The History of~World War 1(Part 3:What's Happening around the World?)

As we left off from our last part in this series (click here) is the first battles of the war and how things quickly went into a stalemate.

But, the fighting wasn't confined to Europe, there were battles on other places in the world, such as Africa and Asia.

This is Part 3 of this Wiki Page series about World War 1, and this is where we talk about the other battles in other places around the world.

## Fighting in Africa

It all began when troops of the Western Alliance were sent to invade Germany's colonies in central and southern Africa (modern-day Cameroon, Namibia, and Tanzania respectively) in August of 1914.

Both the Western Alliance and the Central powers fought fiercely in Africa and despite heavy casualties on both sides as well as long fighting. The Western Alliance was able to push most of the Central Powers (mainly Germany) out of Africa.

The biggest was in East Africa (Tanzania, Kenya, and even Zaire) where there were over 55,000 in total military casualties occurred. Not to mention the famine that came after the fighting which led to 350,000 civilian deaths.

## The Gallipoli Campaign

As the Ottoman Empire joined the side of the Central Powers, the Western Alliance tried to make some runs on this Empire before it could help Germany and Austria-Hungary in the war. As early as January 1915, both Britain and France launched a naval attack against the Ottomans which lasted for several weeks. Despite a technological advantage, the Alliance lost to the Ottomans, and now the Alliance is looking to take a small Ottoman town known as Gallipoli. Unfortunately, the Alliance didn't fare any better in several battles.

In August of 1915, the 2 nations Australia and New Zealand decide to join the Western Alliance, and these 2 nations have formed what is known as the *"Australia-New Zealand Army Corp."* (or *ANZAC*for short) and they sent troops to the Ottoman Empire. Russia also sent troops into the Empire to help the Alliance.

But even as ANZAC joins the fight, the Alliance still ran into problems fighting against the Ottoman Empire. After 10 months, the Campaign was put off indefinitely with the Alliance (with ANZAC) suffering 300,000 casualties with only 250,000 for the Ottomans.

## Japan joins the fight..........somewhat

Since 1905 (actually since the Sengoku Jidai) Japan always wanted to take the Far East, though they already have taken the Korean Peninsula in the *Russo-Japanese War*in 1905, they also wanted to take parts of China. But, Europe got to it first. So Japan wasn't too happy with this (especially with Germany).

So, Japan sent messages to the Western Alliance (and Great Britain) that Japan has an interest in declaring war on Germany and to join the Western Alliance as they want to take some German Colonies in Asia. The Alliance agrees to this and asked that Japan send troops to Europe to help break the stalemate on the Western Front, Japan agrees.

As Japan sends troops to Europe, Japan also had its eyes set on taking the huge island chain of Micronesia (which is owned by Germany) as well as areas in China also owned by Germany (like Tsingtao where Japan with Britain's aid fought against the Germans in August of 1914).

Meanwhile, back in Europe, eventhough things were still in a stalemate on both fronts. Both factions are about to make a breakthrough in these stalemates.

In the next part, we'll talk about the battles in Europe that will eventually break the stalemates on both fronts. Some will give the alliance a boost in confidence, others, however, will break nations (click here to continue). Until next time, This is JohnnyOTGS signing out.