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World War I
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The assassination of the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914
proved to be the spark that ignited World War I (1914-18). Called "the Great
War," it quickly came to involve all the great powers of Europe and eventually
most countries of the world, and cost the lives of more than 8 million
soldiers. Among the causes of the war were rising nationalist sentiment
(manifested both in the chauvinism of the great European powers and in the
unrest among the subject peoples of the multinational European empires),
colonial and economic rivalries, the formation of hostile alliance systems, and
arms races, all of which contributed to the growing sense of international
tension during the prewar years.
Evolution of the Alliances.
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 had left Germany the most powerful
commercial and industrial nation of Continental Europe. France, forced to cede
the province of Alsace and part of Lorraine and to pay a large indemnity to
Germany, had nonetheless recovered quickly and by 1914 was second only to
Germany among the Continental powers.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the crumbling Austro-Hungarian
Empire was plagued with continuing internal unrest. The desire of many of the
Slavs in the southern provinces to join neighboring Serbia had intensified
friction among the empire's Germanic, Magyar, and Slavic peoples. The
Austrians nevertheless hoped to increase their strength and territory in the
Balkans at the expense of the disintegrating Ottoman Empire, thereby
antagonizing Russia, which also hoped to absorb much of the Ottoman territory.
Russia, although the largest nation in Europe, was in some respects weaker than
Austria-Hungary. In addition to its defeat in the Russo-Japanese War
(1904-05), Russia was also plagued by revolutionary unrest and industrial
backwardness. These conflicting national interests in western and eastern
Europe led to the creation of two rival alliance systems. In 1879, Germany's
chancellor, Otto von BISMARCK, concluded a defensive accord with
Austria-Hungary against Russia. Within 3 years Italy, a rival of France in the
Mediterranean, had joined Germany and Austria to create the TRIPLE ALLIANCE.
Germany and Austria agreed to support Italy in the event of an attack by
France, in exchange for Italian agreement to remain neutral in case of war
between Austria-Hungary and Russia.
Bismarck, who feared the possibility of an alliance between France and Russia
against Germany, sought to prevent it by concluding (1887) a Reinsurance Treaty
with Russia. He also attempted to maintain friendly relations with Great
Britain. In 1890, however, young Emperor WILLIAM II dismissed Bismarck from
the chancellorship. He allowed the Reinsurance Treaty to lapse, and in 1894,
Bismarck's fear became a reality with the formation of a Franco-Russian
alliance. William, moreover, soon aroused British suspicions by his
imperialistic policies and by his intensified effort to build up the German
fleet, threatening Britain's position as the dominant European naval power.
This situation led to the formation of the Anglo-French Entente in 1904. By
supporting Austrian ambitions in the Balkans, William also further embittered
Russia, which in 1907 concluded an entente with Britain. Thus Britain, France,
and Russia, previously fierce rivals in colonial expansion, came together in
the TRIPLE ENTENTE.
Several smaller countries became indirectly involved in the alliances, dividing
Europe into two armed camps. In order to prevent further Austrian expansion
into the Balkans, and out of sympathy with what was regarded as a "little
Slavic sister," Russia pledged to aid Serbia in case of war with
Austria-Hungary. Belgium was in an anomalous position because its neutrality
had been guaranteed (1839) by Britain, France, Russia, Prussia (Germany), and
Austria.
Armed Forces.
All the major European powers except Britain had conscript armies by 1914. The
German army was by far the best trained and equipped, and it was directed by a
highly efficient general staff. In the wake of the German victory in the
Franco-Prussian War, the other European countries had also attempted to develop
efficient staff systems. Moreover, all these general staffs had prepared war
and mobilization plans to meet all possible combinations of opponents. The
French, whose army was ranked second only to the Germans in overall efficiency,
had one basic deficiency: their war plans and all of their military training
were focused on the offensive to the total neglect of defensive tactics. The
Austrian and Russian army systems were, in general, poor copies of the German
and French, respectively. Britain's small volunteer army was well trained, but
British war strategy focused on the Royal Navy, the largest sea force in the
world.
The buildup of the German fleet alarmed the British, who would be starved into
submission if a hostile navy were to prevent British merchant ships from
delivering food. Thus, as Germany's navy grew, so did Britain's. The Royal
Navy of 1914 was primarily the creation of Adm. Sir John Fisher (later Lord
FISHER OF KILVERSTONE), first sea lord from 1904 to 1910. He had introduced
(1905) the DREADNOUGHT battleship, with its ten huge guns. He had also
developed the battle cruiser, which combined the power of eight of these big
guns with the speed of the cruiser. The other navies of the world, including
the German, followed the British lead and concentrated on big ships with big
guns. Britain, however, kept ahead.
Most of the Royal Navy was concentrated in the waters around the British Isles,
organized in the Grand Fleet or the Home Fleet, under the command of Adm. Sir
John Jellicoe. Ultimate control, however, was exercised by the lord
commissioners of the Admiralty, headed by a civilian official, the first lord
of the Admiralty. In 1914 this position was held by Winston CHURCHILL.
In Germany the emperor was commander in chief of all the armed forces. His
secretary of state for the navy, Grand Adm. Alfred von TIRPITZ, had directed
the expansion and modernization of the German fleet. Most of the ships of the
German navy were organized as the High Seas Fleet, commanded by Adm. Friedrich
von Ingenohl. The fleet was based primarily at Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea
and at Kiel on the Baltic. Wilhelmshaven and the other German ports on the
North Sea were well protected by the heavily fortified island of Heligoland and
a series of minefields. Behind that screen, German ships could seek even
greater security by passing through the Kiel Canal into the secure waters of
the Baltic Sea.
Although the German navy could not match the numerical strength of the British
fleet, German ships were more modern and in some respects tougher, more
powerful, and more maneuverable than Britain's. Nonetheless, when World War I
broke out, the Royal Navy controlled the seas with 28 dreadnoughts and battle
cruisers to Germany's 18.
Germany in 1914 had fewer submarines than Britain, and as yet had no concept of
how they could best be used. Germany had, however, a number of large airships,
or dirigibles--also called Zeppelins after their inventor, Ferdinand, Graf von
ZEPPELIN. These huge, rigid, lighter-than-air ships, several hundred feet
long, were intended for use in high-seas patroling and scouting. They were
capable of ranging all over the North Sea at altitudes that no airplane or
antiaircraft gun of the time could reach, and they seemed to offer promise of
great advantage to the German navy.
Moroccan and Balkan Crises.
The formation (1904) of the Anglo-French Entente alarmed Germany, which in 1905
attempted to isolate France diplomatically by announcing its support of
Moroccan independence. Contrary to German expectations, however, the British
rallied to the support of the French, and the ALGECIRAS CONFERENCE (1906)
approved the French plan of establishing a protectorate over Morocco. A second
crisis concerning Morocco erupted in 1911, when a German gunboat, the Panther,
entered the Moroccan port of Agadir, ostensibly to seek compensation for
alleged violations of the Algeciras agreement. This action particularly
alarmed the British, who responded with a strong warning. The French and
Germans, however, negotiated an agreement by which Germany received minor
compensation. Both MOROCCAN CRISES were successfully weathered, but they were
symptomatic of the growing tension in European affairs and in turn contributed
to that tension. Another point of tension in Europe was the Balkans. During
the early 1900s, Serbian economic dependence on Austria-Hungary began to wane,
and relations between the two countries deteriorated. A crisis developed when
Austria-Hungary annexed (1908) the former Turkish provinces of Bosnia and
Hercegovina, largely inhabited by Serbian and other Slavic peoples. The
annexation outraged Serbia and Montenegro, which had regarded the provinces as
potential elements of a united Slav state in the Balkans. Russia backed
Serbia, and Germany affirmed its support of Austria-Hungary, but armed
hostilities were avoided. Nonetheless, the incident resulted in increased
bitterness between Serbia and Austria-Hungary. In 1912, Serbia, Bulgaria,
Greece, and Montenegro formed the Balkan League for protection against their
longtime common adversary--Ottoman Turkey. The first Balkan War (see BALKAN
WARS) erupted shortly thereafter, during which the league successfully ousted
the Turks from the Balkans. Fearing a spread of hostilities, the great powers
intervened to terminate the war by the Treaty of London (May 30, 1913). Within
a month, however, a second war began, when Bulgaria opened surprise offensives
against Serbia and Greece in the hope of occupying all of the contested
districts of Macedonia that had been won from Turkey before the great powers
intervened.
Romania and Turkey joined Greece and Serbia; Bulgaria was quickly defeated and
overrun by her four neighbors. Under the Treaty of Bucharest (Aug. 10, 1913),
Serbia and Greece were awarded possession of those parts of Macedonia they had
claimed. Romania also received territory from Bulgaria, and under the Treaty
of Constantinople (Sept. 29, 1913), Turkey recovered the greater part of the
province of Adrianople from Bulgaria.
The two Balkan wars resulted in renewed antagonism between Bulgaria and the
other Balkan states, especially Serbia. It also left all the Balkan states
generally dissatisfied because of the interference of the great powers in
Balkan politics.
Assassination at Sarajevo.
On June 28, 1914, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke FRANZ
FERDINAND, and his wife were murdered by a Serb terrorist in the Bosnian town
of Sarajevo. Eager to expand in the Balkans and relying on German support,
Austria accused the Serbian government of having instigated the assassination
and delivered (July 23, 1914) an ultimatum demanding a virtual protectorate
over Serbia. Serbia accepted all but one of the demands, but its response was
unsatisfactory to Austria-Hungary. Refusing to submit the disputed terms to
international arbitration, Austria-Hungary, on July 28, 1914, declared war on
Serbia. The next day Austrian artillery bombarded Belgrade, the capital of
Serbia.
Russia immediately ordered mobilization against Austria, whereupon, on August
1, Germany declared war against Russia. Russia's ally, France, then began to
mobilize, prompting Germany to declare (August 3) war against France. Britain
was not bound by the entente to enter the conflict (the entente powers did not
form military alliances until after the outbreak of the war), but when the
Germans began marching toward France through Belgium, the British government
decided that it must honor its commitment to defend Belgian neutrality. It
declared war on Germany on August 4. Within 2 days Austria-Hungary had
declared war against Russia. Italy temporarily remained neutral, claiming that
its obligations to the Triple Alliance were void because Austria had initiated
the war.
The Opposing Strategies.
The German war plan had been designed by Alfred, Graf von SCHLIEFFEN, chief of
the German general staff (1891-1905). Anticipating a two-front war against
France and Russia, Schlieffen envisioned holding the slower mobilizing Russians
in check with a minimum of force while a massive German offensive crushed
France, the more dangerous enemy.
Assuming that France would attempt to recover Alsace-Lorraine, Schlieffen
schemed to entice the French into a major offensive there while 90 percent of
the German army stormed through Belgium and the Netherlands, encircling the
French and attacking them from the rear behind their weak left flank,
ultimately driving them either into Switzerland or against the German fortified
positions in Alsace-Lorraine. The principal German armies would then be
transported to the eastern front by rail to crush the Russians.
If carried out as conceived, this plan might have ended the war within a few
weeks. Schlieffen's successor, however, Gen. Helmuth von MOLTKE, faced
different conditions in 1914 and was reluctant to violate Dutch neutrality; he
decided to route the northernmost German troops through Belgium. Moltke also
strengthened the forces defending both Alsace-Lorraine and Germany's eastern
frontier, thus putting only 60 percent of German mobile field forces in the
right-wing blow against France instead of Schlieffen's 90 percent.
The French Plan XVII called for an immediate attack through Alsace-Lorraine, as
Schlieffen had anticipated. The French commander in chief, Gen. Joseph J. C.
JOFFRE, was relying on the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to reinforce the
French left flank. He was also depending on the ability of the Russian army to
launch simultaneous offensives against Germany and Austria in the east,
disregarding the fact that Russian mobilization could not be completed for 3
months.
The initial Austrian war plans called for advances into Serbia and into Russian
Poland, the vulnerable westernmost portion of the Russian Empire.
Western Front.
On August 4 a specially trained German task force of about 30,000 men crossed
the Belgian frontier and attacked Liege, one of the strongest fortresses of
Europe. Some of the fortifications were captured in a daring night attack led
by Maj. Gen. Erich LUDENDORFF. The rest, pounded into submission by giant
howitzers, surrendered on August 16. The German First Army under Gen.
Alexander von Kluck and the Second, commanded by Gen. Karl von Bulow, poured
through the Liege corridor and across the Meuse. Hastily mobilized Belgian
field forces were brushed aside, and Brussels was occupied on August 20. The
Belgians, personally commanded by King ALBERT I, retreated to Antwerp.
Farther east, the remaining German armies and the Anglo-French armies clashed
in four almost simultaneous encounters called the Battles of the Frontiers. On
August 8, French troops under Gen. Paul Pau advanced across the frontier to
Mulhouse in Alsace. After 6 days a full-scale French offensive called the
Battle of Lorraine began southeast of Metz. Following planned withdrawals, the
Germans counterattacked, throwing the French back to the fortified heights of
Nancy, where they barely managed to halt the German drive. Farther west, on
August 20, advancing French troops collided with a numerically superior German
force in the Battle of the Ardennes. After 4 days of furious fighting, the
devastated French fell back to reorganize west of the Meuse.
With German armies sweeping west and southwest through Belgium toward northern
France, Joffre ordered troops under Gen. Charles Lanrezac into the
Sambre-Meuse angle. In the Battle of the Sambre (August 22-23) two German
armies struck Lanrezac southwest of Namur, on the Sambre River, forcing him to
retreat. The Belgian defenders of Namur were overwhelmed (August 23) by
Bulow's troops after a brief siege.
The newly landed BEF under Field Marshal Sir John FRENCH had moved (August 21)
into Belgium to support Lanrezac's advance. Near Mons the BEF was struck
(August 23) by the full weight of Kluck's German First Army. Learning of the
fall of Namur, Lanrezac ordered a general retreat, leaving the outnumbered
British with an unprotected left flank and forcing them to withdraw during the
night. The French offensive had failed completely. Moltke, however, hampered
by poor communications with his armies, overestimated the extent of the initial
German victory. Confident that the French armies were on the brink of
destruction, he detached two corps from Kluck's army to the eastern front,
where the Russians were threatening East Prussia. German troops were also
dispatched to contain the Belgian army at Antwerp and to besiege the French
fortress of Maubeuge, reducing the three German right-wing armies from a total
strength of 16 corps to 11. The already watered-down Schlieffen
Plan--dependent on a right-wing hammer blow--was thus further weakened.
Joffre, who was maintaining close contact with his field commanders,
anticipated the German battle plan and mapped a counterattack. Ordering his
First and Second Armies to hold Verdun and the Nancy heights at all costs,
Joffre created the Sixth Army, under Gen. Michel J. Maunoury, which assembled
first near Amiens, later in and around Paris, and prepared to attack east.
At Le Cateau on August 27, French's BEF fought off a double envelopment by the
full strength of Kluck's army; the survivors successfully disengaged at
nightfall. To relieve German pressure on the British at Le Cateau, Joffre
ordered the French Fifth Army, itself pressed hard by the German Second Army,
to make a 90-degree shift westward to attack the left flank of the German First
Army at Guise. The initial attack on August 29 was inconsequential, but Gen.
Louis Franchet d'Esperey, commanding Lanrezac's I Corps, halted the German
advance, achieving the first French tactical success in the campaign. Bulow
called on Kluck for aid the next day.
General von Kluck assumed that his victories at Mons and Le Cateau had driven
the British out of the picture. Believing the French Fifth Army to be the
left-flank unit of the opposing field forces, Kluck responded to Bulow's call
for assistance by shifting his direction of march to the southeast, thus
discarding the remnants of the Schlieffen Plan. This change would cause him to
pass east of Paris; he knew nothing of General Maunoury's concentration in the
fortified area of the capital. Belatedly, Moltke sent a message to Kluck,
agreeing to the move east of Paris but ordering Kluck to guard the right flank
of the Second Army. For Kluck to have obeyed the order would have meant
halting his army for 2 days, a move he believed would permit the French either
to escape or to rally. Intent on driving the French out of Paris, Kluck
continued southward across the Marne, just east of Paris, his right flank wide
open.
On September 4, Joffre set in motion a plan to envelop the exposed German right
flank on September 6. Meanwhile, Maunoury's Sixth Army, temporarily under the
regional command of Gen. Joseph S. GALLIENI, the military governor of Paris,
had begun an advance from Paris toward the Ourcq River, where Kluck's right
flank lay invitingly open. The First Battle of the Marne (see MARNE, BATTLES
OF THE) was joined on September 5, and after 2 days of furious fighting Kluck
turned his entire army westward in savage counterattacks that halted the French
and forced Maunoury to fall back on the defensive (September 7-9). Only the
arrival of reinforcements rushed from Paris by Gallieni--some in commandeered
taxicabs--permitted Maunoury to stem the German advance. By this time the
action had become general along the entire front west of Verdun. Assuming that
the BEF was no longer a threat, Kluck shifted westward, widening an already
existing gap between his army and that of Bulow, which was still advancing
south. Exploiting the gap, the French commander Franchet d'Esperey, in a
vigorous night attack, wrested Marchais-en-Brie from the Germans. This outcome
was probably the turning point of the battle.
Bulow--personally defeated--was about to retreat. Kluck's First Army was
making headway in the northwest against Maunoury's left, but the BEF's
northward advance into the gap threatened Kluck's left and rear. Realizing
that his offensive had failed, Moltke ordered a retreat to the Noyon-Verdun
line. On September 14, Moltke was relieved; Gen. Erich von FALKENHAYN
replaced him. The German strategy failed because of Moltke's modifications to
the Schlieffen Plan and inefficiency. After emasculating the plan, he
subsequently lost all personal touch with his army commanders and their
progress. Joffre, on the other hand, emerged as a decisive and capable leader
whose bold counterattack was masterfully executed by the resilient French army.
The BEF, a small but efficient professional army, played a role out of
proportion to its size. Casualties on both sides were enormous--the Allies
lost about 250,000 men; German losses were somewhat greater. During 3 weeks of
war, each side had suffered more than half a million men killed, wounded, or
captured. The First Battle of the Marne, tactically inconclusive, was a
clear-cut strategic victory for the Allies as Joffre emerged as the savior of
France. Moreover, the encounter ended the possibility of Germany's winning the
war quickly. The Allied nations had far superior resources, and a long war
gave them a definite advantage over the Central Powers.
Both sides now extended their operations northward, each attempting to outflank
the other in a series of maneuvers that has been called "the race to the sea."
Maubeuge, on France's northern border, fell to the Germans on September 8, as
did the Belgian fortress of Antwerp on October 9. Fierce battles in Picardy
(September 22-26) and Artois (September 27-October 10) were followed in late
October and November by the Battle of the Yser and the bloody First Battle of
Ypres (see YPRES, BATTLES OF). At Ypres, the BEF was nearly demolished while
successfully repelling a German drive. Shortly thereafter the era of
stabilized trench warfare began, as mass conscript armies used the spade,
machine gun, and barbed wire to deny maneuver between the North Sea and the
Swiss border. By this time operations on the western front had resulted in
nearly 1 million Allied casualties; German losses were almost as great.
Eastern Front.
Short of materiel and with mobilization only one-third complete, the Russians
nevertheless began their offensive in mid-August in response to French
requests. On August 17 the Russian Northwest Army Group began to advance into
East Prussia. From the east came Gen. Pavel K. Rennenkampf's First Army;
from the south Aleksandr Samsonov's Second Army. Opposing them was German Gen.
Max von Prittwitz and Gaffron's Eighth Army, its mission one of elastic defense
and delay until the bulk of the German army could be shifted from the western
front.
The center of Rennenkampf's widely strung advance was badly mauled (August 17)
by Gen. Hermann K. von Francois's German I Corps near Stalluponen.
Subsequently, 3 days later at Gumbinnen, two-thirds of Prittwitz's forces were
repulsed by Rennenkampf, who had attacked from the east. Prittwitz, fearing
envelopment by Samsonov's army, decided to withdraw to the Vistula River, thus
ceding all of East Prussia. He telephoned Moltke at Coblenz, reporting his
decision and requesting reinforcements to hold the Vistula line. Moltke at
once relieved Prittwitz of command, appointing in his place the 67-year-old
Gen. Paul von HINDENBURG, who had retired in 1911; Gen. Erich Ludendorff, the
brilliant hero of Liege, was named Hindenburg's chief of staff.
The revamped German battle plan, developed on August 21--2 days before
Hindenburg and Ludendorff assumed command--called for the deployment of one
lone cavalry division to delay Rennenkampf, while the bulk of the German army
was shifted south, by rail and road, to confront Samsonov.
Advancing without reconnaissance or cavalry screen, Samsonov's troops
encountered entrenched Germans near Frankenau on August 24. Severe fighting
raged the entire day between Frankenau and Tannenberg (see TANNENBERG, BATTLES
OF). While other units of the Eighth Army rushed to join the battle, the
Germans intercepted Samsonov's uncoded radio messages and learned the locations
of all Russian units.
On August 26 the Germans counterattacked from north, east, and west. By
nightfall of August 29, General von Francois stretched his I Corps across the
entire Russian rear and the encirclement was complete. Samsonov, who
disappeared the night of August 29, evidently committed suicide. Only
one-third of the Russian Second Army escaped the German net; 125,000 Russians
were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner, compared to German losses of 10,000 to
14,000 men. Turning northeastward, the German Eighth Army promptly moved
against the Russian First Army in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes
(September 9-14). Again, Francois and his I Corps excelled. Rennenkampf,
almost surrounded, finally disengaged under cover of a stout two-division
counterattack.
Aside from its strategic significance, the German double victory was a
tremendous psychological coup. Russian troops had been expelled from East
Prussia, the Russian army had been dealt a devastating blow, and Allied
confidence in Russia was shattered. Nonetheless, the heavy fighting in the
east had eased German pressure on the western powers, and in the afterglow of
Tannenberg and Masurian Lakes enthusiastic Germans overlooked the true
significance of the Battle of the Marne, which ended on September 10.
Austrian Invasions of Serbia.
On August 12, Austrian troops numbering 200,000, commanded by Gen. Oskar
Potiorek, crossed the Sava and Drina rivers to invade Serbia. They were driven
back (August 16) by the numerically superior Serbian army, inadequately
equipped but battlewise from their Balkan Wars experience, commanded by the
able Marshal Radomir Putnik. Putnik, victorious at Cer Mountain (August 15-20)
and Sabac (August 21-24), assaulted the Austrian bridgeheads in the Battle of
Drina on September 8. After 10 days of vicious, bitter fighting, and
experiencing a shortage of ammunition, Putnik withdrew to more defensible
positions southwest of Belgrade.
The third Austrian offensive began on November 5. A reinforced Austrian army
succeeded in occupying Belgrade on December 2, but Putnik's troops--having
received desperately needed ammunition from France--counterattacked the next
day, driving the invaders from Serbian terrain and recapturing Belgrade on
December 15. Austrian casualties in this savagely fought campaign were
approximately 227,000 out of 450,000 engaged. Serbian losses were
approximately 170,000 out of 400,000.
Operations in Poland.
Humiliated in East Prussia, the Russian army was more successful farther south.
In the Galician Battles (August 23-September 11), Russian forces under Gen.
Nikolai Ivanov repelled an Austrian offensive, seizing all of Austrian Galicia
except for the key fortress of Przemysl.
Following this debacle, Hindenburg moved to assist the defeated Austrians in
Galicia and prevent a Russian invasion of Silesia. With extraordinary
efficiency, four German corps of the Eighth Army were transferred by rail to
the vicinity of Krakow, becoming the German Ninth Army, commanded directly by
Hindenburg. On September 28 a general Austro-German advance began. Meanwhile,
as the Germans expected, Grand Duke Nikolai, the Russian supreme commander, was
preparing for a general offensive through Poland into Silesia, the heart of
Germany's mineral resources. Before the Russians could move, however, their
left flank was hit (September 30) by the German Ninth Army. By October 9 the
Germans reached the Vistula River south of Warsaw, but, outnumbered more than
three to one, they halted their offensive on October 12. Hindenburg withdrew
skillfully 5 days later, leaving a ravaged countryside behind him. By the end
of October the Austro-German armies had fallen back to their original line but
had seriously delayed the projected Russian offensive. On November 1,
Hindenburg was appointed commander in chief of the Austro-German eastern front,
with Ludendorff still his chief of staff. He was informed that he could expect
no reinforcements although the Russians had renewed their advance. The German
Ninth Army, now commanded by Gen. August von Mackensen, was smoothly shifted
northwest to the Posen-Thorn area, again leaving a wide gap of ravaged
territory in front of the vast Russian concentration southwest of Warsaw.
The German Ninth Army opened the Battle of Lodz (November 11-25), striking
southeast between the First and Second Russian armies, which were protecting
the northern flank of the grand duke's planned offensive. The Russian First
Army (still under Rennenkampf) was crushed and the new Second, near Lodz, was
embraced by a German pincer. The key element of the German stroke was the XXV
Reserve Corps, commanded by Gen. Reinhard von Scheffer-Boyadel. It rolled
through the gap between the Russian armies and turned south and then west
before the Russian Fifth Army from the south and an improvised group from the
northern forces checked Scheffer's advance. Completely surrounded, Scheffer,
in an amazing display of leadership, not only broke through to safety but also
brought back with him 16,000 prisoners, 65 captured guns, and his own wounded
men. The Battle of Lodz was tactically a Russian victory because the Russians
checked the German advance. Nevertheless, it was a strategic success for the
Germans: Lodz was evacuated, and the Russians--their offensive called
off--fell back in a general retirement, no longer a threat to Germany. German
losses were about 35,000 killed and wounded. Russian losses are not known; a
conservative estimate would be 90,000. The year ended in a stalemate on the
eastern front.
The War at Sea.
The Germans hoped to equalize the struggle for control of the seas by employing
a kind of maritime guerrilla warfare--land mines and submarine attacks--to chip
away at the numerically superior British fleet.
At the war's beginnings the British Grand Fleet, poised in its bases at Scapa
Flow and Rosyth, kept the German High Seas Fleet bottled up behind the highly
fortified Heligoland-Jade littoral in the North Sea. Neutral Denmark locked
the Baltic gateway to both contestants by mining the Skagerrak. On August 28 a
British raid into the Heligoland Bight resulted in the war's first naval
battle, in which four German vessels were sunk. In late August the fast German
light cruiser Emden, under Capt. Karl von Muller, sailed from the China Sea
into the Indian Ocean where it harassed British shipping, taking 21 prizes and
destroying ships and cargo valued at more than $10 million. On September 22
the Emden bombarded Madras, India. The end of its gallant cruise came on
November 9 when it was sunk in a hard-fought action with the Australian cruiser
Sydney at the Cocos Islands.
Submarine warfare erupted on September 22, when the German submarine U-9, off
the Dutch coast, sank three British cruisers in quick succession. A U-boat
raid on Scapa Flow on October 18, although unsuccessful, resulted in the
temporary transfer of the British Grand Fleet to Rosyth on the Scottish coast
while antisubmarine nets were installed at Scapa. The cruiser HMS Hawk was
torpedoed and sunk on October 15. The battleship Audacious struck a German
mine, laid by a submarine off the Irish coast, and sank on October 27. The
French battleship Jean Bart was torpedoed on December 25 by an Austrian
submarine in the Straits of Otranto.
Meanwhile, British Vice Adm. Sir Christopher Cradock, with two elderly heavy
cruisers and one light cruiser, plus a converted merchant-ship auxiliary
cruiser, pursued Adm. Graf von Spee's China Squadron--two heavy and three
light cruisers--to the coast of Chile. The rival naval forces met in the
Battle of Coronel on November 1.
On paper the fire power of the two forces was about equal, but Cradock
possessed fewer large-caliber guns than the Germans. In a stunning upset, Spee
sank the two British heavy cruisers without losing a single ship. Shocked by
the Coronel disaster, the British Admiralty rushed the battle cruisers
Invincible and Inflexible, under Vice Adm. Sir Frederick Sturdee, to seek
Spee, who had taken his squadron around Cape Horn into the South Atlantic. He
planned to raid the British wireless and coaling station at Port Stanley,
Falkland Islands, but discovered Sturdee's squadron there, refueling. The
surprised Germans fled but were pursued and destroyed; approximately 1,800
Germans--including Spee--perished on the sunken ships. The German light
cruiser Dresden, which escaped the Falkland Islands debacle, was sunk off the
Juan Fernandez Islands on Mar. 14, 1915.
By the end of 1914, except for the High Seas Fleet in the Jade and the Baltic
command based on Kiel, the German flag had been practically swept from the
seas. Allied maritime traffic was uninterrupted, while Germany, feeling the
pinch of naval blockade, focused its attention on the one major weapon left to
it on the high seas: the submarine.
Other Operations.
Six small British overseas expeditions--four from England and two from
Australia and New Zealand--moved in August against German colonies. Togoland,
southwest Africa, Samoa, and some of the German Pacific islands were taken in
late 1914 or early 1915. The Cameroons fell in 1916.
Japan, entering the war on the Allied side on August 23, besieged Tsingtao, the
only German base on the China coast, capturing it on November 7. Japan also
occupied Germany's Marshall, Marianas, Palau, and Caroline Island groups. On
Oct. 29, 1914, Turkey, encouraged by the Germans, declared war against the
Allies, announcing its entrance into the war with a surprise bombardment of the
Russian Black Sea coast. Great Britain responded to the Turkish threat by
annexing (November 5) Turkish Cyprus. On December 17, Britain declared a
protectorate over Egypt--nominally a state subject to Turkey--and began moving
troops there to defend the Suez Canal.
OPERATIONS IN 1915
Global Strategy.
Turkey's alignment with the Central Powers had closed the Dardanelles to the
Allies, thus physically separating Russia from Britain and France. Russia,
shaken by the reverses of 1914, was now almost completely cut off from vitally
needed Franco-British war supplies. The western Allies, at the same time, were
anxious to regain access to the Ukrainian grain fields. This situation led to a
strategic debate in Britain: Winston Churchill, first lord of the Admiralty,
urged immediate seizure of the Dardanelles to restore the vital
Mediterranean-Black Sea supply route to Russia; the British war minister,
Herbert Horatio, Lord KITCHENER, was equally insistent that a decision be
obtained on the stalemated western front. Kitchener--and the French
leadership--opposed reduction of strength in the west for a peripheral operation
in the east. Nevertheless, in early January, the British War Council approved an
expedition against the Dardanelles.
In the camp of the Central Powers, strategical opinion was also divided. The
Hindenburg-Ludendorff team urged an all-out effort against the faltering
Russians. Falkenhayn, reconciled to a war of attrition, believed that it would
have to be won in the west. He maintained that tactical victories in the east
would be meaningless because of Russia's vast territorial and manpower
resources. Austrian-Hungarian reverses in Galicia, however, led the emperor
and Falkenhayn to provide German troops to assist their ally. Accordingly, the
Germans adopted a defensive posture in the west, while seeking a decision
against Russia.
Western Front.
At the beginning of the year the Allies continued futile offensives in Artois
and Champagne. The British failed at Neuve Chapelle on March 10, after nearly
achieving a breakthrough. French casualties approached 400,000 during this
period; British and German losses were also heavy.
On the night of January 19-20 bombing attacks on Britain by Zeppelin dirigible
airships under the control of the German navy resulted in few casualties,
causing more anger than panic. During that year 18 more such raids occurred.
The largest killed 59 people in London on October 13.
On April 22, Allied preparations for another coordinated offensive at Ypres
were spoiled by a surprise German attack preceded by a cloud of chlorine gas
emitted from about 5,000 cylinders. This was the first use of poison gas in
the west. Two German corps drove through two terrorized French divisions and
bit deeply into British lines, creating a wide gap. The Germans, however, had
no reserves available, most of their troops having been diverted to the eastern
front. Local counterattacks by the British Second Army finally stemmed the
German advance after bitter fighting.
