to music and drank wine, as if nothing had happened." The political effect was huge. It was similar to the aftermath of 9/11 politically. The heir was murdered including his wife. Vienna changed overnight.

Emperor Franz Joseph was shocked and upset at this assassination. Later, Austro-Hungarian authorities promoted anti-Serbian riots in Sarajevo. The Bosnian Croats and Bosniaks killed 2 Bosnian Serbs and damaged many Serb-owned buildings. There were more violent acts against ethnic Serbs outside of Sarajevo (in cities in the in Austro-Hungarian-controlled Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia). Austro-Hungarian authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina imprisoned and extradited approximately 5,500 prominent Serbs, 700 to 2,200 of whom died in prison. A further 460 Serbs were sentenced to death. A predominantly Bosniak special militia, known as the Schutzkorps, was established and carried out the persecution of Serbs. That was evil and unjustified.

Later, the July Crisis came about. This related to diplomatic talks about Austria-Hungary, Germany, France, and Britain. They rightfully believed that the Black Hand was involved in the plot to murder the Archduke. They wanted to end Serbian interference in Bosnia. Austria-Hungary delivered to Serbia on July 23, 1914 the July Ultimatum. This was about 10 demands that were made intentionally unacceptable as a means to provoke a war with Serbia. Serbia decreed general mobilization on July 24th. Serbia accepted all of the terms of the ultimatum except for article six, which demanded that Austrian delegates be allowed in Serbia for the purpose of participation in the investigation into the assassination. Following this, Austria broke off diplomatic relations with Serbia and, the next day, Austria ordered a partial mobilization. Finally, on July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. By July 29, 1914, Russia supported Serbia. They executed partial mobilization against Austria-Hungary. General mobilization was ordered by Russia on July 30th. German Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg waited until the 31st for an appropriate response, when Germany declared a "state of danger of war.”  Kaiser Wilhelm II asked his cousin, Tsar Nicolas II, to suspend the Russian general mobilization. When he refused, Germany issued an ultimatum demanding its mobilization be stopped, and a commitment not to support Serbia. Another was sent to France, asking her not to support Russia if it were to come to the defense of Serbia. On August 1, after the Russian response, Germany mobilized and declared war on Russia. This also led to the general mobilization in Austria-Hungary on August 4, 1914.

The German government issued demands to France in desiring it to be neutral as they had to decide which deployment plan to create. It would be difficult to change the deployment whilst underway. There was the modified German Schlieffen Plan, Aufmarsch II West. It would deploy 80% of the army in the west. Aufmarsch I Ost and Aufmarsch II Ost would deploy 60% in the west and 40% in the east as this was the maximum that the East Prussian railway infrastructure could carry. The French did not respond, but sent a mixed message by ordering their troops to withdraw 10 km (6 mi) from the border to avoid any incidents, and at the same time ordered the mobilization of her reserves. Germany responded by mobilizing its own reserves and implementing Aufmarsch II West. On August 1, 1914, August Wilhelm ordered General Moltke to "march the whole of the … army to the East" after he had been wrongly informed that the British would remain neutral as long as France was not attacked. The General convinced the Kaiser that improvising the redeployment of a million men was unthinkable and that making it possible for the French to attack the Germans "in the rear" might prove disastrous. Yet Wilhelm insisted that the German army should not march into Luxembourg until he received a telegram sent by his cousin George V, who made it clear that there had been a misunderstanding. Eventually the Kaiser told Moltke, "Now you can do what you want."  Germany attacked Luxembourg on August 2 and on August 3, 1914, Germany declared war on France. On August 4, 1914, after Belgium refused to permit German troops to cross its borders into France, Germany declared war on Belgium as well.  Britain declared war on Germany at 19:00 UTC on August 4, 1914 (effective from 11 pm). This was following an "unsatisfactory reply" to the British ultimatum that Belgium must be kept neutral.

