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The Allied power's leaders
The Powers known as the Allies in World War I were predominantly: Great Britain, France, Russia and Italy. Italy initially had a treaty with Germany, but recanted and secretly allied with the Allied Powers. The United States joined the Allied Powers in 1917 after the country could no longer stay neutral, as Woodrow Wilson had planned in the Proclamation of Neutrality and other reasons involving kinship and propaganda. The Allies were ultimately comprised of 25 nations.
World War One is very different from World War Two. In the second war, we can agree on one side being the “bad guys” because of their brutal and horrific actions. In the first, however, it was similar to the old wars, where each side wanted to simply become dominant and gain territory. Before it started, the British Empire nearly allied with Germany. But the somewhat ignorant Kaiser made some stupid decisions that allowed Britain to join the French and Russians. Both sides were identical in many ways. The only real difference was the identity of the main powers: Britain, France, and Russia vs. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottomans. Looking into each country and their actions, you can see they were pretty much the same.
The fate of tsarist Russia and its ruling family was bound up in the tragedy of World War I. Russia was drawn into the war by the same follies and errors of judgement that affected the other great powers of Europe: imperial rivalry, poisonous nationalism, military overconfidence, too much trust in alliances and not enough in diplomacy. But while Russia entered the war for similar reasons to her European neighbors, she did not do so on an equal footing. Russia’s economy was still developing and reliant on foreign investment; her industrial sector was incapable of competing with the powerhouse German economy. Three years of total war would exhaust the Russian economy and leave its people starving, freezing and miserable. From this soil, the February Revolution would spring. Though Russo-German tensions dated back decades, Nicholas II believed that family ties precluded any chance of a war between the two empires. Nicholas thought it highly unlikely that Kaiser Wilhelm II would declare war on the kingdom of his own relative. What the tsar did not count on was Wilhelm’s own duplicity, nor did he appreciate the forces of war that had been building in Europe for more than ten years. The alliance system demanded that nations support their allies if one was attacked. This placed the tsar in a perilous position between the Balkan nation of Serbia – a nation with close political, ethnic and religious ties to Russia – and Austria-Hungary and Germany. When the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot dead in Sarajevo in June 1914, it triggered a wave of threats, ultimatums and troop mobilizations. By August, Serbia had been invaded by Austria-Hungary and Russia had declared war in response, prompting the German kaiser to declare war on his Russian cousin.
This is a map of European alliances in WW1
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Britain was often described as being in 'Splendid Isolation' from the rest of Europe. Britain had a huge empire and ruling this empire was its priority. The key to Britain's power was India with its vast resources of manpower. Britain relied heavily on Indian troops to control the empire. The highest priority for Britain was protecting the trade routes between Britain and India. Britain's large navy protected trade links with India and with the rest of the world. Until the early 1900s, Britain was more concerned about Russia and France than Germany. Relations between Britain and Germany were very good. This began to change, however. When Kaiser Wilhelm II took control of Germany, he was anxious for Germany to be a great power. He felt that Russia to the east and France to the west were encircling Germany. As a result, he built up his armed forces. France and Russia feared Germany and did the same. During the 1900s, all of the great powers in Europe began to build up their armies and navies. David Lloyd George was prime minister during most the war with king George the Fifth being the monarch.
Germany turned out to be the Central Power most involved in the war, there is little or no evidence that the Germans had planned for war. There are several fundamental causes that had brought the world to the brink of war: nationalism, imperialist competition, militarism, and the build up of pre-war alliances. These growing appearance of these factors perhaps inevitably led to what was called the Great War, World War I. Prince Max von Baden was the Chancellor. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany was the main leader of Germany.
(German troops from WWI)
Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Serbia after the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated precipitated World War I. Because of a tangle of alliances and treaties, other European powers declared war in a chain reaction, plunging the entire continent into war within a week. Heinrich von Clam-Martinic was the Prime Minister of the Austria-Hungary
Empire, King Franz Joseph was the king. Austria-Hungary became a Central power with their plan to reclaim Serbia.
This is Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, he was next in line for the Austria-Hungary throne. He was assassinated by a Serbian radical.
Most histories concentrate on the experience of those nations supporting France in WW1. Little is said of the ordeal of those in France and Belgium whose armies struggled against a Germany that had already overrun large swathes of their countries. The French had good cause to distrust the new Germany, having lost the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine to Prussia on the Franco Prussian war of 1870/71. Georges Clemenceau was the leader of France during this time.
These are the main Central Power Leaders (German, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman, and Bulgaria)
Conclusions-
The WWI coalition that consisted primarily of the German Empire and Austria-Hungary, the “central” European states that were at war from August 1914 against France and Britain on the Western Front and against Russia on the Eastern Front. The Ottoman Empire entered the war on the side of the Central Powers on Oct. 29, 1914. Bulgaria came in on Oct. 14, 1915.
In the years that led up to World War One, Italy had sided with Germany and Austria-Hungary in the Triple Alliance. In theory, Italy should have joined in the sides of these two nations when war broke out in August 1914. She did not. Italy’s experience in World War One was disastrous and ended with the insult of her ‘reward’ at the Versailles Settlement in 1919. What Italy did was wait and see how the war progressed. On April 26th 1915, she came into the war on the side of the Triple Entente – Britain, France and Russia. Many socialists had supported the government ‘s stand in keeping Italy out of the war in 1914. The nationalists, however, were horrified. To start with, Mussolini was against the war: “Down with the war. Down with arms and up with humanity.” (July 1914) However, by October 1914, he had changed his mind and referred to the war as “a great drama”. “Do you want to be spectators in this great drama? Or do you want to be its fighters?” Mussolini was kicked out of the Socialist Party in Italy but many young socialists agreed with Mussolini and left the party and followed him. Therefore, they greeted the news of April 26th 1915, the entry of Italy into the war. Vittorio Emanuele Orlando was the leader of Italy in WWI.
These are some Ottoman troops
The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers to form the Triple Alliance with the signing of the August 1914 Turco-German Alliance. Turkey formally entered World War I on 28 October 1914 with the bombing of Russian Black Sea ports. The Triple Entente, or Allied Powers, declared war on the Ottoman Empire on November 4. Sultan Mehmed V was the ruler of the
Ottoman Empire in WWI.
When World War I erupted in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson pledged neutrality for the United States, a position that the vast majority of Americans favored. Britain, however, was one of America’s closest trading partners, and tension soon arose between the United States and Germany over the latter’s attempted quarantine of the British Isles. Several U.S. ships traveling to Britain were damaged or sunk by German mines, and in February 1915 Germany announced unrestricted warfare against all ships, neutral or otherwise, that entered the war zone around Britain. One month later, Germany announced that a German cruiser had sunk the William P. Frye, a private American vessel. President Wilson was outraged, but the German government apologized and called the attack an unfortunate mistake. On May 7, the British-owned Lusitania ocean liner was torpedoed without warning just off the coast of Ireland. Of the 1,959 passengers, 1,198 were killed, including 128 Americans. The German government maintained that the Lusitania was carrying munitions, but the U.S. demanded reparations and an end to German attacks on unarmed passenger and merchant ships. In August, Germany pledged to see to the safety of passengers before sinking unarmed vessels, but in November sunk an Italian liner without warning, killing 272 people, including 27 Americans. With these attacks, public opinion in the United States began to turn irrevocably against Germany.
Bibliography-
1. "America Enters World War I." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.
2. "World War I." HistoryNet. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.
3. "First World War Erupts in Europe." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.
4."Firstworldwar.com." First World War.com - Feature Articles - Germany During World War One. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.
5. Our Textbook