In May and June the Allies renewed their offensives in the north, but were
repulsed in the Second Battle of Artois. Exhausted by their costly and
unsuccessful assaults during the first half of the year, the Allies spent the
rest of the summer resting, reorganizing, and reinforcing, as did the Germans.
Both sides had come perilously close to expending their ammunition reserves and
were now waiting for munitions production to catch up with consumption. In
September and October the Allies again launched unsuccessful offensives: the
Second Battle of Champagne and the Third Battle of Artois. The minor gains
made were out of proportion to the casualties suffered: more than 200,000
French, nearly 100,000 British, and 140,000 Germans. Blamed for the failure at
Loos in the Third Battle of Artois, French was replaced by Sir Douglas HAIG in
command of the BEF.
Increase of lethal firepower, both machine gun and field artillery, had
revolutionized combat tactics. The advantage was now with the defense, which
was able to bring up reserves to limit a penetration before the attackers could
move forward sufficient reserves and artillery to exploit a breakthrough. The
continuous battle line on the western front prevented classical offensive
maneuvers. The Germans, recognizing this change long before the Allies, had
adopted an elastic defense, in two or more widely separate lines, highly
organized with entrenchments and barbed wire, heavy in machine guns, and
supported by artillery. Assaulting troops broke through the first line only to
be almost demolished by the fire from the succeeding lines and pounded by
artillery beyond the range of their own guns.
Appalling losses were suffered during 1915 on both sides: 612,00 Germans,
1,292,000 French, and 279,000 British. The year ended with no appreciable
shift in the hostile battle lines scarring the land from the North Sea to the
Swiss Alps.
The Italian Front.
Baited by shrewd Allied diplomacy offering vast territorial gains, Italy
declared war on Austria on May 23. The Italian army, commanded by Gen. Luigi
Cadorna, was about 875,000 strong, but it was deficient in artillery,
transport, and ammunition reserves. The Italian plan intended to hold the
Trentino salient into Italy by offensive-defense action, while taking the
offense eastward in the Isonzo salient projecting into Austrian territory. The
immediate objective was Gorizia, but Italian military men envisioned advancing
through Trieste to Vienna.
Austria had heavily fortified its mountainous Italian border. Austrian
archduke Eugene was in overall command of the Italian front. Gen. Svetozar
Borojevic von Bojna, with approximately 100,000 men, held the critical Isonzo
sector. On June 23 two Italian armies, each about 100,000 strong, attacked
toward Gorizia in the First Battle of the Isonzo. They battered in vain
against the Austrian defenses. Cadorna, bringing up more artillery, tried
again on July 18, retreating on August 3 when artillery ammunition gave out.
On October 18 the Italians--reorganized, strengthened, and supported by 1,200
guns--struck once more at Gorizia and were again repulsed in the Third Battle
of the Isonzo. After a lull of 6 days, the Italians tried again on November
10. When the offensive broke off on December 2, no material gain had been
made, despite huge Italian losses. As in France, the invulnerability of highly
organized positions to frontal assault had been proved. The Austrian defense
was skillful; the Italian offensive tactics were inefficient, despite much
gallantry.
The Eastern Front.
The Central Powers, reinforcing their armies in the east, launched a great
offensive under Hindenburg on January 31 with the Battle of Bolimov, a feint by
the German Ninth Army aimed at Warsaw, designed to distract Russian attention.
Poison gas shells were used for the first time, but they were not highly
effective in the freezing temperatures, and the Russians did not report the gas
attack.
On February 7, farther north, the German Eighth Army, in a blinding snowstorm,
struck the left flank of the Russian Tenth Army. The next day the new German
Tenth Army to the north hit the Russian right. The Russians were rapidly
driven back into the Augustow Forest, barely escaping encirclement by the end
of the month. About 90,000 prisoners were taken in this Winter Battle, or
Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes. The newly formed Russian Twelfth Army
counterattacked Hindenburg's right on February 22, halting German progress
after an advance of 113 km (70 mi).
Meanwhile, following initial Austrian successes, further progress into Galicia
was halted by a Russian counterattack, and after a siege of 194 days, Przemysl
and its garrison of 110,000 men surrendered (March 22) to the Russians.
Still determined to defeat Russia decisively, the emperor ordered Falkenhayn to
give full priority to the eastern front. Sending reinforcements, Falkenhayn
came east to assume direct overall command. While Hindenburg's army group kept
the Russians occupied north of Warsaw, the new German Eleventh Army, under Gen.
August von Mackensen, supported by Austrian units, was to make the main effort
farther south between Tarnow and Gorlice.
Concentrating superior force for the main effort, on May 2 the Austro-German
armies crashed through the Russian Third Army on a 48-km (28-mi) front. The
southern face of the great Russian Polish-Galician salient began to crumble.
Przemysl was retaken on June 3, Lemberg occupied on June 22, and the next day
German troops crossed the Dnestr River.
Thrusting into northern Poland, Gen. Max von Gallwitz's new German Twelfth
Army advanced toward Warsaw, which fell on August 5. The entire Russian front
was in complete collapse. On August 25, Brest-Litovsk fell, and Grodno a week
later. The German occupation of Vilna on September 18 climaxed the colossal
advance of 480 km (300 mi). Skillfully, Grand Duke Nikolai had kept his armies
intact, and they withdrew in fairly good order, evading German attempts at
envelopment. Autumn rains eventually turned roads into quagmires, and the
reeling Russians were able to halt the German advance. By the year's end the
eastern front was a line running north and south from Riga on the Baltic to the
eastern end of the Carpathians.
Unlike the trench-dominated western front, vast expanses and limited troop
strength allowed a war of movement on a grand scale, part of it in mountainous
terrain, all of it hampered by primitive road conditions. German operations
had been both methodical and brilliant. Austrian operations were spotty, due
partly to lower professional standards and partly to friction resulting from
Austrian resentment of German arrogance. On the Russian side, poor troop
leadership and lack of weapons and supplies were jointly responsible for
defeat. Russian casualties on this front in 1915 were more than 2 million men,
of whom about half had been captured. Combined German and Austrian casualties
were in excess of 1 million.
The Balkan Front.
Direct communication between Turkey and its allies was essential to the Central
Powers if the Turkish Straits were to be held and Russia kept isolated from the
Western Allies. The railway line passing through Serbia had been closed since
the beginning of the war; munitions from Germany to Turkey passed through
neutral Romania until June, when Romania closed the channel. Meanwhile,
Bulgaria saw an opportunity to gain revenge for the Second Balkan War by
threatening Greece, which was prepared to aid Serbia. Greece requested Allied
aid, and on October 9 a small Franco-British force disembarked at Salonika. On
the same day, however, a political upheaval in Greece completely altered the
situation; the pro-German king, CONSTANTINE I, dismissed his pro-Allied prime
minister, Eleutherios VENIZELOS, and announced he would maintain Greek
neutrality. Meanwhile, on October 6, two armies--one Austrian and one
German--drove south across the Serbian Sava-Danube border. Two Bulgarian
armies struck west on October 11; one on Nis, the other on Skopje.
Half-hearted Allied efforts to assist Serbia by advance from Salonika were
turned back by superior Bulgarian forces. After a dismal retreat through the
snow-covered mountains, the remnants of the Serbian army, accompanied by a
horde of civilian refugees, reached the Adriatic in late November, pursued by
the Austrians.
The Dardanelles and Gallipoli.
In January the British began planning for a major operation to knock Turkey out
of the war and to reopen communications between the Western Allies (Britain and
France) and Russia. Winston Churchill directed an Allied fleet--mostly
British--to force the Dardanelles, then steam to Constantinople to dictate
peace terms.
The operation began on February 19, when a Franco-British fleet under British
Vice Adm. Sackville Carden attempted systematic reduction of formidable
fortifications lining both sides of the narrow Straits. By February 25 the
outer Turkish forts were silenced, and Allied vessels could enter the straits.
The principal fortifications at the Narrows were attacked on March 18, under
the command of Rear Adm. John de Robeck, who took command after Carden became
ill. Success seemed imminent as Turkish guns fell silent, but in a startling
reversal of fate, three British battleships were struck by mines. Unaware that
the Turks were at the end of their resources and almost devoid of ammunition,
de Robeck withdrew.
Meanwhile, a hastily gathered British expeditionary force of 78,000 men
(including one French division) was en route from England and Egypt for the
purpose of capturing the Gallipoli Peninsula on the western shore of the
Dardanelles (see GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN). German Gen. Otto Liman von Sanders, in
command of approximately 60,000 Turkish troops, was fully aware of the
impending invasion and positioned his men accordingly.
On April 25 the British, under Gen. Ian Hamilton, conducted several
amphibious landings near the tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Although the
troops came ashore, they were soon pinned down in several unconnected
beachheads, stopped by a combination of stubborn Turkish defense and
Hamilton's inability to coordinate and direct the scattered landings. The
Turks ringed the tiny beachheads with entrenchments, and the British found
themselves in trench warfare like that on the western front, but with even
less room for maneuver. On August 6, after the arrival of reinforcements,
Hamilton attempted new landings, but because of fear of German submarines, no
battleships were available to provide artillery support. The second assault
fared no better than the first. The operation had failed. Russia was
permanently cut off from its allies. Hamilton was relieved on October 15 by
Gen. Sir Charles Monro, who directed a masterful evacuation, completed on
Jan. 8-9, 1916. Allied casualties for the Dardanelles campaign amounted to
252,000. The Turks lost 251,000. With the possible exception of the Crimean
War, the Gallipoli expedition was the most poorly mounted and ineptly
controlled operation in modern British military history. On the Turkish side
Liman von Sanders conducted a brilliant, active defense. Mustafa Kemal (see
ATATURK, KEMAL), his chief subordinate, who later became one of the founders
of modern Turkey, shone as an aggressive division commander.
OPERATIONS IN 1916
Global Strategy.
The year opened with the Central Powers and the Allies at approximately equal
strength. The manpower drain in France was serious. Britain was on the verge
of instituting compulsory military service to fill its expanding armies.
Unrest in Ireland was approaching rebellion. Russia, with more than sufficient
manpower, hoped for time to reorganize and supply it. Germany now sought a
decision on the western front because, as Falkenhayn told the emperor, France
would be "bled white" in attempting to prevent a German victory. In an Allied
conference at Chantilly in December 1915, Joffre succeeded in obtaining
agreement from Britain, Russia, Italy, and Romania that coordinated offensives
would be launched on the western, eastern, and Italian fronts, probably about
June, when Russia would be ready.
The Western Front.
Both Joffre and Falkenhayn planned great offensives to break the deadlock in
the west. But the Germans struck first. Following an enormous bombardment on
February 21, the crown prince's German Fifth Army attacked the fortified but
lightly garrisoned region of Verdun, lying in the middle of a salient jutting
into the German zone (see VERDUN, BATTLE OF). The first German assault, on a
13-km (8-mi) front east of Verdun, gained considerable territory and captured a
key position, Fort Douaumont. Joffre, however, intent to hold Verdun as a
symbol of French determination and to retain an anchor for his battle lines,
prohibited further retreat. He sent Gen. Henri Philippe PETAIN with
reinforcements to defend the region.
The next German attack, launched (March 6) against the western face of the
salient, was eventually checked by French counterattacks. For the rest of the
month attacks and counterattacks heaped the ground with corpses. The watchword
for the defense became France's motto for the remainder of the war: Ils ne
passeront pas! ("They shall not pass!") The third German offensive, which
struck both sides of the salient on April 9, was checked by May 19. Renewed
German assaults on the western salient face in late June and early July almost
broke the French line, but the French clung to their positions, and the Germans
hesitated. Pressing demands for replacements on the eastern front then drained
15 German divisions from Verdun. Falkenhayn was relieved of command on August
19, and the Hindenburg-Ludendorff team, replacing him, decided to follow
defensive tactics in the west.
In October and November the French--now under Gen. Robert NIVELLE--proceeded
to the offensive, retaking Forts Douaumont and Vaux. By December 18 the French
front had almost reached the lines held in February, bringing the campaign to a
close. The casualties in this bitterly fought battle were approximately
542,000 French and 434,000 German.
The year-long crisis at Verdun forced postponement of Joffre's long-planned
Allied offensive. Finally, on June 24, the attack was launched by a week-long
artillery bombardment. The main effort was to be made by British Gen. Henry
S. Rawlinson's Fourth Army north of the Somme, with Gen. Edmund ALLENBY's
Third Army farther north also attacking. South of the river the French Army
Group of the North would make a holding attack (see SOMME, BATTLES OF THE). On
July 1 the British infantry, following an artillery barrage, were mowed down by
German machine guns. By nightfall the British had lost about 60,000 men,
19,000 of them dead--the greatest 1-day loss in the history of the British
army.
The French, surprisingly, made greater advances, since the Germans had not
expected them to participate in the initial assault and consequently were
surprised by the attacks south of the Somme. Despite the appalling losses of
the first day, the British continued to forge ahead in a series of small,
limited attacks. Falkenhayn, determined to check the threat, began shifting
reinforcements from the Verdun front. To this extent, one objective of the
offensive had been accomplished.
The second German line was cracked on July 13, but little advantage was gained.
Haig, commander of the BEF, launched another major offensive on September 15,
southwest of Bapaume. British tanks--never before used in battle--had been
secretly shipped to the front, and spearheaded the attack. Despite the
surprise their appearance caused to the Germans, the tanks were underpowered,
unreliable, too slow, and too few in number to gain a decisive victory (out of
47 brought up, only 9 completed their tasks in the battle). As at Verdun,
casualty figures were horrendous: British losses were 420,000; French losses
were 195,000; German casualties numbered nearly 650,000.
The Italian Front.
On March 11 the Italians launched the Fifth Battle of the Isonzo. Like its
predecessors, this battle was a succession of inconclusive conflicts. The
Austrians began a long-planned offensive in the Trentino area on May 15,
catching the Italians unprepared. Terrain difficulties and Italian
reinforcements finally checked the drive on June 10. An Italian
counteroffensive and the need to rush troops to the eastern front caused the
Austrians to withdraw to defensive positions. Italian casualties reached more
than 147,000; the Austrians lost 81,000 troops.
On August 6, Cadorna again struck the Austrian Isonzo front. In this Sixth
Battle of the Isonzo the Italians took Gorizia, but no breakthrough was
effected. Psychologically, the operation boosted Italian morale, lowered by
the heavy losses in the Trentino.
The Eastern Front.
Responding to French appeals, on March 18 the Russians launched a two-pronged
drive in the Vilna-Naroch area to counter the German Verdun assault in the
west. But the Russian assault soon broke down in the mud of the spring thaw.
Its cost--between 70,000 and 100,000 casualties and 10,000 prisoners--did not
improve Russian morale. German losses were about 20,000 men.
The Austrian spring offensive against Italy brought another appeal to Tsar
Nicholas for help. In response, Gen. Aleksei A. Brusilov, the capable and
courageous commander of the Russian Southwestern Army Group, attacked on a
480-km (300 mi) front on June 4. In order to gain surprise, there was no prior
massing of troops or preliminary artillery preparation. Well-planned,
rehearsed, and executed, the assaults bit through the Austro-German line in two
places. Brusilov, however, received little or no aid or cooperation from the
two other Russian army groups on the front, and on June 16 a German
counteroffensive checked his northern thrust. Again taking the offensive on
July 28, Brusilov made further gains, until slowed down by ammunition
shortages. His third assault, begun on August 7, brought him into the
Carpathian foothills by September 20. The offensive ended when German
reinforcements, rushed from Verdun, bolstered the shattered Austrians, who were
in danger of being knocked out of the war.
The Brusilov Offensive was the most competent Russian operation of World War I.
It weakened the Central Powers' offensives in Italy and at Verdun, contributing
to the downfall of Falkenhayn. The Russians, however, had suffered 1 million
casualties. The Brusilov Offensive thus contributed to the resentments that
produced the Russian Revolutions of 1917. Austrian losses were even greater,
and the defeat was the most important element in the disintegration of the
Habsburg Empire.
After long haggling with the Allies for a promise of rich territorial gain,
Romania was so impressed by the early success of the Brusilov Offensive that it
declared war on Germany and Austria on August 27. Romanian armies advanced
into Transylvania, where they were repulsed by Falkenhayn, now commanding the
Ninth Army. Mackensen, commanding the German-reinforced Bulgarian Danube Army,
drove north through the Dobruja and crossed the Danube on November 23. Penned
in a salient, Romanian Gen. Alexandru Averescu was disastrously defeated in
the Battle of the Arges River (December 1-4). Bucharest was occupied on
December 6, and by the year's end the remnants of the Romanian armies had been
driven north into Russia, holding one tiny foothold in their own country with
belated Russian support. The bulk of Romanian wheat fields and oil wells fell
into German hands.
The Balkan Front.
The Allied forces now held a fortified position--the "Bird Cage"--around
Salonika. French Gen. Maurice P. E. Sarrail was technically in command, but
the British took orders from their home government. In July the reconstituted
Serbian army, 118,000 strong, arrived by ship, and with additional
reinforcements the Allied strength rose to more than 250,000. Sarrail planned
an offensive up the Vardar Valley, but on August 17 Bulgar-German attacks
initiated the Battle of Florina. The Allied forces were driven back to the
Struma River line by August 27. Sarrail's counteroffensive, launched on
September 10, dwindled to a stop as Sarrail bickered with his subordinates.
In Albania active operations began in July. An Italian corps finally pushed an
Austrian corps north and linked with Sarrail's main body at Lake Ochrida on
November 10.
The Turkish Fronts: The Caucasus, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Palestine ,
Arabia.General Yudenich, one of the few highly capable Russian commanders,
advanced from Kars toward Erzerum on January 11, reaching the city and breaking
through its ring of forts in a 3-day battle (February 13-16). Trebizond
(Trabzon) was captured on April 18, facilitating Russian logistical support.
Enver Pasha launched the Turkish counteroffensive in late June. Yudenich,
moving with characteristic rapidity and judgment on July 2, routed the Turkish
Third Army completely on July 25. He then turned on the Turkish Second Army.
Kemal, hero of Gallipoli and now a corps commander, scored the only Turkish
successes, capturing Mus and Bitlis in August; Yudenich quickly retook them,
however. Fighting ceased when both sides retired to winter quarters.
In Mesopotamia, Townshend's besieged force at Kut-el-Amara vainly waited for
help. The British suffered 21,000 casualties in a series of unsuccessful
rescue attempts, and with starvation near, Townshend capitulated on April 29,
surrendering 2,070 British and approximately 6,000 Indian troops.
To divert Turkish forces from Mesopotamia, Russian Gen. N. N. Baratov moved
on the Persian town of Kermanshah. He reached Karind on March 12 and advanced
on Baghdad. After Kut fell, Turkish commander Halil Pasha shifted his forces,
repulsed a Russian attack at Khanikin on June 1, and retook Kermanshah by
August. British Gen. Sir Frederick S. Maude, appointed to the Mesopotamian
command in August, found himself reduced to a defensive role while possible
British withdrawal from the theater was considered. When he received
permission to resume the offensive, Maude began movement up both banks of the
Tigris on December 13 with 166,000 men, two-thirds of them Indian.
British forces in Egypt, under Gen. Sir Archibald Murray, began an eastward
extension of Suez Canal defenses into the Sinai Desert, a complex plan
involving the laying of water pipelines, construction of roads and a railway,
and fortifications. Several skirmishes occurred in Sinai as British covering
troops met Turkish resistance.
On June 5 an Arab revolt against the Turks broke out in the Hejaz. Initially
unimpressive, the revolt spread to Palestine and Syria under the leadership of
British archaeologist T. E. LAWRENCE, a brilliant tactician who joined forces
with HUSAYN IBN ALI. With a force of only a few thousand Arabs, Lawrence
succeeded in threatening the Turks' entire line of land communications north
through Syria to the Taurus Mountains.
On August 3, German Gen. Kress von Kressenstein, with 15,000 Turkish troops
and German machine gunners, struck the British Sinai railhead at Rumani in a
surprise attack. He was repelled, and as the year ended a massive British
advance was underway.
The War at Sea: The Battle of Jutland.
From the beginning of 1916, Germany had made an intensive effort to reduce the
size of the British fleet, employing submarines, airships, and mines. The
campaign, however, was progressing too slowly, and consequently by spring plans
were formulated to lure a portion of the Grand Fleet into an open-seas
confrontation, surrounding and destroying the British ships before
reinforcements could arrive. The German High Seas Fleet under Vice Adm.
Reinhard Scheer put to sea on May 30, led by von Hipper's scouting fleet--40
fast vessels built around a nucleus of five battle cruisers, sailing northward.
Well behind was the main fleet of 59 ships. Warned of the sortie by German
radio chatter, the Grand Fleet under Adm. Sir John Jellicoe headed toward the
Skagerrak.
Leading was Beatty's scouting force of 52 ships, including his 6 battle
cruisers and Adm. Hugh Evan-Thomas's squadron of 4 new superdreadnoughts.
Jellicoe's main fleet, following, was composed of 99 vessels. Overall, the
British had 37 capital ships at sea: 28 dreadnoughts and 9 battle cruisers;
the Germans had 27 capital ships: 16 dreadnoughts, 6 older battleships, and 5
battle cruisers. At 3:31 PM on May 31, Beatty's two eastbound divisions
sighted Hipper's force steaming south. (Hipper had already sighted Beatty and
was returning toward the German main fleet.) As Hipper hoped, Beatty turned on
a parallel course to the German squadron, signaling Evan-Thomas's dreadnought
squadron--which Hipper had not yet sighted--to follow. Both battle-cruiser
forces opened fire at a 15,000-m (16,500-yd) range, with the German gunnery
more accurate. Beatty's flagship Lion received several hits, followed by
mortal blows to two thin-skinned British battle cruisers, Indefatigable and
Queen Mary. Beatty, with only 4 ships left to oppose the German 5, and
Evan-Thomas still out of range, tersely signaled, "Engage the enemy closer."
Nevertheless, at 4:42 Beatty sighted the German main fleet approaching;
reversing course, he turned north to join Jellicoe, hoping to lure the German
fleet toward him. Hipper had already turned and was firing accurately at
Beatty's ships and those of Evan-Thomas, who was slow in turning and was now
also being pounded by Scheer's main battle line. For over an hour the chase to
the north continued, both sides sustaining considerable damage. Shortly after
6 PM, Beatty sighted Jellicoe's six divisions approaching from the northwest in
parallel columns, behind Rear Adm. Sir Horace Hood's squadron of three battle
cruisers and two light cruisers. Both Jellicoe and Beatty began to swing
entirely around Scheer, hoping to block him from his base. Shortly before
6:30, Scheer sighted Hood's squadron to his right front; simultaneously British
dreadnought shells began to fall around the German battle line. Within minutes
practically every major ship in both fleets was within range and a furious
general engagement erupted. The German battle cruisers caught the worst of the
storm; Hipper's flagship Lutzow was hammered out of action. On the British
side Hood's flagship and two British cruisers were sunk.
The High Seas Fleet was now inside the converging arc of the Grand Fleet and
taking heavy punishment. At 6:35, Scheer, under cover of a smoke screen and
destroyer attacks, suddenly reversed course by a difficult and perfectly
executed simultaneous 180-degree turn, breaking out of the British net and
heading west. Jellicoe, instead of pursuing, continued southward, because he
knew his fleet was now between the Germans and their bases. Then, at 6:55,
Scheer made another 180-degree fleet turn back toward the British, subjecting
his ships to the might of almost the entire Grand Fleet. This time it seemed
that the Germans could not escape destruction in the hail of great projectiles,
but Scheer again made a simultaneous turn away, while four remaining German
battle cruisers charged toward the British line to cover the withdrawal. Then,
German destroyers sped in toward Jellicoe's battleships to launch a torpedo
attack and spread a smoke screen. Jellicoe, overly cautious and wary of
torpedoes, turned away. By the time he had resumed his battle line, the German
High Seas Fleet had disappeared westward into the dusk as Scheer made another
180-degree turn. Amazingly, none of the German battle cruisers had been sunk
in their courageous "death ride."
Although the main battle was over, Scheer knew that the British fleet was
heading southward, hoping to trap him as he returned to his home ports. Aware
that his fleet could not survive a renewed general battle, after dark Scheer
boldly turned to the southeast, deliberately crashing into a formation of light
cruisers at the tail of Jellicoe's southbound fleet. He battered his way
through in a chaotic midnight battle of collisions, sinkings, and gunfire. By
dawn, Scheer was shepherding his crippled fleet toward the Jade anchorage. The
British now turned back to their bases. They had lost three battle cruisers,
three cruisers, and eight destroyers; they had 6,784 casualties. The Germans
lost one old battleship, one battle cruiser, four light cruisers, and five
destroyers; casualties were 3,039.
The Battle of Jutland marked the end of an epoch in naval warfare. It was the
last great fleet action in which the opponents slugged it out within eyesight
of one another. A drawn battle tactically, it did not change the strategic
situation, other than to convince the Germans that they had no chance of
defeating the Grand Fleet. In the main, German naval effort was now
concentrated on submarine activities. Tremendous toll was taken on Allied
shipping: 300,000 tons per month by December.
Operations in 1917
Global Strategy.
Toward the end of 1916, at another Allied conference called by Joffre at
Chantilly, general agreement had been reached to continue a policy of joint
Anglo-French large-scale operations on the western front in conjunction with
simultaneous Russian and Italian offensives. These would have priority over
all operations elsewhere, although the new British prime minister, David LLOYD
GEORGE, decided to undertake a major campaign in Palestine as well.
On Dec. 31, 1916, Joffre was retired, and was succeeded by Nivelle. This turn
of events immediately complicated Allied coordination. Nivelle, who was
planning a giant joint Anglo-French offensive, clashed with Haig about their
command relationship. The French government supported Nivelle, and the British
were divided. Lloyd George, who distrusted Haig and admired Nivelle, placed
the BEF under Nivelle's command, to the horror of Haig and Sir William
Robertson, the new chief of the Imperial General Staff. Through this
bickering, and Nivelle's own imprudent announcements, secrecy was lost.
Ludendorff, aware of the Allied preparations and realizing the vulnerability of
overextended German lines in the west, deliberately chose a defensive attitude
on both major fronts while forcing Austria (with German assistance) to take
decisive action against Italy, which he believed could be defeated in 1917.
The emperor approved this strategic concept, and also concurred in the
inauguration of unrestricted submarine warfare, regardless of American opinion.
He virtually granted unlimited authority to the military high command.
United States Entry.
When World War I erupted, U.S. President Woodrow WILSON declared that the
United States would adopt a policy of strict neutrality. Wilson urged all
Americans to be "impartial in thought as well as in action." Past loyalty to
France as well as the German invasion of neutral Belgium, however, resulted in
the development of a pro-Allied slant in the United States. In addition,
Wilson's inner circle contained a number of officials--including Col. Edward
M. HOUSE, Wilson's closest advisor--whose partisanship toward the Allied cause
was obvious.
When Britain began a blockade of Germany, the Germans countered by establishing
a war zone around the British Isles and announcing that their submarines would
sink all vessels in the area. By the middle of 1915 a number of relatively
minor incidents had occurred with small losses of American lives. American
travelers, however, remained undaunted.
The sinking of the Lusitania sent the first shock wave. Wilson strongly
protested against what he regarded as needless slaughter. Following the
sinking of the British liner Arabic on Aug. 19, 1915, the German government,
fearing American involvement in the war on the side of the Allies, agreed to
pay indemnities and guaranteed that submarines would not sink passenger liners
without warning. Despite this agreement, another passenger ship, Sussex, was
torpedoed by German U-boats on Mar. 24, 1916, and several Americans were
killed. Germany subsequently announced (May 10) abandonment of the extended
submarine campaign. During this period Great Britain, seeking to maintain a
blockade, violated American neutrality rights by illegally seizing American
vessels with such frequency that Wilson threatened to provide convoys for all
American merchant ships.
The 1916 presidential election was one of the closest in American history. The
Republicans nominated Justice Charles Evans Hughes over Theodore Roosevelt,
whereas the Democrats unanimously renominated Wilson. The Democratic slogan,
"He kept us out of war," appealed to voters in the middle and far west, and
support for Wilson in these sections enabled him to win reelection.
Then, in a complete about-face, Germany announced resumption of its policy of
unrestricted submarine warfare on Jan. 31, 1917. On February 3, Wilson broke
off all diplomatic relations with Germany. A month later the Zimmermann
note--written by Arthur Zimmermann, the German foreign minister, to the German
ambassador in Mexico--was turned over to the U.S. government by British
intelligence, who had intercepted and decoded the message. The note indicated
that if Germany and the United States were to go to war, Germany would seek an
alliance with Mexico--and offer the Mexicans Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona for
their efforts against their northern neighbor. This, along with the news that
more American ships had been sunk by German submarines, aroused Americans to a
warlike stance. By Apr. 6, 1917, Congress approved a war resolution against
Germany. War against Austria-Hungary was not declared until 8 months later, on
December 7.
The United States was ill-prepared for war. The army numbered barely more than
200,000, and not a single division had been formed. Maj. Gen. John J.
PERSHING was selected to command the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) and the
First Division, an amalgam of existing regular army units, was shipped to
France in June. Pershing's plan called for a 1-million-man army overseas by
May 1918, with long-range provision for 3 million men in Europe at a later
date. A draft law--the Selective Service Act--was passed on May 18, 1917.
The Western Front.
Anticipating an Allied offensive, the Germans withdrew (February 23-April 5) to
a highly organized defensive zone--the Hindenburg line, or Siegfried
zone--about 32 km (20 mi) behind the winding, overextended line from Arras to
Soissons. This new line could be held with fewer divisions, thus providing a
larger and more flexible reserve. Behind a lightly held outpost line, heavily
sown with machine guns, lay two successive defensive positions, heavily
fortified. Farther back lay the German reserves concentrated and prepared for
counterattack.
The long-awaited Nivelle Offensive began on April 9 when British troops,
following a heavy bombardment and gas attack, crashed into the positions of the
German Sixth Army near Arras. British air supremacy was gained rapidly.
Canadian troops stormed and took Vimy Ridge the first day. The British advance
was finally halted by April 15, but the next day the French armies assaulted on
a 64-km (40-mi) front between Soissons and Reims to take the Chemin des Dames,
a series of wooded, rocky ridges paralleling the front. The Germans held the
sector, fully cognizant of French plans as a result of Nivelle's confident
public boasts of victory.
Immediately before the attack, German fliers swept the sky of French aerial
observation and German artillery fire destroyed approaching French tanks.
Although the French managed to reach and capture the first German line,
repeated attacks gained little ground. The operation was a colossal failure,
costing the French nearly 120,000 men in 5 days. German losses, despite 21,000
captured, were much fewer.
Disheartened following the disaster, the exhausted French army mutinied
beginning on April 29. The bombastic Nivelle was replaced by Petain on May 15.
After a 2-week period, Petain quelled the mutiny and restored the situation
with a combination of tact, firmness, and justice. By amazingly efficient
censorship control, French counterintelligence agencies completely blotted out
all news of the mutiny. By the time Ludendorff finally learned of it, renewed
British attacks had already drawn German reserves to the northern front, where
Haig had launched an offensive, partly to relieve German pressure on the French
and partly because he believed he could now break through the German lines.
The Ypres salient was Haig's target, but first the British had to take the
dominating Messines Ridge.
On June 7, after a 17-day general bombardment, British mines packed with
500,000 kilograms (1.1 million pounds) of high explosives tore a wide gap in
the German lines on the Messines Ridge. Then, under cover of the British air
force, Gen. Sir Herbert Plumer's Second Army successfully occupied Messines.