The Start

The beginning of the World War I started with miscommunication. The Central Powers had to communicate with its ally Germany. Germany promised to support Austria-Hungary’s invasion of Serbia. The problem was that the interpretations of what that meant differed. There were previously tested deployment plans. They were replaced in early 1914. They have never been tested in exercises. Austro-Hungarian leaders believed Germany would cover its northern flank against Russia. Germany wanted Austria-Hungary to direct most of its troops against Russia, while Germany dealt with France. The confusion forced the Austro-Hungarian Army to divide its forces between the Russian and Serbian fronts.  On August 12, 1914, Austria invaded and fought the Serbian army at the Battle of Cer and Battle of Kolubara. Over the next 2 weeks, Austrian attacks were thrown back because of heavy losses. This was the first major Allied victories of World War One. It dashed Austro-Hungarian hopes of a swift victory. After this, Austria had to keep sizable forces on the Serbian font, which weakening its efforts against Russia. Serbia’s defeat of the Austro-Hungarian invasion of 1914 has been one of the major upsets victories of the twentieth century. German forces started to come into Belgium and France.

During the start of World War I, 80% of the German army was deployed as seven field armies in the west. This was according to the plan called Aufmarsch II West. Yet, they were then assigned to execute the retired deployment plan of Aufmarsch I West. This was also known as the Schlieffen Plan. This plan would be about marching German armies through northern Belgium and into France. The Germans wanted to encircle the French army and then breach the second defensive area of the fortresses of Verdun and Paris including at the Marne River. Aufmarsch I West was one of the four deployment plans available to the General Staff in 1914. Each plan favored certain operations, but they didn’t specify exactly how those operations were to be carried out (at their initiative and with minimal oversight).

Aufmarsch I West was created for a one front war with France. Both Russia and Britain were expected to help France. Italian or Austro-Hungarian troops weren’t available for operations against France. The plan was offensive. Accordingly, the Aufmarsch II West deployment was changed for the offensive of 1914, despite its unrealistic goals and the insufficient forces Germany had available for decisive success. Moltke took Schlieffen's plan and modified the deployment of forces on the western front by reducing the right wing, the one to advance through Belgium, from 85% to 70%. In the end, the Schlieffen plan was so radically modified by Moltke, that it could be more properly called the Moltke Plan. This plan wanted to go to the right flank of the German advance to bypass the French armies which were found on the Franco-German border. They wanted to defeat the French forces closer to Luxembourg and Belgium, so they could move south to Paris. The Germans were successful at first, especially at the Battle of the Frontiers (from August 12-24, 1914).

By September 12, 1914, the French (with assistance from the BEF or the British Expeditionary Force) halted the German advance east of Paris. This was found at the First Battle of the Marne which occurred from September 5-12, 1914. They pushed the German forces back some 31 miles. The French offensive into southern Alsace was launched on August 20 in the Battle of Mulhouse. It had limited success. Russia invaded with 2 armies in the east. The Germans responded. They used their 8th Field Army from its previous role as reserve for the invasion of France. They used that army to go into East Prussia by rail across the German Empire. This German army was led by Paul von Hindenburg. They defeated Russia in many battles known as the First Battle of Tannenburg from August 2 to September 2, 1914. The Russian invasion failed. It caused a diversion of German troops to the east. The Allied victory came about in the First Battle of the Marne. This meant Germany failed to achieve its objective of avoiding a long, two-front war. However, the German army had fought its way into a good defensive position inside France and effectively halved France's supply of coal. It had also killed or permanently crippled 230,000 more French and British troops than it itself had lost. Despite this, communications problems and questionable command decisions cost Germany the chance of a more decisive outcome.

Conflict existed in Asia too. New Zealand occupied German Samoa (or later Western Samoa) on August 30, 1914. By September 11, 1914, the Australian Naval and military Expeditionary force landed on the island of Neu Pommern (later New Britain), which was part of German New Guinea. On October 28, the German cruiser SMS Emden sank the Russian cruiser Zhemchug in the Battle of Penang.  Japan seized Germany's Micronesian colonies and, after the Siege of Tsingtao, the German coaling port of Qingdao on the Chinese Shandong peninsula. As Vienna refused to withdraw the Austro-Hungarian cruiser SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth from Tsingtao, Japan declared war not only on Germany, but also on Austria-Hungary; the ship participated in the defense of Tsingtao where it was sunk in November 1914. Within a few months, the Allied forces had seized all the German territories in the Pacific; only isolated commerce raiders and a few holdouts in New Guinea remained. Some of the first clashes of WWI involved British, French, and German colonial forces in Africa. From August 6-7, 1914, French and British troops invaded the German protectorate of Togoland and Kamerun. On August 10, German forces in South-West Africa attacked South Africa. Plus, sporadic and fierce fighting continued for the rest of the war. The German colonial forces in German East Africa, led by Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, fought a guerrilla warfare campaign during World War I and only surrendered two weeks after the armistice took effect in Europe.

