Czar Nicholas

Czar Nicholas

On 28 June 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated by a Bosnian Serb nationalist in Sarajevo, who opposed Austria-Hungary’s annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The outbreak of war was not inevitable, but leaders, diplomats, and nineteenth-century alliances created a climate for large-scale conflict.

The concept of Pan-Slavism and shared religion created strong public sympathy between Russia and Serbia. The territorial conflict created rivalries between Germany and France and between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, and as a consequence alliance networks developed across Europe.

The Triple Entente and Triple Alliance networks were set before the war.

Nicholas wanted neither to abandon Serbia to the ultimatum of Austria nor to provoke a general war.

In a series of letters exchanged with Wilhelm of Germany (the “Willy–Nicky correspondence”) the two proclaimed their desire for peace, and each attempted to get the other to back down.

Nicholas desired that Russia’s mobilization be only against Austria-Hungary, in the hopes of preventing war with Germany.

On 25 July 1914, at his council of ministers, Nicholas decided to intervene in the Austro-Serbian conflict, a step toward general war. He put the Russian army on “alert”

on 25 July. Although this was not general mobilization, it threatened the German and Austro-Hungarian borders and looked like military preparation for war.

However, his army had no contingency plans for a partial mobilization, and on 30 July 1914, Nicholas took the fateful step of confirming the order for general mobilization, despite being strongly counseled against it.

On 28 July, Austria-Hungary formally declared war against Serbia.

On 29 July 1914, Nicholas sent a telegram to Wilhelm with the suggestion to submit the Austro-Serbian problem to the Hague Conference (in Hague tribunal).

Wilhelm did not address the question of the Hague Conference in his subsequent reply.

Count Witte told the French Ambassador, Maurice Paléologue that from Russia’s point of view the war was madness, Slav solidarity was simply nonsense and Russia could hope for nothing from the war.

On 30 July, Russia ordered a general mobilization, but still maintained that it would not attack if peace talks were to begin. Germany, reacting to the discovery of partial mobilization ordered on 25 July, announced its own pre-mobilization posture, the Imminent Danger of War.

Germany requested that Russia demobilize within the next twelve hours.

In Saint Petersburg, at 7 pm, with the ultimatum to Russia having expired, the German ambassador to Russia met with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Sazonov, asked three times if Russia would reconsider, and then with shaking hands, delivered the note accepting Russia’s war challenge and declaring war on 1 August.

Less than a week later, on 6 August, Franz Joseph signed the Austro-Hungarian declaration of war on Russia.

The outbreak of war on 1 August 1914 found Russia grossly unprepared.

Russia and her allies placed their faith in her army, the famous ‘Russian steamroller’.

Its pre-war regular strength was 1,400,000; mobilization added 3,100,000 reserves and millions more stood ready behind them.

In every other respect, however, Russia was unprepared for war.

Germany had ten times as many railway tracks per square mile, and whereas Russian soldiers traveled an average of 1,290 kilometers (800 mi) to reach the front, German soldiers traveled less than a quarter of that distance.

Russian heavy industry was still too small to equip the massive armies the Tsar could raise, and her reserves of munitions were pitifully small; while the German army in 1914 was better equipped than any other, man-for-man, the Russians were severely short on artillery pieces, shells, motorized transports, and even boots.

With the Baltic Sea barred by German U-boats and the Dardanelles by the guns of Germany’s ally, the Ottoman Empire, Russia initially could receive help only via Archangel, which was frozen solid in winter, or via Vladivostok, which was over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 mi) from the front line.

By 1915, a rail line was built north from Petrozavodsk to the Kola Gulf and this connection laid the foundation of the ice-free port of what eventually was called Murmansk.

The Russian High Command was moreover greatly weakened by the mutual contempt between Vladimir Sukhomlinov, the Minister of War, and the incompetent Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevich who commanded the armies in the field.

In spite of all of this, an immediate attack was ordered against the German province of East Prussia. The Germans mobilised there with great efficiency and completely defeated the two Russian armies which had invaded.

The Battle of Tannenberg, where an entire Russian army was annihilated, cast an ominous shadow over Russia’s future.

Russia had great success against both the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman armies from the very beginning of the war, but they never succeeded against the might of the German Army.

In September 1914, in order to relieve pressure on France, the Russians were forced to halt a successful offensive against Austria-Hungary in Galicia in order to attack German-held Silesia.

Russian prisoners after the Battle of Tannenberg, where the Russian Second Army was annihilated by the German Eighth Army
Gradually a war of attrition set in on the vast Eastern Front, where the Russians were facing the combined forces of the German and Austro-Hungarian armies, and they suffered staggering losses.

General Denikin, retreating from Galicia wrote, “The German heavy artillery swept away whole lines of trenches and their defenders with them. We hardly replied.

There was nothing with which we could reply.

Our regiments, although completely exhausted, were beating off one attack after another by bayonet … Blood flowed unendingly, the ranks became thinner and thinner and thinner. The number of graves multiplied.”

On 5 August, with the Russian army in retreat, Warsaw fell. Defeat at the front bred disorder at home. At first, the targets were German, and for three days in June shops, bakeries, factories, private houses, and country estates belonging to people with German names were looted and burned.

The inflamed mobs then turned on the government, declaring the Empress should be shut up in a convent, the Tsar deposed and Rasputin hanged.

Nicholas was by no means deaf to these discontents.

An emergency session of the Duma was summoned and a Special Defense Council established, its members drawn from the Duma and the Tsar’s ministers.

In July 1915, King Christian X of Denmark, first cousin of the Tsar, sent Hans Niels Andersen to Tsarskoye Selo with an offer to act as a mediator.

He made several trips between London, Berlin, and Petrograd and in July saw the Dowager Empress Maria Fyodorovna.

Andersen told her they should conclude peace.

Nicholas chose to turn down King Christian’s offer of mediation, as he felt it would be a betrayal for Russia to form a separate peace treaty with the Central Powers when its allies Britain and France were still fighting.

The energetic and efficient General Alexei Polivanov replaced Sukhomlinov as Minister of War, which failed to improve the strategic situation.

In the aftermath of the Great Retreat and the loss of the Kingdom of Poland, Nicholas assumed the role of commander-in-chief after dismissing his cousin, Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevich, in September 1915.

This was a mistake, as the Tsar came to be personally associated with the continuing losses at the front. He was also away at the remote HQ at Mogilev, far from the direct governance of the empire, and when the revolution broke out in Petrograd he was unable to halt it.