Elbowroom had been gained for the main offensive, and the clear-cut victory
bolstered British morale.
The bloody Third Battle of Ypres began on July 31 when the British attacked the
Germans from the northeast. The low ground, sodden with rain, had been churned
to a quagmire by a preliminary 3-day bombardment. Overhead the Allies had won
temporary air superiority, but all surprise had been lost by the long
preparation, and the German defense was well organized. After some early
gains, the advance literally bogged down. In a series of limited assaults on
narrow fronts, begun on September 20, the British inched forward against
determined counterattacks. For the first time, the Germans used mustard gas,
which scorched and burned the British troops. The taking of Passchendaele
Ridge and Passchendaele village by Canadian troops on November 6 concluded the
offensive. The Ypres salient had been deepened for about 8 km (5 mi), at great
cost--approximately 240,000 British and 8,528 French casualties. German losses
were estimated at 260,000.
Determined to keep pressure on the Germans to permit French recovery from the
mutiny, Haig brought the tank back into action. On November 20, Gen. J. H.
G. BYNG's British Third Army surprised Gen. Georg von der Marwitz's German
Second Army positions in front of Cambrai. At dawn approximately 200 tanks,
followed by wave after wave of infantry, plowed into the Germans. The German
defense collapsed temporarily and the assault bit through the Hindenburg line
for 8 km (5 mi) on a 10-km (6-mi) front.
Although two cavalry divisions were poised to exploit the breakthrough,
infantry reserves were weak, many of the tanks broke down, and the advance
slowed. On November 30, German counterattacks fell on the salient and Haig
ordered a partial withdrawal on December 3. Nonetheless, Cambrai marked a
turning point in western front tactics on two counts: successful assault
without preliminary bombardment and the first mass use of tanks.
The Italian Front.
Cadorna, despite promises to aid the Allied offensive, did not actually start
until after the battles of Arras and the Aisne were over. On May 12 the
Italians again attempted to batter their way over mountainous terrain in the
Tenth Battle of the Isonzo. After 17 days gains were small but losses huge:
about 157,000 Italian casualties against about 75,000 Austrians.
Cadorna now decided to make a supreme effort. With 52 divisions and 5,000 guns
he launched the Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo on August 18. An assault between
Gorizia and Trieste was fended off, but north of Gorizia the heavily reinforced
Italian Second Army made a clear-cut advance, capturing the strategically
important Bainsizza Plateau. The Austrians, close to collapse, asked for
German help.
A new Austrian Fourteenth Army (seven of its divisions and most of its
artillery were German), under German Gen. Otto von Below, suddenly crashed
against the Italian Second Army, sparking the Battle of CAPORETTO (Twelfth
Isonzo) on October 24. Surprise bombardment, with clouds of gas and smoke
shells, disrupted Italian signal communications. Then the German assault
elements streamed through the zone. The battered Second Army was driven from
its defensive lines back across the Tagliamento and Livenza rivers. The
Italian Third Army withdrew smoothly along the coast, but part of the so-called
Carnic Force on the northern Alpine fringe was trapped.
By November 12, Cadorna had managed to stabilize his defense from Mount
Pasubia, south of Trent, along the Piave River to the Gulf of Venice. There,
the Austro-German offensive slowly ground to a halt, having outdistanced its
supply. The catastrophe cost the Italians 40,000 killed and wounded plus
275,000 prisoners; Austro-German losses were about 20,000. Cadorna was
replaced by Gen. Armando Diaz, and French and British reinforcements were
moved into Italy to bolster the shaken Italians. A direct result of the
disaster at Caporetto was the Rapallo Conference (November 5), which set up the
Supreme War Council, the first attempt to attain overall Allied unity of
command.
The Eastern Front: Revolution in Russia.
On March 12 (Febuary 27, O.S.) the garrison and workers of Petrograd (now
Leningrad), capital of Russia, mutinied, beginning the RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS OF
1917. Within 3 days Tsar Nicholas II had abdicated, being replaced by a
provisional government of a new Russian Republic. The new regime, bickering
with the Bolshevik-dominated Petrograd Soviet (Council of Workers and Soldiers'
Deputies), pledged itself to continue war against the Central Powers until
Allied victory.
On March 14 the Soviet defied the provisional government and issued the
notorious "Order No. 1," depriving officers of disciplinary authority.
Broadcast throughout the armed forces, it produced the results desired by the
Bolsheviks--breakdown of all military discipline. The Russian army and navy
collapsed as threadbare, battle-weary soldiers and sailors murdered or deposed
officers. The delighted Germans, halting all offensive movements on the
eastern front lest the Russians reunite in defense of the homeland, diverted
their troops to the western and Italian fronts. To undermine the provisional
government, the Germans smuggled Vladimir Ilich LENIN and other Bolshevik
activists into Russia, where Leon TROTSKY joined them.
Despite all the turmoil, Aleksandr KERENSKY, appointed minister of war on May
8, responded to pressure from the alarmed Allies by ordering Brusilov, now
commander in chief, to mount an offensive on the Galician front. On July 1,
Brusilov attacked toward Lemberg with the few troops still capable of combat
operations. After some initial gains, the Russian supply system broke down,
and Russian enthusiasm and discipline faded quickly as German resistance
stiffened. Gen. Max Hoffmann, commanding on the eastern front, began the
German assault on July 19, crushing the demoralized Russian armies. The
Germans halted their advance at the Galician border, but on September 1, Gen.
Oscar von Hutier's Eighth Army attacked Riga, the northern anchor of the
Russian front. As a holding attack on the west bank of the Dvina River
threatened the city, three divisions crossed the river to the north on pontoon
bridges, encircling the fortress, while exploiting elements poured eastward.
The Russian Twelfth Army fled in complete panic, and a small German amphibious
force occupied Osel and Dago islands in the Gulf of Riga.
The German victory at Riga left the Russian capital unprotected. The Kerensky
government (Kerensky had become head of the provisional government on July 20),
which had made the fatal mistake of continuing the unpopular war effort, fled
Petrograd for Moscow. On November 7 (October 25, O.S.) the Bolshevik leaders
Lenin and Trotsky seized power. Lured by promises of "land, peace, bread,"
Russian soldiers deserted in droves and the revolutionary government abandoned
the war effort on November 26. A truce was signed on December 15, ending
hostilities on the eastern front and permanently erasing Russia from the Allied
ranks. Lenin, anxious to focus his attention on the burgeoning revolution in
Russia, agreed to the harsh Treaty of BREST-LITOVSK (Mar. 3, 1918), whereby
Russia recognized the independence of the Ukraine, Finland, and Georgia; gave
up control of Poland, the Baltic states, and a portion of Belorussia; and ceded
Kars, Ardahan, and Batumi to Turkey. The Ukraine, which remained occupied
throughout 1918, provided grain to save the German people from starvation.
The Balkan Front.
In Greece, King Constantine's government continued to conciliate the Central
Powers. Finally, bowing to Allied pressure, Constantine abdicated on June 12.
He was replaced by his son Alexander, who appointed (June 26) Venizelos as
premier, and the next day Greece entered the war. The ineffective General
Sarrail was replaced by Gen. M. L. A. Guillaumat, who set out to reorganize
the Greek forces and plan an offensive.
The Turkish Fronts: Palestine and Mesopotamia.
The Russian Revolution eliminated the Caucasus as a consequential war theater
early in the year, freeing Turkish troops to support other fronts. On January
8-9, in the Battle of Magruntein, the British cleared the Sinai Peninsula of
all organized Turkish forces. Sir Archibald Murray was then authorized to
begin a limited offensive into Palestine, where the Turks were established in
defensive positions along the ridges between Gaza and Beersheba, the two
natural gateways to the region. An attack on Gaza (March 26) led by Gen. Sir
Charles M. Dobell failed because of defective staff work and a communications
breakdown between Dobell's mounted force and infantry. Murray's report,
however, presented this First Battle of Gaza as a British victory, and Murray
was ordered to advance without delay and take Jerusalem. On April 17, Dobell
attempted a frontal assault and was again thrown back by the now well-prepared
Turks. Both Dobell and Murray were then relieved, the latter being replaced by
General Allenby, a fighting cavalryman with the gift of leadership and tactical
ability. His instructions were to take "Jerusalem before Christmas."
On October 31, Allenby attacked in the Third Battle of Gaza (Battle of
Beersheba). Reversing his predecessor's plans, Allenby left three divisions
demonstrating in front of Gaza and secretly moved against Beersheba. Surprise
was complete, and an all-day battle culminated at dusk in a mounted charge by
an Australian cavalry brigade through and over the Turkish wire and trenches
into Beersheba itself, capturing the vital water supply. Hastily evacuating,
the Turkish Seventh Army now lay with its left flank open.
Allenby struck north on November 6, launching the Desert Mounted Corps across
the country toward the sea. The Turks evacuated Gaza in time to avoid the
trap, but Allenby, pursuing closely, struck again on November 13, driving the
Turks back north. Turning now toward Jerusalem, Allenby was detained by the
appearance of Turkish reserves and the arrival of General von Falkenhayn, who
reestablished a front from the sea to Jerusalem. Forging ahead, Allenby
assaulted the enemy positions on December 8, driving the Turks from the Holy
City, which was occupied by the British the next day.
In Mesopotamia, Sir Frederick Maude skillfully assaulted Kut on February 22,
forcing the Turks back toward Baghdad. After several days of fighting along
the Diyala River, Maude entered the city on March 11, the Turkish forces
retreating in some disorder. Maude now launched three exploiting columns up
the Tigris, Euphrates, and Diyala rivers, securing his hold on Baghdad.
When the summer heat subsided, Maude struck sharply northwestward up the
Euphrates River, pursuing the Turkish survivors into central Mesopotamia. He
prepared to continue his advance to the oil fields of Mosul, but died of
cholera on November 18. Gen. Sir William R. Marshall succeeded him.
The War at Sea.
After careful calculations the German naval command had concluded that
unrestricted submarine warfare would force Britain to sue for peace in 5
months. It almost worked. British shipping losses soared to 875,000 tons per
month by April. British and neutral merchant sailors began to refuse to sail.
Recommendations for instituting convoys were rejected by the Admiralty as an
unsound waste of available cruisers and destroyers. The efforts of light
warships to sink submarines were disappointing, however. Admiral Jellicoe (now
first sea lord) calculated that Britain would be depleted of food and other
needed raw materials by July.
The insistence of Prime Minister Lloyd George, combined with the strong
recommendations of U.S. Adm. William S. SIMS and of Beatty (now commander of
the Grand Fleet), finally forced adoption of the convoy system on May 10. The
results were spectacular. British escort vessels, joined by American
destroyers in May, provided adequate protection to merchant ships and at the
same time were able to sink more submarines. Unquestionably the convoys saved
Britain. Although shipping losses by the end of the year exceeded 8 million
tons, Allied shipbuilding programs more than offset the losses.
In other naval actions German destroyers raided in the English Channel in
February, March, and April. In response the British made several raids on
Ostend and Zeebrugge. Later in the year the British raided German coastal
shipping off Holland and, in November, made an unsuccessful battle-cruiser raid
against German minesweeping operations in Heligoland Bight. In December the
Germans raided several British-Scandinavian convoys. These raids inflicted
serious losses on British merchant shipping, forcing Beatty to use a squadron
of battleships as a covering force for future convoys.
Operations In 1918
Global Strategy.
The Allied situation at the beginning of 1918 was grim. The major Allied
offensives of 1917 had failed. Russia had collapsed, and Italy was on the
verge of collapse. The German U-boat campaign still threatened the maritime
supply route from the United States. Many months would pass before American
soldiers could bolster depleted Allied manpower. Both Britain and France were
on the defensive.
Nor had the Central Powers been successful. They were being strangled by the
Allied naval blockade. Austria was at the end of its resources; Turkey and
Bulgaria were wobbling; the burden of the war fell more and more heavily on
Germany. Hindenburg and Ludendorff had established a virtual military
dictatorship in Germany and exercised almost as much authority over the
subservient governments of Austria, Bulgaria, and Turkey.
The American Buildup.
The United States, unprepared for war, was faced with organizing, equipping,
training, transporting, and supplying an overseas military force. From a
strength of 200,000 men and 9,000 officers, the army swelled to more than 4
million men, including 200,000 officers; about half reached Europe before the
war ended. Of these, more than half were in combat units--42 divisions of
about 28,000 men each--the remainder in supporting roles. Training emphasis
was on mobile warfare in offensive combat, with stress on individual
marksmanship. Pershing hoped to break out of the constraints of trench
warfare.
Pershing and Allied leaders agreed on the Lorraine area east of Verdun as the
American combat zone. Supplies from the United States went to ports in
southwest France, and movement overland conflicted little with the Allied
efforts farther north. Overseas transportation, the province of the U.S.
Navy, was in part provided by German merchant vessels seized in American ports,
plus an improvised fleet of the American merchant marine. The combined fleet
carried more than a million American soldiers to France without loss of a
single vessel--on eastbound voyages. (The remaining million sent overseas were
transported on Allied ships.)
The 800,000-man U.S. Navy was primarily involved in convoy and other
antisubmarine activities, laying 56,000 of the 70,000 mines constituting the
North Sea mine belt from Scotland to Norway. Also, a division of five
battleships joined the British Grand Fleet and three other battleships operated
in Irish waters against surface raiders.
Since the United States was not technically one of the Allies, Pershing was
directed that his expeditionary force was to be "a separate and distinct
component of the combined forces, the identity of which must preserved." The
Allies, short of manpower and unsure of the inexperienced Americans' military
ability, wanted the AEF turned over in toto as a replacement reservoir for the
French and British armies, but War Secretary Newton D. BAKER and President
Wilson upheld Pershing despite pleas from French premier Georges CLEMENCEAU and
Lloyd George.
In an address to Congress on Jan. 8, 1918, President Wilson laid down his
famous FOURTEEN POINTS for peace, calling for--among other things open
diplomacy, armament reduction, national self-determination, and the formation
of a league of nations. These idealistic war aims appeared to give moral
weight to the Allied cause.
Operations on the Western Front.
Ludendorff realized that Germany's only hope of winning the war lay in a
decisive victory in the west in 1918, before American manpower could exercise a
significant effect. With Russia out of the war, he was able to shift most
German forces from the east to prepare for a major offensive. His intention
was to smash the Allied armies in a series of powerful thrusts. Recognizing
the divergent interests of the French (concerned with protection of Paris) and
the British (interested in their lines of communications with the Channel
ports), he intended to drive a wedge between their armies and then destroy the
British in subsequent assaults.
The Germans began their drive, the Second Battle of the Somme, at dawn on March
21 in heavy fog, striking the right flank of the British sector on a 100-km
(60-mi) front between Arras and La Fere. Following a surprise 5-hour
bombardment, specially trained German shock elements rolled through the fog,
each division pressing as far and as fast as possible. The stunned British
fell back, allowing the German Eighteenth Army to reach and pass the Somme. As
British reserves raced to stop the German advance, Haig appealed for French
reinforcements, but Petain was more concerned with protecting Paris. The
British pressed for a supreme commander, and on April 3 the Allied Supreme War
Council, meeting at Beauvais, appointed Ferdinand FOCH as the Allied commander
in chief. Immediately he began to send reserves to aid the British.
Meanwhile, the German drive, after gaining 64 km (40 mi), lost momentum.
Foch's shifting of reserves checked the German assault after it reached
Montdidier, and Ludendorff brought it to a halt. Allied losses amounted to
about 240,000 casualties (163,000 British, 77,000 French); German casualties
were almost as high. The most serious consequence of the offensive, from the
German point of view, had been the institution of an Allied unified command.
Meanwhile, on March 23, a remarkable long-range German cannon began a sporadic
bombardment of Paris from a position 105 km (65 mi) away. This amazing weapon
seriously damaged Parisian morale and eventually inflicted 876 casualties, but
did not significantly affect the war.
On April 9, in the Battle of Lys, the Germans struck the British sector again,
this time in Flanders on a narrower front, threatening the important rail
junction of Hazebrouck and the Channel posts. German troops quickly cut
through unprepared British divisions and a Portuguese division. On April 12,
after announcing, "Our backs are to the wall," Haig forbade further retreat and
galvanized British resistance. The German drive was halted on April 17 after
gaining 16 km (10 mi), which included the recapture of Messines Ridge. Again,
and for the same reasons as before, Ludendorff had achieved tactical success,
but strategical failure. There was no breakthrough, and the Channel ports were
safe.
Ludendorff struck again--the Third Battle of Aisne--on May 27, this time on a
40-km (25-mi) front along the Chemin des Dames. This action was a diversion
against the French, preparatory to a planned decisive blow to be struck against
the British in Flanders. German troops, preceded by tanks, routed 12 French
divisions (3 of them British), and by noon the Germans were crossing the Aisne;
by evening they had crossed the Vesle, west of Fismes, and on May 30 reached
the Marne.
On May 28, as Pershing was rushing reinforcements to the French on the Marne,
the first American offensive of the war took place at Cantigny, 80 km (50 mi)
northwest. Although only a local operation, its success--against veteran
troops of Hutier's Eighteenth Army--boosted Allied morale.
At the same time the U.S. Second and Third Divisions were flung against the
nose of the German offensive along the Marne, moving into position on May 30.
The Third Division held the bridges at Chateau-Thierry, then counterattacked
and, with assistance from rallying French troops, drove the Germans back across
the Marne. The Second Division checked German attacks west of Chateau-Thierry.
Ludendorff called off his offensive on June 4. The Second Division then
counterattacked, spearheaded by its marine brigade. Between June 5 and June 17
the Germans were uprooted from positions at Vaux, Bouresches, and Belleau Wood.
A German advance on Compiegne, begun on June 9, was halted by French and
American troops on June 12.
Ludendorff, still planning a climactic drive against the British in Flanders,
attempted one more preliminary offensive in Champagne to lure French troops
away from the British front. The Second Battle of the Marne began on July
14-15 when the Allies, warned of the blow by deserters, aerial reconnaissance,
and prisoners, battered the advancing Germans with artillery. East of Reims
the attack was halted within a few hours by the French. West of Reims
approximately 14 divisions of the German Seventh Army crossed the Marne, but
American forces snubbed the attack there. Then Allied aircraft and artillery
destroyed the German bridges, disrupting supply and forcing the attack to halt
on July 17. In the space of 5 months the Germans had suffered half a million
casualties. Allied losses had been somewhat greater, but American troops were
now arriving at a rate of 300,000 a month. As Ludendorff prepared to pull
back, the Allied counteroffensive began on July 18. The French armies, using
light tanks and aided by U.S. and British divisions, assaulted the Marne
salient from left to right, reaching the Vesle River and recapturing Soissons.
Ludendorff now called off his proposed Flanders drive, concentrating on
stabilizing the situation along the Vesle. The Marne salient no longer
existed. Strategically, the Second Battle of the Marne turned the tide; the
initiative had been wrested from the Germans. Ludendorff's gamble had failed.
On August 8, near Amiens, Haig threw his Fourth Army and the attached French
First Army against the German Eighteenth and Second armies. The Germans,
caught off guard by a well-mounted assault, began a panicky withdrawal.
Ludendorff bitterly declared that August 8 was the "Black Day of the German
Army." He later added: "The war must be ended!"
The Germans managed to reestablish a position 15 km (10 mi) behind the former
nose of the salient, but on August 10, French troops forced the evacuation of
Montdidier.
On August 21 the British and French armies renewed the assault in the second
phase of the Battle of the Amiens. Ludendorff ordered a general withdrawal
from the Lys and Amiens areas, but his plans were disrupted when the Anzacs
penetrated across the Somme on August 30-31. The entire German situation
deteriorated, necessitating retreat to the final position--the Hindenburg line.
By this time Haig had expended his reserves and could not further exploit his
victory. German casualties were more than 100,000, including about 30,000
prisoners. Allied losses were 22,000 British and 20,000 French. Tactically
and strategically, the Allies had gained another major victory; German morale
plummeted.
On August 30, Pershing, having won his fight for a separate and distinct U.S.
army operating on its own assigned front, moved toward the Saint-Mihiel
salient, which the Germans had occupied since 1914. Supported by an Allied air
force of about 1,400 planes--American, French, Italian, and Portuguese--under
U.S. Col. Billy MITCHELL, the U.S. First Army attacked both faces of the
salient on September 12. The assault was completely successful; the salient
was entirely cleared by September 16, and Pershing at once turned to the
tremendous job of shifting his entire army to another front. More than 1
million men, with tanks and guns, had to be moved 100 km (60 mi)--entirely at
night--to the area of the Argonne Forest, west of the Meuse River, and made
ready to start another major offensive.
Foch planned two major assaults. One was to be a Franco-American drive from
the Verdun area toward Mezieres, a vital German supply center and railroad
junction. The other was a British offensive between Peronne and Lens, with the
railroad junction of Aulnoye as its objective. If successful, this double
penetration would jeopardize the entire German logistical situation on the
western front. After the Americans swept through Vauquois and Montfaucon on
September 26-27, their drive slowed as the Germans rushed in reinforcements.
Replacing a number of his assault divisions with rested troops from the
Saint-Mihiel operation, Pershing renewed the offensive on October 4. No room
for maneuver existed; the First Army battered its way slowly forward in a
series of costly frontal attacks, but the Argonne Forest was cleared,
facilitating the advance of the French Fourth Army, on the left, to the Aisne
River.
French Prime Minister Clemenceau, exasperated by the slow progress of the
Americans, attempted unsuccessfully to have Pershing relieved. Foch, aware
that the American offensive was drawing all available German reserves from the
rest of the western front, declined to support Clemenceau. As October ended,
the First Army had punched through most of the third and final German line.
With rested divisions replacing tired ones, the First Army advanced again on
November 1, smashing through the last German positions northeast and west of
Buzancy, thus enabling the French Fourth Army to cross the Aisne. In the open
now, American spearheads raced up the Meuse Valley, reaching the Meuse before
Sedan on November 6 and severing by artillery fire the Mezieres-Montmedy rail
line, a vital supply artery for the entire German front. On September 27, a
day after the beginning of the American offensive, Haig's army group flung
itself against the Hindenburg line; but his drive soon slowed down, however, in
the face of skillful German defense.
Because of American pressure in the Meuse-Argonne, a German retreat all along
the line became necessary. In a renewed assault, the British broke through
German defenses on the Selle River on October 17. At the same time the
Belgians and British under the Belgian king Albert began to move again in
Flanders. The German army began to crack.
On October 6, as the front lines began to crumble, the new German chancellor,
Prince Max, of Baden, sent a message to President Wilson, requesting an
armistice on the basis of Wilson's Fourteen Points. An exchange of messages
was concluded on October 23 with Wilson's insistence that the United States and
the Allies not negotiate an armistice with the existing military dictatorship
of Germany. Immediately before formal dismissal, Ludendorff resigned on
October 26 to permit the desperate German government to comply with Wilson's
demand. Hindenburg, however, retained his post as German field commander, with
Gen. Wilhelm GROENER replacing Ludendorff as quartermaster general, or chief
of staff.
Revolution and Armistice.
Inspired by the Communists and sparked by a mutiny of the High Seas Fleet,
which erupted on October 29, revolts flared inside Germany. A new socialist
government took power and proclaimed a republic on November 9. The emperor
fled to the Netherlands the next day.
Meanwhile, a German delegation, headed by civilian Matthias Erzberger,
negotiated an armistice with Foch in his railway-coach headquarters on a siding
at Compiegne. Agreement was finally reached at 5:00 AM, Nov. 11, 1918. The
terms specified that the German army must immediately evacuate all occupied
territory and Alsace-Lorraine; immediately surrender great quantities of war
materiel; surrender all submarines; and intern all other surface warships as
directed by the Allies. In addition the Germans were to evacuate German
territory west of the Rhine, and three bridgeheads over the Rhine were to be
occupied by the Allies. The armistice became effective immediately;
hostilities ceased at 11:00 AM on November 11.
Although the AEF was a vital factor in the final Allied victory, the American
role was primarily to add a final increment of numbers and fresh initiative,
permitting the much larger and more experienced Allied armies to achieve
equally spectacular successes in the final weeks of the war.
The Italian Front.
During the spring Germany transferred its troops in Italy to the western front,
insisting that the Austrians crush Italy single-handedly because Russia was out
of the war. Following a diversionary attack in the west at the Tonale Pass,
which was repulsed on June 13, Austrian drives toward Verona and Padua were
similarly checked. Diaz, marking time until certain of Allied success on other
fronts, finally prepared a double offensive. (By this time the Austro-Hungarian
government was requesting an armistice.) The Italians attacked on October 24 in
the Battle of Vittorio Veneto but were quickly halted on the Piave River line.
French troops, however, clawed a footing on the left, and British troops gained
a large bridgehead on the right, splitting the front by October 28. The
penetration reached Sacile on October 30. The next day, as Italian
reinforcements exploited the ever-widening gap, Austrian resistance collapsed.
Belluno was reached on November 1 and the Tagliamento on the next day, while in
the western zone British and French troops drove through to Trent on November 3.
That same day Trieste was seized by an Allied naval expedition in the Gulf of
Venice, and a few hours later an armistice was signed. Hostilities ended on
November 4.
The Balkan Front.
At Salonika the brilliant French general Franchet d'Esperey succeeded
Guillaumat in July. Grudgingly the Supreme War Council agreed to allow him to
mount a major offensive. He nominally commanded nearly 600,000 men--Serb,
Czech, Italian, French, and British--but only about 350,000 were available for
duty. Opposing him were about 400,000 Bulgars. Practically all German troops
had been withdrawn except for command and staff.
Covered by heavy artillery support, Serbian troops attacked the center of the
front on September 15, flanked by French and Greek forces. The penetration was
successful, as was a British diversionary attack on the right on September 18.
Gaining momentum, the assault reached the Vardar on September 25, splitting the
Bulgarian front. The British drive reached Strumitsa the next day, and French
cavalry, passing through the main effort, took Skopje on September 29. Allied
air forces created panic among the fleeing Bulgars.
On September 29 the Bulgarians asked for and received an armistice, but
Franchet d'Esperey kept his troops moving north. On November 1 they crossed
the Danube at Belgrade and were prepared to march on Budapest and Dresden when
Germany's armistice halted hostilities.
The Turkish Fronts: Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia.
During the early part of the year Allenby at Jerusalem was restricted to minor
operations because of drafts on his force to the western front. To the south
and east, however, Arabia was in flames. T. E. Lawrence, with a small group
of British officers, reaped a harvest from the Arab rebellion against Turkish
rule. Lawrence's guerrilla forces regularly raided the Hejaz Railway, running
approximately 970 km (600 mi) from Amman, Palestine, to Medina in Arabia, the
southernmost Turkish garrison. In all, Lawrence's activities kept more than
25,000 Turkish troops pinned down to blockhouses and posts along this line. By
September, Lawrence, with Emir FAISAL, son of Husayn ibn Ali, self-styled "King
of the Hejaz," had isolated Medina by destroying the railway line and was
moving north to operate on Allenby's right flank.
Meanwhile, Allenby had been reinforced during the late summer. He prepared
meticulously for what was to be the decisive blow. The Turkish defensive line,
skillfully fortified, lay from the Mediterranean, north of Jaffa, to the Jordan
Valley. Allenby's plan was to mass his main effort on the seashore, burst open
a gap, and then let his cavalry corps through while the entire British line
swung north and east like a gate, pivoting on the Jordan Valley. Utmost
secrecy was kept. At 4:30 AM on September 19 the offensive began. An infantry
attack tore a wide gap along the seacoast, through which poured the Desert
Mounted Corps. At the same time the Royal Air Force bombed rail junctions and
all Turkish army headquarters, completely paralyzing communications. By dawn
on September 20 the Turkish Eighth Army had ceased to exist, and the Seventh
was falling back eastward in disorder toward the Jordan. The British cavalry
then swept through Nazareth and turned east to reach the Jordan just south of
the Sea of Galilee on September 21. On the desert flank to the east Lawrence
and Faisal cut the railway line at Deraa on September 27, while Allenby pressed
to take Damascus on October 1 and Beirut the next day. The Desert Mounted
Corps continued to spearhead the advance, reaching Homs on October 16 and
Aleppo on October 25. Within 5 days Turkey had signed an armistice at Mudros,
ending the war in the Middle East.
Allenby's victory at Megiddo was one of the most brilliant operations in the
history of the British army. In 38 days Allenby's troops advanced 580 km (360
mi), taking 76,000 prisoners (4,000 of them Germans and Austrians). In
Mesopotamia a British force under Lt. Gen. A. S. Cobbe was hurriedly pushed
north from Baghdad on October 23 to secure the Mosul oil fields before the
expected Turkish collapse. After a sharp fight at Sharqat on October 29, Cobbe
hurried his cavalry to the outskirts of Mosul on November 1. Despite the
provisions of the October 30 armistice, Cobbe was ordered to take the place.
After some squabbling, the Turkish garrison of Halil Pasha agreed to march out
and the British remained.
The entire checkered Mesopotamian campaign had hinged on possession and
protection of the oil fields. The war's end found them in Britain's hands, at
a total cost of 80,007 casualties. On November 12 the Allied fleet steamed
through the Dardanelles, arriving off Constantinople (Istanbul) the next day,
dramatizing the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
The War at Sea.
By early 1918, German submarine warfare had been contained by the Allied convoy
system. It was, nevertheless, still a menace. U-boats operated from bases at
Zeebrugge, Ostend, and Bruges.
British Rear Adm. R. J. B. Keyes, commanding the Dover Patrol, organized a
raid against the bases. On April 22-23 the light cruiser Vindictive dashed
into Zeebrugge, with destroyer and submarine escort. At the same time a
British submarine loaded with high explosives was blown up against the lock
gates and two blockships were also sunk. The Vindictive escaped after
inflicting some damage, but the base was not entirely sealed. A simultaneous
raid against Ostend failed, but a later sortie (May 9-10) to block Ostend was
partially successful. The German battle cruiser Goeben and light cruiser
Breslau sailed into the Aegean Sea on January 20, but the voyage ended in
disaster; the Goeben was badly damaged by British mines, and the Breslau was
sunk. The Goeben, however, was saved despite British aerial bombing.
As Germany approached collapse, German commanders planned a desperate sortie to
provoke a final battle with the British Grand Fleet, but on October 29 the
crews mutinied and seized control of the warships, ending the war at sea.
Operations in East Africa.
Despite intensive efforts the British were unable to overcome the elusive Paul
von Lettow-Vorbeck during 4 years of continuous search and pursuit. They drove
him into Portuguese East Africa in 1917, where he continued an active and
aggressive guerrilla campaign, capturing Portuguese military posts and
maintaining his small command by captured supplies. He then reentered German
East Africa and, although he had only 4,000 men and was opposed by forces
totaling 130,000, he succeeded in capturing several small posts before marching
into British Northern Rhodesia. Finally, after the British were able to inform
him of the armistice, he ended hostilities on November 14 and surrendered his
command on November 23.
Postarmistice.
On November 17, under the terms of the armistice, Allied troops began to
reoccupy those portions of France and Belgium that had been held by the Germans
since 1914. Allied and U.S. troops followed the withdrawing Germans into
Germany. On December 9, Allied troops crossed the Rhine into the bridgeheads
agreed in the armistice. The British were at Cologne, the Americans at
Coblenz, and the French at Mainz. Meanwhile, on November 21 the German High
Seas Fleet sailed into the Firth of Forth, between the lines of the British
Grand Fleet. It later was shifted to Scapa Flow.
The Peace Treaties
The First Debate at Versailles.
The peace conference at Versailles (see PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE) opened
officially on Jan. 18, 1919. In attendance were 70 delegates, representing 27
victorious Allied powers. Neither Germany nor the new Russian Soviet republic
were represented. The principal participants in the conference were the
leaders of the four great powers: Woodrow Wilson of the United States, Georges
Clemenceau of France, David Lloyd George of Britain, and Vittorio ORLANDO of
Italy. It soon became apparent that they had widely divergent motives and
interests.