Germany attempted to use Indian nationalism and pan-Islamism to its advantage, instigating uprisings in India, and sending a mission that urged Afghanistan to join the war on the side of Central powers. However, contrary to British fears of a revolt in India, the outbreak of the war saw an unprecedented outpouring of loyalty and goodwill towards Britain. Indian political leaders from the Indian National Congress and other groups were eager to support the British war effort, since they believed that strong support for the war effort would further the cause of Indian Home Rule. The Indian Army in fact outnumbered the British Army at the beginning of the war; about 1.3 million Indian soldiers and laborers served in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, while the central government and the princely states sent large supplies of food, money, and ammunition. In all, 140,000 men served on the Western Front and nearly 700,000 in the Middle East. Casualties of Indian soldiers totaled 47,746 killed and 65,126 wounded during World War I. The suffering engendered by the war, as well as the failure of the British government to grant self-government to India after the end of hostilities, bred disillusionment and fueled the campaign for full independence that would be led by Mohandas K. Gandhi and others.

World War I was truly a global war.

The Western Front

The Western Front was a famous part of the war. There were military tactics developed before WWI that failed to keep pace with advances in technology and had become obsolete. These new advances made the strong defensive systems to be better than old school military tactics. There was barbed wire. This was a significance hindrance to stop many infantry advances. New artillery was more lethal than weapons used in the 1870’s. There were machine guns making crossing open ground extremely difficult. Commanders on both sides failed to develop tactics for breaching entrenched positions without heavy casualties. Later, other technology had gas warfare and the tank. Just after the First Battle of the Marne (like September 5-12, 1914), the Entente and German forces attempting maneuvering to the north. They wanted to outflank each other. These actions were called, “Race to the Sea.” These outflanking efforts failed. The opposing forces found themselves found themselves at a line of entrenched positions from Lorraine to Belgium’s coast. Britain and France wanted to take the offensive. Germany wanted to defend the occupied territories. German trenches were much better constructed than those of their enemy. Anglo-French trenches were created only to be temporary before the Allied forces broke through the German defenses. Both sides wanted to break the war stalemate with new scientific and technological advances.

The Germans violated the Hague Convention and used chlorine gas for the first time on the Western Front (during the April 22, 1915 Second Battle of Ypres). Both sides used gas and it wasn’t a battle winning weapon. Poison gas was heavily dangerous and destructive. Tanks were created by the British and French. They were first used in combat by the British during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette or part of the Battle of the Somme on September 15, 1916. There was only partial success in that battle. Yet, the tank was very effective as the war progressed. The Allied forces created large tanks. The German armies only employed a few of them. From 1915 to 1917, the war was a stalemate without a decisive blow. There was the continuation of trench warfare. Throughout 1915–17, the British Empire and France suffered more casualties than Germany, because of both the strategic and tactical stances chosen by the sides. Strategically, while the Germans only mounted one major offensive, the Allies made several attempts to break through the German lines.

On February of 1916, the Germans attacked the French defensive positions at Verdun. It lasted until December of 1916. The battle had initial German gains before the French counter-attacks returned matters to near their starting point. France had more casualties. Many Germans died as well from 700,000 to 975,000 people. Verdun was a symbol of French determination and self-sacrifice. The Battle of Somme was an Anglo-French offensive from July to November of 1916. The start of the offensive on July 1, 1916 saw the British Army suffer the bloodiest day in its history. They suffered 57,470 casualties including 19,240 dead on the first day alone. The whole Somme offensive cost the British Army some 420,000 casualties. The French suffered another estimated 200,000 casualties and the Germans an estimated 500,000. Gun fire wasn’t the only way that soldiers died. There were diseases that killed people on both sides of the war. Many had infections. Illnesses like trench foot, shell shock, blindness, burns (from mustard gas), trench fever, body lice, and the flu harmed people. There was protracted action at Verdun all over 1916. There was massive bloodshed at the Somme. Many French soldiers were near collapse.

