War aims

Belgian refugees. For the UK , the resettlement of Belgium 's rights is a war aim.

The formulation of war aims is difficult for most belligerent states. Many Heads of State consider it as dangerous and unnecessary, since the declaration of war aims could cause actual obligations they would rather avoid. Not achieving the war aims announced publicly could indeed be seen later as a defeat. The heads of state speak in the first phase of the war aims of the war only in general and this until 1917 and spend more willing to rally public opinion to the general idea of victory. War aims are detailed side, has only the heroic character of the war. On the other hand, the aspirations of expanding publicly expressed negative influence on the position of neutral states. Subsequently, the public formulation of war aims is often necessary to analyze if it is still worth fighting for any particular ambition . Like the Allies, the Central Powers used the war aims to encourage their people, their allies or neutral countries or brandished to threaten and deter their enemies, and . The politics of war aims of each side also has an economic aspect: to occupy or influence in the commercial for its own exports on the one hand and secure new sources of raw materials on the other.

Military operations

August 1914: the war of movement

The German offensive, the halt of the Marne and the "race to the sea"

Albert ^I , King of the Belgians in 1914.

The Chief of Staff German Helmut von Moltke applies the Schlieffen Plan. On August 4 , the Germany invades Belgium and Luxembourg. The lightning attack in Belgium in early August, meeting fierce resistance around Liege. The Germans enter Belgium near Aix-la-Chapelle. King Albert ^I appealed to France and the United Kingdom. He accused the Germans to engage in atrocities, executing civilians and cutting off the hands of prisoners they can not fight . The breakthrough in Lorraine, along the plane XVII , is a failure for France ( Lorraine Battle of 19-20 August) and the ^Third and ^Fourth armies retreated behind the Meuse. The Germans forced the French ^Fifth Army to retreat at the Battle of Charleroi on August 23. Three days earlier, on August 20, German troops had entered Brussels . On the whole line of Belgian front, the Allies retreated. The Schlieffen plan proceeds on schedule.

The British, led by General French and the French retreated hastily, but in order, on the Marne. They are pursued by three German armies who manage to cross the river, but can not isolate the Franco-British left wing. Joffre , commander in chief of the French army, manages to operate a shift of troops to the west to avoid the outflanking maneuver and encirclement of the German armies. The attack appears imminent in the capital: that is why the August 29 to September 2 , the French government left Paris and settled in Bordeaux , leaving the capital under the military government of General Gallieni. The military requires civilian government that the capital should be defended and organized an army to defend Paris .

But Paris is not the purpose of the Germans. As they rotate, also in accordance with the Schlieffen Plan, south-east to encircle the French armies. On September 4 , the German army occupies Reims. Command sees this as an opportunity to attack the Germans on their flank. The French army turned back on September 6 and goes on the attack. Reinforcements were sent from Paris by the requisitioning of Paris taxis. This is the first victory of the Marne ( 6 - 9 September ) . After four days of fierce fighting, the German armies are stopped and retreated. All German forces retreated to the Aisne and then fixed along the Ardennes and the Argonne. Due to the failure of the German plan and the French victory, Erich von Falkenhayn became head of the German General Staff, on September 14 , replacing von Moltke. On October 5 , the conflict is taking its first aerial duels near Reims where a tandem Aviatik German rifle is shot by French aviators and Qunault Frantz.

North-western front, October 19 , the " race to the sea "begins between armed German, French and British. Each side seeks to outflank the other by the north and arrive first to the sea The Germans want to reach the ports of Dunkirk , of Boulogne-sur-Mer and Calais the English to cut their supply bases and thus force them to surrender. But they fail to seize the French Channel ports, due to flooding caused by the Belgians in the region of the Yser. The British advance up to Ypres , at the southwest corner of Belgium. They are few but as the English soldiers are professionals, they fight better than the Germans. After taking Antwerp on October 10th , the Germans attempted a breakthrough in the bloody battle of Flanders , in November, but they face resistance from the allied troops commanded by Joffre. On October 27th , the Germans launched a major offensive in Belgium triggered north, east and south of Ypres.