In reality, the move was largely symbolic, since all important military decisions were made by his chief-of-staff General Michael Alexeiev, and Nicholas did little more than review troops, inspect field hospitals, and preside over military luncheons.

Nicholas II with his family in Yevpatoria, Crimea, May 1916

The Duma was still calling for political reforms and political unrest continued throughout the war.

Cut off from public opinion, Nicholas could not see that the dynasty was tottering.

With Nicholas at the front, domestic issues and control of the capital were left with his wife Alexandra. However, Alexandra’s relationship with Grigori Rasputin, and her German background, further discredited the dynasty’s authority.

Nicholas had been repeatedly warned about the destructive influence of Rasputin but had failed to remove him.

Rumors and accusations about Alexandra and Rasputin appeared one after another; Alexandra was even accused of harboring treasonous sympathies towards Germany.

Anger at Nicholas’s failure to act and the extreme damage that Rasputin’s influence was doing to Russia’s war effort and to the monarchy led to Rasputin’s eventual murder by a group of nobles, led by Prince Felix Yusupov and Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, a cousin of the Tsar, in the early morning of Saturday 17 December 1916 (O.S.) / 30 December 1916 (N.S.).

Collapse

Nicholas with members of the Stavka at Mogilev in April 1916.

As the government failed to produce supplies, mounting hardship resulted in massive riots and rebellions.

With Nicholas away at the front from 1915 through 1916, authority appeared to collapse and the capital was left in the hands of strikers and mutineers, soldiers.

Despite efforts by the British Ambassador Sir George Buchanan to warn the Tsar that he should grant constitutional reforms to fend off a revolution, Nicholas continued to bury himself away at the Staff HQ (Stavka) 600 kilometers (400 mi) away at Mogilev, leaving his capital and court open to intrigues and insurrection.

Ideologically the tsar’s greatest support came from the right-wing monarchists, who had recently gained strength.

However they were increasingly alienated by the tsar’s support of Stolypin’s Westernizing reforms, by tsar’s liberal reforms taken early in the Revolution of 1905, and especially by the political power, the tsar had bestowed on Rasputin.

By early 1917, Russia was on the verge of the total collapse of morale.

An estimated 1.7 million Russian soldiers were killed in World War I.

The sense of failure and imminent disaster was everywhere.

The army had taken 15 million men from the farms and food prices had soared. An egg cost four times what it had in 1914, butter five times as much. The severe winter dealt the railways, overburdened by emergency shipments of coal and supplies, a crippling blow.

Russia entered the war with 20,000 locomotives; by 1917, 9,000 were in service, while the number of serviceable railway wagons had dwindled from half a million to 170,000.

In February 1917, 1,200 locomotives burst their boilers and nearly 60,000 wagons were immobilized. In Petrograd, supplies of flour and fuel had all but disappeared.

War-time prohibition of alcohol was enacted by Nicholas to boost patriotism and productivity, but instead damaged the treasury and funding of the war due to the treasury now being deprived of alcohol taxes.

On 23 February 1917 in Petrograd, a combination of very severe cold weather and acute food shortages caused people to start to break shop windows to get bread and other necessities.

In the streets, red banners appeared and the crowds chanted “Down with the German woman! Down with Protopopov! Down with the war! Down with the Tsar!”

Police started to shoot at the populace from rooftops, which incited riots. The troops in the capital were poorly motivated and their officers had no reason to be loyal to the regime.

They were angry and full of revolutionary fervor and sided with the populace.

The Tsar’s Cabinet begged Nicholas to return to the capital and offered to resign completely. The Tsar, 800 kilometers (500 mi) away, was misinformed by the Minister of the Interior, Alexander Protopopov, that the situation was under control, and he ordered that firm steps be taken against the demonstrators.

For this task, the Petrograd garrison was quite unsuitable.

The cream of the old regular army had been destroyed in Poland and Galicia.

In Petrograd, 170,000 recruits, country boys or older men from the working-class suburbs of the capital itself, remained to keep control under the command of wounded officers invalided from the front and cadets from the military academies.

The units in the capital, although many bore the names of famous Imperial Guard regiments, were in reality rear or reserve battalions of these regiments, the regular units being away at the front. Many units, lacking both officers and rifles, had never undergone formal training.

General Khabalov attempted to put the Tsar’s instructions into effect on the morning of Sunday, 11 March 1917.

Despite huge posters ordering people to keep off the streets, vast crowds gathered and were only dispersed after some 200 had been shot dead, though a company of the Volinsky Regiment fired into the air rather than into the mob, and a company of the Pavlovsky Life Guards shot the officer who gave the command to open fire. Nicholas, informed of the situation by Rodzianko, ordered reinforcements to the capital and suspended the Duma.

However, it was too late.

On 12 March, the Volinsky Regiment mutinied and was quickly followed by the Semenovsky, the Ismailovsky, the Litovsky Life Guards, and even the legendary Preobrazhensky Regiment of the Imperial Guard, the oldest and staunchest regiment founded by Peter the Great.

The arsenal was pillaged, the Ministry of the Interior, Military Government building, police headquarters, the Law Courts, and a score of police buildings were put to the torch.

By noon, the fortress of Peter and Paul, with its heavy artillery, was in the hands of the insurgents. By nightfall, 60,000 soldiers had joined the revolution.

The order broke down and members of the Duma and the Soviet formed a Provisional Government to try to restore order.

They issued a demand that Nicholas must abdicate.

Faced with this demand, which was echoed by his generals, deprived of loyal troops, with his family firmly in the hands of the Provisional Government and fearful of unleashing civil war and opening the way for German conquest, Nicholas had little choice but to submit.

Nostalgia: The Russian Empire of Czar Nicholas II: The Russian Empire of Czar Nicholas II Captured in Colored Photographs by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire of World War 1

The Ottoman Empire came into World War I as one of the Central Powers.

The Ottoman Empire entered the war by carrying out a surprise attack on Russia’s Black Sea coast on 29 October 1914, with Russia responding by declaring war on 5 November 1914.

Ottoman forces fought the Entente in the Balkans and the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I.

The Ottoman Empire’s defeat in the war in 1918 was crucial in the eventual dissolution of the empire in 1921.

Ottoman entry into World War I was the result of two recently purchased ships of its navy, still manned by their German crews and commanded by their German admiral, carrying out the Black Sea Raid on 29 October 1914.

There were a number of factors that conspired to influence the Ottoman government and encourage them into entering the war.