There were the futile attempts using front assault at the high price for the British and the French. Many French Army Mutinies existed. This came after the failure of the costly Nivelle Offensive of April to May 1917. The concurrent British Battle of Arras was more limited in scope and more successful. It was less of a strategic value though. One smaller part of the Arras offensive involved the capture of Vimy Ridge by the Canadian Corps. This was very important to Canada as the idea that Canada's national identity was born out of the battle is an opinion widely held in military and general histories of Canada. The last large-scale offensive of this period was a British attack (with French support) at Passchendaele (July–November 1917). This offensive opened with great promise for the Allies, before bogging down in the October mud. Casualties, though disputed, were roughly equal, at some 200,000–400,000 per side. These years of trench warfare in the West saw no major exchanges of territory and, as a result, are often thought of as static and unchanging. However, throughout this period, British, French, and German tactics constantly evolved to meet new battlefield challenges.

Naval Battles


WWI had many naval battles. From the start of the war, the German Empire has cruisers. They existed globally. Some of them attacked Allied merchant ships. The British Royal Navy hunted them down. They had difficulty in protecting Allied shipping. Britain once had the most powerful, influential navy in the world. The publishing of the book The Influence of Sea Power upon History by Alfred Thayer Mahan in 1890 was intended to encourage the United States to increase their naval power. Instead, this book made it to Germany and inspired its readers to try to over-power the British Royal Navy. For example, the German detached light cruiser SMS Emden, part of the East Asia Squadron stationed at Qingdao, seized or destroyed 15 merchantmen, as well as sinking a Russian cruiser and a French destroyer. However, most of the German East-Asia squadron—consisting of the armored cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, light cruisers Nürnberg and Leipzig and two transport ships—did not have orders to raid shipping and was instead underway to Germany when it met British warships. The German flotilla and Dresden sank 2 armored cruisers at the Battle of Coronel. Many of these same ships were virtually destroyed at the Battle of Falkland Islands in December of 1914. Only Dresden and a few auxiliaries escaped. After the Battle of Mas a Tierra, these too had been destroyed or interned. Early in World War I, Britain started to execute a naval blockade of Germany. It was an effective strategy. The reason was that it cut off vital military and civilian supplies. This blockade violated international law and it was codified by several international agreements of the past two centuries. Britain mined international waters to prevent any chips from entering entire sections of the ocean. This caused danger to even neutral ships. There was a limited response to the tactic of the British. Germany expected a similar response to its unrestricted submarine warfare.

The Battle of Jutland took place in May/June 1916. It was the largest naval battle of WWI. It was the only full scale clash of battleships during the war and one the largest in history. The Kaiserliche Marine's High Seas Fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer, fought the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet, led by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. The engagement was a standoff, as the Germans were outmaneuvered by the larger British fleet, but managed to escape and inflicted more damage to the British fleet than they received. Strategically, however, the British asserted their control of the sea, and the bulk of the German surface fleet remained confined to port for the duration of the war. German U-boats attempted to cut the supply lines between North America and Britain. The nature of submarine warfare meant that attacks often came without warning, giving the crews of the merchant ships little hop of survival.

The United States launched a protest. Germany changed its rules of engagement. After the sinking of the passenger ship RMS Lusitania in 1915, Germany promised not to target passenger liners, while Britain armed its merchant ships. The British placed them beyond the protection of the “cruiser rules” which demanded warning and movement of crews to “a place of safety” (a standard that lifeboats didn’t meet). In early 1917, Germany had a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. They realized that Americans would eventually enter the war. Germany wanted to strangle Allied sea lanes before the United States could transport a large army overseas, but after an initial success eventually failed to do so. The U-boat threat lessened in 1917 when merchant ships started to travel in convoys, escorted by destroyers. This made it difficult for U-boats to find targets, which significantly lessened losses. After the hydrodophone and depth charges were introduced, accompanying destroyers could attack a submerged submarine with some hope of success. Convoys slowed the flow of supplies, since ships had to wait as convoys were assembled. The solution to the delays was an extensive program of building new freighters. Troopships were too fast for the submarines and did not travel the North Atlantic in convoys. The U-boats had sunk more than 5,000 Allied ships, at a cost of 199 submarines. World War I also saw the first use of aircraft carriers in combat, with HMS Furious launching Sopwith Camels in a successful raid against the Zeppelin hangars at Tondern in July 1918, as well as blimps for antisubmarine patrol.

