The First World War

[Tmee2020]

During World War I some 10 million Europeans were killed, about 7 million were permanently disabled, and 15 million seriously wounded, mostly young men of working age and middle class backgrounds. This loss, combined with the destruction of land and property, led to a European situation of grave pessimism and poverty for many. Living conditions declined dramatically at the close of the war and infant mortality rate skyrocketed. The widespread material destruction totalled billions of dollars of damage in Europe. The war's prosecution had cost the nations of Europe six and one-half times as much as the total national debt of the entire world during the years from 1800 to 1914.
The Allies bore the brunt of the debt, and material damages, France especially. But the Central Powers were punished severely by the war's concluding treaties. Germany lost 15 percent of its pre-war capacity, all of its foreign investments, and 90 percent of its mercantile fleet. The Treaty of Versailles imposed reparations payments which were generally considered intolerable and impossible. In Austria, agricultural production fell 53 percent from pre-war levels, and starvation was a persistent problem. Inflation hit all of Europe in the first years after the war, as pent up demand was released and production fell off due to a shortage of raw materials. By 1920, prices in Hungary were 23,000 times what they had been before the war, and in Russia the multiplier was 4 million. A sharp depression in 1920 and 1921 corrected prices to some extent.
This depression, however, meant that the debtor countries increasingly found it impossible to pay their war debts. Germany pleaded with Britain and France for a moratorium on reparations payments, but France would not agree, and in fact, sent troops into the Ruhr in 1923, when Germany defaulted on its payments. In 1924, a solution was presented in the form of the Dawes Plan, presented by the American, Charles Dawes. Under this plan the total sum owed by Germany would remain the same, but the yearly payments were reduced, and Germany was granted a loan. The German Chamber of Deputies accepted the plan on August 27, 1924. As a result, the German mark began to stabilize, and Germany was able to pay on time for a short while.
Meanwhile, the European Allies had their own financial problems. They ended the war deeply indebted to the United States. The United States demanded payment in gold and dollars, which the Allies borrowed from creditor nations, creating even greater debt elsewhere.
From 1925 to 1929, Europe entered a period of relative prosperity and stability. However, unemployment remained high, and population growth outstripped economic growth. During this time, world trade increased and speculative investment increased as the result of better economic times. US creditors, flush with capital coming in from Europe, led this speculative movement.
Germany continued to struggle with reparations payments, and in 1930, the Young Plan replaced the Dawes Plan, lowering annual payments yet again, but to no avail. In attempts to maintain benefits for the unemployed and drive prices down, taxes were hiked, and unemployment shot up again. As the Great Depression that had struck the United States in 1929 began to set in throughout Europe in the early 30s, banks began to collapse. Despite international loans, Germany, and Europe as a whole, plunged into depression, during which currencies collapsed and all hope of stability was dashed. Despite efforts to stabilize world prices and European employment, Europe remained mired in depression until the outbreak of World War II.

This is from the Sparknotes website. I haven't checked the numbers. "Germany lost all of its foreign investments"- would that be right?

[knobby109]

Further, war reparations had a bad effect on the countries they were supposed to compensate. Goods came into England as reparations and undercut domestic products.
How much overseas investment Germany had, I don't know. Britain's were massive but used up during the war. The German mercantile fleet was minor whereas the UK lost millions of tons.But reconstruction creates jobs whereas letting your erstwhile enemies work for you doesn't.

[palo5]

Originally Posted by tmee2000

...This is from the Sparknotes website. I haven't checked the numbers. "Germany lost all of its foreign investments"- would that be right?

Yes, it means their Empire was stolen by other Imperialists

[Ennath]

December 4, 1914
Western Front The French strengthen their hold on Vermelles. They also take Langemarck, in Belgium.
Eastern Front In the Krakow sector, the Russians take Vieliczka.
South Africa Botha inflicts a heavy defeat on the rebels near Rietz.