Wilson was, at least at the outset, determined on implementing his Fourteen
Points, which had been the basis for the armistice negotiations. Principally,
Wilson was most intent on the establishment of a League of Nations, which would
provide a basis for orderly international relations and the preservation of
peace.
Clemenceau was a tough, determined, and skillful politician. He was also a
vengeful old man, who had seen much of France ruined, the flower of French
manhood consumed in the horrendous war, and who could personally remember the
harsh peace terms that Germany had imposed on his country after the
Franco-Prussian War. He was determined not only that Germany should suffer,
but that the peace terms should make it impossible for Germany to wage war ever
again.
Lloyd George was also a skilled politician. Although generally inclined to
make a practical, moderate peace, he had been elected on the basis of promises
that Germany and its war leaders would be punished. In general he distrusted
Wilson's idealism and was determined that none of the Fourteen Points should be
allowed to interfere with Britain, its traditional policies, or its commitments
to others.
Orlando, the least important of the so-called Big Four, was determined that
Italy receive the huge territorial rewards that had been promised in 1915 to
lure Italy into the war on the Allied side.
On January 25 the conference unanimously adopted a resolution to establish the
LEAGUE OF NATIONS. Then, after a committee was appointed to draft the Covenant
of the League, the peace terms were hammered out by the Supreme Council, which
consisted of the heads of government and foreign ministers of the five
principal Allied powers: the United States, Britain, France, Italy, and Japan.
Slowly and painfully, after 3 and one-half months of argument, the Allied
leaders reached compromise solutions on all of the issues and secured the
agreement of the smaller powers in matters in which they were concerned. By
May 6 the Treaty of Versailles was finally ready to present to Germany.
The Treaty of Versailles.
The Covenant of the League of Nations was made an integral part of the treaty,
and every nation signing the treaty had to accept the world organization. The
League was intended to provide a mechanism for the peaceful settlement of
disputes, for the promotion of world disarmament, and the general betterment of
humankind. Except for the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France, which was
agreed to unanimously, all of the important treaty provisions regarding German
territory were compromises. Allied occupation of the Rhineland was to continue
for at least 15 years, and possibly longer, and the region was to remain
perpetually demilitarized, as was a belt of territory 50 km (30 mi) deep along
the right bank of the Rhine. Three smaller frontier regions near Eupen and
Malmedy were to be ceded to Belgium. Parts of the German provinces of Posen
and West Prussia were to be given to Poland to provide that revived nation with
access to the Baltic Sea; the Baltic seaport of Gdansk (Danzig) was to become a
free state, but linked economically to Poland. This left East Prussia
completely separated from the rest of Germany by this POLISH CORRIDOR to the
Baltic. All of Germany's overseas possessions were to be occupied by the
Allies but were to be organized as "mandates," subject to the supervision and
control of the League of Nations. Britain and France divided most of Germany's
African colonies, and Japan took over the extensive island possessions in the
South Pacific.
The treaty required Germany to accept sole responsibility and guilt for causing
the war. The former emperor and other unspecified German war leaders were to
be tried as war criminals. (This provision was never enforced.)
A number of other military and economic provisions were designed not only to
punish Germany for its war guilt, but also to insure France and the rest of the
world against the possibility of future German aggression. The German army was
limited to 100,000 men and was not to possess any heavy artillery, the general
staff was abolished, and the navy was to be reduced. No air force would be
permitted, and the production of military planes was forbidden.
Germany was to pay for all civilian damages caused during the war. This
burden, combined with payment of REPARATIONS to the Allies of great quantities
of industrial goods, merchant shipping, and raw materials, was expected to
prevent Germany from being able to finance any major military effort even if it
were inclined to evade the military limitations.
The Second Debate at Versailles.
On April 29 a German delegation headed by Graf Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau,
the German foreign minister, arrived at Versailles. On May 7 the members of
the delegation were summoned to the Trianon Palace at Versailles to learn the
treaty terms. After carefully reading the treaty, Brockdorff-Rantzau denounced
it. He reminded the Allied leaders that the Fourteen Points had provided the
basis for the armistice negotiations and thus were as binding on the Allies as
on Germany. He insisted that the economic provisions of the treaty were
impossible to fulfill.
Although refusing to sign the treaty, the German delegation took it back to
Berlin for the consideration of the government. Chancellor Philipp SCHEIDEMANN
also denounced the treaty. The Allies had maintained their naval blockade of
Germany, however, and after long and bitter debates in Berlin, it became
obvious that Germany had no choice but to sign the treaty. Scheidemann and
Brockdorff-Rantzau resigned on June 21. That same day, at Scapa Flow, the
German High Seas Fleet staged a dramatic protest. Despite every conceivable
British precaution, the German sailors scuttled each of their 50 warships in
the harbor.
On June 28 the new German chancellor, Gustav Bauer, sent another delegation to
Versailles. After informing the Allies that Germany was accepting the treaty
only because of the need to alleviate the hardships on its people caused by the
"inhuman" blockade, the Germans signed.
The Other Treaties.
On September 10 representatives of the now tiny republic of Austria signed the
Treaty of Saint-Germain, just outside Paris. The once great Habsburg empire
had completely disintegrated in October and November 1918. The treaty,
therefore, merely legalized the disappearance of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Austria recognized the independence of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, and
Hungary; it also recognized the award of Galicia to Poland, and of the
Trentino, South Tyrol, Trieste, and Istria to Italy. The Austrian army was
limited to 30,000 men, and Austria agreed to pay economic reparations to Allied
nations that had been victims of Austro-Hungarian aggression. Austria was
forbidden to unite with Germany, as many people of both countries had
envisioned.
On November 27, Bulgaria signed a treaty with the Allies at Neuilly, another
suburb of Paris. Bulgaria recognized the independence of Yugoslavia, and
agreed to cede territory to Yugoslavia, Romania, and Greece. Bulgaria's army
was restricted, and the country was forced to pay reparations to its Allied
neighbors.
Hungary signed the Treaty of Trainon at Versailles on June 4, 1920, which
reduced the country in area from 283,000 sq km (109,000 sq mi) to less than
93,000 sq km (36,000 sq mi). The Hungarian army was limited to 35,000 troops,
and reparations were demanded, although the amount was unspecified.
Because of a number of complications, the peace settlement with Turkey was long
delayed. When finally signed--at Sevres, another suburb of Paris, on Aug. 10,
1920--it was somewhat meaningless, because Turkish strongman Mustafa Kemal
Pasha was leading a nationalist movement and establishing a powerful and proud
government. After reconquering Turkish Armenia, which had become independent,
and after ejecting a Greek army from Turkey in a brilliant campaign, Mustafa
Kemal reoccupied Thrace, or European Turkey, which had been given to Greece by
the Treaty of Sevres. He then informed the Allies that he was willing to
accept most of the other provisions of the original peace settlement,
consistent with the Fourteen Points. The Allies, having no desire for a new
war, and accepting the reasonableness of the Turkish position, agreed.
By the Treaty of Lausanne (see LAUSANNE, TREATY OF), signed on July 24, 1923,
Turkey recognized the independence of the Arab Kingdom of Hejaz, the French
mandate over Syria, and the British mandates over Palestine and Mesopotamia.
Turkey also recognized Greek and Italian occupation of most of its former
Aegean islands and agreed to demilitarize the straits, retaining the right to
close them in time of war. Turkey was to pay no reparations. It was a fair
and responsible treaty that left Turkey better off than it had been before the
war, because all of the territories lost were really non-Turkish and had been
perpetual military and economic problems for the old empire.
In the United States, despite President Wilson's efforts, the Senate failed to
ratify the Versailles peace agreement. As a result the United States arranged
separate treaties with Germany, Austria, and Hungary.
Technology Goes to War
More major military technological innovations occurred during World War I than
in any other war in history. With the single important exception of the atomic
bomb, all of the important means of warfare of World War II were merely
improvements or modifications of weapons in use in 1918.
Aircraft and Air Warfare.
Although balloons had been used in earlier wars--such as the U.S. Civil War
and the Franco-Prussian War--serious directed and controlled flight above the
ground was less than a decade-and-a-half old when World War I broke out. At
first two varieties of aircraft were used: the rigid, lighter-than-air
dirigible balloon, or airship, and the heavier-than-air airplane. The best
known and most successful type of dirigible airship was the German Zeppelin.
The airplanes were greatly improved versions of the crude prototype first flown
(1903) in the United States by the Wright brothers.
The Germans used their Zeppelin dirigibles in a number of high-altitude raids
on Paris and London, but long before the end of the war the Germans abandoned
mass Zeppelin raids because rapidly improving Allied airplanes were able to
climb to the same altitude, and by firing tracer machine-gun bullets into the
hydrogen-filled gas bags of the dirigibles, turn them into aerial holocausts.
Zeppelins were used for long-distance transportation--one memorable nonstop
flight from Bulgaria took much-needed supplies to the tiny isolated German army
of General von Lettow-Vorbeck in East Africa--but by the end of the war the
Zeppelin had been eclipsed by the combat airplane.
The air war, for all its color, romance, and glory, had little influence on the
outcome of World War I. For the most part, aerial warfare consisted of a
number of individual combats, bearing little relation to the course of the
great ground battles. Bombing did not seriously damage any war industry, and
communications and supply lines on the ground were never disrupted to any
important extent. Basically, the air war of 1914-18 was a forerunner of things
to come and a proving ground for tactical and technical theory.
The Submarine.
The first efforts toward submarine warfare were pioneered by Americans in the
Revolutionary and Civil wars. Truly effective military submersibles, however,
made their appearance in World War I.
Before 1914 a few German naval thinkers had seen the potential of the submarine
as a means of offsetting Britain's worldwide dominance of the sea by harassing
and attempting to block Great Britain's vulnerable overseas lines of
communications.
It almost worked. The submarine campaign of 1917 very nearly forced Britain
out of the war, but the convoy system saved Britain, and ultimately the
submarines were no longer a serious threat.
The Tank.
As dramatic and important a new weapon as the airplane and the submarine, the
tank also demonstrated a potential that would come to be fully realized only in
subsequent warfare. By the end of World War I the tank was becoming a major
force in ground battles. It was slow, cumbersome, and vulnerable to hostile
artillery, but it could provide mobility and firepower to the attacker.
Poison Gas.
Poison gas was, largely because of its stealth and its asphyxiating fumes, the
most terror-inspiring of all weapons of the war. Countermeasures soon reduced
poison gas to little more than a means of harassment, but its deadly potential
led to an international agreement, the Geneva Protocol of 1925, banning poison
gas as a means of warfare.
The Machine Gun.
Like the airplane and the submarine, the machine gun was an American invention
that was improved in Europe. Early in World War I its value as a defensive
weapon was demonstrated. In combination with trenches, barbed wire, and
high-explosive artillery shells, the machine gun dominated the long stalemate
of the trenches between late 1914 and early 1918.
The Germans ultimately recognized the offensive potential of the machine gun
and pioneered the development of light machine guns to provide mobile firepower
within every squad.
Artillery and High explosives.
Smoothbore cannon had dominated the battlefields of Europe in Napoleonic times.
That dominance had suddenly and dramatically disappeared in the U.S. Civil
War, as the rifled musket became the most lethal weapon on the battlefield.
Three new developments, however, immediately before World War I restored
artillery to its place as the arbiter of battles. These were the accurate,
quick-firing field gun with sophisticated recoil mechanism and fast-locking
breachblock; high-explosive shells, which could sweep large areas with
destructive blasts and jagged splinters of steel; and perhaps most important,
new means of rapid communication by telephone, which permitted guns to be
placed behind ridge lines and forests and fired over these masks at targets the
gunners could not see, by following telephoned directions from easily concealed
observers at the front lines.
Tube artillery weapons also approached their full potential of lethality during
World War I. The French 75mm field gun, developed in 1897--the most effective
artillery piece of the war--remained a useful weapon when World War II broke
out in 1939; the German long-range gun that shelled Paris in early 1918 had one
of the longest firing ranges of any ballistic cannon.
Electronic Communications.
Field telephones not only revitalized artillery, but they provided
instantaneous communication between commanders and subordinate units. Although
the wires were vulnerable to hostile artillery fire and could be cut by daring
night patrols, efficient repair crews could keep the telephones operating under
almost any conditions.
A new means of electronic communication also appeared during World War I,
barely 10 years after its invention--the radio. Its invisible signals could
not be cut by artillery fire or wire cutters, although means of jamming
transmission were soon found--and just as soon evaded. Radio permitted much
more rapid installation of communications, at far longer ranges, than was
possible with field telephones. Few improvements have been made in field
telephones since World War I; improvements in radio transmission, however, have
been continuous, with the future potential of electronics in warfare still
unlimited.
Aftermath.
The increased technology of World War I had greatly expanded humankind's
potential for killing, but it was also hoped that this "war to end all wars"
had served as a lesson to nations and that future bloodshed could be avoided.
The League of Nations was established to settle international disputes
peaceably, and the Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) sought to outlaw war completely.
Many aspects of the peace settlement at Versailles, however, sowed the seeds of
future conflict. The harsh penalties levied against Germany created economic
and political instability and thus assisted the rise of Adolf Hitler. As the
outbreak of World War II 20 years later would prove, humanity had not yet found
the means to peace. Reviewed by ROBERT D. RAMSEY III
Bibliography
Bibliography:
GENERAL: Falls, Cyril B., The Great War (1959; repr. 1961); Ferro, Marc, The
Great War, 1914-1918, trans. by Nicole Stone (1973); Hayes, G. P., World War I:
A Compact History (1972); Liddell Hart, Basil H., The Real War, 1914-1918 (1930;
repr. 1966); Marshall, S. L. A., The American Heritage History of World War I
(1964).
MILITARY: Banks, Arthur, A Military Atlas of the First World War (1975);
Bennett, Geoffrey, Naval Battles of the First World War (1969); Cameron, James,
1914 (1959); Clark, Alan, Aces High: the War in the Air over the Western Front
(1973); Coffman, Edward M., The War to End All Wars: The American Military
Experience in World War I (1968); Cooke, David C., Sky Battle, 1914-1918: the
Story of Aviation in World War I (1970); Gray, Edwyn, The Killing Time: the
U-Boat War, 1914-1918 (1972); Hoehling, A. A., The Great War at Sea (1965);
Marder, Arthur J., From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow, 5 vols. (1961-70);
Robinson, D. H., The Zeppelin in Combat: A History of the German Naval Airship
Division (1962); Rutherford, Ward, The Russian Army in World War I (1975);
Stallings, Laurence, The Doughboys: the Story of the A.E.F., 1917-1918 (1963);
Stone, Norman, The Eastern Front, 1914-1918 (1975); Wren, Jack, The Great
Battles of World War I (1971).
DIPLOMATIC AND POLITICAL: Albertini, Luigi, The Origins of the War of 1914,
Eng. trans., 3 vols. (1952-1959); Bass, Herbert J., ed., America's Entry into
World War I: Submarines, Sentiment, or Security? (1964); Fay, Sidney B., The
Origins of the World War, 2 vols. (1966); Fischer, Fritz, Germany's Aims in the
First World War, Eng. trans. (1968); Lederer, Ivo John, ed., The Versailles
Settlement (1960); Mayer, Arno J., Politics and Diplomacy of Peacemaking,
1918-1919 (1967); Ritter, Gerhard, The Sword and the Scepter, Eng. trans., 4
vols. (1969-72); Silberstein, Gerard E., The Troubled Alliance: German-Austrian
Relations, 1914-1918 (1970); Turner, L. C. F., Origins of the First World War
(1970); Zeman, Z. A. B., The Gentleman Negotiators: A Diplomatic History of the
First World War (1971).
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Albert I, King of Germany
--------------------------------
Albert I, b. c.1250, king of the Germans (1298-1308), was the son of RUDOLF I,
the first HABSBURG to wear the German crown. In 1282 Rudolf granted Albert the
duchies of Austria and Styria. When Rudolf died in 1291, however, the German
princes, fearful of the growing Habsburg power, denied Albert the crown and
instead elected Adolf of Nassau as king. Discontent with Adolf soon enabled
Albert to win over the princes, who deposed Adolf in 1298 and elected Albert
king. The new king defeated the old at Gollheim (July 1298), where Adolf was
slain.
As king, Albert attempted to add Holland and Zealand to the Habsburg domains.
This unsuccessful effort, coupled with his alliance with the French king PHILIP
IV, provoked a revolt in the Rhineland that was backed by Pope BONIFACE VIII.
The revolt was finally crushed in 1302, and the following year Albert secured
papal confirmation of his election in return for an oath of obedience to the
pope.
Albert was assassinated on May 1, 1308, by accomplices of his nephew, John
Parracide of Swabia. He was succeeded by HENRY VII.
Ludendorff, Erich
--------------------------------
(loo-den-dorf, ay'-rik)
Erich Friedrich Wilhelm Ludendorff, b. Apr. 9, 1865, d. Dec. 20, 1937, was
a German general in WORLD WAR I. A career officer, he entered the elite
Prussian general staff before World War I and distinguished himself in the
opening days of the war by capturing the Belgian fortress-city of Liege. He
was thereupon made chief of staff to Gen. Paul von HINDENBURG, who had just
been called from retirement to come to the rescue of East Prussia, which the
Russians were overrunning. Stunning victories at TANNENBERG and the Masurian
Lakes in the late summer of 1914 saved the eastern front and made the two
generals national heroes.
In 1916, Emperor William II gave Hindenburg and Ludendorff, with joint
operational responsibility, virtually dictatorial control of the German supreme
command. They consolidated the German lines on the stalemated western front
and in 1917 commenced unrestricted submarine warfare, which resulted in the
entry of the United States into the war against Germany. When their last great
offensive failed in 1918, Hindenburg and Ludendorff insisted on an armistice.
It was finally granted on Nov. 11, 1918, but on terms that caused Ludendorff
to resign in protest.
In 1923, Ludendorff participated in Adolf HITLER's abortive MUNICH PUTSCH. He
was a National Socialist member of the Reichstag from 1924 to 1928 but played
no part in the Third Reich. DONALD S. DETWILER
Bibliography: Goodspeed, D. J., Ludendorff: Genius of World War I (1966);
Ludendorff, Erich, My War Memories, 1914-18, trans. anon., 2 vols. (1919).
Triple Entente
--------------------------------
The Triple Entente--an alignment of Britain, France, and Russia that led to
their alliance in WORLD WAR I--resulted from a series of bilateral diplomatic
agreements among them between 1894 and 1907. The Franco-Russian Alliance of 1894
stemmed from France's fear of isolation at the hands of Germany, which had
formed the TRIPLE ALLIANCE with Austria-Hungary and Italy in 1882. Russia wanted
support against Austria-Hungary, its rival in the Balkans. In 1904, Britain,
fearing growing German naval power, entered into the Entente Cordiale with
France. Thus, the two longtime antagonists terminated their colonial rivalry in
Africa. Britain also sought reconciliation with its inveterate enemy Russia,
which was amenable following a humiliating defeat in the Russo-Japanese War
(1904-05). The Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 settled their differences by
establishing separate spheres of influence in Persia. With this agreement, the
Triple Entente, an understanding rather than an alliance, was complete. In World
War I the Triple Entente faced the Triple Alliance minus Italy, which defected
to the Entente. ROBIN BUSS
Bibliography: Schmitt, Bernadotte E., Triple Alliance and Triple Entente (1934);
Triple Alliance
--------------------------------
The name Triple Alliance has been applied to several separate coalitions of
European powers. The Triple Alliance of 1668, formed by England, Sweden, and
the Dutch Republic, was aimed at halting encroachment into the Low Countries by
France's LOUIS XIV. The Triple Alliance of 1717, made up of France, Britain,
and the Dutch Republic, was directed against Spanish aspirations to Italian
territory. The Holy Roman emperor's adherence to the pact in 1718 made it a
Quadruple Alliance. The Triple Alliance of 1788, consisting of Britain, the
Dutch Republic, and Prussia, sought to check French influence in the
Netherlands and Russia's ambitions in the Middle East.
The most famous Triple Alliance was that of 1882, composed of Germany,
Austria-Hungary, and Italy. Its terms provided that if any of the parties were
attacked by two or more powers, its allies would come to its aid. Orchestrated
by German chancellor Otto von BISMARCK, it originated with the Dual Alliance of
1879, between Germany and Austria-Hungary, to which Italy was added in 1882.
Germany was motivated by a desire to isolate France; Austria-Hungary sought
support against Russia, its rival in the Balkans; and Italy, although fearful
of Austro-Hungarian expansion, wanted help in pursuing its North African
territorial ambitions. The alliance was renewed periodically.
Meanwhile, a series of bilateral agreements produced the TRIPLE ENTENTE (1907)
among Britain, France, and Russia. Europe was thus divided into the two camps
that fought each other in WORLD WAR I, except that Italy renounced the alliance
and joined the Entente powers in 1915.
Bibliography: Coolidge, Archibald Cary, Origins of the Triple Alliance (1917);
Langer, W. L., European Alliances and Alignments, 1871-1890, 2d ed. (1950; repr.
1964); Taylor, A. J. P., The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 1848-1918 (1954;
repr. 1971).
Triple Alliance, War of the
--------------------------------
In the War of the Triple Alliance (1865-70), also known as the Paraguayan War,
Paraguay confronted an alliance of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Hostilities
began when Uruguayan conservatives convinced the dictator of Paraguay,
Francisco Solano LOPEZ, that Brazil and Argentina were about to invade
Paraguay. Lopez declared war (January 1865) on Brazil and then on Argentina
when Argentine president Bartolome Mitre refused him permission to cross
Argentine territory. Uruguay, which had made a secret alliance with Brazil and
Argentina, declared war on May 1, 1865. Alliance armies defeated the vastly
outnumbered Paraguayan forces on land and sea and then blockaded all river
traffic, but the Paraguayans fought back, subduing the alliance at Curupayty
(September 1866). In 1868, Brazilian troops took river fortresses, and at the
beginning of 1869, alliance forces sacked the Paraguayan capital at Asuncion.
Lopez was shot (Mar. 1, 1870) by the allies, and the bloody war ended shortly
thereafter. Paraguay, whose population was severely reduced, took decades to
recover.
Bibliography: Kolinski, C. J., Independence or Death: The Story of the
Paraguayan War (1965); Phelps, G., Tragedy of Paraguay (1975).
Falkenhayn, Erich von
--------------------------------
{fahl'-ken-hyn, ay'-rik fuhn}^Erich Georg Anton Sebastian von Falkenhayn, b.
Sept. 11, 1861, d. Apr. 8, 1922, was chief of the German general staff
(1914-16) during World War I. Succeeding Helmuth Johannes Ludwig von MOLTKE,
Falkenhayn adopted the strategy of a war of attrition on the western front.
Believing that the war would be won there, he opposed the plans of Generals
Paul von HINDENBURG and Erich LUDENDORFF for an offensive against Russia but
was overruled by Emperor WILLIAM II. To break the deadlock in the west,
Falkenhayn planned a major assault on Verdun, which began on Feb. 21, 1916.
Six months later, as the unsuccessful and costly battle continued, he was
relieved of his command. He subsequently commanded forces in Romania,
Palestine, and Lithuania.
Bibliography: Horne, Alistair, The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916 (1962).
Lawrence, T. E.
--------------------------------
Colonel T. E. Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia, was a guerrilla leader
in the Arab Revolt of 1916-18, which expelled the Turks from western Arabia and
Syria during WORLD WAR I. Lawrence was an aloof, complex, versatile, somewhat
arrogant genius, and his exploits made him a popular, if enigmatic, hero in the
Western world.
Thomas Edward Lawrence was born at Tremadoc, Wales, on Aug. 15, 1888. His
father, Sir Thomas Robert Chapman, was an Anglo-Irish landholder who left his
wife for his family's governess. Thomas was the second of five sons produced
by this union. Adopting the name Lawrence, the family settled in Oxford, where
Thomas eventually entered the university. Specializing in archaeology,
architecture, and history, he began learning Arabic when he visited Syria and
Palestine. After graduating in 1910, he worked as an archaeologist in the
Middle East until early 1914.
After the outbreak of World War I, Lawrence returned to Egypt in December 1914
as an intelligence officer. In October 1916 he accompanied a British mission
to aid HUSAYN IBN ALI of Mecca, who had launched the Arab Revolt against
Ottoman Turkish rule. Shortly thereafter, he joined Husayn's son and army
commander, Faisal (later King FAISAL I of Iraq), as an advisor. Together,
Faisal and Lawrence proceeded to push back the Ottoman forces by raiding the
Damascus-Medina railroad and overrunning Ottoman strongpoints. In October 1918
the Arabs took Damascus, and Lawrence returned to Britain.
As a member of the British delegation to the Paris Peace Conference (1919),
Lawrence championed the cause of Arab independence, but without effect.
Following a research fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford, he became a
Middle Eastern advisor at the Colonial Office under Winston Churchill.
Although he succeeded in having Faisal appointed king of Iraq, Lawrence had
tired of fame and what he termed "the shallow grave of public duty." Resigning
from his post in 1922, he completed his famous account of his Arabian
experiences, the Seven Pillars of Wisdom (printed privately, 1926; published,
1935). Under the assumed names of Ross and, later, Shaw, he spent most of the
remainder of his life as an enlisted man in the Royal Air Force and Tank Corps.
He developed a passion for high-speed boats and motorcycles and died on May 19,
1935, after a motorcycle accident. Lawrence also wrote The Mint (1955), an
account of his life in the air force. ROBERT G. LANDEN
Bibliography: Aldington, Richard, Lawrence of Arabia: A Biographical Enquiry,
rev. ed. (1969); Garnett, David, ed., The Letters of T. E. Lawrence (1938);
Graves, Robert, Lawrence and the Arabian Adventure (1928); Knightley, Phillip,
and Colin, Simpson, The Secret Lives of Lawrence of Arabia (1969); Lawrence,
Arnold W., ed., T. E. Lawrence by his Friends (1937); Liddell Hart, Basil,
Colonel Lawrence, The Man Behind the Legend, rev. ed. (1964); Mack, John E.,
A Prince of Our Disorder: The Life of T. E. Lawrence (1975); Stewart,
Desmond, T. E. Lawrence (1977).
Marne, Battles of the
--------------------------------
(mahrn)
The Battles of the Marne, two important WORLD WAR I battles, derived their name
from the Marne River, a small tributary of the Seine, in France.
First Battle of the Marne (Sept. 5-10, 1914).
In the opening days of the war the Germans, sweeping through Belgium and
southward into France, hoped to encircle Paris and score a quick victory. The
First Battle of the Marne, although tactically inconclusive, was strategically
a great Allied victory--and one of the most decisive in history--thwarting the
German plan for an early end to the war.
After major victories in the Battles of the Frontiers (August 14-25), four
right-flank German armies thrust deep into northeastern France, driving before
them the French Third, Fourth, and Fifth armies and (on the Allied left) the
British Expeditionary Force (BEF). The French commander in chief, Gen. Joseph
JOFFRE, assembled a newly created Sixth Army in Paris and inserted another new
army--the Ninth--between the Fourth and the Fifth. Joffre's plan was that as
the German army on the extreme right flank--the First, commanded by Gen.
Alexander von Kluck--advanced east of Paris in pursuit of the retreating
British and French, it would be struck on its right flank by the Sixth Army on
September 6, and the retreating armies, bolstered by the Ninth, would turn in
counterattack. Joffre's plan was almost ruined on September 5 when right-flank
units of Kluck's army detected the French Sixth Army advance from Paris and
counterattacked. The aggressive Kluck then launched an attack toward Paris in
the Battle of the Ourcq. By turning west, however, Kluck created a gap to his
left between his army and the Second, under Gen. Karl von Bulow. Energetic
counterattacks by Gen. Louis Franchet d'Esperey's French Fifth Army in the
Battle of the Petit Morin drove back von Bulow's right flank, further widening
the gap. Into this gap slowly moved the BEF, commanded by Field Marshal Sir
John FRENCH. Meanwhile, further to the Allied right, inconclusive struggles
matched Gen. Ferdinand FOCH's Ninth French Army against the left of the German
Second and the right of the Third in the Battle of the St. Gond Marshes.
Still further on the Allied right, in the Battle of Vitry le Francois, the
French Fourth Army under Gen. Fernand de Langle de Cary battled to a
standstill against the German Fourth under Duke Albert of Wurttemberg.
Unable to maintain adequate communications with his fast-moving right-flank
armies, the German commander in chief, Gen. Helmuth Johannes Ludwig von
MOLTKE, sent a trusted staff officer, Lt. Col. Richard Hentsch, to assess the
situation, and to issue orders if necessary. When on September 9 Hentsch
discovered that von Bulow's Second Army had been pushed back by the French
Fifth, and he realized that the British were moving into the gap between the
German First and Second Armies, Hentsch ordered both armies to retreat to the
Aisne River. Kluck retreated to prevent his army from being encircled. Allied
losses in the first Battle of the Marne were about 250,000; German casualties
amounted to nearly 300,000.
Second Battle of the Marne (July 15-17, 1918).
The Second Battle of the Marne stopped the fifth and last of Gen. Erich
LUDENDORFF's great 1918 German offensives. Although the Germans were quickly
stopped along most of the Champagne-Marne front, the Seventh Army broke through
Allied lines west of Reims and drove about 16 km (10 mi) to the Marne River,
which was then crossed by 14 German divisions. The Allied lines soon
stiffened, however, largely because of the stubborn defense of the American 3d
Division and the arrival of other American units.
Within three days of the start of the offensive the Germans were halted, and on
July 18 the Allies began a counteroffensive that did not stop until the
Armistice on November 11. COL. T. N. DUPUY
Bibliography
Bibliography: Bloem, Walter, The Advance from Mons, trans. by G. C. Wynne
(1930; repr. 1967); Spears, Edward L., Liaison 1914, 2d ed. (1968); Tyng,
Sewell, The Campaign of the Marne (1935).
Tannenberg, Battles of
--------------------------------
(tahn'-en-bairk)
Two famous battles were fought in the vicinity of Tannenberg (now Stebark,
Poland; formerly in East Prussia) near the Baltic coast. The first, on July
15, 1410, sometimes called the Battle of Grunwald, was a Polish-Lithuanian
victory over the TEUTONIC KNIGHTS. The clash halted the Knights' advance
eastward along the Baltic and helped spur their decline.
The second battle, in late August 1914, was a German victory early in World War
I over Russian armies that had invaded East Prussia. German commander Paul von
HINDENBURG and Erich LUDENDORFF, his chief of staff, directed movements that
encircled Gen. A. V. Samsonov's Second Russian Army. After the Germans took
about 90,000 prisoners, Samsonov killed himself, and his remaining men were
forced to retreat. ROBIN BUSS
Ataturk, Kemal
--------------------------------
(ah'-tah-toork, kuh-mahl')
Kemal Ataturk, b. Mar. 12, 1881, d. Nov. 10, 1938, was the founder and
first president of the Turkish Republic (1923-38). Originally named Mustafa
Kemal, he joined the YOUNG TURKS as a young military officer and led the
extension of the movement to his native Salonika (Thessaloniki). He took an
active role in the military coup that overthrew the Ottoman sultan ABD AL-HAMID
II in 1909. Kemal was the only Ottoman commander to gain fame during World War
I. He defeated the British attempt (1915) to land at Gallipoli and later kept
the Turkish army of Syria together as it was pushed back into Anatolia by the
British, helped by the Arab Revolt.