The political reasons for the Ottoman Sultan’s entry into the war are disputed. and the Ottoman Empire was an agricultural state in an age of industrial warfare.

Also, the economic resources of the empire were depleted by the cost of the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913.
The reasons for the Ottoman action were not immediately clear.

The Ottoman entry into World War I began on 29 October 1914 when it launched the Black Sea Raid against Russian ports. Following the attack, Russia and its allies (Britain and France) declared war on the Ottomans in November 1914. 

The Ottoman Empire started military action after three months of formal neutrality, but it had signed a secret alliance with the Central Powers in August 1914.

The great landmass of Anatolia was between the Ottoman army’s headquarters in Istanbul and many of the theatres of war.

During Abdul Hamid II’s reign, civilian communications had improved, but the road and rail network was not ready for war.

It took more than a month to reach Syria and nearly two months to reach Mesopotamia.

To reach the border with Russia, the railway ran only 60 km east of Ankara, and from there, it was 35 days to Erzurum.

The Army used Trabzon port as a logistical shortcut to the east.

It took less time to arrive at any of those fronts from London than from the Ottoman War Department because of the poor condition of Ottoman supply ships.

The empire fell into disorder with the declaration of war along with Germany.

On 11 November a conspiracy was discovered in Constantinople against Germans and the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) in which some of the CUP leaders were shot.

That followed the 12 November revolt in Adrianople against the German military mission. On 13 November, a bomb exploded in Enver Pasha’s palace, which killed five German officers but failed to kill Enver Pasha.

On 18 November there were more anti-German plots.

Committees formed around the country to rid the country of those who sided with Germany.

Army and navy officers protested against the assumption of authority by Germans.

On 4 December, widespread riots took place throughout the country.

On 13 December, an anti-war demonstration was led by women in Konak (Izmir) and Erzurum. Throughout December, the CUP dealt with a mutiny among soldiers in barracks and among naval crews.

The head of the German Military Mission, Field Marshal von der Goltz, survived a conspiracy against his life.

Military power remained firmly in the hands of War Minister Enver Pasha, domestic issues (civil matters) were under Interior Minister Talat Pasha, and, interestingly, Cemal Pasha had sole control over Ottoman Syria. Provincial governors ran their regions with differing degrees of autonomy.

An interesting case is Izmir; Rahmi Bey behaved almost as if his region was a neutral zone between the warring states.

The Balkan Wars: British Consular Reports from Macedonia in the Final Years of the Ottoman Empire

Kingdom of Bulgaria

Kingdom of Bulgaria

The Kingdom of Bulgaria participated in World War I on the side of the Central Powers from 14 October 1915, when the country declared war on Serbia, until 30 September 1918, when the Armistice of Thessalonica came into effect.

After the Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913, Bulgaria was diplomatically isolated, surrounded by hostile neighbors, and deprived of Great Power support.

Negative sentiment grew particularly in France and Russia, whose officials blamed Bulgaria for the dissolution of the Balkan League, an alliance of Balkan states directed against the Ottoman Empire.

Bulgarian defeat in the Second Balkan War in 1913 turned revanchism into a foreign policy focus.

When the First World War started in July 1914, Bulgaria, still recovering from the economic and demographic damage of recent wars, declared neutrality.

Strategic location and a strong military establishment made the country a desired ally for both warring coalitions, but its regional territorial aspirations were difficult to satisfy because they included claims against four Balkan countries.

As the war progressed, the Central Powers of Austria-Hungary and the German Empire were in a better position to meet these demands. Bulgaria entered the war on the side of the Central Powers, invading Serbia in September 1915.

As the smallest of the Central Powers, Bulgaria made vital contributions to their common war effort. Its entry heralded the defeat of Serbia, thwarted the goals of Romania, and catalyzed the Ottoman war effort by providing a land and rail link from Germany to Istanbul.

Though the Balkan theatre saw successful campaigns of rapid movement by the Central Powers in 1915 and 1916, the conflict degraded into attritional trench warfare on both the Northern and the Southern Bulgarian Fronts after most Bulgarian goals were satisfied.

This period of the war further damaged the economy, creating supply problems and reducing the health and morale of Bulgarian troops. 

Despite achieving national-territorial aspirations, Bulgaria was unable to exit what otherwise would have been a successful war, weakening its will to continue to fight.

These stresses intensified with time, and in September 1918, the multinational Allied armies based in Greece broke through on the Macedonian Front during the Vardar Offensive.

Part of the Bulgarian Army quickly collapsed, and open mutiny followed as rebellious troops proclaimed a republic at Radomir.

Forced to seek peace, Bulgaria requested an armistice with the Allies on 24 September 1918, accepting it five days later.

For the second time in only five years, Bulgaria faced a national catastrophe. 

Tsar Ferdinand, I assumed responsibility, abdicating in favor of his son Boris III on 3 October.

The 1919 Treaty of Neuilly formally concluded Bulgaria’s participation in World War I.

Stipulations included the return of all occupied territories, the cession of additional territories, and the payment of heavy war reparations.

Bulgarian Fighter Colours 1919-1948 Vol. 1 (White)

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary during World War 1

At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Hungary was part of the dualist monarchy, Austria-Hungary. Although there are no significant battles specifically connected to Hungarian regiments, the troops suffered high losses throughout the war as the Empire suffered defeat after defeat.

The result was the breakup of the Empire and eventually, Hungary suffered severe territorial losses by the closing Peace Treaty.

In 1914, Austria-Hungary was one of the great powers of Europe, with an area of 676,443 km2 and a population of 52 million, of which Hungary had 325,400 km2 with a population of 21 million.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire conscripted 7.8 million soldiers during the First World War.

Although the Kingdom of Hungary composed only 42% of the population of Austria-Hungary, the thin majority – more than 3.8 million soldiers – of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces were conscripted from the Kingdom of Hungary during the First World War.

Austria-Hungary was more urbanized (25%) than its actual opponents in the First World War, like the Russian Empire (13.4%), Serbia (13.2%)[5], or Romania (18.8%).

Furthermore, the Austro-Hungarian Empire also had a more industrialized economy and higher GDP per capita than the Kingdom of Italy, which was economically the most developed opponent of the Empire by far.

On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria.

Before entering the war, only the prime minister Count István Tisza hesitated, unconvinced that it was the best time to engage in battle.

As soon as Germany promised to neutralize the Kingdom of Romania and promised that no territories of the Kingdom of Serbia would be annexed to Austria-Hungary, he then decided to support the war.