On 3 November , the British Admiralty did undermine the North Sea declared a "war zone". The United Kingdom has confidence in its navy to protect the country and establish an economic blockade. It has indeed a professional army of 250,000 men scattered around the world, with only 60 000 are ready to leave for France.

In December, the Allied-cons attack on the entire length of the front from Nieuport in the west to Verdun in the east, but earn no decisive victory . The "battle of Flanders" marks the end of the war of movement and fighting in the open on the Western Front, which stabilized at about 800 km, from Switzerland to the North Sea. At the end of 1914, both sides dug trenches. War movement has failed. Then began a terrible wait, that of an offensive that will break the front.

The Eastern Front

Russian troops going to the front.

On the eastern front, following the plans of Allies, the Tsar launched the offensive in East Prussia on August 17, earlier than planned by the Germans. In August, two Russian armies penetrated into East Prussia , and four more invaded the Austrian province of Galicia after the victories of Lemberg, in August and September. The Russian armies are sowing terror in Prussia and are accused of killings and rapes by the German propaganda . Faced with the Austrian armies ill-equipped Russian armies steadily advancing. They seized Lvov (September 3) and Bukovina and drove the Austrians in the Carpathians , where the front stabilized in November.

Against the Germans, Russians win at Gumbinnen (19-20 August) on the strengths of the German Eighth Army, outnumbered. They are about to evacuate the area when reinforcements commanded by General Paul von Hindenburg on the Russians won a decisive victory at the Battle of Tannenberg (27-30 August 1914), confirmed at the battle of the lakes Mazures in East Prussia, Sept. 15, forcing the Russians to retreat to the border . The Germans finally halt the Russian offensive in Prussia (ending August 31). The same day, the Russians crushed the Austrians at the Battle of Lemberg , which ends Sept. 11. October 20, during the Battle of the Vistula , the Germans retreat before the Russians in the loop of the Vistula. In early November, Hindenburg became commander of the German armies on the Eastern Front. It is considered a hero and his opinions are always listened to by the Kaiser.

On the front south-east, the Austrians tried three times to invade Serbia , but they were repulsed and suffered a defeat at Cer, August 24. Serbs return to Belgrade on December 13. And finally, between October 29 and November 20, the Turks bombarded the Russian coast of the Black Sea. The Ottoman Empire joined the Germans and Austrians in the war.

Globalization of the conflict

¹ November 1914, authorities Turkish officially declare war against the countries of the Triple Entente.

Gradually, the conflict is going global. The Japan as an ally of the United Kingdom declares war on Germany August 23, 1914, but his involvement in the conflict is limited to the occupation of German colonies in the Pacific Ocean ( Marshall Islands , the Caroline and Marianas ) and the German concessions of China ( Shandong ). He took advantage of the conflict to strengthen its positions against major European powers in Asia.

Turkey entered the war against the countries of the Triple Entente on ¹ November 1914, as an ally of Germany . The main motivation of Turkey in this war is to fight Tsarist Russia that seeks to take control of the straits.

Italy, although a member of the Triple Alliance , declared war on Austria-Hungary in May 1915 after much hesitation. In August 1914, she had prudently declared neutral. Requested by both sides, it will eventually lean towards the countries of the Triple Entente. Indeed, by the secret Treaty of London of April 1915, France and the United Kingdom once promised him the victory gained, it would benefit large territorial compensation, namely: land irredentist but also an area of influence in Asia Minor and Africa.

Bulgaria, initially neutral, but sought by both sides, finally committed alongside the Central Powers in October 1915, at a time when they seem to outweigh the Balkan front. To remove the accession of Bulgaria, the latter did not hesitate to promise them if they win, the transfer of Macedonia with Serbia and the Dobrudja Romanian, and access to the Adriatic Sea , rightly claimed that Sofia.