December 4, 1915
Macedonia British reinforcements are landed at Salonika.
Allied Planning In a meeting of Allied representatives at Chantilly, the British put the case for abandoning Salonika. They are overruled and it is further decided to evacuate Gallipoli and that Egypt should be guarded by as small a force as possible. Asquith privately complains of what the “Frogs” have done.
Diplomatic Relations Henry Ford’s “Peace Cruise” departs from the United States.

December 4, 1916
Eastern Front There is heavy fighting at Stanislau and Tarnopol. The Russians take a peak at Jablonitsa Pass.
British Command Jellicoe assumes office as First Sea Lord, replacing Sir Henry Jackson, who has no regrets about leaving the Admiralty.

December 4, 1917
Western Front The British abandon Bourlon Wood and pull back to positions virtually those at the start of the battle. They continue to hold in the center and north, but in the south, they have been driven back behind their start line. A French corps arrives to bolster this section of the front. A German attack in the Verdun sector fails.

December 4, 1918
Hungary Ethnic Rumanians in Transylvania and Banat vote for union with Rumania.
Yugoslavia Proclamation of the “Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes”, later called Yugoslavia. The new state is divided between centralists, mostly Serb, who dominate the army, and federalists, especially Croats.

[Ennath]

December 5, 1914
Air War French airmen bomb airship sheds at Freiburg-im-Breisgau.
South Africa The rebels offer to negotiate. Botha responds with a demand for unconditional surrender.

December 5, 1915
Eastern Front A Russian attack near Lake Babit, west of Riga, collapses.
Serbian Front Monastir is evacuated. The French repulse a Bulgarian attack on their bridgehead on the Vardar.
Mesopotamia Four Turkish divisions surround Kut and besiege the garrison. Townshend has 10,000 men (2000 are ill or wounded) and 3500 noncombatant Indians. The Arab inhabitants number about 7000. Townshend’s campaign has been an example of military “absentee landlordism” at its worst. Operations in Mesopotamia were originally under the control of the Indian Army. In the later stages of the campaign, the War Office stepped in. Neither has been in touch with the situation. Both relied on the recommendations of Nixon at Basra, who held an exaggerated view of the capabilities of men in protracted combat at the end of an insufficient supply line.
India There is large Muslim demonstration against the government’s call for emergency political concessions.

December 5, 1916
Eastern Front Back and forth fighting continues in the Carpathians.
Poland In order to put into effect the Two Emperors’ Manifesto, the German governor-general in Warsaw and his Austrian counterpart at Lublin establish a Provisional Council of State for Poland in Warsaw. Among its 25 members, chosen by the two emperors, is Josef Pilsudski, an opponent of Russian interests in Poland, who largely favors ties to Austria, and who organized the Polish Legion for service in Galicia. He heads the Council’s Military Commission.
Rumanian Front Mackensen sends a note into Bucharest inquiring whether the city will undergo siege or surrender. The note is brought back unopened – The Rumanian troops have already abandoned the capital rather than remain and be surrounded. German troops are moving on the Ploesti oilfields. Rumanian forces abandon Predeal Pass.
German East AfricaA Portuguese force besieged at Newala escapes over the Rovuma River back into Portuguese territory.

December 5, 1917
Diplomatic Relations Negotiations begin at Brest-Litovsk between German and Soviet delegates. A preliminary suspension of hostilities is signed.
Portugal There is a revolt in Lisbon against Premier Costa. He resigns and is replaced by Sidonio Paes.
Italian Front The Austrians attack on the Asiago front, taking Monte Zomo and Castelgomberto, with 10,000 prisoners.
Caucasus The Armistice of Erzinjan ends the Russian-Turkish war.
Mesopotamia The British take Sakaltutan Pass.

December 5, 1918
Baltic Sea The cruiser Cassandra runs into an uncharted German minefield and sinks. The Allies extend their blockade of Germany to include the Baltic coastline.
Caucasus Armenia sends troops to occupy lands disputed with Georgia. Fighting breaks out.