After the ultimatum sent to Serbia by Franz Josef I, the war broke out and soon spread over much of Europe and beyond.

In 1914, the Austro-Hungarian army was facing its greatest challenge so far in history. After mobilisation, the armed forces were grouped into six armies, totaling 3.2 million soldiers. Between 1914 and 1918, 9 million served in the army (7.8 million in the fighting forces).

In comparison to the other armies of Western Europe, Hungary’s experienced veteran armed forces, technical equipment, and military expenditures were underdeveloped. The artillery was insufficient, but it was heavily developed later in the war. 

The correct supply of ammunition was not solved even by the end of the war. 

The armed forces lacked an adequate air force: it had only 42 military and 40 sport airplanes before the war. Unifying the multi-ethnic units was also a serious problem for the military’s leaders.

Hungarian participation
The military forces of Austria-Hungary remained largely unified over the course of the war, in spite of their multi-ethnic nature and some expectations to the contrary. 

While German support was undoubtedly critical to the success of various offensives (such as the Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive and the Battle of Caporetto), the multi-ethnic armies of Austria-Hungary proved fully capable in a defensive role in all the theaters of the war in which they were engaged.

The predominantly ethnic German commanders of the army generally favoured troops of German extraction, but ethnic Hungarian troops were also seen as being reliable and were widely used on the front lines, especially on the Russian front and Italian front. 

For the most part, troops from other ethnic groups within the empire were less likely to be placed in strategically critical positions and therefore had lower casualties.

Over the course of World War I there was never a documented offensive by purely ethnic Hungarian troops, but such troops did contribute positively to the outcome of various battles, as follows:

On December 3–15, 1914 during the Battle of Limanowa, the “Russian steamroller” was held back, especially by the hussars.

Lieutenant-general Josef Roth attacked the Russian 3rd army, and on the right-wing, the 10th Budapest and 11th Debrecen cavalry divisions engaged in a man-to-man fight and were decisive.

On December 11, colonel Ottmár Muhr died in a heroic defense leading the Sopron 9th cavalry regiment.

Lieutenant-general Artur Arz, together with lieutenant-general Imre Hadfy, leading the 39th Kassa division, destroyed the 15th Russian division in Livno.

During the Siege of Przemysl, which defense was commanded by general Hermann Kusmanek, the main defense line, consisting of Hungarian troops, guarded the fortress for five months from November 1915.

The defenders were commanded by Árpád Tamásy, leading the 23rd Szeged division.

After the depletion of ammunition and food reserves, Przemysl capitulated, leaving 120,000 prisoners of war.
On the Isonzo front, Hungarian forces participated in all twelve battles.

On the Doberdo plateau and near Karst, the most serious battles were fought by Hungarians, who composed one-third of the total armed forces.

In particular, the 20th Nagyvárad and 17th Budapest common regiments distinguished themselves.

On June 15, 1918, near the river Piave, the 6th army commanded by Archduke József Ágost took over most part of mount Montello and held it until the end of the war.

Decisive fights were carried out by the 31st Budapest common regiment and the 11th Debrecen division.
The troops raised in the Kingdom of Hungary spent little time defending the actual territory of Hungary, with the exceptions of the Brusilov Offensive in June 1916, and a few months later, when the Romanian army invaded Transylvania, both of which were repelled.

A small number of troops from Austria-Hungary also fought in more distant theaters of war that are beyond the borders of Austria-Hungary, including the Gallipoli campaign, and in the Sinai Peninsula and Palestine.

Out of over 2.2 million men mobilized in Austria-Hungary, more than one million died during the course of the war.

In Hungarian areas, this meant a death rate of twenty-eight per thousand persons – a level of loss exceeded within Austria-Hungary only by German Austrians.

In comparison to the total army, Hungary’s loss ratio was more than any other nation of Austria-Hungary.

There could be two possible causes: Hungary was more an agricultural country, where it is easier to mobilize forces, rather than from more industrialized territories (i.e. Bohemia), and secondly, the Hungarian soldiers were considered to be more trustworthy and disciplined than soldiers from other ethnic groups.

Instrument of War: The Austrian Army in the Seven Years War: 1

German Empire

German Empire of World War 1

During World War I, the German Empire was one of the Central Powers that lost the war.

It began participation in the conflict after the declaration of war against Serbia by its ally, Austria-Hungary.

German forces fought the Allies on both the eastern and western fronts, although German territory itself remained relatively safe from widespread invasion for most of the war, except for a brief period in 1914 when East Prussia was invaded.

A tight blockade imposed by the Royal Navy caused severe food shortages in the cities, especially in the winter of 1916–17, known as the Turnip Winter.

At the end of the war, Germany’s defeat and widespread popular discontent triggered the German Revolution of 1918–19 which overthrew the monarchy and established the Weimar Republic.

The German population responded to the outbreak of war in 1914 with a complex mix of emotions, in a similar way to the populations in other countries of Europe; notions of overt enthusiasm known as the Spirit of 1914 have been challenged by more recent scholarship.

The German government, dominated by the Junkers, thought of the war as a way to end Germany’s disputes with rivals France, Russia, and Britain.

The beginning of the war was presented in Germany as the chance for the nation to secure “our place under the sun,” as the Foreign Minister Bernhard von Bülow had put it, which was readily supported by prevalent nationalism among the public.

The Kaiser and the German establishment hoped the war would unite the public behind the monarchy, and lessen the threat posed by the dramatic growth of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, which had been the most vocal critic of the Kaiser in the Reichstag before the war.

Despite its membership in the Second International, the Social Democratic Party of Germany ended its differences with the Imperial government and abandoned its principles of internationalism to support the war effort.

It soon became apparent that Germany was not prepared for a war lasting more than a few months.

At first, little was done to regulate the economy for a wartime footing, and the German war economy would remain badly organized throughout the war.

Germany depended on imports of food and raw materials, which were stopped by the British blockade of Germany.

Food prices were first limited, then rationing was introduced.

In 1915 five million pigs were massacred in the so-called Schweinemord to both make food and preserve grain.

The winter of 1916/17 was called “turnip winter” because the potato harvest was poor and people ate animal food, including vile-tasting turnips.

During the war from August 1914 to mid-1919, the excess deaths over peacetime caused by malnutrition and high rates of exhaustion and disease and despair came to about 474,000 civilians.

The German army opened the war on the Western Front with a modified version of the Schlieffen Plan, designed to quickly attack France through neutral Belgium before turning southwards to encircle the French army on the German border.