Kemal vigorously opposed the Turkish government's decision to surrender (1918)
to the Allies and sign the Treaty of Sevres (1920), which gave up large areas
of Anatolia to foreign occupation or influence. Because of the government's
desire to stimulate resistance despite the foreign occupation of Istanbul,
however, he was assigned to supervise demobilization of the remaining troops in
Anatolia. He used this authority and his wartime reputation to coalesce rising
Turkish resistance forces, organizing a national army based at Ankara. This
army ultimately drove out the various Allied occupying forces, abolished the
sultanate, and replaced it with a republic with its capital at Ankara. As
reward, Kemal was given the name Ataturk ("Father of the Turks") by a grateful
nation.
As president of the republic, Ataturk instituted the forms of democracy,
including a unicameral parliament (the Grand National Assembly), a responsible
government, led mostly by Prime Minister Ismet INONU, and a modern bureaucracy.
But he allowed only one party--his own Republican People's party--to assure
rapid modernization and avoid destructive opposition by vested interests.
Turkish nationalism was emphasized as a means of rallying popular support for
the drastic, revolutionary measures needed to modernize the nation. A populist
program encouraged mass adult education and support for the republic through a
nationwide system of Peoples' Houses. Secularism was promoted, with the
disestablishment of Islam as the state religion, replacement of religious with
secular institutions of education and justice, emancipation of women, adoption
of modern Western clothing and Latin script, and enforcement of equality for
all citizens regardless of religion.
Initial attempts to develop the economy by encouraging private enterprise
foundered because of inefficient management as well as the economic crisis of
the 1930s; so Ataturk developed statism--state control of the basic means of
production through national banks. Friendly relations were maintained with
Turkey's former subject peoples, now independent states or mandate territories,
through a series of alliances. In the last years before his death, the rise of
Italian Fascism and German Nazism led Ataturk into close relations with Britain
and France. STANFORD J. SHAW
Bibliography: Kinross, Lord, Ataturk: A Biography of Mustafa Kemal, Father of
Modern Turkey (1965); Webster, D. E., The Turkey of Ataturk: Social Process
in the Turkish Reformation (1939).
Ferdinand I, Emperor of Austria
--------------------------------
Ferdinand I, b. Apr. 19, 1793, d. June 29, 1875, succeeded his father,
Francis I (earlier Holy Roman Emperor FRANCIS II), as emperor of Austria in
1835. Subject to fits of insanity, he was an ineffectual ruler, and the empire
was governed by a council under Klemens von METTERNICH. Unable to deal with
the REVOLUTIONS OF 1848, Ferdinand abdicated in favor of his nephew FRANCIS
JOSEPH in December of that year. ROBIN BUSS
Joffre, Joseph Jacques Cesaire
--------------------------------
(zhawf, zhoh-zef' zhahk say-zair')
Joseph Jacques Cesaire Joffre, b. Jan. 12, 1852, d. Jan. 3, 1931, was
commander in chief of the French Army at the outbreak of World War I. He had
received that post in 1911, as one of a new group of republican officers
elevated in response to the DREYFUS AFFAIR.
When war broke out in August 1914, Joffre's plan for a French offensive into
Alsace-Lorraine was frustrated by the speed of the German advance through
Belgium into northeastern France. An orderly retreat enabled the Allies to
regroup and counterattack, however, in the First Battle of the MARNE (Sept.
5-10, 1914). For this victory, Joffre was hailed as the savior of France.
Joffre's failure to provide further victories led to increasing criticism,
however. After the costly battles of Verdun and the Somme in 1916 (see SOMME,
BATTLE OF; VERDUN, BATTLE OF), Joffre was transferred to an advisory position,
which he left on Dec. 26, 1916. He was made a marshal of France on the same
day. Joffre's Memoirs was published in translation in 1932. P. M. EWY
Bibliography: Dawbarn, Charles, Joffre and His Army (1916); Joffre, Joseph, My
March to Timbuktu (1915); King, Jere C., Generals and Politicians: Conflict
Between France's High Command, Parliament and Government, 1914-1918 (1951).
Pershing, John J.
--------------------------------
(pur'-shing)
John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing, b. Laclede, Mo., Sept. 13, 1860, d. July
15, 1948, commanded the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) in World War I. He
graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1886 and then served in the
cavalry in the West. He received a law degree from the University of Nebraska
and joined (1896) the staff at army headquarters in Washington, D.C. He
returned to West Point in 1897 as a member of the tactical staff.
During the Spanish-American War, Pershing distinguished himself at Kettle and
San Juan hills, later serving as head of the War Department's new Division of
Customs and Insular Affairs. He went (1899) to the Philippines, where he led a
series of important expeditions among the hostile Moros. In 1905 he became
military attache in Tokyo and then went to Manchuria as an observer of the
Russo-Japanese War.
In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt elevated Pershing in rank from captain to
brigadier general. Pershing took command of Fort McKinley near Manila and then
became (1909) governor of Moro province in the southern Philippines, thoroughly
defeating the Moros by 1913. Given command of the 8th Brigade in 1914, he led
(1916-17) the difficult punitive expedition against Pancho VILLA in Mexico.
Experience and seniority brought him command of the AEF in 1917.
Pershing's tasks in France during World War I were more managerial than
warlike; he had to organize, train, and supply an inexperienced force that
eventually numbered more than 2 million. Constantly rebuffing British and
French efforts to siphon his men off into their depleted ranks, Pershing found
himself waging two wars--against the Germans and against the Allies. AEF
successes in the war were largely credited to Pershing, and he emerged from the
war as its most celebrated American hero. Congress created for him a new rank,
general of the armies. His memoirs, My Experiences in the World War (2 vols.,
1931), won him the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for history. FRANK E. VANDIVER
Bibliography: Braddy, Haldeen, Pershing's Mission in Mexico (1966); Goldhurst,
Richard, Pipe Clay and Drill: John J. Pershing--The Classic American Soldier
(1976); Palmer, Frederick, John J. Pershing, General of the Armies, A
Biography (1948); Vandiver, Frank E., Black Jack: Life and Times of John J.
Pershing, 2 vols. (1977).
Verdun, Battle of
--------------------------------
The WORLD WAR I Battle of Verdun (Feb. 21-Nov. 26, 1916), an unsuccessful
German effort to take the offensive in the west, was one of the longest and
bloodiest encounters of the war. Total casualties have been estimated at about
542,000 French and about 434,000 Germans.
The German assault, directed by Gen. Erich von FALKENHAYN, began with a
furious bombardment followed by an attack on the region surrounding Verdun,
which lay in the middle of an Allied salient jutting into the German zone in
northeastern France. Initially successful, the Germans captured Fort Douamont
(February 25). Gen. Joseph JOFFRE, the French commander in chief, was
determined to halt further retreat for reasons of morale as well as strategy.
On February 25 he assigned Gen. Henri Philippe PETAIN to head the Verdun
defense. Petain, fighting under the famous motto Ils ne passeront pas! ("They
shall not pass!"), reorganized his command and brought up reinforcements while
the weary German troops paused.
On March 6 the Germans attacked the western face of the salient; they were
halted after initial advances, but the loss of life on both sides was enormous.
A third offensive, from both east and west, began on April 9, but again the
Germans were stopped.
German assaults continued into early July, and Petain, who had been promoted
and replaced as local commander by Gen. Robert NIVELLE, recommended
withdrawal. During the summer, however, the Anglo-French Somme offensive (see
SOMME, BATTLES OF THE) and the Russian Brusilov offensive drew off German
manpower, and in the late summer the Germans adopted a defensive posture on the
western front. The French soon took the offensive. Under Gen. Charles Mangin
they recaptured Fort Douamont (October 24) and Fort Vaux (November 2). By the
time the fighting at Verdun had ended in mid-December, the French had advanced
almost to their February lines. COL. T. N. DUPUY
Bibliography: Blend, Georges, Verdun, trans. by Frances Frenaye (1964);
Hermanns, William, The Holocaust: From a Survivor of Verdun (1972); Horne,
Alistair, Death of a Generation: From Neuve Chapelle to Verdun and the Somme
(1970) and The Price of Glory: Verdun, 1916 (1962).
Verdun, Treaty of
--------------------------------
The Treaty of Verdun (Aug. 10, 843) divided Charlemagne's Frankish Empire
among the three sons of LOUIS I (Louis the Pious). The divisions coincided
roughly with later national boundaries in Europe: CHARLES II (Charles the
Bald) received lands corresponding to most of modern France; LOUIS THE GERMAN
gained the lands east of the Rhine River (Germany); and LOTHAIR I, the eldest,
took the imperial title and the Lombard kingdom (Italy) as well as
heterogeneous territories to the north. ROBIN BUSS
Nivelle, Robert Georges
--------------------------------
(nee-vel')
Robert Georges Nivelle, b. Oct. 15, 1856, d. Mar. 23, 1924, was commander
in chief (December 1916-May 1917) of the French Army in World War I. From May
to December 1916 he successfully defended Verdun, but his April 1917 offensive,
in which he commanded the combined French and British armies, failed. Mutinies
broke out in the French army, and on May 15, Nivelle was replaced by Gen.
Philippe PETAIN. In December he was transferred to North Africa.
Bibliography: Spears, Edward L., Prelude to Victory (1939).
Petain, Henri Philippe
--------------------------------
(pay-tan')
Henri Philippe Petain, b. Apr. 24, 1856, d. July 23, 1951, a World War I
French military hero, headed the VICHY GOVERNMENT in France during World War
II. A student and later a teacher at the Ecole de Guerre, Petain attained the
rank of general after the outbreak of World War I. He directed various
operations during the war, becoming a hero after the Battle of Verdun (1916;
see VERDUN, BATTLE OF), in which he halted the advance of German troops despite
massive French losses. In 1917 he became commander in chief of armies in the
field, and a year later he was made marshal of France.
Between the two world wars Petain held high military and government posts.
After France's defeat (1940) by the Germans, the French government fled to
Bordeaux, and Petain became premier. He concluded an armistice with Germany
and became chief-of-state in the fascist-oriented Vichy Government of
unoccupied France, with full powers granted by the French parliament. Although
at first he was nominally independent, he found it increasingly difficult to
resist German demands. In December 1940, Petain dismissed his foreign minister
Pierre LAVAL, a collaborator who had helped to bring him to power, but in 1942
he recalled Laval at German insistence.
After the Allied victory (1945), the French brought Petain to trial. He was
sentenced to death, but the provisional president Charles de Gaulle commuted
the sentence to life imprisonment. P. M. EWY
Bibliography: Griffiths, Richard M., Petain: A Biography of Marshal Philippe
Petain of Vichy (1972); Huddleston, Sisley, France: The Tragic Years,
1939-1947 (1965); Tournoux, Jean-Raymond, Sons of France: Petain and de
Gaulle, trans. by Oliver Coburn (1966).
Gallipoli campaign
--------------------------------
(guh-lip'-uh-lee)
The Gallipoli campaign of 1915 was an Allied attempt to knock Ottoman Turkey
out of WORLD WAR I and reopen a supply route to Russia. The initial plan,
proposed by British First Lord of the Admiralty Winston CHURCHILL, called for
an Allied fleet--mostly British--to force the Dardanelles Strait and then to
steam to Constantinople to dictate peace terms.
On Feb. 19, 1915, a Franco-British fleet under British Vice Admiral Sackville
Carden began systematic reduction of the fortifications lining the Dardanelles.
The principal fortifications were attacked on March 18. Sixteen
battleships--including the powerful Queen Elizabeth--provided the principal
firepower. Just as the bombardment had silenced the Turkish batteries,
however, three battleships were sunk in an undetected minefield, and three
others were disabled. The Turks had nearly expended their ammunition, many of
their batteries had been destroyed, and their fire-control communications were
out of action. The Allies, however, did not know this. Rear Admiral John de
Robeck, who had taken command when Carden fell ill, called off the attack and
withdrew his ships from the strait.
In the meantime, the Allies had hastily assembled a force of 78,000 men and
dispatched it from England and Egypt to Gallipoli. As his flotilla gathered
near the peninsula, however, the commanding general, Ian Hamilton, discovered
that guns and ammunition had been loaded on separate ships. The transports had
to steam to Egypt to be properly loaded for combat. The Turks, now alerted to
the Allied plan, used the resulting month's delay to improve their defenses.
Some 60,000 Turkish troops, under the German general Otto Liman von Sanders,
awaited the Allies.
On April 25, British and ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) troops
landed at several points near the tip of the peninsula. Simultaneously, on the
Asiatic side of the strait, the one French division made a diversionary
landing, and off Bulair, on the neck of the peninsula, a naval force attempted
to distract the Turks.
The Allied troops were soon pinned down in several unconnected beachheads,
stopped by a combination of Turkish defenses and British mismanagement. Losses
were high. The Turks ringed the tiny beachheads with entrenchments, and the
British and ANZAC troops soon found themselves involved in trench warfare.
After three months of bitter fighting, Hamilton attempted a second assault--on
the western side of the peninsula. This assault lacked adequate naval gunfire
support; it failed to take any of its major objectives and resulted in heavy
casualties. Hamilton was relieved on October 15, and by December 10 his
replacement, Gen. Charles Monro, had evacuated the bulk of the troops and
supplies. The remaining 35,000 men were withdrawn without the Turks realizing
it on Jan. 8-9, 1916. By contrast with the operation as a whole, the
withdrawal was a masterpiece of planning and organization, with no loss of
life. Estimates of Allied casualties for the entire campaign are about
252,000, with the Turks suffering almost as many casualties--an estimated
251,000. COL. T. N. DUPUY
Bibliography: Bush, Eric W., Gallipoli (1975); Hamilton, Sir Ian, Gallipoli
Diary (1920); James, R. R., Gallipoli (1965); Moorehouse, Alan, Gallipoli
(1956); Liman von Sanders, Otto, My Five Years in Turkey (1927).
French, John, 1st Earl of Ypres
--------------------------------
John French, b. Sept. 28, 1852, d. May 22, 1925, was a British field marshal
who commanded the British forces in Belgium and France in the early stages of
World War I. He served in the South African War (1899-1902) and was chief of
the imperial general staff (1912-14). Given command of the British
Expeditionary Force (BEF) in August 1914, he failed to coordinate with the
French armies, and the BEF suffered huge casualties at the first and second
battles of Ypres and at Loos. In December 1915 he was replaced by Gen.
Douglas Haig.
Gallieni, Joseph Simon
--------------------------------
{gahl-lee-ay'-nee} Joseph Simon Gallieni, b. Apr. 24, 1849, d. May 27, 1916,
was a French general who worked to integrate France's colonial conquests into
the FRENCH COLONIAL EMPIRE. He served in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) and
later in the 1870s was sent to Africa. In the course of his colonial military
and administrative career he served in the Upper Niger area, Martinique, French
Sudan, Indochina, and Madagascar. In Madagascar he created a system of
compulsory labor as part of his policy to have the natives raise their own
standard of living. In 1911, Gallieni declined the position of supreme
commander of the French army because of ill health and age. Nonetheless, he
was appointed military governor of Paris in August 1914 and raised troops to
drive back the Germans in the First Battle of the Marne. He served as minister
of war from 1915 to 1916 and was made a marshal of France posthumously.
Gallieni wrote several works on his colonial campaigns and policies. P. M.
EWY
Bibliography: Matthew, V. L., "Joseph Simon Gallieni," in African Proconsuls,
ed. by L. H. Gann and Peter Duignan (1978).
William II, Emperor of Germany
--------------------------------
King of Prussia and the third German emperor, William II, b. Jan. 27, 1859,
d. June 4, 1941, led Germany into WORLD WAR I. From birth he had an
underdeveloped left arm and hand, which may have contributed to his unstable
and restless personality. William developed a strong antagonism toward
England, the country of his strong-willed mother, Victoria, the daughter of the
British queen Victoria. His father, the less dominant parent, did not achieve
the throne--as FREDERICK III--until March 1888, when he was already dying.
William opposed the relatively liberal principles of his parents, identifying
instead with the conservative policies of his grandfather, William I, although
he lacked the older man's ability to judge character. Despite his intelligence
and good intentions, William never learned to concentrate, and his military
training had prepared him poorly when he succeeded his father on June 15, 1888.
William's youth, inexperience, and desire to rule on his own brought a decisive
clash with Chancellor Otto von BISMARCK, who opposed further extension of
social welfare measures--temporarily desired by William to counteract August
Bebel's Social Democrats.
With Bismarck's dismissal in 1890, William gradually extended his own
authority. He relied heavily on irresponsible military advisors, rather than
on civilian statesmen. Volatile, unpredictable, and never applying himself
methodically, he was unable to coordinate government policy. His
chancellors--Georg Leo, Graf von CAPRIVI; Chlodwig, Furst zu
Hohenlohe-Schillingfurst; Bernhard, Furst von BULOW; and Theobald von
BETHMANN-HOLLWEG--made half-hearted suggestions that concessions should be made
to effect the gradual transformation of a monarchy dominated by landowners and
industrialists into a state more responsive to the majority of the people.
Such suggestions were thwarted, however, by William's insistence upon
absolutism and his opposition to parliamentary control. Great material
prosperity masked a failure to achieve meaningful political reform. In his
foreign policy William aimed to enhance German prestige, expressing a strident
nationalism in warlike speeches that alarmed all Europe and backing colonial
expansion and Admiral Alfred von TIRPITZ's construction of a large battle
fleet. William abandoned Bismarck's ties with Russia in 1890 and, despite
later attempts at alliance, alienated his cousin Russian emperor NICHOLAS II by
his tactlessness. Britain--offended by William's encouragement of the Boers in
his telegram (1896) to South African president Paul KRUGER--was disturbed by
German imperialism and commercial competition, and threatened by the German
navy. William's attempts to frighten France into alliance, notably in the
first of the MOROCCAN CRISES (1905-06), only strengthened French ties with
Britain and Russia. He encouraged Austrio-Hungarian expansion in the Balkans,
going far beyond the terms of the alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary.
William wavered between peace and war in July 1914; it was his tragedy to bear
heavy responsibility for the outbreak of World War I through his
sword-rattling, his backing of Austria, his fleet increases, and his approval
of the war plan of Alfred, Graf von SCHLIEFFEN.
By removing himself to army headquarters during the war (1914-18), William lost
contact with the German people and identified the monarchy with the war's
outcome. He contributed to defeat by supporting far-reaching annexationist
plans and unrestricted submarine warfare, which brought the intervention of the
United States, and by opposing peace proposals and domestic reform. He lost
authority to the party leaders in the Reichstag and to the dictatorship
(1916-18) of Paul von HINDENBURG and Erich LUDENDORFF. With the armistice of
November 1918, William fled to the Netherlands, where he abdicated on Nov. 28,
1918; he died in exile there. His memoirs were published in English
translation in 1922. FREDERIC B. M. HOLLYDAY
Bibliography: Balfour, Michael, The Kaiser and His Times, 2d ed. (1972);
Cowles, Virginia, The Kaiser (1963); Fischer, Fritz, The War of Illusions:
German Policies from 1911 to 1914, trans. by Marian Jackson (1975); Kurtz,
Harold, The Second Reich: Kaiser Wilhelm II and His Germany (1970); Ludwig,
Emil, William Hohenzollern: The Last of the Kaisers, trans. by Ethel Mayne
(1927; repr. 1970); Rohl, J. C. G., Germany without Bismarck: The Crisis of
Government in the Second Reich, 1890-1900 (1967).
Churchill, Sir Winston
--------------------------------
(statesman)
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill held most of the high offices of state in
Great Britain, was a member of Parliament for more than 60 years, and served
twice as prime minister. As Britain's leader through most of WORLD WAR II, he
personified resistance to tyranny.
Early Life.
Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace on Nov. 30, 1874. His father,
Lord Randolph Churchill, was the third son of the 7th duke of Marlborough, and
Winston was thus directly descended from the 1st duke of MARLBOROUGH, of whom
he was to write a monumental biography. His mother was Jennie Jerome, an
American. Churchill's childhood was unhappy. He loathed most of his time at
school (Harrow) and obstinately refused to learn any Greek beyond the alphabet.
He loved to read history and poetry, however, and was fascinated by soldiers
and battles. From childhood he had an extraordinary memory.
Declining the suggestion that he might go to a university, Churchill enrolled
in the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. He graduated in 1894 and was
commissioned in the 4th Hussars. After service in Cuba and India, he took part
in the Battle of Omdurman (1898) in the Sudan and published an account of it in
The River War (2 vols., 1899). He had already written for British newspapers
while on military duty. Sent to cover the SOUTH AFRICAN WAR for the Morning
Post, he was captured by the Boers in 1899. His daring escape made him an
overnight celebrity.
Liberal Statesman.
Churchill was already set in the ambition to become a politician. He was
elected to Parliament as a Conservative in 1900 and, although he found speaking
an ordeal, quickly made his mark. His political sympathies began to change,
however, and he abandoned the Conservative party for the Liberals in 1904.
When the Liberals came to power in 1905, Churchill entered the government as
under secretary of state for the colonies. In 1908, the year of his marriage
to Clementine Hosier, he became a member of the cabinet as president of the
Board of Trade; in 1910 he was appointed home secretary and in the following
year first lord of the Admiralty. Even in Herbert ASQUITH's cabinet of high
ability, Churchill stood out as a coming man. Working closely with Admiral
Lord FISHER OF KILVERSTONE, who was largely responsible for the modernization
of the Royal Navy, Churchill completed British naval preparations for war.
After World War I began, he attempted to exploit the navy's mobility in forcing
(1915) the Dardanelles (see GALLIPOLLI CAMPAIGN). This audacious assault
failed, and when the Conservatives, many of whom now detested him, joined the
government in 1915, Churchill was moved from the Admiralty. After a period of
active military service in France, he became (1917) minister of munitions under
David LLOYD GEORGE. He subsequently served as secretary of state for war and
air (1918-21) and for the colonies (1921-22) and helped negotiate the treaty
(1921) that created the Irish Free State. But he lost both his office and his
seat in Parliament when Lloyd George's coalition government fell in 1922.
Conservative Chancellor and Critic.
Over the next year or two, Churchill gradually moved back into alliance with
the Conservatives. He used to remark with a mischievous twinkle, "Any fool can
rat, but I flatter myself that it takes a certain ingenuity to re-rat."
Returned to Parliament in 1924, he was offered the post of chancellor of the
exchequer in Stanley BALDWIN's Conservative government (1924-29). The measure
with which he is chiefly identified at the exchequer was the return to the gold
standard, giving the pound a fixed value against other currencies, in 1925.
Churchill took this step with many misgivings, and it proved a mistake,
worsening the already poor economic situation. During the General Strike of
1926, Churchill was vehement in his condemnation of the strikers. Afterward he
made efforts to heal the breach with labor, but he was never entirely
successful.
Between 1929 and 1939 Churchill did not hold office. He disapproved violently
of Baldwin's Indian policy, which pointed toward eventual self-government. At
the same time he warned against the ambitions of Nazi Germany and urged that
Britain should match Germany in air power. As World War II drew nearer, his
warnings were seen to be justified. When general war broke out in September
1939, Churchill was offered his old post of first lord of the Admiralty by
Prime Minister Neville CHAMBERLAIN. Following the abortive Allied attempt to
dislodge the Germans from Norway, for which Churchill bore considerable
responsibility, Chamberlain determined to resign. Churchill replaced him as
prime minister as Germany invaded the Low Countries on May 10, 1940.
War Leader.
The prime minister was largely responsible for many aspects of war policy. He
established personal relations of the highest value with U.S. President
Franklin D. ROOSEVELT, who began to supply arms to Britain immediately after
the British army lost most of its equipment at DUNKERQUE (June 1940). In the
late summer of 1940, as the Battle of Britain (see BRITAIN, BATTLE OF) raged
overhead and no one knew whether Britain would be invaded, Churchill daringly
diverted an armored division--one of only two in Britain--to the Middle East.
Although no one had been a more convinced opponent of the USSR, he decided
immediately to give help to the USSR when it was invaded by Germany in the
summer of 1941. The entry of the United States into the war at the end of the
same year gave the Allies the advantage in greater resources.
The new shape of the alliance also meant that Britain's influence was bound to
diminish as the USSR and the United States developed their full power.
Churchill, however, was determined that the slaughter that he had seen in World
War I should not be repeated. Accordingly, he refused to attempt an invasion
of mainland Europe until North Africa and the Mediterranean had been cleared of
the enemy. The Allied invasion of Sicily and Italy, "the soft underbelly of
the Axis," finally began in the summer of 1943, to be followed a year later by
the NORMANDY INVASION.
By this time, however, Churchill carried less weight at conferences and in the
general formation of war strategy. For example, in the final stages of the war
he favored a fast Western Allied drive on Berlin to forestall Soviet occupation
but was overruled by the Allied commander in chief Dwight EISENHOWER, who
wanted to crush the last German resistance in the West. It is not certain,
however, that further penetration by British and American forces into Europe
would have held the Soviets at bay. Moreover, Churchill did not then foresee
the full Soviet threat. At the time of the YALTA CONFERENCE (February 1945),
when substantial concessions were made to the USSR, Churchill spoke in terms of
high confidence about Soviet intentions. He soon came to a different opinion,
and in 1946, in a speech delivered in Fulton, Mo., he spoke of the "iron
curtain" that had descended across Europe.
Although Churchill wished to keep the wartime coalition government in being, a
general election was called in Britain in July 1945. Then, after the
unconditional surrender of Germany and just before the final collapse of Japan,
the British electorate voted the Conservatives out. When the first results
were received, showing a substantial swing to the Labour party, Churchill was
taking a bath. He remarked: "There may well be a landslide and they have a
perfect right to kick us out. That is democracy. That is what we have been
fighting for. Hand me my towel."
Later Years.
Labour accordingly took office with a large majority. Churchill felt deeply
this rejection by the electorate and determined to reverse it. By the end of
1951 he was back in power, with a small majority. Although he never quite
matched in this last phase as prime minister the performance of his wartime
days, his energy in the first year or two remained astonishing. Churchill gave
authority to the administration; his very presence as prime minister helped to
still criticism.
In July 1953, soon after his knighthood and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth
II, he suffered a stroke. Sir Anthony EDEN, whom Churchill had long wanted as
his successor, was himself ill at the time, and part of Churchill's motive in
remaining in office was doubtless to ensure that Eden was not cheated of his
succession. Churchill finally left office in April 1955.
Sir Winston's last ten years, marked by an increasing feebleness in health,
were occupied by occasional travel, a little painting, and the publication of
his History of the English Speaking Peoples (4 vols., 1956-58). This was the
last of his many notable writings, which included Lord Randolph Churchill
(1906), The World Crisis (4 vols., 1923-29), My Early Life (1930), Marlborough
(4 vols., 1933-38), and The Second World War (6 vols., 1948-54). Churchill
occupied to the end a special place in the affections of the British people,
symbolizing a magnificent national performance in heroic days. He died on Jan.
24, 1965, 70 years to the day after his father, at the age of 90. DAVID DILKS
Bibliography
Bibliography: American Heritage, Churchill: The Life Triumphant (1965);
Bonham-Carter, Lady Violet, Winston Churchill: An Intimate Biography (1965);
Churchill, Randolph S., and Gilbert, Martin, Winston S. Churchill, 5 vols.
(1966-76, incomplete); Feis, Herbert, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin: The War
They Waged and the Peace They Sought, rev. ed. (1966); James, Robert Rhodes,
Churchill: A Study in Failure, 1900-1939 (1970); Lash, Joseph, Roosevelt and
Churchill, 1939-1941 (1976); Pelling, Henry, Churchill (1974); Roskill,
Stephen, Churchill and the Admirals (1978); Rowse, A. L., The Churchills
(1966); Taylor, A. J. P., et al., eds., Churchill Revised: A Critical
Assessment (1969); Thompson, R. W., Generalissimo Churchill (1974); Thomson,
Malcolm, Churchill: His Life and Times, rev. ed. (1965).
Bismarck, Otto von
--------------------------------
{biz'-mahrk} The Prussian statesman Otto von Bismarck was the architect of
German unification and the arbiter of European power politics in the second half
of the 19th century.
EARLY LIFE
Bismarck was born at Schonhausen in Brandenburg on Apr. 1, 1815. His father
came of the old Prussian nobility, his mother from the upper bourgeoisie.
Distaste for the study of law and bureaucracy caused Bismarck to turn to
management of the family estates in Brandenburg. There he was converted to the
fundamentalist religious views of the Lutheran pietists. During the
REVOLUTIONS OF 1848, Bismarck gained political notice in Prussia as an extreme
reactionary, who supported suppression of revolt and continued Austrian
leadership in Germany. As Prussian minister to the GERMAN CONFEDERATION in
Frankfurt (1851-59), he adopted the independent line of realpolitik, backing a
policy based on Prussian interests, without regard for ideology, or
humanitarianism. He now supported the ZOLLVEREIN against Austria, favored
cooperation with NAPOLEON III of France, and opposed intervention in the
internal affairs of other states in the interest of legitimate sovereigns.
After briefly representing Prussia at St. Petersburg and Paris he was summoned
home to become (Sept. 22, 1862) minister president and foreign minister for
the Prussian king (later German emperor) WILLIAM I.
UNIFICATION
After proclaiming the policy of "iron and blood," Bismarck defied the Prussian
Chamber of Deputies, which was locked in a constitutional conflict with the
king, by implementing army reforms, administering without an approved budget,
and following an independent foreign policy. His diplomacy brought victorious
wars with Denmark (over SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN, 1864) and Austria (the SEVEN WEEKS'
WAR of 1866), as a result of which the chamber passed an indemnity bill (in
effect forgiving Bismarck's constitutional transgressions) and approved past
budgets. With Austria excluded by force from Germany the North German
Confederation was formed (July 14, 1867) under Prussian control. Under the
constitution of the new state the Prussian king retained control of the army
and policy-making, and the chancellor (Bismarck) was responsible only to him.
The Bundesrat (federal council) represented the interests of the separate
states, while in the parliament, or REICHSTAG, universal adult male suffrage
(which Bismarck had discussed with the socialist Ferdinand LASSALLE) was
instituted. In 1870, Bismarck's backing of a HOHENZOLLERN prince as candidate
for the Spanish throne, coupled with his inflammatory editing of the Ems
Dispatch (a message from William I to Napoleon III), had the desired effect of
provoking France into the FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR. France was rapidly defeated,
the German Empire (including the southern German states) was proclaimed at
Versailles on Jan. 18, 1871, and Bismarck was named prince and German
chancellor. The 1867 constitution was retained, and Bismarck also maintained
civilian control over the army with William. He was thus able to block
preventive war in the following years.
Imperial Chancellor.
Bismarck's foreign policy was now directed at maintaining and strengthening the
power of the German Empire, which he saw as satiated territorially. Its
security was ensured by marshaling its political and diplomatic resources in
Europe and by isolating France diplomatically. When the Three Emperors' League
(1873) with Russia and Austria disintegrated as a result of rivalry in the
Balkans, Bismarck sought to mediate as an "honest broker" at the Congress of
Berlin (1878; see BERLIN, CONGRESS OF). Increasing Russian hostility
brought--against William's wishes--the Dual Alliance with Austria (1879), which
became the TRIPLE ALLIANCE when Italy joined it in 1882. Bismarck, however,
sought to tie Russia to this alliance by reviving the Three Emperors' League
(1881-87) and through the Reinsurance Treaty (1887-90). He also gained British
cooperation.
Domestically in alliance with the National Liberals from 1867 to 1877, Bismarck
extended the powers of the imperial government, adopted laissez-faire economic
policies, and fought the political power of the Roman Catholic church in the
KULTURKAMPF. The growth of the Catholic Center party and the challenges
created by an economic depression (1873-96) brought a break with the liberals
and the abandonment of laissez-faire. With Conservative, intermittent Center,
and some remnants of National Liberal support, he embarked upon a policy of
protective tariffs, suppression of the Social Democrats under August BEBEL, and
pioneering social welfare measures, including insurance against illness,
accident, and old age. Increasing socialist strength and the desire of the new
emperor, WILLIAM II, to conciliate his people brought Bismarck's dismissal on
Mar. 18, 1890. Until his death on July 30, 1898, he devoted his time to
attacking his successors and dictating his savage reminiscences (1898; trans.
by A. J. Butler as Bismarck, the Man and the Statesman, 1898).