December 5, 1919
Russia With the collapse of the Ukrainian army, Petlyura travels to Warsaw and signs an agreement with the Polish government to attack the Soviets, effectively tying the fate of Ukrainian independence to the Polish war effort.

December 5, 1924
Arabia Saudi forces occupy Mecca; the Ikhwan are not allowed into the city in order to avoid a sack.

[Ennath]

December 6, 1914
Western Front German artillery launch a long-range bombardment of Dunkirk.
Eastern Front The Russians evacuate Lodz and withdraw toward the Bzura-Ravwka line, where they create formidable entrenchments.
Serbian Front After three days of fighting, the Austrians break and begin retreating toward the Kolubra River. The Serbs take 4000 prisoners and large quantities of munitions.
Denmark A damaged U-Boat enters Esbjerg harbor and is interned.
World Affairs The Pope tries to arrange a Christmas truce.

December 6, 1915
Allied Command The Allied War Council holds its first meeting in Paris. Asquith had advocated removing the 150,000 Anglo-French troops from Salonika but the Council concludes that the Salonika Front should remain active. There is also agreement that there should be a combined offensive in the summer of 1916 on the Western Front, Russian Front , and Italian Front – the other fronts being considered of secondary import.
Serbian Front British and Bulgarian forces clash at Strumica.
Adriatic Sea An Austrian squadron bombards Durazzo.

December 6, 1916
Western Front, Verdun German attacks gain a footing on Hill 304.
Rumanian Front Sinai is occupied. The Orsova rearguard on the Aluta surrenders with 8000 men.
Macedonia There is hard fighting around Monastir.
Greece The Royalist faction is in full control in Athens. The Provisional Government in Salonika denounces the Royal government as unrepresentative. Persecution of Venizelists in Athens continues.
Eastern Front There is heavy fighting near Lutsk and Stanislau.
German East Africa The Germans begin a week and a half of attacks on Kibata, but fail to capture the post and the supplies of food and ammunition they need. They then move off across the Rufiji River.

December 6, 1917
Rumanian Front The Russian collapse forces Rumania to agree to a suspension of hostilities.
Italian Front The Austrians take Monte Sisamol, but are repulsed in the Val Frenzela.
Canada The ammunition ship Mont Blanc explodes in Halifax harbor, devastating large areas of the city. Some 1600 people are killed. The city effectively drops out of the war effort, needing to focus on survival and rebuilding.
Finland The parliament in Helsinki adopts a declaration of independence.

December 6, 1918
Britain The railway strike is settled.
Germany There is fighting in Berlin between government troops and the Spartakists.

December 6, 1921
Ireland All but the six Protestant northern counties of Ulster are granted dominion status as the Irish Free State. Republican hard-liners oppose any compromise, calling for full independence and inclusion of the north. Civil war breaks out in the spring. Among its victims is Free State commander Michael Collins. The Republicans are defeated by early 1923.

[knobby109]

Originally Posted by Ennath

Ireland All but the six Protestant northern counties of Ulster are granted dominion status as the Irish Free State. Republican hard-liners oppose any compromise, calling for full independence and inclusion of the north. Civil war breaks out in the spring. Among its victims is Free State commander Michael Collins. The Republicans are defeated by early 1923.

The intractable problem of Ireland erupted again this week.
A decision had been taken not to fly the British Union flag at all times and this led to protests and riots.The majority in Northern Ireland simply do not want a united Ireland and are prepared to use violence to prevent it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20619259

[Ennath]

December 7, 1914
Western Front The Germans attempt to cross the Yser at Pervyse.
Eastern Front The Germans begin the 2nd Battle of Warsaw. The Russians bombard the northernmost forts of the Krakow defenses.
Atlantic Ocean The Canopus, deliberately mired in mud at a concealed site in Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, has become a shore battery. The Glasgow has sailed for Montevideo to rendezvous with a flotilla sent by the Admiralty to hunt down Spee. The flotilla, including two battlecruisers, four armored cruisers and two light cruisers, arrives at Stanley under the command of Vice Admiral Sir Frederick Sturdee.
Caucasus The Turks are driven back south of Batum.
Mesopotamia The British win a local success at Mezera.
South Africa Beyers is heavily defeated at Bothaville and drowned trying to flee across the Vaal River.
France The Bourse reopens.