The Belgians fought back and sabotaged their rail system to delay the Germans.

The Germans did not expect this and were delayed, and responded with systematic reprisals on civilians, killing nearly 6,000 Belgian non-combatants, including women and children, and burning 25,000 houses and buildings.

The plan called for the right flank of the German advance to converge on Paris and initially, the Germans were very successful, particularly in the Battle of the Frontiers (14–24 August).

By 12 September, the French with assistance from the British forces halted the German advance east of Paris at the First Battle of the Marne (5–12 September).

The last days of this battle signified the end of mobile warfare in the west. The French offensive into Germany launched on 7 August with the Battle of Mulhouse had limited success.

In the east, only one Field Army defended East Prussia and when Russia attacked in this region it diverted German forces intended for the Western Front.

Germany defeated Russia in a series of battles collectively known as the First Battle of Tannenberg (17 August – 2 September), but this diversion exacerbated problems of insufficient speed of advance from rail-heads not foreseen by the German General Staff.

The Central Powers were thereby denied a quick victory and forced to fight a war on two fronts. The German army had fought its way into a good defensive position inside France and had permanently incapacitated 230,000 more French and British troops than it had lost itself.

Despite this, communications problems and questionable command decisions cost Germany the chance of obtaining an early victory.

1916 was characterized by two great battles on the Western front, at Verdun and the Somme.

They each lasted most of the year, achieved minimal gains, and drained away from the best soldiers of both sides.

Verdun became the iconic symbol of the murderous power of modern defensive weapons, with 280,000 German casualties, and 315,000 French. At the Somme, there were over 400,000 German casualties, against over 600,000 Allied casualties.

At Verdun, the Germans attacked what they considered to be a weak French salient which nevertheless the French would defend for reasons of national pride.

The Somme was part of a multinational plan of the Allies to attack different fronts simultaneously. German woes were also compounded by Russia’s grand “Brusilov offensive”, which diverted more soldiers and resources.

Although the Eastern front was held to a standoff and Germany suffered fewer casualties than their allies with ~150,000 of the ~770,000 Central powers casualties, the simultaneous Verdun offensive stretched the German forces committed to the Somme offensive.

German experts are divided in their interpretation of the Somme.

Some say it was a standoff, but most see it as a British victory and argue it marked the point at which German morale began a permanent decline and the strategic initiative was lost, along with irreplaceable veterans and confidence.

In early 1917 the SPD leadership became concerned about the activity of its anti-war left-wing which had been organising as the Sozialdemokratische Arbeitsgemeinschaft (SAG, “Social Democratic Working Group”). 

On 17 January they expelled them, and in April 1917 the left-wing went on to form the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (German: Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands).
The remaining faction was then known as the Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany.

This happened as the enthusiasm for war faded with the enormous numbers of casualties, the dwindling supply of manpower, the mounting difficulties on the homefront, and the never-ending flow of casualty reports.

A grimmer and grimmer attitude began to prevail amongst the general population.

The only highlight was the first use of mustard gas in warfare, in the Battle of Ypres.

After, morale was helped by victories against Serbia, Greece, Italy, and Russia which made great gains for the Central Powers.

Morale was at its greatest since 1914 at the end of 1917 and the beginning of 1918 with the defeat of Russia following her rise into revolution, and the German people braced for what Ludendorff said would be the “Peace Offensive” in the west.[

In spring 1918, Germany realized that time was running out.

It prepared for the decisive strike with new armies and new tactics, hoping to win the war on the Western front before millions of American and British Empire soldiers appeared in battle.

General Erich Ludendorff and Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg had full control of the army, they had a large supply of reinforcements moved from the Eastern front, and they trained storm troopers with new tactics to race through the trenches and attack the enemy’s command and communications centers.

The new tactics would indeed restore mobility to the Western front, but the German army was too optimistic.

During the winter of 1917-18, it was “quiet” on the Western Front—British casualties averaged “only” 3,000 a week.

Serious attacks were impossible in the winter because of the deep caramel-thick mud.

Quietly the Germans brought in their best soldiers from the eastern front, selected elite storm troops, and trained them all winter in the new tactics. With stopwatch timing, the German artillery would lay down a sudden, fearsome barrage just ahead of its advancing infantry.

Moving in small units, firing light machine guns, the stormtroopers would bypass enemy strongpoints, and head directly for critical bridges, command posts, supply dumps, and, above all, artillery batteries.

By cutting enemy communications they would paralyze response in the critical first half hour.

By silencing the artillery they would break the enemy’s firepower.

Rigid schedules sent in two more waves of infantry to mop up the strong points that had been bypassed. The shock troops frightened and disoriented the first line of defenders, who would flee in panic.

In one instance an easy-going Allied regiment broke and fled; reinforcements rushed in on bicycles. The panicky men seized the bikes and beat an even faster retreat. 

The stormtrooper tactics provided mobility, but not increased firepower.

Eventually—in 1939 and 1940—the formula would be perfected with the aid of dive bombers and tanks, but in 1918 the Germans lacked both.

Ludendorff erred by attacking the British first in 1918, instead of the French.

He mistakenly thought the British to be too uninspired to respond rapidly to the new tactics. The exhausted, dispirited French perhaps might have folded.

The German assaults on the British were ferocious—the largest of the entire war. At the Somme River in March, 63 divisions attacked in a blinding fog.

No matter, the German lieutenants had memorized their maps and their orders.

The British lost 270,000 men, fell back 40 miles, and then held.

They quickly learned how to handle the new German tactics: fall back, abandon the trenches, let the attackers overextend themselves, and then counterattack.

They gained an advantage in firepower from their artillery and from tanks used as mobile pillboxes that could retreat and counterattack at will.

In April Ludendorff hit the British again, inflicting 305,000 casualties—but he lacked the reserves to follow up.

Ludendorff launched five great attacks between March and July, inflicting a million British and French casualties.

The Western Front now had opened up—the trenches were still there but the importance of mobility now reasserted itself.

The Allies held.

The Germans suffered twice as many casualties as they inflicted, including most of their precious stormtroopers.

The new German replacements were under-aged youth or embittered middle-aged family men in poor condition.

They were not inspired by the elan of 1914, nor thrilled with battle—they hated it, and some began talking of revolution. Ludendorff could not replace his losses, nor could he devise a new brainstorm that might somehow snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

The British likewise were bringing in reinforcements from the whole Empire, but since their home front was in good condition, and since they could see inevitable victory, their morale was higher. 