The Eastern Front


The Western front of WWI had a stalemate. The war continued in Eastern Europe. There were initial Russian plans for invasions of Austrian Galicia and East Prussia simultaneously. Russia’s initial advance into Galicia was successful initially. They were driven back from East Prussia by Hindenburg and Ludendorff at the battles of Tannenberg and Masurian Lakes in August and September of 1914. Russia’s less developed industrial base and ineffective military leadership were instrumental in the events that unfolded. By the spring of 1915, the Russian had retreated to Galicia. By May, the Central Powers had a breakthrough on Poland’s southern frontiers. By August 5, 1915, the Central Powers captured Warsaw and forced the Russians to withdraw from Poland.

Soon, the Russian Revolution came about. Russia won the June 1916 Brusilov Offensive in eastern Galicia. Many Russians opposed the Russian government’s conduct of the war. Other generals refused to support the victory. Allied and Russian forces were revived only temporally by Romania’s entry into the war by August 27. German forces came to the aid of the embattled Austro-Hungarian units in Transylvania while a German-Bulgarian force attacked from the south. Bucharest was retaken by the Central Powers on December 6, 1916. Unrest grew in Russia as the Tsar remained on the front. There was the bad rule of Empress Alexandra. Protests existed in Russia and there was the murder of her friend Rasputin at the end of 1916. By March of 1917, demonstrations in Petrograd culminated in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the appointment of the Provisional Government. It shared power with the Petrograd Soviet socialists. This was the start of the Russian Revolution. This new arrangement caused confusion and chaos at the front and at home. The army was increasingly ineffective. After the Tsar’s abdication, Vladimir Lenin was ushered by train from Switzerland into Russia on April 16, 1917. He was financed by Jacob Schiff according to some scholars since the Russian Empire was notoriously anti-Semitic and issued pogroms against Jewish people. The truth is that Jacob Schiff allied with the moderate democratic-socialist Kerensky as he didn’t support Lenin or the Bolsheviks.  There was discontent and problems in the Provisional government. This caused the popular rise of the Bolshevik Party led by Lenin. Lenin wanted the war to end.

The Revolution of November 1917 was followed by an armistice in December. Russia negotiated with Germany. At first, the Bolsheviks refused the German terms, but when German troops began marching across Ukraine unopposed, the new government acceded to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918. The treaty ceded vast territories, including Finland, the Baltic provinces, parts of Poland and Ukraine to the Central Powers. Despite this enormous apparent German success, the manpower required for German occupation of former Russian territory may have contributed to the failure of the Spring Offensive and secured relatively little food or other materiel for the Central Powers war effort. The Entente no longer existed after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was adopted. The Allied powers led a small scale invasion of Russia to try to stop Germany from exploiting Russian resources. Also, it was done in a lesser extent to support the Whites (or the conservative, pro-Czar types) instead of the Reds (or the Communists) in the Russian Civil War. Allied troops landed in Arkhangelsk and in Vladivostok as part of the North Russia Intervention.

 

The Czechoslovak Legion fought with the Entente. They wanted to have the independence of Czechoslovakia. The Legion of Russia was created in September 1914. By December 1917, one Legion was in France (including volunteers from America), and in April of 1918 in Italy. Czechoslovak Legion troops defeated the Austro-Hungarian army at the Ukrainian village of Zborov in July of 1917. After that success, the number of Czechoslovak legionnaires increased, as well as Czechoslovak military power. During the Battle of Bakhamuch, the Legion defeated the Germans and forced them to make a truce. In Russia, they were involved in the Russian Civil War. They sided with the Whites against the Bolsheviks. At times, they controlled most of the Trans-Siberian railway and conquered the major cities of Siberia.  The presence of the Czechoslovak Legion near Yekaterinburg appears to have been one of the motivations for the Bolshevik execution of the Tsar and his family in July 1918. Legionaries arrived less than a week afterwards and captured the city. Because Russia's European ports were not safe, the corps was evacuated by a long detour via the port of Vladivostok. The last transport was the American ship Heffron in September 1920.

