The Great War

## Summary

The Great War was a conflict between multiple nations from 1915-1917. The war saw fighting across multiple continents, the development of new technologies for warfare and the establishment of the Russian Republic, as well as several other republics across the Balkans.

## Beginning

In March of 1914 multiple groups across France began revolts against their municipal governments. Most of these groups eventually claimed to be fighting for a unified cause against the perceived corruption of the French Government. The government responded harshly, punishing the rioters and raiding their rallying halls. By April 4th the French President issued a proclamation blaming German and Italian interference in their affairs, and the funding of the riots. France cited finding stamped crates of German weapons in the hands of the protestors, who by now had largely disbanded their efforts. The lack of an apparent motive for the riots other than government ineptitude turned a large portion of the French public to the official story. Germany and Italy denied the accusations.

Meanwhile, in April similar protests began in Bosnia, with demonstrators outside of Austrian officials homes and offices. They had varying stated goals, but mostly demanded an independent Balkan state or the dissolution of the Austrian Monarchy and representation in a new Republic. Spurred by the demonstrations in Bosnia, people across the provinces of Austria-Hungary began organizing. Political groups formed declaring their support for a republican nation, with equal representation for people across the current dominion. In June of 1914 the Austrian government began efforts to stomp out workers unions, and deployed larger police forces across the empire. This only continued to anger the populace in the central territories of the nation. The tipping point for the Austrians came on July 11th, when an armed group known as the Free Association (Републиц Форце) launched an armed assault on the Austrian Governors Office in Sarajevo. The group stormed the building, killing the guards within and robbing the government funds stored in the building. Governor Oskar Potiorek was killed and appeared to be the main goal of the attack. The provinces used the public momentum gained by this action to organize groups to demand provincial diets and a National Assembly elected by all people. Vienna largely responded by suppressing protests and deploying military units By October 20th the protests largely died out for public fear of the government.

On the 17th of November, 1914 France denounced the German and Italian governments for funding rebellions in her territory. The Russians sided with the French in denouncing Germany for its occupation of Poland. The German Monarchy called a meeting of Austria and Italy, seemingly on the other side of the Russo-French partnership. The meeting occurred in Munich on December 1st. The nations publicly declared their support for each other on the 12th of the month. The French and Russians then joined in declaring the Austrian government a threat to their national sovereignty and the sovereignty of the people under her rule. Notably the Russian Empire didn't acknowledge the Austrian internal crisis, likely to maintain public support for the Russian Monarchy.

Germany, Italy and Austria declared war on the French and Russians on January 30th, 1915. The German attack on France included violating the neutrality of Belgium, which, largely involved the United Kingdom. While Belgium was largely aligned with France, England guaranteed her independence. In February, Great Britain officially entered the war in support of Belgium and more largely the French. The most defunct Ottoman Empire made a plea to join the central alliance in March of 1915 and declared war on England, France and notably Russia on April 19th. Japan, a major economic ally of the British joined the war on March 2nd. This informal alliance became known as the Entente Nations, opposed to the Central Alliance established in Munich.

## Early War: January, 1915-October, 1915

The war began after the German Declaration on France and Russia. The first year largely saw stalemate on both the Eastern and Western Fronts. Naval action in the Mediterranean, Black Sea and Atlantic saw the development of an Entente Advantage.

### French and Belgian Strategy

The French tactics largely saw the development of a defensive network across their border with the Germans, and an active defense of Belgium. A trench network was established across the border, with newly developed artillery dominating the battlefield. Occasional offensives were launched, mostly in areas where trenches were not built. Attacks launched in entrenched areas saw tremendous casualties to both sides and rarely broke the line, almost always seeing the complete defeat of the attacking force.

Belgian forces aided by the French carried out a mobile strategy, starkly opposed to the defensive network of the French. This tactic was largely promoted by the British forces sent to Belgium, and the Belgian generals. It saw greater success, seeing the German Offensives flanked, and largely attacking the supply chains of the German forces, isolating captured cities before their subsequent surrender and retaking. The development of faster and more effective trucks and vehicles played well to this strategy, largely imported from the mostly peaceful United Kingdom.

### British Strategy

The United Kingdom mostly provided expeditionary forces to Belgium and the trench-works, though to a lesser extent. The main wartime facility of the British was the deployment of their navy around the globe. This projection of naval power tended to be in support of offensives led by other nations, or in defense of Entente trade routes from the colonies. The colonial front saw the largest deployment of British forces, capturing German and Italian colonies and defending those frontlines in Africa. British strategy largely defended their empire and supply for other allied nations. The defense of colonies in the Middle East comprised the majority of fighting in the region against the Ottomans. British naval power after the securing of the desert with similar tactics as developed in Belgium, saw incursions into mainland Turkey.