The great German spring offensive was a race against time, for everyone could see the Americans were training millions of fresh young men who would eventually arrive on the Western Front.

German troops in Kiev, March 1918
The attrition warfare now caught up to both sides. Germany had used up all the best soldiers they had, and still had not conquered many territories.

The British were out of fresh manpower but still had huge reserves from the British Empire, whereas the French nearly exhausted their manpower.

Berlin had calculated it would take months for the Americans to ship all their men and supplies—but the U.S.
troops arrived much sooner, as they left their supplies behind, and relied on British and French artillery, tanks, airplanes, trucks, and equipment.

Berlin also assumed that Americans were fat, undisciplined, and unaccustomed to hardship and severe fighting.

They soon realized their mistake.

The Germans reported that “The qualities of the [Americans] individually may be described as remarkable.

They are physically well set up, their attitude is good… They lack at present only training and experience to make formidable adversaries.

The men are in fine spirits and are filled with naive assurance.”

By September 1918, the Central Powers were exhausted from fighting, the American forces were pouring into France at a rate of 10,000 a day, the British Empire was mobilised for war peaking at 4.5 million men and 4,000 tanks on the Western Front.

The decisive Allied counteroffensive, known as the Hundred Days Offensive, began on 8 August 1918—what Ludendorff called the “Black Day of the German army.” The Allied armies advanced steadily as German defenses faltered.

Although German armies were still on enemy soil as the war ended, the generals, the civilian leadership—and indeed the soldiers and the people—knew all was hopeless.

They started looking for scapegoats.

The hunger and popular dissatisfaction with the war precipitated revolution throughout Germany. 

By 11 November Germany had virtually surrendered, the Kaiser and all the royal families had abdicated, and the German Empire had been replaced by the Weimar Republic.

Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire 1871-1918

New Zealand

New Zealand during World War 1

The military history of New Zealand during World War I began in August 1914.

When Britain declared war on Germany at the start of the First World War, the New Zealand government followed without hesitation, despite its geographic isolation and small population.

It was believed at the time that any declaration of war by the United Kingdom automatically included New Zealand; and the Governor (the Earl of Liverpool) announced that New Zealand was at war with Germany from the steps of Parliament on 5 August.

The total number of New Zealand troops and nurses to serve overseas in 1914–18, excluding those in British and other Dominion forces, was 100,444, from a population of just over a million.

Forty-two percent of men of military age served in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, fighting in the Gallipoli Campaign and on the Western Front.

16,697 New Zealanders were killed and 41,317 were wounded during the war – a 58 percent casualty rate.

Approximately a further thousand men died within five years of the war’s end, as a result of injuries sustained, and 507 died while training in New Zealand between 1914 and 1918.

The First World War saw Māori soldiers serve for the first time in a major conflict with the New Zealand Army (although a number had fought in the Second Boer War when New Zealand recruiters chose to ignore British military policy of the time of disallowing ‘native’ soldiers).

A contingent took part in the Gallipoli campaign and later served with distinction on the Western Front as part of the New Zealand (Māori) Pioneer Battalion.

2688 Māori and 346 Pacific islanders, including 150 Niueans, served with New Zealand forces in total.

Military Service Tribunals and Boards in the Great War: Determining the Fate of Britain's and New Zealand's Conscripts

Australia

.Australia During World War 1

In early 1915, however, it was decided to carry out an amphibious landing on the Gallipoli peninsula with the goal of opening up a second front and securing the passage of the Dardanelles.

The Australians and New Zealanders grouped together as the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), went ashore on 25 April 1915, and for the next eight months the Anzacs, alongside their British, French, and other allies fought a costly and ultimately unsuccessful campaign against the Turks.

The force was evacuated from the peninsula in December 1915 and returned to Egypt, where the AIF was expanded.

In early 1916 it was decided that the infantry divisions would be sent to France, where they took part in many of the major battles fought on the Western Front.

Most of the light horse units remained in the Middle East until the end of the war, carrying out further operations against the Turks in Egypt and Palestine. Small numbers of Australians served in other theatres of war.

While the main focus of the Australian military’s effort was the ground war, air and naval forces were also committed.

Squadrons of the Australian Flying Corps served in the Middle East and on the Western Front, while elements of the Royal Australian Navy carried out operations in the Atlantic, the North Sea, Adriatic, and the Black Sea, as well as the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

By the end of the war, Australians were far more circumspect.

The nation’s involvement cost more than 60,000 Australian lives and many more were left unable to work as a result of their injuries.

The impact of the war was felt in many other areas as well.

Financially it was very costly, while the effect on the social and political landscape was considerable and threatened to cause serious divides in the nation’s social fabric.

Conscription was possibly the most contentious issue and ultimately, despite having conscription for home service, Australia was one of only three combatants not to use conscripts in the fighting. 

Nevertheless, for many Australians, the nation’s involvement in World War I and the Gallipoli campaign was seen as a symbol of its emergence as an international actor, while many of the notions of the Australian character and nationhood that exist today have their origins in the war, and Anzac Day is commemorated as a national holiday

Our Forgotten Volunteers: Australians and New Zealanders with Serbs in World War One

Canada

Canada during World War 1

The military history of Canada during World War I began on August 4, 1914, when the United Kingdom entered the First World War (1914–1918) by declaring war on Germany.

The British declaration of war automatically brought Canada into the war, because of Canada’s legal status as a British Dominion which left foreign policy decisions in the hands of the British parliament.

However, the Canadian government had the freedom to determine the country’s level of involvement in the war.

On August 4, 1914, the Governor-General declared war between Canada and Germany.

The Militia was not mobilized and instead, an independent Canadian Expeditionary Force was raised.

Canada’s sacrifices and contributions to the Great War changed its history and enabled it to become more independent, while also opening a deep rift between the French and English speaking populations.

For the first time in Canadian military history, Canadian forces fought as a distinct unit, first under a British commander but ultimately under a Canadian-born commander.

The highpoints of Canadian military achievement during the Great War came during the Somme, Vimy, and Passchendaele battles and what later became known as “Canada’s Hundred Days”.

Canada’s total casualties stood at the end of the war at 67,000 killed and 173,000 wounded, out of an expeditionary force of 620,000 people mobilized (39% of mobilized were casualties).

Canadians of British descent—the majority—gave widespread support arguing that Canadians had a duty to fight on behalf of their Motherland.