There were Central Powers peace overtures too. 10 months about the brutal Battle of Verdun in December 1916 and a successful offensive against Romania, the Germans attempted to negotiate a pace with the Allies. Soon after, the US President, Woodrow Wilson, attempted to intervene as a peacemaker, asking in a note for both sides to state their demands. George’s War Cabinet considered the German offer to be a ploy to create divisions amongst the Allies. After initial outrage and much deliberation, they took Wilson's note as a separate effort, signaling that the United States was on the verge of entering the war against Germany following the "submarine outrages." While the Allies debated a response to Wilson's offer, the Germans chose to rebuff it in favor of "a direct exchange of views." Learning of the German response, the Allied governments were free to make clear demands in their response of 14 January. They sought restoration of damages, the evacuation of occupied territories, reparations for France, Russia and Romania, and recognition of the principle of nationalities. This included the liberation of Italians, Slavs, Romanians, Czecho-Slovaks, and the creation of a "free and united Poland.”  On the question of security, the Allies sought guarantees that would prevent or limit future wars, complete with sanctions, as a condition of any peace settlement. The negotiations failed and the Entente powers rejected the German offer on the grounds that Germany had not put forward any specific proposals.

Southern Theaters

There were Southern theaters in World War I too taking place in the Balkans, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Macedonia plus other places. Faced with Russia, Austria-Hungary could spare only one-third of its army to attack Serbia. The Austrians had heavy losses. Later, the Austrians briefly occupied the Serbian capital or Belgrade. There was a Serbian counter attack in the Battle of Kolubara that succeeded in driving them from the country by the end of 1914. During the first ten months of 1915, Austria-Hungary used most of its military reserves to fight Italy. German and Austro-Hungarian diplomats, however, scored a coup by persuading Bulgaria to join the attack on Serbia. The Austro-Hungarian provinces of Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia provided troops for Austria-Hungary, in the fight with Serbia, Russia, and Italy. Montenegro allied itself with Serbia. On October 12, 1915, Bulgaria declared war on Serbia. Bulgaria joined in the attack by the Austro-Hungarian army under Mackensen's army of 250,000 that was already underway. Serbia was conquered in a little more than a month, as the Central Powers, now including Bulgaria, sent in 600,000 troops total. The Serbian army, fighting on two fronts and facing certain defeat, retreated into northern Albania. The Serbs suffered defeat in the Battle of Kosovo. Montenegro covered the Serbian retreat towards the Adriatic coast in the Battle of Mojkovac in January 6-7, 1916, but ultimately the Austrians also conquered Montenegro. The surviving Serbian soldiers were evacuated by ship to Greece. After conquest, Serbia was divided between Austro-Hungary and Bulgaria.

By 1915, a Franco-British force landed at Salonica in Greece, to offer assistance and to pressure its government to declare war against the Central Powers. Yet, the pro-German King Constantine I dismissed the pro-Allied government of Eleftherios Venizelos before the Allied expeditionary force arrived. The friction between the King of Greece and the Allies continued to accumulate with the National Schism, which effectively divided Greece between regions still loyal to the king and the new provisional government of Venizelos in Salonica. After intense negotiations and an armed confrontation in Athens between Allied and royalist forces (an incident known as Noemvriana), the King of Greece resigned and his second son Alexander took his place; Greece then officially joined the war on the side of the Allies.

In the beginning, the Macedonian Front was mostly static. French and Serbian forces retook limited areas of Macedonia by recapturing Bitola on November 19, 1916 following the costly Monastir Offensive, which brought stabilization of the front. There was a breakthrough made by Serbian and French troops on September 1918. This was after most of the German and Austro-Hungarian troops have been withdrawn. The Bulgarians were defeated at the Battle of Dobro Pole and by September 25, 1918 British and French troops had crossed the border into Bulgaria proper as the Bulgarian army collapsed. Bulgaria capitulated four days later, on September 29, 1918. The German high command responded by dispatching troops to hold the line, but these forces were far too weak to reestablish a front.

The disappearance of the Macedonian Front meant that the road to Budapest and Vienna was now opened to Allied forces. Hindenburg and Ludendorff concluded that the strategic and operational balance had now shifted decidedly against the Central Powers and, a day after the Bulgarian collapse, insisted on an immediate peace settlement. The Ottoman Empire had a serious role in World War I. The Ottomans threatened Russia’s Caucasian territories and Britain’s communications with India via the Suez Canal. As the conflict progressed, the Ottoman Empire took advantage of the European powers’ preoccupation with the war. They conducted a large scale ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian Christian populations, which was known as the Armenian Genocide, the Greek Genocide, and the Assyrian Genocide. The British and the French opened overseas front with the Gallipoli (1915) and Mesopotamian campaigns (1914). In Gallipoli, the Ottoman Empire successfully repelled the British, French, Australian, and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs).  In Mesopotamia, by contrast, after the defeat of the British defenders in the Siege of Kut by the Ottomans (1915–16), British Imperial forces reorganized and captured Baghdad in March 1917.