### German Strategy

The German surprise attacks through Belgium proved largely effective until the arrival of British forces, and developed into a stalemate, much like the empires situation on the French border, eerily similar to the problems faced by the French. The Russian front across Poland saw some advancement, and then the retreat of the Germans to Russian and Polish Cavalry. The German air-force largely comprised of Zeppelins, saw the greatest power exerted by the Empire during the war, fitting the dirigibles with bombs and dropping them on the largest British and French cities not accessible by land. These dirigibles also aided in the defense of foreign colonies in Africa and the Pacific, along with the naval defense of German overseas territories.

### Ottoman Strategy

The Ottoman Empire required oil to fuel its mechanized forces, which proved to be the most effective way to navigate the deserts south of Turkey. To this the empire attempted to hold the British in Egypt and secure the resources of the Desert. Hampered not especially by British forces stuck in Sinai, but native Arabs angered by increased ottoman presence in their land. Britain mostly funded and supported these rebels from the air than directly engaging the Ottomans. The highly mobile and fast-moving ottoman war-machine typically lent itself well to its surroundings, but was oftentimes a victim of overextension and being stranded and cut off in the desert. The Empires navy was

### Russian Strategy

Russian command was fairly unorganized prior to the war, and as such saw most uncoordinated offensives and the individual actions of soldiers perform especially well or fail entirely, often suffering excesses of fifty-percent casualties. The high-command decided to remove most powers from platoon and company officers to instead centralize control. By July, Russian strategy was largely offensive, seeing widespread infantry actions into Austria and to a lesser extent Germany. This simplistic strategy only functioned for the generally accepted high-level of prowess held by lesser-generals in the Russian Army and their inability to move into higher-rank without the rule of the Tsar.

## Late War: November. 1915-November, 1917

The latter half of the war saw a Revolution in Russia, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and the Victory of the Entente in Italy. The effective collapse of Austria occurred, seeing the establishment multiple new Entente states in the Balkans. Momentary success in Belgium and France by the Germans saw the overextension of their supply and the eventual failure of the German Army.

### Western Front

The western front after being locked in a stalemate for a two years, broke during the largest offensive launched by the germans since the initial invasion. The Entente forces were pushed back to the border of Paris, and holding only the largest cities and the Coast of Belgium. Airpower, the new developments in it, saw the deployment of airborne troops behind the German lines and the destruction of their supply logistics saw the majority of the army cut off and starving while sieging multiple cities. The Entente forces reached the German border in July and reached Berlin by October, employing new mechanized infantry and the deployment of scout troops by airship.

### Ottoman Front

British involvement in the Middle East rapidly increased following the success of Arabian rebels in reaching Jerusalem with the aid of British Troops in May 1916. British Naval power launched several land invasions into Anatolia, with varying degrees of success. The capture of Istanbul in November 1916 is typically considered the breaking point of the ottomans. Greek and British Naval Power annihilated their presence in the Black Sea and land offensives to the south were pushing into central Anatolia. The Ottoman Empire surrendered on February 14th, 1917.

### Russian Revolution and the Eastern Front

The simple Russian strategy functioned to make them largely hold the line and make small progress through the first two years of the war. In August of 1917, however disgruntled Russians across the nation took up arms against the tsar, protesting taxes and the institute of serfdom. The revolution had been brewing for the entirety of the war and the time before it. Russian involvement in the war furthered public outrage for the monarchy and is likely the reason for the violent nature of the rebellion. Most groups rebelling across the nation weren't unified in their beliefs, from the Communists, the Tsarists and the Republicans. These three groups formed the majority of actions throughout the country. The only group with unified beliefs and structure were the government, but event they were split between the citizens and the government proper. The two groups often had internal, if not violent, conflicts. The Communist forces were even more divided, between supporters of individual leaders within the organization. Republican efforts across the country were the most disjointed in command, but were unified in the belief in a democratic Russia. Farmers and factory workers comprised the majority of support for these ideals, while strangely many land-owners and businessmen turned to the communists during the latter years of the revolution. The Republicans, which became to be known as the Yellow Army, seemed to make the most progress during the revolution, employing guerrilla tactics disrupting government patrols and robbing their supply convoys.

While the communist Red Army captured Moscow, and other large cities in the South, the Government maintained control from St. Petersburg until a republican offensive, typically considered the first organized action of their movement, captured it. The Republicans held their first election to select a President in the center of St. Petersburg and elected their premier General, Yuri Balavich to lead they nation, Holding most of the former government cities and the surrounding farmland. The Constitution of the Russian Republic was introduced in January 1918, and the formation of the National Assembly, as well as the first ten regional assemblies. Poland was officially at war with the Germans after their independence

During the fighting in Russia, a movement in Poland, which had largely been under solid government control, led to there uprisings in Krakow, Warsaw and Gdansk saw the effective removal of government troops from the region and their redeployment to the South to face the Red Army. Poland declared its independence as a free Republic in April 1917 with the support of many Republicans in Russia.

### Austrian Civil War

Austrian Efforts in Russian ceased long before the Russian Revolution. They mostly fell apart from internal strife in the outlying provinces of Austria. Many anti-war and democratic protests began occurring after the Austrian governments casualties in Italy and the southern Balkans.