Indeed, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, although French-Canadian, spoke for the majority of English-Canadians when he proclaimed: “It is our duty to let Great Britain know and to let the friends and foes of Great Britain know that there is in Canada but one mind and one heart and that all Canadians are behind the Mother Country.”

However, this did not stop Laurier along with Henri Bourassa from leading the opposition to conscription three years later in 1917.

The Story of the Great War, Volume VIII (of VIII): Victory with the Allies; Armistice; Peace Congress; Canada's War Organizations and vast War ... (The Story of the Great War (Set of 8 Vols))

China

China During World War 1

The Chinese Labour Corps (CLC; French: Corps de Travailleurs Chinois; simplified Chinese: 中国劳工旅; traditional Chinese: 中國勞工旅; pinyin: Zhōngguó láogōng lǚ) was a force of workers recruited by the British government in World War I to free troops for front line duty by performing support work and manual labour.

The French government also recruited a significant number of Chinese labourers, and although those labourers working for the French were recruited separately and not part of the CLC, they are often considered to be so.

In all, some 140,000 men served for both British and French forces before the war ended and most of the men were repatriated to China between 1918 and 1920.

In 1916, Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig requested that 21,000 labourers be recruited to fill the manpower shortage caused by casualties during World War I.

Recruiting labourers from other countries was not something unusual at that time.

Other than the Chinese, labour corps were serving in France from Egypt, Fiji, India, Malta, Mauritius, Seychelles, and the British West Indies, as well as a native labour corps from South Africa.

At the end of the war, an estimated over 300,000 workers from the colonies, 100,000 Egyptians, 21,000 Indians and 20,000 native South Africans were working throughout France and the Middle East by 1918.

As China was initially not a belligerent nation, her nationals were not allowed by their government to participate in the fighting. As a result, the early stage of the recruiting business in China was somewhat sketchy, with semi-official support from local authorities.

However, after China declared war against Germany and Austria-Hungary, on 14 August 1917, the Labour Department of the Chinese government began organizing the recruitment officially.

The scheme to recruit Chinese to serve as non-military personnel was pioneered by the French government.

A contract to supply 50,000 labourers was agreed upon on 14 May 1916, and the first contingent left Tianjin for Dagu and Marseille in July 1916.

The British government also signed an agreement with the Chinese authorities to supply labourers.

The recruiting was launched by the War Committee in London in 1916 to form a labour corps of labourers from China to serve in France and to be known as the Chinese Labour Corps.

A former railway engineer, Thomas J. Bourne, who had worked in China for 28 years, arrived at Weihaiwei (then a British colony) on 31 October 1916 with instructions to establish and run a recruiting base.

The Chinese Labour Corps comprised Chinese men who came mostly from Shandong Province,and to a lesser extent from Liaoning, Jilin, Jiangsu, Hubei, Hunan, Anhui and Gansu Provinces.

The first transport ship carrying 1,088 labourers sailed from the main depot at Weihaiwei on 18 January 1917.

The journey to France took three months.

Most travelled to Europe (and later returned to China) via the Pacific and by Canada.

The tens of thousands of volunteers were driven by the poverty of the region and China’s political uncertainties and also lured by the generosity of the wages offered by the British.
Each volunteer received an embarkment fee of 20 yuan, followed by 10 yuan a month to be paid over to his family in China.

Two of the unit’s commanders, Colonel Bryan Charles Fairfax and Colonel R.L. Purdon, had served with the 1st Chinese Regiment in the Boxer Rebellion in 1900.

Service Members of the Chinese Labour Corps and British soldiers working at a timber yard, Caëstre, July 1917 CLC men load 9.2-inch shells onto a railway wagon at Boulogne for transport to the front line, August 1917 Labour Corps men and a British soldier cannibalise a wrecked Mark IV tank for spare parts at the central stores of the Tank Corps, Teneur, spring 1918.

A deal between the Chinese government and the allies resulted in the enlistment of thousands of Chinese who formed the Chinese Labour Corps (CLC) mainly poor Chinese men from the north who were told they would be in non-combatant roles.

The Canadian government had restricted the arrival of all Asians and the CLC were secretly landed at Victoria, British Columbia.

They were drilled in the old quarantine station at Metchosin, British Columbia on Vancouver Island. Roughly 81,000 Chinese men were then taken on Canadian Pacific Railway trains to Halifax to board steamships to England.

On arrival, they crossed the English Channel to France.

After the war, over 40,000 returned by ship to Halifax and then by train to Vancouver; they were returned by ship to China.

Unknown numbers never made it to the war front, died and buried in unmarked graves in British Columbia (including 21 at William Head Prison) and Ontario (1 known grave of Chou Ming Shan in Petawawa, Ontario). A total of about 140,000 Chinese workers served on the Western Front during and after the war.

Among them, 100,000 served in the British Chinese Labour Corps. About 40,000 served with the French forces, and hundreds of Chinese students served as translators.

By the end of 1917, 54,000 Chinese labourers were with the British Imperial Forces in France and Belgium.

In March, the admiralty declared itself no longer able to supply the ships for transport and the British government were obliged to bring recruitment to an end.

The men already serving in France completed their contracts.

By the time of the armistice, the CLC numbered nearly 96,000, while a further 30,000 were working for the French.

In May 1919, 80,000 Chinese Labour Corps were still at work.

The British soldier Arthur Bullock, in his wartime memoir, gives a vivid account of the interactions between the British soldiers and Chinese workers.

He also drew a sketch of one Chinese man, Tchung Camena Tungwa, who invited him to have tea in Beijing when he was next there (he never was).

The workers, mainly aged between 20 and 35, served as labour in the rear echelons or helped build munitions depots. They were asked to carry out essential work to support the frontline troops, such as unloading ships, building dugouts, repairing roads and railways, digging trenches, and filling sandbags.

Some worked in armaments factories, others in naval shipyards, for a pittance of one to three francs a day.

At the time, they were seen just as cheap labour, not even allowed out of the camp to fraternise locally, dismissed as mere coolies.

When the war ended, some were used for mine clearance, or to recover the bodies of soldiers and fill in miles of trenches.

Men fell ill from poor diets and the intense damp and cold, and on occasion, they mutinied against their French and British employers or ransacked local restaurants in search of food.

The harshness of the conditions in which some of these men worked is recorded by Arthur Bullock in his wartime memoir, along with the contemporary justification for it.

Bullock also recalls the differences between the ‘coolies’ and the German prisoners of war, in terms of their attitudes to work and to each other.

