Part 172

RESULTS: Reorganization of the Balkan states. Albania was made independent under an international commission of control; Crete was ceded to Greece; Macedonia was divided among Greece, Servia, and Bulgaria; and Roumania gained a strip from the northwest of Bulgaria. On September 17, 1913, an agreement between Bulgaria and Turkey provided that the latter retain Adrianople, Kirk Kilisseh, and Dimotika. September 28 the treaty between Bulgaria and Turkey was signed at Constantinople.

=EUROPEAN WAR=--1914-1917.

(1) Entente Allies (Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Belgium, Servia, Montenegro, Roumania, Portugal, Japan) vs. (2) Teutonic Allies (Germany, Austro-Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria).

CAUSES: (1) The immediate occasion of this great conflict was the murder of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of the Austro-Hungarian empire, on June 28, 1914, at Sarajevo, Bosnia, through the alleged instigation of a Servian revolutionary society, called the Narodna Odbrana, which had for its purpose the disrupting of the Austro-Hungarian empire, particularly those parts inhabited largely by Servians and other Slavic races, followed by a demand on the part of the Austro-Hungarian government that Servia suppress the criminal organization and permit the former to co-operate in the inquiry as to the accomplices on Servian territory in the murders of the Prince and Princess. This demand was refused by Servia, which immediately received the support of Russia, France and Great Britain, while Austria-Hungary received the support of Germany, and, later, of Turkey.

(2) The underlying causes were the following:

(a) The policy of Russia (popularly known as Pan-Slavism), an age-long political creed of Russian ambition, to dominate the Balkan countries and extend her dominions to the Bosphorus, the Ægean and the Adriatic.

(b) The ambition of France to regain Alsace-Lorraine, lost to her by the Franco-Prussian war.

(c) The determination of Great Britain to check the growth of Germany, politically, industrially, and especially commercially.

(3) More remote causes, and more specious ones, are alleged to be:

(a) The European political doctrine of the “Balance of Power,” which was the outgrowth of the Napoleonic wars, and received its first stamp of approval at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, which settled the important boundaries of the map of Europe for more than half a century afterward. Subsequently, the “great powers” of Europe assumed the point of view that any acquisition of power, territory or population by any one of them entitled all the others to compensation; so that the relative strength and importance might not be disturbed. This rule has been applied to every important war since Napoleon’s time, and any threatened disturbance of this “balance” has always had in it the germ of a general conflict. Hence arose the historic “alliances,” known as the Triple Alliance, on the one hand, and the Triple Entente, comprising France, Russia and Great Britain, on the other.

(b) Militarism, so-called, with its attendant jealousies and obstacles to social and economic reforms, and which might be said to be the direct fruits of the “balance of power” doctrine, as is also the doctrine of the “guaranteed neutrality” of certain small countries of Europe, which astute European diplomacy created for the purpose of “buffer” states.

MILITARY LEADERS: (1) Kitchener, French, Haig, Joffre, Grand Duke Nicholas, Kouropatkin, Brusiloff, Admirals Fisher and Jellicoe; (2) Emperor William, Hindenburg, Mackensen, Kluck, Falkenhayn, Archduke Frederick, Hoetzendorf, Crown Prince Frederick William, Admiral Tirpitz, Crown Prince Rupprecht, Enver Pasha.

CHIEF THEATERS OF ACTION: (1) Belgium; (2) Northern France; (3) Poland; (4) Dardanelles; (5) Servia and Balkans; (6) Roumania; (7) Austro-Italian Front; (8) Lithuania; (9) North Sea and Inlets; (10) Mediterranean; (11) German Colonial Possessions throughout the world.

RESULTS: Except for the loss of Germany’s Colonial Possessions, the results of the war to date (1917) largely preponderate in favor of the Teutonic Allies--the land campaigns being almost overwhelmingly in their favor. (See further Great Battles of the World.)

CHRONOLOGY OF GREAT EVENTS:

=1914=

June 28.--Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the Duchess of Hohenberg at Sarajevo, Bosnia, by Servian student.

July 28.--Austria declares war on Servia, and hostilities commence, after Germany and Austria refuse England’s invitation to a conference.

August 1.--Germany formally declares war on Russia, and troops are ordered mobilized.

France mobilizes.

August 3.--Germany declares war on France. German troops enter Belgium.

August 4.--War declared by England on Germany.

August 6.--Austria declares war against Russia.

August 9.--Servia declares war on Germany.

August 11.--Montenegro declares war on Germany.

August 12.--France declares war on Austria-Hungary.

August 12.--England declares war on Austria.

August 23.--Japan in state of war with Germany.

August 25.--Austria declares war on Japan.

August 29.--Austria declares war on Belgium.

August 30.--Paris prepares for a siege.

September 5.--England, France and Russia agree not to treat for peace separately.

October 30.--Russia declares state of war exists with Turkey.

November 5.--Great Britain officially announces state of war with Turkey.

Servia severs diplomatic relations with Turkey.

=1915=

February 17.--Germans begin submarine campaign by sinking British collier without warning.

February 24.--Britain closes Irish and North channels to all navigation.

March 1.--Great Britain declares virtual blockade of German coast.

March 15.--British council order prohibits all traffic to and from Germany.

May 23.--Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.

October 14.--Bulgaria declares war on Servia.

=1916=

August 27.--Italy declares war on Germany.

Roumania entered the war on the side of the allies.

October 11.--Upon demand of Great Britain and France the entire Greek fleet and sea-coast forts were turned over to the allies or dismantled.

December 7.--David Lloyd George accepted British post of Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.

December 8.--Roumanian army trapped in Prahova Valley, surrendered to General von Mackensen’s forces.

December 12.--Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg announced to the Reichstag that Germany and her allies proposed to enter forthwith into peace negotiations.

=1917=

February.--The chief occurrences in the opening months of this year were the blockade declared by Germany against the Entente Allies, and the announcement of unrestricted submarine warfare upon neutral shipping to the nations composing that alliance. This course was justified by the German government as a retaliation against the starvation blockade instituted by Great Britain and her allies.

GREAT AMERICAN AND FOREIGN BATTLES.

This table includes those battles of decisive or far-reaching importance upon the destinies of the contestants. The dates are according to the Old Style, or Julian, calendar down to 1582; after that date, according to the New Style, or Gregorian, calendar. The victors in the various battles are printed in =bold-face= type. Details of minor American battles will be found in connection with the Outline Tables of American History. †Naval battles. *Indecisive results.