The British were aided in Mesopotamia by local Arabic and Assyrian tribesmen, while the Ottomans employed local Kurdish and Turcoman tribes. Further to the west, the Suez Canal was defended from Ottoman attacks in 1915 and 1916. In August, a German and Ottoman force was defeated at the Battle of Romani by the ANZAC Mounted Division and the 52nd (Lowland) infantry Division. Following the victory, an Egyptian Expeditionary Force came across the Sinai Peninsula. They pushed Ottoman forces back in the Battle of Magdhaba in December and the Battle of Rafa on the border between the Egyptian Sinai and Ottoman Palestine in January 1917. Russian armies typically had successes in the Caucasus. Enver Pasha or the supreme commander of the Ottoman armed forces was ambitious. He wanted to conquer central Asia and areas that had lost to Russia previously. He was a poor commander. He launched an offensive against the Russians in the Caucasus in December of 1914 with 100,000 troops. He wanted a frontal attack against mountainous Russian positions in winter. He lost 86% of his force at the Battle of Sarikamish.

The Ottoman Empire had German support. It invaded Persia or modern day Iran in December of 1914. The empire wanted to cut off British and Russian access to petroleum reservoirs around Baku near the Caspian Sea. Persia, ostensibly neutral, had long been under the spheres of British and Russian influence. The Ottomans and Germans were aided by Kurdish and Azeri forces, together with a large number of major Iranian tribes, such as the Qashqai, Tangistanis, Luristanis, and Khamseh, while the Russians and British had the support of Armenian and Assyrian forces. The Persian Campaign was to last until 1918 and end in failure for the Ottomans and their allies. However the Russian withdrawal from the war in 1917 led to Armenian and Assyrian forces, who had hitherto inflicted a series of defeats upon the forces of the Ottomans and their allies, being cut off from supply lines, outnumbered, outgunned and isolated, forcing them to fight and flee towards British lines in northern Mesopotamia. General Yudenich, the Russian commander from 1915 to 1916, drove the Turks out of most of the southern Caucasus with a string of victories. In 1917, Russian Grand Duke Nicholas assumed command of the Caucasus front. Nicholas planned a railway from Russian Georgia to the conquered territories, so that fresh supplies could be brought up for a new offensive in 1917. However, in March 1917 (February in the pre-revolutionary Russian calendar), the Czar abdicated in the course of the February Revolution and the Russian Caucasus Army began to fall apart.

The Arabic revolt was instigated by the Arab Bureau of the British Foreign Office. It started on June 1916 with the Battle of Mecca. It was led by Sherif Hussein of Mecca and ended with the Ottoman surrender of Damascus.  Fakhri Pasha, the Ottoman commander of Medina, resisted for more than two and half years during the Siege of Medina before surrendering. The Senussi tribe, along the border of Italian Libya and British Egypt, incited and armed by the Turks, waged a small-scale guerrilla war against Allied troops. The British were forced to dispatch 12,000 troops to oppose them in the Senussi Campaign. Their rebellion was finally crushed in mid-1916.  Total Allied casualties on the Ottoman fronts amounted 650,000 men. Total Ottoman casualties were 725,000 (325,000 dead and 400,000 wounded).

Italy had heavy involvement in WWI too. Italy was allied with German and Austro-Hungarian Empires since 1882 as part of the Triple Alliance. Yet, the nation had its own designs on Austrian territory in Trentino, the Austrian Littoral, Fiume (Rijeka) and Dalmatia. Rome had a secret 1902 pact with France. This ended its part of the Triple Alliance. From the beginning, Italy refused to commit troops. It said that the Triple Alliance was defensive and that Austria-Hungary was the aggressor. The Austro-Hungarian government started negotiations to secure Italian neutrality. It offered the French colony of Tunisia in return. The Allies made a counteroffer in which Italy would receive the Southern Tyrol, Austrian Littoral and territory on the Dalmatian coast after the defeat of Austria-Hungary. This was formalized by the Treaty of London.