After the armistice, the Chinese, each identified only by an impersonal reference number, were shipped home.

Only about 5,000 to 7,000 stayed in France, forming the nucleus of the later Chinese community in Paris.

Most who survived returned to China in 1918.

The contribution of these Chinese men went forgotten for decades until military ceremonies resumed in 2002 at the Chinese cemetery of Noyelles-sur-Mer.

Throughout the war, trade union pressure prevented the introduction of Chinese labourers to the British Isles.

Sidney and Beatrice Webb suggested that the CLC was restricted to carrying out menial unskilled labour due to pressure from British trade unions.

However, some members of the corps carried out skilled and semiskilled work for the Tank Corps, including riveting and engine repair.

One member of the corps, First Class Ganger Liu Dien Chen, was recommended for the Military Medal for rallying his men while under shellfire in March 1918.

However, he was eventually awarded the Meritorious Service Medal, as it was decided CLC members were not eligible for the Military Medal.

By the end of the war, the Meritorious Service Medal had been awarded to five Chinese workers.

After the war, the British government sent a war medal to every member of the CLC.

The medal was like the British War Medal issued to every member of the British armed forces, except that it was of bronze, not silver.

China's Great Convulsion, 1894-1924: How Chinese Overthrew a Dynasty, Fought Chaos and Warlords, and Still Helped the Western Allies Win World War One

United States of America

United States during World war 1

The United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, nearly three years after World War I started.

A ceasefire and Armistice was declared on November 11, 1918.

Before entering the war, the U.S. had remained neutral, though it had been an important supplier to the United Kingdom, France, and the other Allied powers.

The U.S. made its major contributions in terms of supplies, raw materials, and money, starting in 1917.

American soldiers under General of the Armies John Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), arrived at the rate of 10,000 men a day on the Western Front in the summer of 1918. During the war, the U.S. mobilized over 4 million military personnel and suffered 110,000 deaths, including around 45,000 who died due to the 1918 Spanish influenza outbreak (30,000 before they even reached France).

The war saw a dramatic expansion of the United States government in an effort to harness the war effort and a significant increase in the size of the U.S. Armed Forces.

After a relatively slow start in mobilizing the economy and labor force, by spring 1918, the nation was poised to play a role in the conflict.

Under the leadership of President Woodrow Wilson, the war represented the climax of the Progressive Era as it sought to bring reform and democracy to the world, although there was substantial public opposition to U.S. entry into the war.

Contents 1 Entry 2 Neutrality 3 Public opinion 4 Preparedness movement 4.1 Democrats respond 4.2 National debate 5 War declared 6 Home front 6.1 Food 6.2 Finance 6.3 Labor 6.3.1 Women and labor 6.4 Propaganda 6.5 Children 7 American military 7.1 Women in the U.S. military 7.2 Impact of US forces on the war 8 After the war 9 See also 10 References 11 Further reading 11.1 Historiography and memory 12 External links Entry Main article:

American entry into World War I

The American entry into World War I came on April 6, 1917, after a year-long effort by President Woodrow Wilson to get the United States into the war.

Apart from an Anglophile element urging early support for the British, American public opinion sentiment for neutrality was particularly strong among Irish Americans, German Americans, and Scandinavian Americans, as well as among church leaders and among women in general.

On the other hand, even before World War, I had broken out, American opinion had been more negative toward Germany than towards any other country in Europe.

Over time, especially after reports of atrocities in Belgium in 1914 and following the sinking of the passenger liner RMS Lusitania in 1915, the American people increasingly came to see Germany as the aggressor.

1917 political cartoon about the Zimmermann Telegram published in the Dallas Morning News As U.S. President, it was Wilson who made the key policy decisions over foreign affairs: while the country was at peace, the domestic economy ran on a laissez-faire basis, with American banks making huge loans to Britain and France — funds that were in large part used to buy munitions, raw materials, and food from across the Atlantic.

Until 1917, Wilson made minimal preparations for a land war and kept the United States Army on a small peacetime footing, despite increasing demands for enhanced preparedness.

He did, however, expand the United States Navy.

In 1917, with the Russian Revolution and widespread disillusionment over the war, and with Britain and France low on credit, Germany appeared to have the upper hand in Europe,

while the Ottoman Empire clung to its possessions in the Middle East. In the same year, Germany decided to resume unrestricted submarine warfare against any vessel approaching British waters; this attempt to starve Britain into surrender was balanced against the knowledge that it would almost certainly bring the United States into the war.

Germany also made a secret offer to help Mexico regain territories lost in the Mexican–American War in an encoded telegram known as the Zimmermann Telegram, which was intercepted by British Intelligence. 

Publication of that communique outraged Americans just as German U-boats started sinking American merchant ships in the North Atlantic.

Wilson then asked Congress for “a war to end all wars” that would “make the world safe for democracy”, and Congress voted to declare war on Germany on April 6, 1917.

On December 7, 1917, the U.S. declared war on Austria-Hungary.

U.S. troops began arriving on the Western Front in large numbers in 1918.

Neutrality I am neutral but not afraid of any of them 1915 After the war began in 1914, the United States proclaimed a policy of neutrality despite President Woodrow Wilson’s antipathies against Germany.

Early in the war, the United States started to favor the British and their allies with 1452 soldiers stationed in Europe.

President Wilson aimed to broker a peace and sent his top aide, Colonel House, on repeated missions to the two sides, but each remained so confident of victory that they ignored peace proposals.

When the German U-boat U-20 sank the British liner Lusitania on 7 May 1915 with 128 US citizens aboard, Wilson demanded an end to German attacks on passenger ships, and warned that the US would not tolerate unrestricted submarine warfare in violation of “American rights” and of “international obligations.”

Wilson’s Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, resigned, believing that the President’s protests against the German use of U-boat attacks conflicted with America’s official commitment to neutrality.

On the other hand, Wilson came under pressure from war hawks led by former president Theodore Roosevelt, who denounced German acts as “piracy”, and from British delegations under Cecil Spring Rice and Sir Edward Grey.

U.S. Public opinion reacted with outrage to the suspected German sabotage of Black Tom in Jersey City, New Jersey on 30 July 1916, and to the Kingsland explosion on 11 January 1917 in present-day Lyndhurst, New Jersey.

Crucially, by the spring of 1917, President Wilson’s official commitment to neutrality had finally unraveled.

Wilson realized he needed to enter the war in order to shape the peace and implement his vision for a League of Nations at the Paris Peace Conference.

The Great War in America: World War I and Its Aftermath