Bismarck unified Germany and maintained European peace for a generation, but he
also perpetuated the obsolete dominance of the Prussian landed aristocracy
(JUNKERS) and upper middle class, as well as a tradition of intolerance of
partisan and personal dissent. Under William II, Bismarck's alliance system
(with crucial modifications) contributed to World War I and the collapse of the
German Empire. FREDERIC B. M. HOLLYDAY
Bibliography
Bibliography: Eyck, Erich, Bismarck and the German Empire, 3d ed. (1968);
Hollyday, Frederic B. M., Bismarck (1970); Palmer, Alan, Bismarck (1976);
Pflanze, Otto, Bismarck and the Development of Germany (1963); Stern, Fritz,
Gold and Iron: Bismarck, Bleichroder and the Building of the German Empire
(1977).
Fisher of Kilverstone, John Arbuthnot Fisher, 1st Baron
--------------------------------
The British admiral Lord Fisher, b. Jan. 25, 1841, d. July 10, 1920, entered
the Royal Navy in 1854 and became admiral of the fleet in 1905. As first sea
lord in the Admiralty (1904-10), Fisher improved the military preparedness of
the navy, introducing, among other things, a new class of battleship, the
DREADNOUGHT (1906) and converting the fleet from coal to oil, a step that led
the British to acquire oil interests in the Middle East. Fisher's policies
enabled the Royal Navy to match the German naval buildup under Admiral von
TIRPITZ and to neutralize the German fleet during World War I. Brought back as
first sea lord under Winston CHURCHILL in 1914, Fisher opposed the disastrous
GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN and resigned in May 1915.
Bibliography: Hough, Richard, Admiral of the Fleet: The Life of John Fisher
(1970); Jameson, William, The Fleet that Jack Built (1962); Mackay, R. F.,
Fisher of Kilverstone (1973); Marder, A. J., From the Dreadnought to Scapa
Flow, 5 vols. (1961-70).
Dreadnought
--------------------------------
H.M.S. Dreadnought, launched in 1906, was the first BATTLESHIP in which
secondary armament was entirely dispensed with. The British ship's main
battery consisted of ten 300-mm (12-in) guns in five armored turrets. It was
also the first battleship to be powered by steam turbines. With a maximum
speed of 21 knots, Dreadnought was a major advance in the performance of
warships. Although the idea of the "all big gun" battleship did not originate
with Dreadnought, the initial novelty of its speed, size, and firepower, as
well as the remarkable accomplishment of its being constructed in only 366
days, caused its name to be given to this class of ship. JOHN F. GUILMARTIN
Bibliography: Hough, Richard, Dreadnought: A History of the Modern
Battleship, 3d ed. (1974).
Tirpitz, Alfred von
--------------------------------
(tir'-pits)
Alfred von Tirpitz, b. Mar. 19, 1849, d. Mar. 6, 1930, created the German
High Seas Fleet and was one of the most powerful figures in the imperial
government of WILLIAM II. Entering the Prussian Navy in 1865, he supervised
the development of torpedoes for the German fleet in the 1870s and '80s.
Later, as head of the Imperial Naval Office (from 1897) and grand admiral (from
1911), he skillfully built a battleship fleet second only to Britain's.
Despite Tirpitz's efforts and his initially strong official and public backing,
the German government decided to limit its buildup, which had succeeded in
alienating the British and in coopting resources needed to maintain the
strength of the army. The German Navy was thus unprepared for World War I.
Frustrated also in his support of unrestricted submarine warfare, Tirpitz
resigned in 1916, thereafter helping to organize a new ultranationalistic
political party. He wrote a personal defense, My Memoirs (1919; Eng. trans.,
2 vols., 1919). From 1924 to 1928 he represented an extreme right-wing party
in the Reichstag. FREDERIC B. M. HOLLYDAY
Bibliography: Kehr, Eckart, Battleship Building and Party Politics in Germany,
1894-1901 (1973); Steinberg, Jonathan, YesterdaSy's Deterrent: TirpiEtz and the
Birth of the German Battle Fleet (1965).
Zeppelin, Ferdinand, Graf von
--------------------------------
(tsep-uh-leen')
Ferdinand, Graf von Zeppelin, b. July 8, 1838, d. Mar. 8, 1917, was a
retired German army general who invented the rigid dirigible. Zeppelin was
nearly 62 years old when he made the first directed flight on July 2, 1900.
His 126-m-long (419-ft) zeppelin was kept aloft by 16 bags, or cells, full of
hydrogen enclosed in a fabric-covered, cigar-shaped aluminum framework and
powered by two 16-hp engines. During World War I about 40 zeppelins were shot
down while on air raids over London. The most famous of the zeppelins, the
HINDENBURG, went down in flames over Lakehurst, N.J., in 1937. The zeppelin
was too slow and explosive a target in wartime and too fragile to withstand bad
weather. Its short but dramatic era ended soon after the Lakehurst tragedy.
RICHARD K. SMITH
Bibliography: Guttery, Thomas E., Zeppelin: An Illustrated Life of Count
Ferdinand von Zeppelin, 1838-1917 (1973); Nitske, W. Robert, The Zeppelin Story
(1977).
Algeciras Conference
--------------------------------
Early in 1906 European diplomats met at Algeciras, Spain, to settle a dispute
arising from the German challenge to the impending partition of Morocco by
France and Spain. Although Germany declared its support for Moroccan
independence, its primary intention was to break up the Anglo-French Entente of
1904. The effect of the conference was to delay the partition of Morocco (to
1912, after a second international crisis), but Britain stood by France and
thus strengthened the entente.
Moroccan crises
--------------------------------
The Moroccan crises of 1905 and 1911 arose over the French plan to make Morocco
a protectorate. Germany's attempts to challenge French rights in Morocco
brought Europe close to war twice before World War I.
The first Moroccan crisis occurred when Germany tried to block French designs
on Morocco, thus isolating France and testing the strength of the Entente
Cordiale (see TRIPLE ENTENTE) recently concluded between France and Great
Britain. The German emperor WILLIAM II went to Tangier in March 1905 and
announced his support for Moroccan independence. A war scare ensued, and the
French foreign minister was forced from office. The European powers met in
Algeciras, Spain, in January 1906 and were able to resolve the conflict
temporarily (see ALGECIRAS CONFERENCE). The episode had the important results
of leaving Germany almost isolated and arousing British concern over German
aggressiveness.
The second crisis developed in 1911 after France and Spain were called in to
restore order in Morocco during a revolt. Germany, concerned about French
advances, sent the gunboat Panther to Agadir, supposedly to protect German
civilians. The move was seen as a threat to the French, and Britain responded
strongly. The Mansion House speech by David Lloyd George on July 21 showed
British determination not to back down. For a time war seemed imminent. On
November 4, however, Germany agreed to a French protectorate in Morocco in
exchange for territory in equatorial Africa. DONALD S. BIRN
Bibliography: Anderson, Eugene N., The First Moroccan Crisis, 1904-1906 (1930;
repr. 1966); Barlow, Irma C., The Agadir Crisis (1940).
Balkan Wars
--------------------------------
The Balkan Wars of 1912-13 were two short wars fought over the disposition of
the Ottoman Empire's former Balkan territories. Tsarist Russia supported the
efforts of Bulgaria and Serbia in 1911 to establish an alliance that would
check Austria-Hungary's advances southeastward into the Balkans. In the
aftermath of the 1908 revolt of the YOUNG TURKS, these two smaller states were
additionally interested in dividing the remaining Turkish-controlled territory
in Europe, specifically MACEDONIA. On Mar. 13, 1912, Serbia and Bulgaria
signed a treaty of mutual assistance. Greece joined in a pact with Bulgaria on
May 29, 1912, and Montenegro arranged agreements with Bulgaria and Serbia in
late September. With Turkey already involved in a war with Italy over Libya,
and despite protests from the great powers, the Balkan League began its war
against the Ottoman Empire on Oct. 8, 1912. To the surprise of most
observers, the Balkan allies won quick, decisive victories. The Treaty of
London (May 30, 1913) forced the Ottoman Empire to cede virtually all of its
remaining European territory--except for the region immediately adjacent to
Constantinople--to the Balkan states.
Subsequently, the allies disputed the division of the territorial gains.
Bulgaria challenged, in particular, Greek and Serbian claims to Macedonia.
Overestimating its strength, Bulgaria launched an attack on its former allies
on June 30, 1913. This second Balkan War soon found Romania and Turkey joining
the fighting with Greece and Serbia. Thus attacked from all sides, Bulgaria
had to sign an armistice on July 31. The Treaty of Bucharest (Aug. 10, 1913)
stripped Bulgaria of some recently conquered territory. Greece, which in the
earlier conflict had taken Crete and some Aegean islands from Turkey, now
formally acquired the important port of Salonika (Thessaloniki) and most of
coastal Macedonia, while Serbia received north and central Macedonia. Romania
obtained a large section of the DOBRUJA from Bulgaria, which also had to yield
the greater part of Thrace to Turkey.
Although all the Balkan states significantly increased the size of their
territories at the expense of Turkey, Bulgaria remained embittered by its
defeat in the second Balkan War, and its neighboring states sought still other
lands for expansion. The Balkan disputes were to be continued in the larger
context of WORLD WAR I. S. VICTOR PAPACOSMA
Bibliography: Helmreich, E. C., The Diplomacy of the Balkan Wars, 1912-1913
(1938; repr. 1969); Young, George, Nationalism and War in the Near East (1915;
repr. 1970).
Schlieffen, Alfred, Graf von
--------------------------------
(shlee'-fen)
The German military officer Alfred, Graf von Schlieffen, b. Feb. 28, 1833, d.
Jan. 14, 1913, was the author of the Schlieffen plan, Germany's strategic
master plan at the beginning of WORLD WAR I. Son of a Prussian general, he
served (1891-1906) under Emperor WILLIAM II as chief of the general staff,
becoming a field marshal in 1911.
Schlieffen postulated an inevitable two-front war that Germany could win only
by placing preponderant force on the right wing of the western front, which
would sweep through Belgium and complete a swift, annihilating encirclement of
the French army. With France conquered, the army would be transferred to the
Russian front by railroad. In his plan, Schlieffen did not press for
diplomatic preparation for war, an army increase, or naval action against
Britain, although the violation of Belgian neutrality would ensure British
intervention. As a professional soldier he considered himself a technician who
was not concerned with the political implications of warfare.
When war broke out in 1914, Germany put the Schlieffen plan into operation,
although Schlieffen's successor as chief of general staff, H. J. L., von
MOLTKE, modified--and weakened--the plan by building up the eastern front at
the expense of the western. Most military historians, however, believe that
there were inherent weaknesses in the plan that would have surfaced regardless
of what Moltke did. FREDERIC B. M. HOLLYDAY
Bibliography: Ritter, Gerhard, The Schlieffen Plan: Critique of a Myth, Eng.
trans. by Andrew and Eva Wilson (1958; repr. 1968).
Hindenburg, Paul von
--------------------------------
(hin'-den-boork)
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg, b. Oct. 2, 1847,
served as a German field marshal in WORLD WAR I and subsequently as president
of Germany. He was the son of a Prussian army officer. After a military
career that began with service since the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, he
retired as a general in 1911.
In August 1914, at the beginning of World War I, Hindenburg was recalled to
take command of the defense of East Prussia, which was being invaded by two
Russian armies. The victories he and his chief of staff, Gen. Erich
LUDENDORFF, achieved within a month at Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes, and
their subsequent successes on the eastern front, led to their being entrusted
with the supreme German command in 1916. Their attempt to break the stalemate
on the western front by an unrestricted submarine blockade against Britain
resulted in the sinking of American ships, the entry of the United States into
the war in 1917, and the deployment of sufficient American troops by mid-1918
to stop the last great German offensive.
With no hope of victory and his armies at the breaking point, Hindenburg called
for an armistice. By the time it went into effect, on Nov. 11, 1918, the
German emperor, WILLIAM II, had abdicated. Hindenburg remained in command
until June 1919, but he held aloof from subsequent events, allowing
Ludendorff's successor, Wilhelm GROENER, to act for him in cooperating with the
provisional republican regime, led by Friedrich EBERT. Groener supervised the
withdrawal of German forces still on foreign soil and employed them, where
necessary, to restore domestic order.
In 1925, on Ebert's death, Hindenburg was elected president as the candidate of
the nationalists. Seven years later, in 1932, he was reelected, defeating
Adolf HITLER. By this time parliamentary government had broken down, and the
aged president was under the influence of Gen. Kurt von SCHLEICHER.
Nonetheless, when Schleicher asked for emergency powers, Hindenburg dismissed
him and appointed Hitler in his place (January 1933).
Although he detested Hitler, Hindenburg believed that he could be easily
controlled. His mistake was soon apparent, but, increasingly senile, he
acquiesced in Hitler's consolidation of power. By the time Hindenburg died on
Aug. 2, 1934, Hitler's control was so complete that he was able to usurp the
authority of the presidency and abolish the office altogether.
Bibliography: Dorpalen, Andreas, Hindenburg and the Weimar Republic (1967);
Hindenburg, Paul von, Out of My Life, trans. by Frederic A. Holt (1920);
Wheeler-Bennett, John W., Wooden Titan: Hindenburg in Twenty Years of German
History, 1914-1934 (1936; repr. 1963).
Tannenberg, Battles of
--------------------------------
(tahn'-en-bairk)
Two famous battles were fought in the vicinity of Tannenberg (now Stebark,
Poland; formerly in East Prussia) near the Baltic coast. The first, on July
15, 1410, sometimes called the Battle of Grunwald, was a Polish-Lithuanian
victory over the TEUTONIC KNIGHTS. The clash halted the Knights' advance
eastward along the Baltic and helped spur their decline.
The second battle, in late August 1914, was a German victory early in World War
I over Russian armies that had invaded East Prussia. German commander Paul von
HINDENBURG and Erich LUDENDORFF, his chief of staff, directed movements that
encircled Gen. A. V. Samsonov's Second Russian Army. After the Germans took
about 90,000 prisoners, Samsonov killed himself, and his remaining men were
forced to retreat. ROBIN BUSS
Husayn ibn Ali
--------------------------------
(hoo-sayn' ib-uhn ah'-lee)
Husayn ibn Ali, b. c.1854, d. June 4, 1931, became sharif of Mecca in the
Hejaz in 1908 and in 1916, as leader of the Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkish
rule, proclaimed himself "king of the Arab lands." Recognized only as king of
the Hejaz by the Allies of World War I, he refused to accept the postwar
settlement of the Paris Peace Conference (1919). His rule over Arabia was
challenged by IBN SAUD of Riyadh, and after defeat by the latter's forces,
Husayn abdicated in October 1924. His sons included ABDULLAH, later king of
Jordan, and FAISAL I, later king of Iraq. ROBIN BUSS
Ypres, Battles of
--------------------------------
The Belgian city of Ypres was the focal point of several World War I battles.
The first battle was fought in October and November 1914; it concluded the
"race to the sea" after the German defeat at the First Battle of the Marne. A
German drive to seize the English Channel ports of northern France was blocked
by the arrival of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) under Field Marshal Sir
John FRENCH. The British--assisted by Belgian and French troops--stopped the
German drive, but the BEF was almost destroyed. Losses on each side were
nearly 100,000 casualties.
The second Battle of Ypres (April 22-May 25, 1915) began when the Germans
disrupted a planned Allied offensive. A German poison gas attack, the first on
the western front, demoralized the Allied troops and created a large gap in
their lines, but the Allies retrieved the situation after a bitter struggle.
The British suffered approximately 50,000 casualties, the French about 10,000,
and the Germans about 35,000.
Allied operations around Ypres in the spring and early summer of 1917 were
disappointing. The British attempted a second offensive on July 31; after more
than 3 months and a total advance of 8 km (5 mi), this offensive culminated in
the capture of the ridge and village of Passchendaele on November 6. It
distracted German attention, however, from the collapsing French armies, thus
helping to prevent a German victory in 1917. The British suffered more than
300,000 casualties, the French about 9,000, and the Germans about 260,000.
Additional operations were undertaken in and around Ypres in the spring and
fall of 1918. COL. T. N. DUPUY
Bibliography: Giles, John, The Ypres Salient (1970).
Kitchener, Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl
--------------------------------
Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, b. June 24, 1850, d. June 5,
1916, was Britain's foremost general at the beginning of the 20th century.
Commissioned in the Royal Engineers in 1871, he was attached to the Egyptian
army in 1883 and became its commander in chief in 1892. In that capacity he
established his reputation by reconquering the Sudan from the Mahdists, winning
the famous Battle of Omdurman in 1898. That same year his tactful treatment of
the French in the FASHODA INCIDENT may have avoided a war with France. After
serving as governor of the Sudan, Kitchener became (1899) chief of staff to
Frederick Sleigh ROBERTS in the SOUTH AFRICAN WAR and succeeded as commander in
chief in 1900. He was much criticized for interning Afrikaner civilians in
concentration camps. As commander in chief in India (1902-09), Kitchener
quarreled with the viceroy, Lord CURZON, over military policy, but the London
government supported him and made him a field marshal. From 1911 to 1914 he
was the virtual ruler of Egypt as British consul general.
At the start (1914) of World War I, Kitchener became secretary of state for
war, the first serving officer to hold this post. He expanded the army from 20
divisions to 70, but he was blamed for the munitions shortage on the western
front. Kitchener was drowned when his ship was torpedoed while on a mission to
Russia. DON M. CREGIER
Bibliography: Arthur, George, Life of Lord Kitchener, 3 vols. (1920); Magnus,
Philip, Kitchener: Portrait of an Imperialist (1958).
Somme, Battles of the
--------------------------------
(suhm)
The Battles of the Somme were two encounters fought along the Somme River in
northwestern France during World War I.
The First Battle of the Somme (June 24-Nov. 13, 1916).
The Allies' long-standing plans to attack the Central Powers were delayed when
the Germans launched (Feb. 21, 1916) an offensive at Verdun (see VERDUN,
BATTLE OF) in an attempt to breach the French line. On July 1, following a
week-long artillery barrage, the Allies finally began their attack on the
highly fortified German line along the Somme; they now had the secondary
purpose of relieving the pressure on Verdun. The British, under Field Marshal
Sir Douglas HAIG, played the leading role, with a smaller French force to their
right. Only small gains were made on the first day of battle, and the British
suffered 60,000 casualties, including 19,000 dead; it was the greatest one-day
loss in the history of the British army.
Throughout the summer and autumn, the British continued a series of limited
attacks, including the last large-scale use of horse cavalry in Western Europe.
The British also used tanks for the first time in battle, although not very
effectively. The battle ended in a deadlock. Little land had changed hands;
the campaign had succeeded only in the objective of relieving Verdun. The cost
was enormous: the British lost 420,000 men; the French lost 195,000; German
casualties were about 600,000.
The Second Battle of the Somme (Mar. 21-Apr. 5, 1918).
In early 1918, German general Erich LUDENDORFF opened the Second Battle of the
Somme, also known as the Somme Offensive. His purpose was to breach the Allied
line before American reinforcements could arrive. German shock troops struck
along a 92-km (60-mi) front and succeeded in rolling back the Allies as much as
64 km (40 mi). It was the Germans' first major breakthrough since the early
days of the war. Haig failed to get support from the French forces under
General Henri PETAIN, who was occupied with the defense of Paris, and the
Allies assigned General Ferdinand FOCH the task of coordinating the Allied
efforts. Foch immediately sent French reserves to the Somme, and the German
drive lost momentum. Like the First Battle of the Somme, the second was fought
at enormous cost: the British suffered 163,000 casualties and the French,
77,000; German losses were almost as high as those of the Allies. COL. T. N.
DUPUY
Bibliography
Bibliography: Keegan, John, The Face of Battle (1976); Matloff, Maurice, World
War I: A Concise Military History (1978).
Allenby, Edmund Henry Hynman, 1st Viscount Allenby of Megiddo
--------------------------------
Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, b. Apr. 23, 1861, d. May 14, 1936, was a
British general who commanded the British forces in the Middle East during
World War I. A cavalry officer, he served (1899-1902) in the South African
War. At the outbreak of World War I he went to France as commander of British
cavalry and subsequently led (1915-17) the Third Army. Sent (1917) to Egypt,
he began a systematic campaign to expel the Turks from Palestine, capturing
Jerusalem in December 1917. His victory at Megiddo (Sept. 18-21, 1918) began
the offensive that pushed the Turks back through Syria. Created (1919) a
viscount, Allenby was high commissioner for Egypt from 1919 to 1925.
Bibliography: Gardner, Brian, Allenby of Arabia (1965); Wavell, Archibald P.,
Allenby: A Study in Greatness, 2 vols. (1941-43) and Allenby, Soldier and
Statesman (1948).
Gallieni, Joseph Simon
--------------------------------
{gahl-lee-ay'-nee} Joseph Simon Gallieni, b. Apr. 24, 1849, d. May 27, 1916,
was a French general who worked to integrate France's colonial conquests into
the FRENCH COLONIAL EMPIRE. He served in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71) and
later in the 1870s was sent to Africa. In the course of his colonial military
and administrative career he served in the Upper Niger area, Martinique, French
Sudan, Indochina, and Madagascar. In Madagascar he created a system of
compulsory labor as part of his policy to have the natives raise their own
standard of living. In 1911, Gallieni declined the position of supreme
commander of the French army because of ill health and age. Nonetheless, he
was appointed military governor of Paris in August 1914 and raised troops to
drive back the Germans in the First Battle of the Marne. He served as minister
of war from 1915 to 1916 and was made a marshal of France posthumously.
Gallieni wrote several works on his colonial campaigns and policies. P. M.
EWY
Bibliography: Matthew, V. L., "Joseph Simon Gallieni," in African Proconsuls,
ed. by L. H. Gann and Peter Duignan (1978).
Venizelos, Eleutherios
--------------------------------
(ven-ee-zel'-aws, el-ef-thair'-ee-aws)
Eleutherios Venizelos, b. Aug. 23, 1864, d. Mar. 18, 1936, several times
prime minister of Greece, was one of the leading Greek politicians of his era.
A native of Crete, he headed the liberal, nationalist movement on the island
and participated in the 1897 revolt against Turkish rule. In 1905, Venizelos
proclaimed the union of Crete with Greece, a goal not realized until 1913.
Venizelos went to Greece in 1909 to advise the Military League shortly after
its coup d'etat. He was the Liberal party's leader and became prime minister
in 1910. During the BALKAN WARS (1912-13), Venizelos helped defeat the Turks
and almost doubled Greece's territory. Favoring Britain and France in World
War I he resigned in 1915 because of conflicts with the pro-German king
CONSTANTINE I, who advocated continuing neutrality. Venizelos formed a rival
government in Salonika in 1916. He returned to Athens as prime minister in
1917, after Franco-British pressure forced Constantine to abdicate. Greece
then entered the war on the Allied side.
After the war, Venizelos acquired substantial territory for Greece,
particularly at Turkey's expense, but lost the elections in 1920. He served
briefly as prime minister in 1924 and won the 1928 elections, but the worldwide
depression led to his defeat in 1932. Implicated in the unsuccessful
antimonarchist revolt of 1935, he fled Greece and died in exile in Paris. S.
VICTOR PAPACOSMA
Bibliography: Alastos, Doros, Venizelos: Patriot, Statesman, Revolutionary
(1942; repr. 1978); Box, P. H., Three Master Builders and Another (1925).
Lloyd George, David, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor
--------------------------------
{loyd, doo-ee'-vor}
David Lloyd George was one of the commanding figures in 20th-century British
politics and the only person of Welsh extraction to become prime minister.
Born in Manchester, England, on Jan. 17, 1863, he was raised by his uncle, a
village shoemaker and sectarian lay preacher in North Wales. In 1878 he was
apprenticed to a solicitor (nontrial lawyer), and he opened his own law
practice in 1884. As "the poachers' lawyer," willing to defend clients accused
of breaking the harsh game laws, Lloyd George acquired a loyal following among
North Wales tenant farmers and quarrymen. In 1890 he was elected to Parliament
as a Liberal, beginning a 55-year career at Westminster.
Lloyd George acquired recognition speaking for the interests of Welsh
nonconformists--including temperance, disestablishment of the Anglican church
in Wales, nondenominational education, and local autonomy. He was viewed as an
unorthodox, independent Liberal, a reputation enhanced by his uncompromising
opposition to the South African War (1899-1902). Later he won national
prominence as leader of the nonconformist opposition to the Conservative
government's Education Act of 1902. When Sir Henry CAMPBELL-BANNERMAN formed
his Liberal cabinet in 1905, he included Lloyd George as a representative of
nonconformist interests. In the post of president of the Board of Trade, Lloyd
George was highly successful as a champion of business and labor negotiator.
Prime Minister Herbert ASQUITH promoted him to chancellor of the exchequer in
1908.
Lloyd George became an active social reformer, horrifying traditionalists by
using the annual government budget to construct policy as well as to raise
money. His "people's budget" of 1909, with its land taxes, provoked a clash
with the Conservative-dominated House of Lords, ending in curtailment (1911) of
the House of Lords' power to veto legislation. In 1911, Lloyd George guided
through Parliament his pioneering National Health Insurance Act. This act, in
conjunction with his Old Age Pensions Act (1908), is often identified as the
foundation of the British welfare state.
At first reluctant to approve Great Britain's entry (August 1914) into WORLD
WAR I, Lloyd George soon advocated a knockout blow against Germany, demanding
greater vigor and efficiency from the government. As munitions minister in
1915-16, he ensured that a steady supply of guns and shells reached the western
front, becoming a hero of the press but making many political enemies. He
became minister of war shortly before he joined with the Conservative leaders
to maneuver Asquith out of office in December 1916. Lloyd George then became
prime minister and the dominant figure in the new 5-member coalition war
cabinet. Lloyd George imposed an effective regime of "war socialism" upon the
British people, but he quarreled with his generals, particularly Douglas HAIG,
and was unable to cut the heavy casualties on the western front. Nevertheless,
he was popularly regarded as the man who won the war, and he exploited this
reputation to win a huge election victory for his coalition following the 1918
armistice. The last 4 years of Lloyd George's premiership (1918-22) were
anticlimactic. He was the principal British negotiator at the PARIS PEACE
CONFERENCE and five subsequent international parleys, but his "conference
diplomacy" failed to mitigate postwar tensions. His government's housing
program ("homes for heroes") was a disaster; there was mounting unemployment
and labor unrest; and a major recession began in 1921. In Ireland he initially
adopted a policy of harsh repression against the nationalist rebels, but he
finally negotiated the treaty (1921) that established the Irish Free State.
This settlement was his one major postwar success, but it damaged his relations
with the Conservatives, on whom his government depended. The Conservatives
finally withdrew their support after the CHANAK CRISIS (1922) in which Lloyd
George brought Britain to the brink of war with Turkey.
After the coalition fell in October 1922, Lloyd George was reunited with the
Asquithian Liberals. He later split with Asquith again but succeeded him as
Liberal party leader (1926-31). With the decline of Liberalism, Lloyd George's
fortunes waned. He never again held office, although he was a leading
parliamentary critic of Labour and, more so, Conservative foreign and domestic
policies. He was awarded an earldom shortly before his death on Mar. 26,
1945. DON M. CREGIER
Bibliography: Fry, Michael, Lloyd George and Foreign Policy, vol. 1 (1977);
Grigg, John, Lloyd George, 2 vols. (1979, 1985), and The Young Lloyd George
(1973); Morgan, Kenneth, Consensus and Disunity (1979); Woodward, David, Lloyd
George and the Generals (1983).
Wilson, Woodrow
--------------------------------
Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the United States (1913-21), secured a
legislative program of progressive domestic reform, guided his country during
WORLD WAR I, and sought a peace settlement based on high moral principles, to
be guaranteed by the LEAGUE OF NATIONS.
Early Life and Career.
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Va., on Dec. 28, 1856. He was
profoundly influenced by a devoutly religious household headed by his father,
Joseph Ruggles Wilson, a Presbyterian minister, and his mother, Janet Woodrow
Wilson, the daughter of a minister. Woodrow (he dropped the Thomas in 1879)
attended (1873-74) Davidson College and in 1875 entered the College of New
Jersey (later Princeton University), graduating in 1879. Wilson studied
(1879-80) at the University of Virginia Law School, briefly practiced law in
Atlanta, and in 1883 entered The Johns Hopkins University for graduate study in
political science. His widely acclaimed book, Congressional Government (1885),
was published a year before he received the doctoral degree. In 1885 he
married Ellen Louise Axson; they had three daughters. Wilson taught at Bryn
Mawr College (1885-88) and Wesleyan University in Connecticut (1888-90) before
he was called (1890) to Princeton as professor of jurisprudence and political
economy. A popular lecturer, Wilson also wrote a score of articles and nine
books, including Division and Reunion (1893) and his five-volume History of the
American People (1902). In 1902 he was the unanimous choice of the trustees to
become Princeton's president. His reforms included reorganization of the
departmental structure, revision of the curriculum, raising of academic
standards, tightening of student discipline, and the still-famous preceptorial
system of instruction. But Wilson's quad plan--an attempt to create colleges
or quadrangles where students and faculty members would live and study
together--was defeated. Opposed by wealthy alumni and trustees, he also lost
his battle for control of the proposed graduate college. The Princeton
controversies, seen nationally as a battle between democracy and vested wealth,
propelled Wilson into the political arena. George Harvey, editor of Harper's
Weekly, with help from New Jersey's Democratic party bosses, persuaded Wilson
to run for governor in 1910. After scoring an easy victory, he cast off his
machine sponsors and launched a remarkable program of progressive legislation,
including a direct-primary law, antitrust laws, a corrupt-practices act, a
workmen's compensation act, and measures establishing a public utility
commission and permitting cities to adopt the commission form of government.
Success in New Jersey made him a contender for the Democratic presidential
nomination. Although Wilson entered the 1912 Democratic National Convention a
poor second to Speaker of the House Champ Clark, his strength increased as
Clark's faded, and he won the nomination after 46 ballots. Offering a program
of reform that he called the New Freedom, Wilson ran against a divided
Republican party. In November, with only 42 percent of the popular vote, he
won 435 electoral votes to 88 for Progressive candidate Theodore Roosevelt and
8 for the Republican candidate, President William Howard Taft.
Progressive as President.
By presenting his program personally before the Democratically controlled
Congress, employing personal persuasion as well as patronage, and appealing to
the American public with his stirring rhetoric, Wilson won passage of an
impressive array of progressive measures. The Underwood Tariff Act (1913), the
first reduction in duties since the Civil War, also established a modest income
tax. The Federal Reserve Act (1913) provided for currency and banking reform.