Further encouraged by the Allied invasion of Turkey in April 1915, Italy joined the Triple Entente and declared war on Austria-Hungary on 23 May. Fifteen months later, Italy declared war on Germany. This was formalized by the Treaty of London. Further encouraged by the Allied invasion of Turkey in April 1915, Italy joined the Triple Entente and declared war on Austria-Hungary on May 23. Fifteen months later, Italy declared war on Germany. The Italians had a large number of troops. Yet, Italy had a difficult terrain. Field Marshal Luigi Cardorna was a believer in frontal assault. He wanted to break into the Slovenian plateau min taking Ljubljana and threatening Vienna. Austro-Hungary fought the Italians.  The Austro-Hungarians counterattacked in the Altopiano of Asiago, towards Verona and Padua, in the spring of 1916 (Strafexpedition), but made little progress. Beginning in 1915, the Italians under Cadorna mounted eleven offensives on the Isonzo front along the Isonzo (Soča) River, northeast of Trieste. All eleven offensives were repelled by the Austro-Hungarians, who held the higher ground. In the summer of 1916, after the Battle of Doberdò, the Italians captured the town of Gorizia. After this minor victory, the front remained static for over a year, despite several Italian offensives, centered on the Banjšice and Karst Plateau east of Gorizia.

On October 26, 1917, the Central Powers executed a crushing offensive. It was led by the Germany. They had a victory at Caporetto (Kobarid). The Italian army was routed and retreated more than 62 miles to reorganize. It stabilized the front at the Piave River. The Italian Army had experienced heavy losses in the Battle of Caporetto and the Italian government called to arms. The 99 Boys (or the Ragazzi del 99). That group included all men born 1899 and prior, and so were 18 years old or older. In 1918, the Austro-Hungarians failed to break through in a series of battles on the Piave and were finally decisively defeated in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto in October of that year. On November 1, the Italian Navy destroyed much of the Austro-Hungarian fleet stationed in Pula, preventing it from being handed over to the new State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. On November 3, the Italians invaded Trieste from the sea. On the same day, the Armistice of Villa Giusti was signed. By mid-November 1918, the Italian military occupied the entire former Austrian Littoral and had seized control of the portion of Dalmatia that had been guaranteed to Italy by the London Pact. By the end of hostilities in November 1918, Admiral Enrico Millo declared himself Italy's Governor of Dalmatia. Austria-Hungary surrendered on November 11, 1918.

Romania had been allied with the Central Powers since 1882. When the war began, however, it declared its neutrality, arguing that because Austria-Hungary had itself declared war on Serbia, Romania was under no obligation to join the war. When the Entente Powers promised Romania Transylvania and Banat, large territories of eastern Hungary, in exchange for Romania's declaring war on the Central Powers, the Romanian government renounced its neutrality. On August 27, 1916, the Romanian Army launched an attack against Austria-Hungary, with limited Russian support. The Romanian offensive was initially successful, against the Austro-Hungarian troops in Transylvania, but a counterattack by the forces of the Central Powers drove them back. As a result of the Battle of Bucharest, the Central Powers occupied Bucharest on December 6, 1916. Fighting in Moldova continued in 1917, resulting in a costly stalemate for the Central Powers. Russian withdrawal from the war in late 1917 as a result of the October Revolution meant that Romania was forced to sign an armistice with the Central Powers on December 9, 1917.

In January 1918, Romanian forces established control over Bessarabiaas the Russian Army abandoned the province. Although a treaty was signed by the Romanian and the Bolshevik Russian governments following talks between March 5 and 9, 1918 on the withdrawal of Romanian forces from Bessarabia within two months, on March 27, 1918 Romania attached Bessarabia to its territory, formally based on a resolution passed by the local assembly of that territory on its unification with Romania. Romania officially made peace with the Central Powers by signing the Treaty of Bucharest on May 7, 1918. Under that treaty, Romania was obliged to end the war with the Central Powers and make small territorial concessions to Austria-Hungary, ceding control of some passes in the Carpathian Mountains, and to grant oil concessions to Germany. In exchange, the Central Powers recognized the sovereignty of Romania over Bessarabia. The treaty was renounced in October 1918 by the Alexandru Marghiloman government, and Romania nominally re-entered the war onNovember 10, 1918. The next day, the Treaty of Bucharest was nullified by the terms of the Armistice of Compiègne. Total Romanian deaths from 1914 to 1918, military and civilian, within contemporary borders, were estimated at 748,000.


By Timothy