December 7, 1915
Western Front The Yser floods, forcing the Germans to abandon some advanced trenches.
Italian Front The Italians begin three days of unsuccessful attacks on Monte San Michele.
Serbian Front The French evacuate Krivolac and retreat to Demir Kapu Pass, 20 miles from the Greek border. Austrian troops take Pec. Bulgarian troops occupy Ohrid. The British are pressed back to the Vardar valley from Lake Doiran with 1300 casualties. Putnik, for a while near death and litter-bound, resigns his command, citing ill health.
United States Wilson delivers a speech to Congress denouncing pro-Germans in the country.

December 7, 1916
Western Front, Verdun French troops regain the lost positions on Hill 304.
Rumanian Front Mackensen occupies Bucharest.Falkenhayn’s 9th Army turns north in hopes of capturing the oilfields and refineries at Ploesti, but too late. Norton-Griffiths has done his work. The oilfields at Ploesti, Targoviste and elsewhere are aflame and their refining facilities in ruins – a severe setback to the German war effort, as it will be months before production can be restored. (Norton-Griffiths will also succeed in destroying many of the grain stores and escaping successfully back to England.) The Rumanian army is in retreat eastward in all sectors. Wallachia has been lost, but pursuit is checked at the Moldavian frontier. Some 300,000 Rumanian troops have become casualties, half of them prisoners. Central Powers losses have been about 200,000.
Egypt Sir Philip Chetwode assumes command of the Desert (Sinai) Force.
Britain After months of infighting, Lloyd George’s machinations and parliamentary disgruntlement with the conduct of the war, the situation comes to a head. A final twist was the formation of a new, small War Council with Lloyd George as chairman and Asquith excluded. Both men have now resigned their posts and David Lloyd George becomes Prime Minister, forming a new cabinet. Among the fallen is Arthur Balfour, replaced at the admiralty by Sir Edward Carson.

December 7, 1917
Western Front The Battle of Cambrai ends. Byng’s army has taken 44,000 casualties, the Germans 43,000. Though the front is largely unchanged, both sides have developed tactics that can break the trench stalemate and the battle has seen more movement than any Western Front battle since 1914 and points the way toward the fighting of 1918.
Italian Front The Italians continue to withdraw on the Asiago Plateau.
Palestine British troops capture Hebron.
Diplomatic Relations The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary. Ecuador breaks relations with Germany.

December 7, 1918
Hungary The Rumanian army occupies Brasov and crosses the armistice demarcation line, heading for Cluj. The Hungarians are ordered by the Allies to continue pulling back their troops.

[Ennath]

December 8, 1914
Serbian Front The Austrians are completely defeated south of Belgrade.
Eastern Front Northwest Front commander Russki reports that he has no supplies left. Grand Duke Nicholas issues an order concerning the complete disorder in the railroads; railheads and junctions are jammed with both full and empty rail cars, delaying the movement of priority trains. The Grand Duke holds the supply chiefs personally responsible and gives them 15 days to straighten out the mess; the deadline passes without result and the situation continues to deteriorate.
South Africa The rebellion begins to collapse. On this day, 1200 rebels surrender.
Atlantic Ocean Battle of the Falkland Islands. At 7:30 AM, an observer spots the approach of Spee’s squadron, come to raid Port Stanley before proceeding to the River Plate, New York and home. Though news of Sturdee’s mission has been wired to Valparaiso, operators there have been unable to reach Spee. As they move in to bombard, the Gneisenau and Nürnberg sight the British ships in harbor. The concealed Canopus opens fire, hitting the Gneisenau. Spee orders both ships to withdraw at top speed. Sturdee’s ships are taking on coal, so it is two hours before they can get up steam and give chase. Spee speeds off, but the faster British ships are able to close quickly. German fire is accurate but has little effect on the big battlecruisers Invincible and Inflexible. Scharnhorst takes over forty hits and goes down with all hands, including Spee. Gneisenau goes down around 6:00 PM, but the British rescue some 200 survivors. The light cruisers Nürnberg and Leipzig are also sunk, but the Dresden escapes. The battle has cost Germany 2200 sailors and four ships and is a blow to national morale. It also means that the oceans are essentially freed for unhindered Allied commerce and troop transportation and that Sturdee’s ships can rejoin the Grand Fleet.