Antitrust legislation followed in 1914, when Congress passed the Federal Trade
Commission Act and the CLAYTON ANTI-TRUST ACT. In 1915, Wilson supported the
La Follette Seamen's bill, designed to improve the working conditions of
sailors. The following year he signed the Federal Farm Loan Act, providing
low-interest credit to farmers; the Adamson Act, granting an 8-hour day to
interstate railroad workers; and the Child Labor Act, which limited children's
working hours. In foreign policy, Wilson was faced with greater problems than
any president since Abraham Lincoln. He attempted to end U.S. dollar
diplomacy and promote the mediation of disputes. He rejected a loan to China
on the grounds that it impaired Chinese sovereignty, and he helped thwart
Japanese designs on the Chinese mainland. He approved Secretary of State
William Jennings BRYAN's efforts to minimize the danger of war through a series
of "conciliation treaties" and joined him in an unsuccessful attempt to
negotiate a Pan-American pact guaranteeing the integrity of the Western
Hemisphere. In attempting to deal with revolutionary Mexico, Wilson first
sought to promote self-government by refusing to recognize the military usurper
Victoriano HUERTA and forcing him to allow free elections. When Huerta
resisted, Wilson tried to force him out by ordering (April 1914) limited
American intervention at Veracruz and by supporting constitutionalist
Venustiano CARRANZA. Mediation by Argentina, Brazil, and Chile helped to
prevent a general conflict and led to Huerta's resignation in July 1914. A
year later, Wilson recognized Carranza's provisional government, and in 1916 he
intervened again after Carranza's rival, guerrilla leader Pancho VILLA, had
raided a town in New Mexico, killing several Americans. In 1915 and 1916 he
reluctantly sent troops to Haiti and Santo Domingo to establish U.S.
protectorates. After the outbreak of the European war in August 1914, Wilson
struggled with considerable success to fulfill the obligations of neutrality,
to keep trade channels open, and to prevent any abridgement of U.S. rights,
all in the face of the British blockade of Germany and the latter's
introduction of submarine warfare. He warned Germany in February 1915 that it
would be held to "strict accountability" for the loss of American lives in the
sinking of neutral or passenger ships. After the LUSITANIA was sunk in May
1915 (with the loss of 128 Americans), he negotiated with such firmness that
Secretary Bryan, fearing a declaration of war, resigned in protest. In
September 1915, Wilson won pledges from Germany to provide for the safety of
passengers caught in submarine attacks, and in May 1916 the Germans agreed to
abandon unrestricted submarine warfare. Running on his record of reform and
with the slogan "He kept us out of the war," Wilson sought reelection in 1916
against Republican Charles Evans Hughes. The president won a narrow victory,
receiving 277 out of 531 electoral votes.
Wartime Leader.
When Germany renewed all-out submarine warfare in 1917, Wilson severed
diplomatic relations. In April he asked Congress for a declaration of war,
asserting that "the world must be made safe for democracy." As war president,
Wilson made a major contribution to the modern presidency as he led Americans
in a spectacular mobilization of the nation's resources. Establishing a series
of war agencies, he extended federal control over industry, transportation,
labor, food, fuel, and prices. In May 1917 he forced through Congress a
Selective Service bill under which 2.8 million men were drafted by war's end.
He sought and received legislative delegation of increased powers, thus leaving
for his successors the precedents and tools to meet future crises.
Wilson the Peacemaker.
From 1914, Wilson had sought ways to mediate the conflict. In 1915 and 1916 he
sent his advisor and confidant, Col. Edward M. HOUSE, to Europe to work
toward a negotiated peace and postwar cooperation. In the spring of 1916,
Wilson joined the call for a postwar association of nations; on Jan. 22, 1917,
he called for a peace without victory and reaffirmed his support for a league
of nations. With the United States in the war, Wilson hoped to have a stronger
influence on the peace settlement. On Jan. 8, 1918, he presented his FOURTEEN
POINTS, a comprehensive statement of war aims. It became at once a war weapon
and a peace program, inspiring the peoples of the Allied powers while
undermining the confidence of the Germans. Germany made its peace overture in
the hope of obtaining just treatment under Wilson's proposals. Wilson headed
the American delegation to the PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE. He erred seriously,
however, by not developing bipartisan support for his peace plans; he did not
appoint a prominent Republican to the delegation, and he called on voters to
reelect a Democratic Congress in 1918 as a vote of confidence. Most contests
were decided on local issues, and when Republicans captured both houses of
Congress, his leadership seemed repudiated. Wilson was hailed as a hero upon
his arrival in Europe. At the conference (January-June 1919) Allied leaders
Georges CLEMENCEAU, David LLOYD GEORGE, and Vittorio ORLANDO favored a
traditional settlement. Wilson worked tirelessly for a peace along the lines
of his Fourteen Points; only his shrewd bargaining prevented even harsher terms
from being imposed on Germany. Wilson characterized the Versailles Treaty as
the best obtainable compromise and put his hopes in the League of Nations, an
integral part of the treaty, as the institution through which inequities could
be later rectified. Senate Republicans, led by Henry Cabot Lodge, refused to
approve the peace treaty without significant modifications of the U.S.
commitment to the League. Wilson accepted some compromise but then turned to
the people. In a national speaking tour he eloquently defended the League and
U.S. membership as essential to lasting world peace. Long months of
exhausting labor had weakened the president, however, and he collapsed on Sept.
25, 1919, following a speech in Pueblo, Colo. A week later Wilson suffered a
stroke that left him partially incapacitated for the remainder of his life.
From his bed he continued to oppose severe restrictions to the League. The
Senate, meanwhile, rejected the treaty in November 1919 and March 1920. Wilson
urged that the 1920 presidential election be a referendum on the League.
Republican Warren G. Harding, who desired strong reservations to the League,
won in a landslide. In December 1920, Wilson won the Nobel Peace Prize for
1919. The former president and his second wife, Edith Bolling Galt Wilson,
whom he married in 1915, after the death of his first wife, continued to make
their home in Washington, D.C. Wilson died there on Feb. 3, 1924. DAVID W.
HIRST
Bibliography
Bibliography: Baker, Ray S., Woodrow Wilson: Life and Letters, 8 vols. (1927-39;
repr. 1968); Bell, Herbert C. F., Woodrow Wilson and the People (1945); Blum,
John M., Woodrow Wilson and the Politics of Morality (1956); Bragdon, Henry W.,
Woodrow Wilson: The Academic Years (1967); Latham, Earl, ed., The Philosophy and
Policies of Woodrow Wilson (1975); Levin, N. Gordon, Woodrow Wilson and World
Politics (1968); Link, Arthur S., Wilson, 5 vols. (1947-65), and Woodrow Wilson:
A Brief Biography (1963); Link, Arthur S., Hirst, David W., et al., eds., The
Papers of Woodrow Wilson, 32 vols. (1966-80); Walworth, Arthur, Woodrow Wilson,
3d ed. (1978).
Factbox
--------------------------------
Woodrow Wilson 28th President of the United States (1913-21) Nickname:
"Schoolmaster in Politics" Born: Dec. 28, 1856, Staunton, Va. Education:
College of New Jersey (now Princeton University; graduated 1879) Profession:
Teacher, Public Official Religious Affilation: Presbyterian Marriage: June
24, 1885, to Ellen Louise Axson (1860-1914); Dec. 18, 1915, to Edith Bolling
Galt (1872-1961) Children: Margaret Woodrow Wilson (1886-1944); Jessie Woodrow
Wilson (1887-1933); Eleanor Randolph Wilson (1889-1967) Political Affiliation:
Democrat Writings: George Washington (1896); A History of the American People
(5 vols., 1902); Constitutional Government in the United Sttes (1908); Papers
of Woodrow Wilson (1966- ), ed. by Arthur S. Link, et al. Died: Feb. 3,
1924, Washington, D.C. Buried: National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.
Vice-President and Cabinet Members Vice-President: Thomas R. Marshall
Secretary of State: William J. Bryan (1913-15); Robert Lansing (1915-20);
Bainbridge Colby (1920-21) Secretary of the Treasury: William G. McAdoo
(1913-18); Carter Glass (1918-20); David F. Houston (1920-21) Secretary of
War: Lindley M. Garrison (1913-16); Newton D. Baker (1916-21) Attorney
General: James C. McReynolds (1913-14); Thomas W. Gregory (1914-19);
Alexander M. Palmer (1919-21) Postmaster General: Albert S. Burleson
Secretary of the Navy: Josephus Daniels Secretary of the Interior: Franklin
K. Lane (1913-20); John B. Payne (1920-21) Secretary of Agriculture: David
F. Houston (1913-20); Edwin T. Meredith (1920-21) Secretary of Commerce:
William C. Redfield (1913-19); Joshua W. Alexander (1919-21) Secretary of
Labor: William B. Wilson
House, Edward M.
--------------------------------
Edward Mandell House, b. Houston, Tex., July 26, 1858, d. Mar. 28, 1938, known
as Colonel House, became internationally prominent as the confidant and
executive agent of U.S. president Woodrow WILSON. Independently wealthy, House
early developed a passion for Democratic politics and played an influential role
in the campaigns of four Texas governors. In 1911 he met Wilson, then governor
of New Jersey. He supported Wilson's presidential candidacy in 1912, aided him
materially in selecting his first cabinet, and became a useful, trusted advisor.
With Wilson's approval, House visited the European capitals early in 1914 to
survey the possibility of reducing armaments. During World War I he returned to
Europe in 1915 and 1916 to promote Wilson's mediation efforts. The president
appointed House head of U.S. preparations for the PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE of
1919, which House attended as a delegate and Wilson's closest associate. House
soon incurred Wilson's displeasure, however, because of his failure to sustain
the American position when left in charge of negotiations. Thereafter the
friendship waned as evidence accumulated of the divergence of their views. After
June 1919 they never met again, and House retired from public life. DAVID W.
HIRST
Bibliography: Floto, Inga, Colonel House in Paris (1973); George, Alexander L.
and Juliet L., Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House: A Personality Study (1956;
repr. 1964); Seymour, Charles, ed., The Intimate Papers of Colonel House, 4
vols. (1926-28).
Paris Peace Conference
--------------------------------
The Paris Peace Conference was organized by the victors at the end of WORLD WAR
I to settle the issues raised by that conflict. Because the 27 nations
represented had often-conflicting plans for peace, the sessions were tumultuous
and the resulting treaties controversial.
The conference convened on Jan. 18, 1919. Germany and the other defeated
Central Powers were not permitted to sit at the conference tables. The four
major victorious powers, Britain, France, Italy, and the United States,
dominated the proceedings. U.S. president Woodrow WILSON favored a
conciliatory settlement based on the liberal principles of his FOURTEEN POINTS,
which included national self-determination in Europe among its goals. French
premier Georges CLEMENCEAU, trying to secure his country against future German
attack, was often at odds with Wilson. David LLOYD GEORGE, the British prime
minister, and Vittorio ORLANDO, the Italian premier, were the other "Big Four"
leaders of the Supreme Council that controlled the conference. Advisory
committees worked on specialized areas such as REPARATIONS, economics, and
future international organization.
France conceded its key demand, that the left bank of the Rhine be detached
from Germany and put under French military control, in exchange for British and
American promises of future support. The Treaty of Versailles, presented to
Germany in May 1919 and signed on June 28, was, however, still criticized as a
harsh "dictated peace." Germany was compelled to admit war guilt, to give up
territory, and to disarm; its Saar and Rhineland districts were placed under
Allied occupation, and the country was supposed to pay heavy reparations. The
Versailles treaty did not conform to the Fourteen Points, but Wilson was
pleased with the other major result of the conference, the covenant of the
LEAGUE OF NATIONS, which was given final approval on Apr. 28, 1919. This new
international organization was to make the peace secure, administer former
colonies of the defeated powers as mandates, and foster general disarmament.
The Treaty of Saint Germain with Austria (September 10) and the Treaty of
Neuilly with Bulgaria (November 27) were also signed at Paris. Treaties with
the other defeated powers, Hungary and Turkey, were not completed at the
conference, which ended on Jan. 16, 1920, with the formal inauguration of the
League of Nations. DONALD S. BIRN
Bibliography: Elcock, Howard L., Portrait of a Decision: The Council of Four and
the Treaty of Versailles (1972); Goldberg, George, The Peace to End Peace; The
Paris Peace Conference of 1919 (1969); Lansing, Robert, The Peace Negotiations,
a Personal Narrative (1921; repr. 1969); Marston, F. S., The Peace Conference of
1919 (1944); Mayer, Arno, Politics and Diplomacy of Peacemaking (1967);
Nicolson, Harold, Peacemaking, 1919 (1933; repr. 1965).
Fourteen Points
--------------------------------
The Fourteen Points were a program announced by U.S. President Woodrow WILSON
before a joint session of Congress on Jan. 8, 1918, as the basis for a just
peace settlement following World War I. Wilson hoped to rally liberal opinion
throughout the world with his address, but his opening remarks were also
designed as a sympathetic response to the new Bolshevik leaders in Russia, who
had called upon Russia's western Allies to begin peace negotiations on a
program of no annexations, no indemnities. Although many of Wilson's
suggestions had been made before, in total effect the speech represented a
radical departure from the old diplomacy and called upon future victors and
vanquished to liberalize their diplomacy and ideology.
The first 5 points included the following: open covenants, openly arrived at;
freedom of the seas; removal of economic barriers in international trade;
reduction of national armaments to the lowest point consistent with domestic
safety; and adjustment of all colonial claims on the basis of the
self-determination of peoples. Points 6 through 13 dealt with specific
territorial settlements. The 14th point became most important to Wilson: a
general association of nations for the purpose of providing mutual guarantees
of political independence and territorial integrity for all nations. Widely
publicized and acclaimed in the belligerent countries on both sides, the
address at once gave Wilson moral leadership of the Allies and became a
powerful diplomatic and propagandist weapon. The Allies generally accepted it
as a statement of war aims, and when Germany sued for peace it was on the basis
of the Fourteen Points.
At the PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE (1919-20) the second point was quickly repudiated
by Britain, and several others were modified or compromised in spirit by
territorial agreements. On the whole, however, the final settlement was nearer
the Fourteen Points than Wilson and his major advisors had at first thought
possible. Out of the 14th point came the LEAGUE OF NATIONS. DAVID W. HIRST
Bibliography: Baker, Ray Stannard, Woodrow Wilson and World Settlement, 3
vols. (1922); Mayer, Arno, The Political Origins of the New Diplomacy,
1917-1918 (1959).
Polish Corridor
--------------------------------
The name Polish Corridor was commonly used between 1919 and 1939 for Polish
Pomerania (Pomorze in Polish), a narrow neck of territory separating East
Prussia from the rest of Germany. The area had once belonged to Poland but was
seized in 1772 by Prussia. It was awarded to Poland by the Versailles Treaty
(1919) at the end of World War I because of its preponderantly Polish
population and because it would give Poland direct access to the Baltic Sea.
GDANSK (or Danzig), a Baltic port east of the corridor, was made a free city.
When the German-controlled legislative assembly at Gdansk limited Polish use of
this port, the Poles developed a port at GDYNIA, to the northwest. In 1938,
Adolf HITLER demanded the return of Gdansk to Germany; his demands for Gdansk
and the Polish Corridor formed the pretext for Germany's invasion of Poland in
September 1939. ANNA M. CIENCIALA
Bibliography: Cienciala, A. M., Poland and the Western Powers, 1938-1939 (1968);
Debicki, R., Foreign Policy of Poland, 1919-1939 (1962).
reparations
--------------------------------
Reparations is the term for money or other compensation that a defeated country
pays to the victors or to individuals who have suffered in war. The word came
into use after World War I. Germany was forced to pay reparations under the
Versailles Treaty (see PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE), which blamed Germany for
starting World War I and held it responsible for the resulting damage. Germans
protested that the amount set by the interallied Reparations Commission in
1921, 132 billion gold marks, was unrealistically high and could not be paid.
Many Americans sympathized with these German protests, and the United States
waived most of its reparations claims.
When Germany defaulted on its reparations payments, France and Belgium moved
(1923) troops into the Ruhr district in western Germany to force payment. The
occupation ended (1924) after an international commission headed by American
Charles G. DAWES formulated the Dawes Plan, which lowered German payments to
one billion gold marks annually for five years and 2.5 billion thereafter.
This schedule was replaced (1929) by the Young Plan, named after another
American, Owen D. YOUNG, which lowered payments again. All payments ceased
with the economic crisis of the 1930s.
After World War II reparations were imposed on Germany, Japan, and the other
defeated powers, and the USSR enforced some claims against Germany. Victims of
Nazi persecution, including the state of Israel, received about $2 billion from
West Germany, but other reparation payments were modest. DONALD S. BIRN
Bibliography: Bergman, Carl, A History of Reparations (1927); Kuklick, Bruce,
American Policy and the Division of Germany: The Clash with Russia over
Reparations (1972); Wheeler-Bennett, John, The Wreck of Reparations (1933;
repr. 1972).
Caporetto, Battle of
--------------------------------
The Battle of Caporetto, or the 12th Battle of Isonzo, fought between Italian
and Austro-German forces in October-November 1917, nearly brought about Italy's
collapse in World War I. Since June 1915 the Italians, under Gen. Luigi
Cadorna, had fought 11 battles along the Isonzo River on their northeastern
border. They had made minimal advances, but in September 1917 their Austrian
opponents called in German aid. On October 24, German troops under Gen. Otto
von Below led a powerful attack against the weak Italian defenses at Caporetto,
forcing Cadorna to withdraw along the entire front. The arrival of British and
French reinforcements finally enabled Cadorna to stabilize the front at the
Piave River on November 12. In this humiliating setback, Italy lost 40,000
killed and wounded, as well as 275,000 prisoners and probably as many
deserters.
Russian Revolutions of 1917
--------------------------------
The abdication of Emperor NICHOLAS II in March (N.S.; February, O.S.) 1917, in
conjunction with the establishment of a provisional government based on Western
principles of constitutional liberalism, and the seizure of power by the
Bolsheviks in November (N.S.; October, O.S.) are the political focal points of
the Russian Revolutions of 1917. The events of that momentous year must also
be viewed more broadly, however: as an explosion of social tensions associated
with rapid industrialization; as a crisis of political modernization, in terms
of the strains placed on traditional institutions by the demands of
Westernization and of World War I; and as a social upheaval in the broadest
sense, involving a massive, spontaneous expropriation of gentry land by angry
peasants, the destruction of traditional social patterns and values, and the
struggle for a new, egalitarian society. Looking at the revolutionary process
broadly, one must also include the Bolsheviks' fight to keep the world's first
"proletarian dictatorship" in power after November, first against the Germans,
and then in the civil war against dissident socialists, anti-Bolshevik "White
Guards," foreign intervention, and anarchist peasant bands. Finally, one must
see the psychological aspects of revolutionary change: elation and hope, fear
and discouragement, and ultimately the prolonged agony of bloodshed and
privation, both from war and repression, and the "bony hand of Tsar Hunger,"
who strangled tens of thousands and, in the end, brought the revolutionary
period to a close after the civil war by forcing the Bolsheviks to abandon the
radical measures of War Communism in favor of a New Economic Policy (NEP).
Throughout, the events in Russia were of worldwide importance. Western nations
saw "immutable" values and institutions successfully challenged, COMMUNISM
emerged as a viable social and political system, and Third World peoples saw
the power of organized workers' and peasants' movements as a means of
"liberating" themselves from "bourgeois" exploitation. As such, the
Revolutions of 1917 ushered in the great social, political, and ideological
divisions of the contemporary world.
Historical Background.
Historians differ over whether the Revolutions of 1917 were inevitable, but all
agree on the importance of three related causal factors: massive discontent,
the revolutionary movement, and World War I, each operating in the context of
the ineptitude of a rigid, absolutist state.
The emancipation of the serfs in 1861 left the countryside in deep poverty.
The newly freed peasants received inadequate land allotments, particularly in
areas of fertile soil, and even these had to be purchased with "redemption
payments." Class antagonisms sharpened, particularly since government-promoted
industrialization sent impoverished peasants flocking to jobs in urban areas
for low wages under oppressive conditions. Government efforts to industrialize
also required huge tax revenues, which intensified pressures on workers and
peasants alike. Meanwhile, the rising business and professional classes
expressed unhappiness with tsarist rule and yearned for a Western-style
parliamentary system.
By 1905 discontent among the bourgeoisie, peasantry, and proletariat had
spurred Russian intellectuals to create the major political organizations of
1917.
Populist groups, organized in the countryside by the 1890s, joined radical
socialist workers' groups in the founding of the Socialist Revolutionary party
in 1901. The Marxist Social Democratic Labor party was established in 1898.
Five years later it divided into two factions: the Mensheviks, who favored a
decentralized, mass party; and the Bolsheviks of Vladimir Ilich LENIN, who
wanted a tightly organized, hierarchical party (see BOLSHEVIKS AND MENSHEVIKS).
Middle-class liberals formed the Constitutional Democratic party (Cadets) in
1905.
Russian losses in the RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR precipitated the RUSSIAN REVOLUTION OF
1905. The massive urban strikes, rural rioting, and almost total liberal
disaffection from the tsarist regime in 1905 have been called a "dress
rehearsal" for 1917. Reluctantly, Nicholas II granted a range of civil
liberties, established limited parliamentary government through a DUMA,
abolished peasant redemption payments, and under Pyotr STOLYPIN began an
agrarian reform program to promote the growth of a rural middle class. These
measures momentarily quieted the populace, but they also raised new
expectations; many concessions were later withdrawn, thus exacerbating
tensions. Furthermore, the social stability that some thought the tsar's
promises offered required time to develop, and this Russia did not have.
The March Revolution.
In 1914, Russia was again at war (see WORLD WAR I). Land reform was suspended,
and new political restrictions were imposed. Disastrous military defeats
sapped public morale, and ineffective organization on the home front made the
government's incompetence obvious to all. The emperor, assuming command of the
army in 1915, became identified with its weakness. The sinister influence of
Empress ALEXANDRA's favorite, Grigory RASPUTIN, increased. By the winter of
1916-17, disaffection again rent all sectors of society--including liberals,
peasants, and industrial workers.
When food shortages provoked street demonstrations in Petrograd on Mar. 8
(N.S.; Feb. 23, O.S.), 1917, and garrison soldiers refused to suppress them,
Duma leaders demanded that Nicholas transfer power to a parliamentary
government. With the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, a
special Duma committee on March 15 (N.S.; March 2, O.S.) established a
provisional government headed by Prince Georgi Lvov, a liberal. On the same
day, the emperor abdicated. He attempted to give the crown to his brother
Michael, but Michael refused to accept it. The 300-year-old Romanov dynasty
came to an end.
The new provisional government was almost universally welcomed. Civil
liberties were proclaimed, new wage agreements and an 8-hour day were
negotiated in Petrograd, discipline was relaxed in the army, and elections were
promised for a Constituent Assembly that would organize a permanent democratic
order. The existence of two seats of power, however--the provisional
government and the Petrograd Soviet--not only represented a potential political
rivalry but also reflected the different aspirations of different sectors of
Russian society. For most Russians of privilege--members of the bourgeoisie,
the gentry, and many professionals--the March Revolution meant clearing the
decks for victory over Germany and for the establishment of Russia as a leading
European liberal democracy. They regarded the provisional government as the
sole legitimate authority. For most workers and peasants, however, revolution
meant an end to an imperialist war, major economic reforms, and the development
of an egalitarian social order. They looked to the Petrograd Soviet and other
soviets springing up around the country to represent their interests, and they
supported the government only insofar as it met their needs.
Political Polarization.
Differing conceptions of the revolution quickly led to a series of crises.
Widespread popular opposition to the war caused the Petrograd Soviet on April 9
(N.S.; March 27, O.S.) to repudiate annexationist ambitions and to establish in
May a coalition government including several moderate socialists in addition to
Aleksandr KERENSKY, who had been in the cabinet from the beginning. The
participation of such socialists in a government that continued to prosecute
the war and that failed to implement basic reforms, however, only served to
identify their parties--the Socialist Revolutionaries, Mensheviks, and
others--with government failures. On July 16-17 (N.S.; July 3-4, O.S.),
following a disastrous military offensive, Petrograd soldiers, instigated by
local Bolshevik agitators, demonstrated against the government in what became
known as the "July Days."
The demonstrations soon subsided, and on July 20 (N.S.; July 7, O.S.), Kerensky
replaced Lvov as premier. Soon, however, the provisional government was
threatened by the right, which had lost confidence in the regime's ability to
maintain order. In early September (N.S.; late August, O.S.), General Lavr
KORNILOV was thwarted in an apparent effort to establish a right-wing military
dictatorship. Ominously, his effort was backed by the Cadets, traditionally
the party of liberal constitutionalism. The crises faced by the provisional
government reflected a growing polarization of Russian politics toward the
extreme left and extreme right.
Meanwhile, another revolution was taking place that, in the view of many, was
more profound and ultimately more consequential than were the political events
in Petrograd. All over Russia, peasants were expropriating land from the
gentry. Peasant-soldiers fled the trenches so as not to be left out, and the
government could not stem the tide. New shortages consequently appeared in
urban areas, causing scores of factories to close. Angry workers formed their
own factory committees, sequestering plants to keep them running and to gain
new material benefits. By the summer of 1917 a social upheaval of vast
proportions was sweeping over Russia.
The November Revolution.
Sensing that the time was ripe, Lenin and the Bolsheviks rapidly mobilized for
power. From the moment he returned from exile on Apr. 16 (N.S.; Apr. 3,
O.S.), 1917, Lenin, pressing for a Bolshevik-led seizure of power by the
soviets, categorically disassociated his party from both the government and the
"accommodationist" socialists. "Liberals support the war and the interests of
the bourgeoisie!" he insisted, adding that "socialist lackeys" aided the
liberals by agreeing to postpone reforms and continue fighting. With appealing
slogans such as "Peace, Land, and Bread!" the Bolsheviks identified themselves
with Russia's broad social revolution rather than with political liberty or the
political revolution of March. Better organized than their rivals, the
Bolsheviks worked tirelessly in local election campaigns. In factories they
quickly came to dominate major committees; they also secured growing support in
local soviets. A Bolshevik-inspired military uprising was suppressed in July.
The next month, however, after Kornilov's attempted coup, Bolshevik popularity
soared, and Lenin's supporters secured majorities in both the Petrograd and
Moscow soviets, winning 51 percent of the vote in Moscow city government
elections. Reacting to the momentum of events, Lenin, from hiding, ordered
preparations for an armed insurrection. Fully aware of what was about to
transpire, the provisional regime proved helpless.
On the night of November 6-7 (N.S.; October 24-25, O.S.) the Bolsheviks seized
power in Petrograd in the name of the soviets, meeting little armed resistance.
An All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, meeting
in Petrograd at the time, ratified the Bolsheviks' actions on November 8. The
congress also declared the establishment of a soviet government headed by a
Council of People's Commissars chaired by Lenin, with Leon TROTSKY in charge of
foreign affairs.
The Civil War and Its Aftermath.
Few, however, expected Lenin's "proletarian dictatorship" to survive.
Bolsheviks now faced the same range of economic, social, and political problems
as did the governments they had replaced. In addition, anti-Bolsheviks began
almost at once to organize armed resistance. Some placed hope in the
Constituent Assembly, elected November 25 (N.S.; November 12, O.S.); others
hoped for foreign intervention. Few appreciated Lenin's political boldness,
his audacity, and his commitment to shaping a Communist Russia.
These traits soon became apparent. The November Constituent Assembly elections
returned an absolute majority for the Socialist Revolutionaries, but Lenin
simply dispersed the Assembly when it met in January 1918. He also issued a
decree on land in November 1917, sanctifying the peasants' land seizures,
proclaiming the Bolsheviks to be a party of poor peasants as well as workers
and broadening his own base of support. He sued the Germans for peace, but
under terms of the Treaty of BREST-LITOVSK (March 1918) he was forced to
surrender huge portions of traditionally Russian territory. Shortly afterward,
implementing policies called War Communism, Lenin ordered the requisition of
grain from the countryside to feed the cities and pressed a program to
nationalize virtually all Russian industry. Centralized planning began, and
private trade was strictly forbidden. These measures, together with
class-oriented rationing policies, prompted tens of thousands to flee abroad.
Not surprisingly, Lenin's policies provoked anti-Bolshevik resistance, and
civil war erupted in 1918. Constituent Assembly delegates fled to western
Siberia and formed their own "All-Russian" government, which was soon
suppressed by a reactionary "White" dictatorship under Admiral Aleksandr
Kolchak. Army officers in southern Russia organized a "Volunteer Army" under
Generals Lavr Kornilov and Anton Denikin and gained support from Britain and
France; both in the Volga region and the eastern Ukraine, peasants began to
organize against Bolshevik requisitioning and mobilization. Soon anarchist
"Greens" were fighting the "Reds" (Bolsheviks) and Whites alike in
guerrilla-type warfare. Even in Moscow and Petrograd, leftist Socialist
Revolutionaries took up arms against the Bolsheviks, whom they accused of
betraying revolutionary ideals. In response, the Bolsheviks unleashed their
own Red Terror under the Cheka (political police force) and mobilized a Red
Army commanded by Trotsky. The Bolsheviks defeated Admiral Kolchak's troops in
late 1919, and in 1920 they suppressed the armies of Baron Pyotr N. WRANGEL
and General Denikin in the south. Foreign troops withdrew, and after briefly
marching into Poland the Red Army concentrated on subduing peasant uprisings.
Some Western historians attribute ultimate Bolshevik victory in this war to
White disorganization, half-hearted support from war-weary Allies, Cheka
ruthlessness, and the inability of Greens to establish a viable alternative
government. Most important, however, was the fact that even while Bolshevik
popularity declined, Lenin and his followers were still identified with what
the majority of workers and peasants wanted most: radical social change rather
than political freedom, which had never been deeply rooted in Russian
tradition. In contrast, the Whites represented the old, oppressive order.
Nevertheless, with the counterrevolution defeated, leftist anti-Bolshevik
sentiment erupted. The naval garrison at Kronshtadt, long a Bolshevik
stronghold, rebelled in March 1921 along with Petrograd workers in favor of
"Soviet Communism without the Bolsheviks!" This protest was brutally
suppressed. The Menshevik and Socialist Revolutionary parties, harassed but
not abolished during the civil war, gained support as the conflict ended. The
Bolsheviks outlawed these parties, signaling their intention to rule alone.
Lenin, however, was astute enough to realize that a strategic retreat was
required. At the Tenth Party Congress, in 1921, the NEW ECONOMIC POLICY was
introduced, restoring some private property, ending restrictions on private
trade, and terminating forced grain requisitions. The foundations had been
laid for building Bolshevik socialism, but the revolutionary period proper had
come to an end. WILLIAM G. ROSENBERG
Bibliography
Bibliography: Carr, E. H., The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1923, 3 vols.
(1951-53) and The Russian Revolution: From Lenin to Stalin (1979); Chamberlin,
William H., The Russian Revolution (1935); Kenez, Peter, Civil War in South
Russia, 2 vols. (1971, 1977); Medvedev, Roy A., The October Revolution, trans.
by George Saunders (1979); Pares, Bernard, The Fall of the Russian Monarchy
(1939); Pipes, Richard, The Formation of the Soviet Union, rev. ed. (1964);
Rabinowitch, Alexander, The Bolsheviks Come to Power (1976); Rosenberg, William
G., Liberals in the Russian Revolution (1974); Salisbury, Harrison, Black
Night, White Snow: Russia's Revolution, 1905-1917 (1978); Shapiro, Leonard B.,
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1960); Trotsky, Leon, The History of
the Russian Revolution, trans. by Max Eastman (1932; repr. 1957).
Lenin, Vladimir Ilich
--------------------------------
(len'-in, vluhd-ee'-mir il-yeech')
Vladimir Ilich Lenin, founder of the Russian Communist party, leader of the
Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, and first head of state of the USSR, was also a
masterful political thinker whose theories became a significant component of
Communist thought.
Early Life.
V. I. Lenin was born Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov, Apr. 22 (N.S.; Apr. 10, O.S.),
1870, in the provincial city of Simbirsk (now Ulyanovsk, renamed in his honor)
on the Volga River. By all accounts Lenin's middle-class family was warm and
loving--hardly the background one might expect for a militant revolutionary.
Lenin's father was a secondary-school teacher who rose in the civil service to
become a provincial director of elementary education. His mother also taught.
Both were deeply concerned with the popular welfare, and Lenin, along with his
two brothers and two sisters, absorbed at an early age both a desire to learn
and an intense commitment to improving the lives of ordinary Russians. In
1887, shortly after the death of his father, Lenin's older brother Aleksandr
was arrested in Saint Petersburg (now Leningrad) for plotting against the tsar.
He was convicted and hanged. The tragic event affected young Vladimir deeply,
but there is no reason to believe that it caused him to embrace the
revolutionary movement. Instead, he immersed himself in radical writings,
particularly those of Karl MARX and Nikolai Gavrilovich CHERNYSHEVSKY, and
continued his education. Graduating from high school with a gold medal, he
entered the University of Kazan but was expelled and exiled because of his own
developing radical views. In 1891, however, he passed the law examinations at
the University of Saint Petersburg as an external student, scoring first in his
class. He practiced law briefly in Samara (now Kuibyshev) before devoting
himself full time to revolutionary activities.
Communist Theoretician.
Between 1893 and 1902, Lenin studied the problem of revolutionary change in
Russia from a Marxist perspective and worked out the essential features of what
has come to be called Leninism. Convinced with other Marxists that the
development of industrial capitalism in Russia held the key to radical social
change, Lenin remained troubled by the inability of Russian workers to develop
spontaneously--as Marx had predicted--a radical consciousness capable of
effective political action. In this the workers behaved like the peasants,
whose failure to respond to radical appeals had frustrated populist
revolutionaries for years. To solve the problem Lenin developed the notion
that a radical consciousness had to be cultivated among workers through
agitation by a well-organized revolutionary party.
It was during this period that he began using his pseudonym "Lenin" (sometimes
"N. Lenin"). He also met and married Nadezhda Konstantinovna KRUPSKAYA. In
1895, Lenin was arrested, imprisoned, and sent in exile to Siberia with other
members of the Marxist organization known as the Union of Struggle. Lenin went
abroad in 1900 and with Georgy Valentinovich PLEKHANOV and others he organized
the clandestine newspaper Iskra (The Spark), designed to "ignite" radical
consciousness. In Iskra, Lenin vigorously rejected the notion of a political
alliance with liberals or other elements of the bourgeoisie (he was convinced
that they would only preserve a position of dominance over workers and
peasants) and stressed the importance of social, rather than political,
democracy, as the basis for individual freedom. This phase of Lenin's career
culminated with the publication of his pamphlet What Is to be Done? (1902) and
the organization of the Bolshevik (see BOLSHEVIKS AND MENSHEVIKS) wing of the
Russian Social Democratic Labor party in the summer of 1903. Lenin, like his
populist predecessors in the Russian radical movement, stressed the need for a
vanguard to lead the revolution.
Organizing for the Revolution.
After 1903, Lenin struggled to develop this vanguard organization, a
revolutionary leadership party that many historians regard as having mixed the
concepts of populist Jacobinism with Marx's views of proletarian class
revolution. Lenin became widely known in this period for his absolute
dedication to revolution and his complete lack of personal vanity. On
political issues he was merciless, lashing out ruthlessly at opponents and
castigating adversaries with biting sarcasm and scorn. He also showed himself
a masterful political tactician. Although he was in forced exile until 1917
(except for a brief period--1905-07--during and after the RUSSIAN REVOLUTION OF
1905) in London, Paris, Geneva, and other European cities, he maneuvered for
control over party committees and publications. He condemned his Social
Democratic opponents as Mensheviks (the Minority Group) despite being
outnumbered by them. Many of the Mensheviks were as radical as Lenin. They
worried about the dictatorial propensities of his vanguard party concept,
however, and urged instead the development of a mass popular base among the
workers. But Lenin remained characteristically impatient and optimistic. He
saw nothing to fear from a revolutionary elite genuinely dedicated to the
welfare of workers and poor peasants; the danger lay instead with political
liberals and a capitalist bourgeoisie, whose social system skimmed society's
wealth from the people and whose imperialist wars led them to death and
destruction.
Masterminding the Revolution.
In 1917, Lenin published Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism (Eng.
trans., 1933, 1939, 1947). In it he denounced World War I (in which Russia was
engaged on the side of the Allies) as a fight among the imperialist powers for
control of the markets, raw materials, and cheap labor of the underdeveloped
world. Since neither the Allies nor the Central Powers offered any benefits to
the working class, he urged all socialists to withhold their support from the
war effort. Following his lead Russian Bolsheviks refused to support their
government in its war efforts.
The German government, looking to disrupt the Russian war efforts further,
allowed Lenin to return to Russia from exile in Switzerland (traveling across
Germany in a sealed train). He arrived at Petrograd (as the former Saint
Petersburg was then called) on Apr. 16 (N.S.; Apr. 3, O.S.), 1917, and
received a tumultuous welcome from his followers. In his "April Theses" (Eng.
trans., 1951), published that year in Pravda, the Bolshevik newspaper, he
denounced the liberal provisional government that had replaced the tsarist
government, and he called for a socialist revolution. It was at this time that
he gained the important support of Leon TROTSKY.
An abortive uprising against the government in July forced Lenin into exile
once again (this time to Finland). It was a short-lived exile, however. In
September, correctly perceiving the increasingly radical mood in Russia, he
sent a famous letter to the party's central committee calling for armed
insurrection. He slipped back into Russia and successfully brought the
Bolsheviks to power through the "Military Revolutionary Committees"; and during
the first week of November (N.S.; October by the old-style calendar--hence the
name October Revolution) he succeeded in bringing down the government of
Aleksandr KERENSKY. On November 7 (N.S.; Oct. 25, O.S.) the first Bolshevik
government was formed; Lenin became its chairman. Thus he brilliantly
engineered the final act of the revolution that had begun only months before
(see RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS OF 1917).
Head of Government.
Lenin moved quickly to consolidate Bolshevik power. He reorganized the various
party factions into the Russian Communist party, established a secret police
(the Cheka), and totally reconstituted the desperate Russian economy along
Marxist principles. In order to bring the country out of the war, he accepted
a humiliating peace treaty with Germany in 1918 (see BREST-LITOVSK, TREATY OF).
That same year civil war broke out, and he was forced to put a Red Army in the
field against dissident forces. The dissidents, known as the Whites, were
supported by the Allies and were not defeated until 1921.
By that time the Russian economy was in shambles, and discontent among peasants
and workers was dangerously widespread. In the face of such problems Lenin was
forced to back away from his pure Marxian policies, instituting the NEW
ECONOMIC POLICY. He granted economic concessions to foreign capitalists in
order to encourage trade; he placed some light industry and most retail
operations back into private hands; and to appease the peasants he permitted
them to sell their produce on the open market. Despite these minor
concessions, Lenin continued to press forward toward his goal of a Marxist
Russia--and eventually a Marxist world. He established the COMINTERN in 1919
to assure that the Russian Communist party would remain in control of the
Marxist movement.
Although Lenin's power in the government was dictatorial and unquestioned, his
control over party affairs was never absolute. The great rivalry between
Trotsky and Joseph STALIN, which was to tear apart the Communist movement in
later years, was already being formed at this period.
On May 25, 1922, Lenin suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. A
series of strokes followed, and he died on Jan. 21, 1924, at the age of 53,
the most revered personage--apart from Marx himself--in the world of communism.
The former capital city of Saint Petersburg (then Petrograd) was renamed
Leningrad in his honor.
Lenin's mausoleum in Red Square, with his body embalmed and on display in a
glass coffin, has become the greatest shrine in the Communist world. More
important, Lenin's writings, along with those of Marx, form the basis for
Communist theory; their legitimacy is accepted by all factions of the Marxist
movement. WILLIAM G. ROSENBERG
Bibliography
Bibliography: Deutscher, Isaac, Lenin's Childhood (1970); Fischer, Louis, The
Life of Lenin (1964); Krupskaya, N. K., Reminiscences of Lenin, trans. by
Bernard Isaacs, 2 vols. (1930-32; repr. 1970); Lenin, Vladimir I., The
Collected Works, ed. and trans. by Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute, 45 vols., 4th
ed. (1960-70); Meyer, Alfred, Leninism (1957); Trotsky, Leon, Lenin: Notes
for a Biographer, trans. by Tamara Deutscher (1971); Ulam, Adam, The
Bolsheviks (1965); Valentinov, Nikolai, The Early Years of Lenin, trans. by
Rolf Theen (1969), and Encounters with Lenin, trans. by Paul Rosta and Brian
Pearce (1968); Wolfe, Bertram D., Three Who Made a Revolution (1962).
Trotsky, Leon
--------------------------------
(traht'-skee)
Leon Trotsky, b. as Lev Davidovich Bronstein, Nov. 7 (N.S.), 1879, d. Aug.
21, 1940, was second only to Vladimir Ilich LENIN as polemicist and organizer
of the Bolshevik phase of the RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS OF 1917. A charismatic
orator and superb tactician, he was also a brilliant theorist whose writings
greatly influenced socialist movements worldwide. His practical skills enabled
him to plan the Petrograd uprising in November 1917 and to create the Red Army
that saved the Bolshevik regime in the ensuing Civil War (1918-20). But his
fierce independence and aloofness prevented him from gaining broad party
support after Lenin's death, in his unsuccessful struggle for power with Joseph
STALIN.
Early Life and Revolutionary Activity.
Trotsky, the son of a relatively prosperous Jewish farmer in Yanovka, in the
Ukraine, was sent at the age of 9 to school in Odessa. Rebellious and
outspoken, he became at the age of 18 a professional revolutionary. He was
arrested in 1898 and was later exiled to Siberia, where he joined the Social
Democratic party. In 1902 he escaped abroad, met Lenin, and began his troubled
relationship with the Bolshevik party (see BOLSHEVIKS AND MENSHEVIKS).
Trotsky admired Lenin's pragmatism, but after the Social Democratic split in
1903 he sided with the Mensheviks because he feared that Lenin's "elitist"
organizational methods would lead to dictatorship. An independent-minded
left-winger, Trotsky wrote extensively in the radical press, and during the
Russian Revolution of 1905 he returned to take a leading role in the Saint
Petersburg (later Petrograd) Workers' Soviet. Arrested, tried, and again
exiled to Siberia, he escaped abroad again in 1907 and wrote extensively until
he returned to Russia in 1917.
Trotsky's major writings centered on the question of revolutionary development.
Recognizing the weakness of Russia's bourgeoisie, he argued that the first,
"bourgeois" stage of revolution could be carried out only with the help of
Russia's organized workers, and that this stage would lead to a condition of
"permanent revolution." The proletariat, who would have brought the bourgeoisie
to power, would then gradually assume political control. As the revolution
passed into worker hands in backward Russia, workers' revolts would spread to
the more advanced capitalist societies of Europe and would establish socialist
regimes to aid and protect the weak Russian revolutionary government.
Revolutionary Leader and Soviet Official.
This outlook, soon to affect much Third World revolutionary thinking,
structured Trotsky's activism in 1917. Returning to Russia independently of
Lenin after the March 1917 revolution, he called on the workers to overthrow
the liberal provisional government. In August he joined the Bolshevik party,
whose long-time loyalists (including Stalin) regarded him as an interloper.
However, Trotsky rapidly won a leading role with his spellbinding speeches and
organizational energy. In September he was elected chairman of the Petrograd
Soviet, and from that post he organized the Bolshevik forces that overthrew the
regime of Aleksandr Kerensky.
Appointed commissar of foreign affairs (1917-18), Trotsky unsuccessfully
opposed the annexationist Brest-Litovsk treaty with Germany, but he retained
Lenin's confidence and became commissar of war (1918-25). From the demoralized
remnants of tsarist forces he managed to organize an efficient Red Army, a
truly remarkable feat; but his brusque style, his impatience with criticism and
incompetence, and his decision to rely on "military specialists" won him few
friends. Rank-and-file party comrades saw him as aloof and remote. Known as a
"left Bolshevik" and an advocate of both rapid, planned industrialization and
party democracy, Trotsky watched impatiently after 1921 as the party course
seemed to support neither. In a series of essays labeled "The New Course"
(1923), he bitterly criticized the growing bureaucratization of the party and
argued for greater centralized planning. Much of his hostility was directed
against Stalin, whom he loathed. In response, Stalin stated his own position,
both by his activities within the party organization and in his advocacy of
"socialism in one country" (the antithesis of Trotsky's advocacy of world
revolution). With Lenin's death in January 1924, Trotsky proved either too
self-confident or too impatient to work carefully at practical politics.
Within weeks he was censured for "factionalism," and within three years he was
stripped of all posts and expelled from the party.
Exile.
Condemned to internal exile in 1928, he was banished from the USSR the
following year. Trotsky then lived in Turkey (1929-33), France (1933-35),
Norway (1935-36), and Mexico (1936-40). He continued to write on a wide range
of issues: culture, literature, politics, international affairs, revolutionary
theory, and women. He completed his massive History of the Russian Revolution
(3 vols., 1931-33; Eng. trans., 1932-33), also working energetically to expose
Stalin--most notably in The Revolution Betrayed (1937). At the treason trials
held (1936-38) in Moscow, Trotsky was denounced in absentia as the
archconspirator against the Soviet regime. He was finally axed to death by a
Stalinist agent at his home in a suburb of Mexico City. Many of Trotsky's
writings have appeared in English translation, including Literature and
Revolution (1925), Terrorism and Communism (1921; rev. ed., 1935), and Diary
in Exile, 1935 (1958). Trotsky's correspondence during his years in exile was
made public by Harvard University in January 1980. WILLIAM G. ROSENBERG
Bibliography
Bibliography: Carmichael, Joel, Trotsky: An Appreciation of His Life (1975);
Deutscher, Isaac, The Prophet Armed (1954), The Prophet Unarmed (1959), and The
Prophet Outcast (1963); Eastman, Max, Leon Trotsky: Portait of a Youth (1925);
Howe, Irving, Leon Trotsky (1978) and, as ed., The Basic Writings of Trotsky
(1963); Segal, Ronald, Leon Trotsky: A Biography (1979); Serge, Victor, and
Trotsky, Natalia Sedova, Life and Death of Leon Trotsky, trans. by Arnold J.
Pomerans (1975); Warth, Robert D., Leon Trotsky (1977); Wolfe, Bertram D.,
Three Who Made a Revolution (1948).
Kerensky, Aleksandr Fyodorovich
--------------------------------
(kuh-ren'-skee or kair'-in-skee, uhl-yik-sahn'-dur fyoh'-dor-u) -vich0
Aleksandr Kerensky, b. Apr. 22 (N.S.), 1881, d. June 11, 1970, headed the
Russian provisional government from July to October 1917, during the interim
between the overthrow of the tsar and the Bolshevik Revolution. A lawyer and a
democratic moderate, Kerensky joined the Socialist Revolutionary party in 1905
and was elected to the fourth DUMA in 1912. As premier, Kerensky was
personally identified with Russia's abortive military offensive in World War I,
a fact that further weakened his already shaky coalition government. In a vain
effort to maintain control, Kerensky ordered V. I. LENIN's arrest as well as
that of the right-wing general Lavr KORNILOV. Beleaguered by radicals and
reactionaries alike, he fled Russia in October. He lived in Paris until 1940,
after which he settled in New York City. WILLIAM G. ROSENBERG
Bibliography: Kerensky, A. F., Prelude to Bolshevism: The Kornilov Revolt
(1919), The Catastrophe (1927), The Crucifixion of Liberty (1934), and Russia
and History's Turning Point (1965); Whitman, Alden, The Obituary Book (1971).
Brest-Litovsk, Treaty of
--------------------------------
(brest-lit-awfsk')
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed on Mar. 3, 1918, by Germany and Austria on
the one hand and the new Soviet government of Russia on the other, ended
Russian participation in WORLD WAR I. The USSR had to agree to massive
territorial losses and payment of compensation. The treaty was annulled by the
armistice between Germany and the Western powers signed in November 1918.
Bibliography: Wheeler-Bennett, John, Brest-Litovsk, the Forgotten Peace (1938).
Baker, Newton Diehl
--------------------------------
Newton Diehl Baker, b. Martinsburg, W.Va., Dec. 3, 1871, d. Dec. 25, 1937,
was secretary of war (1916-21) under President Woodrow Wilson and administered
the U.S. war effort in World War I. He was early influenced by the reform
Democratic mayor of Cleveland, Tom Loftin Johnson, under whom he served as city
solicitor (1903-12). He was himself mayor of Cleveland from 1912 to 1916.
Appointed secretary of war in March 1916, Baker, a pacifist, took little action
until the United States entered (April 1917) World War I. Then he proved
himself a vigorous administrator. He implemented military conscription,
reorganized the War Department, and efficiently administered the huge war
budget. Increasingly conservative in his later life, he opposed the New Deal
policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Bibliography: Cramer, Clarence H., Newton D. Baker (1961); Palmer, Frederick,
Newton D. Baker: America at War, 2 vols. (1931; repr. 1969).
Foch, Ferdinand
--------------------------------
(fawsh)
Ferdinand Foch, b. Oct. 2, 1851, d. Mar. 20, 1929, was commander in chief
of the Allied armies in France in the final stages of WORLD WAR I and helped to
bring about the Allied victory. A fervent Roman Catholic with Jesuit training,
he joined the army in 1871 and studied at the Ecole Superieure de Guerre (war
college), where he later taught tactics. His lectures were published in two
works, The Principles of War (Eng. trans., 1918) and De la conduite de la
guerre ("On the Conduct of War," 1904). From 1908 to 1911 he was the school's
director.
In 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, Foch commanded the French Ninth Army
in the first Battle of the MARNE. He also commanded an army group in the
Battle of the SOMME (1916), but was then forced into retirement until he became
chief of the French general staff in 1917. In April 1918, Foch was given
unified command of all of the Allied troops in France. Halting the German
advance in the Second Battle of the Marne (July 1918), Foch mounted the
counteroffensive that turned the tide of the war. He was made a marshal, and
three months later he accepted the German surrender (November 1918). P. M.
EWY
Bibliography: King, Jere C., Foch Versus Clemenceau: France and German
Dismemberment (1960); Liddell Hart, B. H., Foch: The Man of Orleans (1932);
Marshall-Cornwall, James, Foch as Military Commander (1976).
Lausanne, Treaty of
--------------------------------
The Treaty of Lausanne (1923) settled the boundaries of modern Turkey and
resolved the territorial disputes raised in Anatolia by World War I. At the
end of the war the Allies imposed the Treaty of Sevres (1920) on the defeated
OTTOMAN EMPIRE; it effectively dismembered the empire, leaving only Anatolia
(minus a Greek enclave at Smyrna, or IZMIR) under Turkish rule. This
settlement was rejected by the Turkish nationalists led by Mustafa Kemal (later
Kemal ATATURK). Although they accepted the loss of Iraq, Syria, Arabia, and
other non-Turkish areas, they objected to the loss of Smyrna to Greece. After
driving the Greek troops out of Smyrna and ousting the sultan, Kemal's
government was able to force the negotiation of a new treaty, which was finally
concluded at Lausanne, Switzerland, on July 24, 1923.^According to the Treaty
of Lausanne, Turkey regained not only Smyrna but also eastern Thrace and some
of the Aegean islands. It also resumed control of the Dardanelles
(internationalized under the previous treaty) on the condition that they were
kept demilitarized and open to all nations in peacetime. A separate agreement
between Turkey and Greece provided for the exchange of minority populations.
DONALD S. BIRN
Bibliography: Sontel, S. R., Turkish Diplomacy, 1918-1923 (1975).
Scheidemann, Philipp
--------------------------------
(shyd'-e-mahn)
Philipp Scheidemann, b. July 26, 1865, in Kassel, Hesse, of which he was mayor
from 1920 to 1925, was a German socialist leader. A printer turned journalist,
he was elected to the German parliament, the Reichstag, in 1903. In 1918 he
joined the cabinet of Prince Max of Baden, the last imperial chancellor, on the
eve of Germany's collapse at the end of World War I. On Nov. 9, 1918,
following the abdication of Emperor William II, Scheidemann proclaimed from the
Reichstag building the establishment of what came to be known, from the city
where its constitution was drafted, as the WEIMAR REPUBLIC. In 1919 he served
under President Friedrich Ebert as its first chancellor, or prime minister. He
resigned in protest over the terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty. After Adolf
Hitler came to power in 1933, Scheidemann emigrated, dying in Copenhagen on
Nov. 29, 1939. DONALD S. DETWILER
Bibliography: Scheidemann, Philipp, The Making of New Germany, trans. by J. E.
Michell, 2 vols. (1929; repr. 1970).
Faisal I, King of Iraq
--------------------------------
Faisal I, first king of the Iraqi state that emerged after World War I,
contributed significantly to the maturing of Arab national consciousness. The
third son of HUSAYN IBN ALI of Mecca, he was born on May 20, 1885. Abandoning
his youthful vision of a reformed Ottoman Empire, he led his father's armies in
the Arab Revolt (1916-18) during World War I. He was elected king of Syria in
1920 but was forced to abdicate by the French. In 1921, however, the British
installed him as king of Iraq under their mandate. Shrewdly balancing British
against local interests, Faisal gained legal independence for Iraq in 1932. He
died suddenly on Sept. 8, 1933. ROBERT G. LANDEN
Bibliography: Longrigg, Stephen H., Iraq, 1900 to 1950 (1953).
League of Nations
--------------------------------
The League of Nations was an organization established after World War I to
promote international peace. Sixty-three nations were members, including all
the major European powers at one time or another. The United States played an
important role in setting it up but did not join. From its headquarters in
Geneva, the league organized many social and economic welfare activities,
although it concentrated on political matters. It was nominally responsible
for the administration of many colonial territories under the mandate system.
An important instrument of diplomacy in the 1920s, the league was unable to
fulfill its chief aims of disarmament and peace-keeping in the 1930s. It lost
members and fell into disuse before World War II. Some of its technical
services continued to function until the organization was formally terminated
on Apr. 18, 1946, when it was succeeded by the newly organized UNITED NATIONS.
Creation.
The outbreak of World War I in 1914 led people in Britain, France, the United
States, and several neutral countries to explore alternatives to traditional
diplomatic methods for keeping the peace. As the war went on, various schemes
for world organization were advanced and won popular support. Some government
leaders, including U.S. President Woodrow WILSON, Jan SMUTS of South Africa,
and Lord Robert Cecil, a member of the British cabinet, gave their support to
the league ideal as a way to prevent future wars. This ideal was one of the
FOURTEEN POINTS put forward by Wilson as the basis for a just peace, and by the
time of the PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE it was a leading war aim of the victorious
Allied powers. It brought to world politics the same liberal precepts that, in
theory at least, guided the political experience of the Western democracies: a
sense of moral purpose, a belief in parliamentary procedure, and a faith that
differences could be resolved peacefully.
When the League of Nations was established on Jan. 10, 1920, it disappointed
some of its early supporters. The Covenant, which was the basis for the
league's operation, was included in the Treaty of Versailles imposed on
defeated Germany.
This made it appear that the league was a tool for the victors to use against
their former enemies who were not members. The U.S. Senate refused to ratify
the peace treaty and, in a blow to President Wilson, also kept the country out
of the league. The USSR was also not a member at first, although like the
United States it cooperated with the league disarmament conference and some
other activities.
Organization.
The purpose and rules for the organization were set forward in the League of
Nations Covenant, which consisted of 26 short articles. In approach it was
more legalistic than the United Nations Charter; it was assumed that member
nations could work together without compromising their sovereignty. Outlined
in the Covenant were three approaches to preventing war: arbitration in
settling disputes, disarmament, and collective security.
Under the Covenant all member states were represented in an assembly, which
held sessions at least once a year. Each nation had one vote, and unanimity
was required for all decisions. The assembly regulated the budget and
membership of the league and served as a sounding board for world public
opinion. The main political work of the league and the settlement of
international disputes were delegated to another, smaller body--the council.
Permanent seats on the council were reserved for Britain, France, Japan, Italy,
and, later, Germany and the USSR; other countries were elected to temporary
representation on the council to make a total of 8, later raised to 10, and
then 14 members. The third main organ of the league was the secretariat, which
consisted of an international staff of several hundred officials who
administered league activities. In addition, the league was linked to several
other bodies, most notably the Permanent INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE, or
World Court, which met at The Hague, and the INTERNATIONAL LABOR ORGANIZATION.
Activities.
In the early 1920s the league attempted to establish its position as a center
of world affairs. The public enthusiasm that had helped launch it was hard to
sustain in peacetime. It proved effective in finding peaceful solutions to
several minor disputes, such as that between Sweden and Finland over the Aland
Islands in 1920 and that between Greece and Bulgaria in 1925. Doubts remained
about whether it could really stop aggression by a major power, however, and
the position of Germany with regard to European security was still a major
concern. Proposals to reinforce the Covenant and overcome these uncertainties
did not win approval; the Geneva Protocol of 1924, which branded aggressive war
as an international crime, failed because of British opposition. The
collective security machinery of the league remained untested, and no
international forces were assembled to secure it, although this was often
proposed. Disarmament could not proceed while unease continued over security.
This situation did not change fundamentally in the late 1920s, but the league
gained in prestige because the threat of war was remote. The LOCARNO PACT of
1925 reassured Germany's neighbors and paved the way for German admission to
the league the following year. Foreign ministers and other government leaders
attended sessions in Geneva, and the league's reputation was high. It gained
support through its valuable nonpolitical work--combating the spread of opium
and other illicit drugs, contributing to child welfare, improving health
conditions around the world, and lowering the barriers against international
trade.
The DEPRESSION OF THE 1930s and a series of international crises changed the
political climate. The crisis ensuing from the Japanese invasion of MANCHURIA
in September 1931 is often seen in retrospect as the first decisive challenge
to the league system. At the time, however, the European statesmen on the
league council did not so perceive it. In 1932 they sent a commission of
inquiry to study the rights and wrongs of the war between China and Japan (see
SINO-JAPANESE WARS). Japan soon left the league, but no effort was made to
force it to give back the territory it had conquered.
Manchuria was far away, and many people hoped that the league would still be
effective if aggression occurred closer to Europe. Nonetheless, this failure
eroded confidence in collective security. Adolf HITLER's rise to power in
Germany aggravated the crisis. In 1933 he pulled Germany out of the GENEVA
CONFERENCE on disarmament and then out of the league itself. As Germany began
to rearm and overturn the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles, the league
was slow to respond. Its supporters continued to press for disarmament when
force was needed to deter Germany. They tried to win Hitler back to the
organization rather than work to stop him.
Collective security was finally put to the test in 1935 when Italy attacked
ETHIOPIA. After Ethiopia's emperor HAILE SELASSIE appealed for help, the
league voted to impose economic sanctions against Italy until it stopped its
aggression. Britain and France, whose cooperation was essential to this
effort, acted timorously, as they did not want to antagonize the Italian
dictator Benito MUSSOLINI. Hence they tried to work out various compromise
solutions with him and did not attempt to cut off his vital oil supplies.
Italy was able to overcome this half-hearted sanctions policy and complete its
conquest of Ethiopia. Italy withdrew from the league in 1937 and went on to
further foreign intervention, along with Germany and the USSR, in the SPANISH
CIVIL WAR.
The league never recovered from this setback. It continued to meet in the late
1930s but could take no effective action. One reaction of its supporters was
to try to use the league as the rallying point for an anti-fascist coalition
built around Britain, France, and the USSR. Another conflicting tendency was
to ask for revisions of the Covenant to prevent the league from imposing
sanctions. This tactic was supposed to improve the league's position in
nonpolitical humanitarian work such as assisting refugees. The league was all
but ignored in the rush of events that led to the outbreak of World War II. It
revived briefly in December 1939 to make the meaningless gesture of expelling
the USSR for its attack on Finland.
Evaluation.
Despite its eventual failure to halt the tide of war, the league was an
important pioneering venture in international affairs. The recurrence of war
only emphasized the world's need for an effective alternative to anarchy, and
the United Nations followed the structure and methods of the league in its main
outlines. The changes in emphasis in the new organization reflected some of
the lessons of the league experience. The United Nations Charter is a more
political and less legalistic document than the Covenant. It places more
reliance on diplomacy and less on elaborate judicial procedures to prevent war.
Moreover, the United Nations emphasizes nonpolitical work in economic
development to a much greater degree than did the league. The United Nations
is truly a worldwide group that tries to meet the needs of its members; the
league was more limited in scope and membership. DONALD S. BIRN
Bibliography
Bibliography: Baer, George W., Test Case: Italy, Ethiopia and the League of
Nations (1977); Dexter, Byron, The Years of Opportunity (1967); Egerton, George
W., Great Britain and the Creation of the League of Nations (1978); Kimmich,
Christopher M., Germany and the League of Nations (1976); Schiffer, Walter, The
Legal Community of Mankind (1954; repr. 1972); Scott, George, The Rise and
Fall of the League of Nations (1974); Walters, F. P., A History of the League
of Nations (1952; repr. 1960); Zimmern, Alfred, The League of Nations and the
Rule of Law, 1918-1935, 2d ed. (1969).
Clemenceau, Georges
--------------------------------
(kle-mahn-soh')
The French statesman Georges Clemenceau, popularly known as "the Tiger,"
contributed to the Allied victory in World War I and helped formulate the
Treaty of Versailles. Clemenceau was born on Sept. 28, 1841, and received a
medical education. A lifelong republican, he opposed the regime of NAPOLEON
III and, as a result, spent several years in the United States.
In 1870, after the overthrow of Napoleon during the Franco-Prussian War,
Clemenceau became mayor of Montmartre. He tried to prevent civil war when the
radical COMMUNE OF PARIS revolted in 1871 but was unsuccessful in preventing
the death of two generals at the mob's hands. He was later tried and cleared
of the charges that resulted.
As a journalist and, from 1876, a Radical deputy, Clemenceau uncompromisingly
opposed clericalism and he helped overthrow many of France's moderate and
conservative ministries. In 1892, however, he was caught in the web of the
scandal involving bribes to the press and the deputies by the company
constructing the Panama Canal. Clemenceau lost his seat in the chamber in
1893, but was returned to politics by the DREYFUS AFFAIR. In 1898 he published
Emile ZOLA's open letter "J'accuse" in his newspaper L'Aurore. His fervent
support of Dreyfus not only helped clear the latter's name but restored his own
reputation.
Elected to the Senate in 1902, Clemenceau served as premier from 1906 to 1909.
Because he feared the power of Germany, he strengthened cooperation with
Britain and approved the Anglo-Russian agreement of 1907 that, in effect,
created the TRIPLE ENTENTE of France, Russia, and Britain. Labor unrest flared
during Clemenceau's term, culminating in strikes in 1908-09. His use of troops
to break one strike cost him the support of the Radicals, and he lost office.
In November 1917, President Raymond POINCARE again called Clemenceau to the
premiership, knowing that only Clemenceau could maintain French national unity.
In a short time the new premier raised national morale, sustaining it through
the onslaught of a fresh German offensive of March 1918. The next month he
obtained unification of the Allied command under Gen. Ferdinand FOCH, who
organized the Allied offensive that ended the war. Clemenceau led the French
delegation at the PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE. There he advocated the establishment
of French-occupied buffer states on the Rhine River and the creation of strong
states on Germany's eastern border. He also demanded REPARATIONS from the
Germans for French war damages. Although Clemenceau was much harsher toward
the Germans than either President Woodrow WILSON or Prime Minister David LLOYD
GEORGE, many in France criticized him as being too lenient. Old political
grievances brought the Tiger down. Clemenceau had denounced some members of
the Left as defeatists in 1917; in 1920 they defeated him in the presidential
election. He retired from politics and died on Nov. 24, 1929. P. M. EWY
Bibliography: Bruun, Geoffrey, Clemenceau (1943; repr. 1968); Jackson, J.
H., Clemenceau and the Third Republic (1946; repr. 1962); Watson, David R.,
Clemenceau: A Political Biography (1976); Williams, Wythe, The Tiger of France
(1949).