December 8, 1915
Dardanelles Preliminary stages of the evacuation of Suvla Bay and Anzac Cove begin. Everything must be done at night with utmost secrecy in order to successfully remove the 80,000 men 5000 animals, 2000 vehicles, and 200 guns. First to be removed are the sick and wounded and the prisoners and then, slowly over time, the infantry. The Turks are unaware of what is happening.
Serbian Front The British and French are falling back to the Greek border.
Mesopotamia The Turks make several attacks on the Kut perimeter, through the 11th; these fail.
Britain John McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Fields” is published in Punch.

December 8, 1916
Eastern Front There is heavy fighting in Galicia, south Bukovina, and on the Moldavian border.
Russia The Murmansk Railway is fully opened. There is finally an ice-free port available for Allied aid to Russia.
Adriatic Sea The Italian pre-dreadnought Regina Margherita is sunk in an Italian minefield.
Greece Allied colonies are leaving Athens. The Allies demand an explanation for the Greek troops being concentrated around the city.
Portuguese East Africa German troops occupy Nangadi.

December 8, 1917
Italian Front French and British troops go into the line on the Piave.
Palestine After pausing for a few days to consolidate and bring up reinforcements and supplies, Allenby’s army, with Chetwode’s XX Corps in the lead, begins an assault on Turkish positions on the hills around Jerusalem and captures some of the strongest redoubts. The local authorities arrange to surrender the city.
Portuguese East Africa The Germans capture a Portuguese force at Ngoma.

December 8, 1918
Estonia Soviet invading troops are 40 miles beyond the frontier.
Syria Arabs protest perceived Zionist ambitions to take Palestinian Arab lands in messages sent to the Peace Conference in Paris and to the British Foreign Office.
Diplomatic Relations After revelations of Soviet espionage, Switzerland breaks relations with Russia.
Turkey The Allies establish a military administration in Constantinople.

December 8, 1919
Eastern Europe The Allied Supreme Council establishes a provisional eastern frontier for Poland, the so-called “Curzon Line”, generally following the Bug River. This is totally unacceptable to the Poles. As Soviet forces begin to build up in western Russia, the Poles determine to fight for the formerly Polish regions east of the Bug. They decide to attack before Soviet preparations are complete.

[palo5]

Originally Posted by Ennath

December 8, 1914...
Atlantic Ocean Battle of the Falkland Islands. At 7:30 AM, an observer spots the approach of Spee’s squadron, come to raid Port Stanley before proceeding to the River Plate, New York and home. Though news of Sturdee’s mission has been wired to Valparaiso, operators there have been unable to reach Spee. As they move in to bombard, the Gneisenau and Nürnberg sight the British ships in harbor. The concealed Canopus opens fire, hitting the Gneisenau. Spee orders both ships to withdraw at top speed. Sturdee’s ships are taking on coal, so it is two hours before they can get up steam...

I think this man would impress me:



If v. Spee had known more about the situation...

He didn't know about the battlecruisers and that they were immobile, or that Canopus couldn't move either. But if he had known... well, there was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hit them hard before they could catch him

But maybe it depended more on ammo & coal

(Btw, there's no evidence Canopus actually hit Gneisenau)