The Portugal entered the war alongside the Agreement in March 1916 to consolidate its position in Europe and preserve its colonies, coveted by Germany. The Romania declares war on Germany in August 1916 after the cons-winning Russian offensive on the Eastern Front leaving hope for a defeat of Austria-Hungary. She claims the Transylvanian Hungarians. In 1914, Greece remained neutral, then joined the Entente by declaring war on Bulgaria in November 1916, then to Germany in June 1917 after the abdication and exile of King Constantine.

Strongly marked by the sinking of the liner Lusitania by German submarine in 1915 , and particularly after the decision to resume torpedoing of neutral ships by Germany taken in January 1917 , the United States declared war on Germany on 6 April this year. This entry into the war, albeit late, and despite the withdrawal of Russian war following the Bolshevik revolution , was decisive.

Knowing that the colonies were also involved in the war effort of European cities, the war is now global.

The Christmas truce

Soldiers on the Western Front were exhausted and shocked by the extent of casualties they had suffered since last August. In the early morning of 25 December, the British who held the trenches around the Belgian town of Ypres heard Christmas carols coming from enemy positions, then discovered that Christmas trees were placed along the trench German. Slowly, columns of German soldiers emerged from their trenches and advanced to the middle of no man's land , where they called the British to join them. The two sides met amid a landscape devastated by shells, exchanged gifts, talked and played in football. This kind of truce was aware where the British and German troops faced each other, and fraternization continued even in places for a week until the military authorities to put a brake. This event was the origin of the film Merry Christmas from Christian Carion , released in 2005.

Year 1915

The Western Front

The year 1915 began with a technical innovation in the West. On January 19 , a zeppelin made the first aerial bombing of civilians in the United Kingdom and the March 21 bombing in which this same airship Paris. Throughout the war, airships will terrorize townspeople French and English. On 21 January, the Russians realize an offensive in the Carpathians and three days later, the victorious British fleet spring against the German squadron near the Dogger Bank , North Sea. In February, the first aircraft armed with a machine gun , the Vickers FB5 , equip a fighter squadron of the British Royal Flying Corps. The German government declared "war zone" the territorial waters of British and is the beginning of submarine warfare. March ^1, Allies extend the blockade to all German goods.

Thus the war becomes a war of attrition, which is challenging both moral and material forces of the combatants. Staffs want to "bleed white" the opposing armies. To relieve the Russians, who are facing a major offensive of the Central Powers, the Turks are also passed to the attack in the Caucasus , the French and British launched one assault in Artois and in Champagne, February 16. Four days later, Reims is bombed by the Germans. Finally, on March 16, the Battle of Champagne is complete: the French attempt to break a failure. These offensives in 1915 managed to upset some German features at a price of appalling losses. The Allied High Command deplores the lack of means of attack and especially heavy artillery, a field in which Germany has an indisputable superiority since the war began.

On 22 April a new weapon appears: the poison gas used to Strenstraate and Ypres by the Germans . The effect was immediate and overwhelming. But never the Germans nor the Allies, who then took their turn, shall not engage in routine use. Controlling the movement of ill winds, and some others were afraid that the layers do not turn around, and soldiers are not equipped to deal with the infected areas. Also, the use of gas never allowed to win more than local success.

On 26 April the London Pact between members of the Agreement is signed and Italy agrees to go to war against the Central Powers within a month. The Allies accepted the claims of 9 March. After a lively campaign of "interventionist" for the entry into the war of Italy , launched in particular by the speech of 5 May 1915 Gabriele D'Annunzio , Rome declared war on May 23 The decision was taken by three men: the Italian king, Victor Emmanuel III , the chairman, Antonio Salandra and Foreign Minister Sidney Sonnino . This entry into the war alongside the Allies Italy has great strategic importance because it cuts a supply route of the Central Powers and allows opening a new front.

For the first time in the war, the war-torn country will mobilize all their resources: human, economic and financial, in the conduct of a total conflict.

The organization in armies , corps , divisions , brigades , regiments , battalions , companies , sections and squads are relatively similar in both camps. The allocation and distribution equipment and weapons are virtually identical. However, France has favored the offensive and has a lighter artillery based in particular on the barrel of 75 , to facilitate movement. The German artillery has a heavier and longer range, driven in particular by its production capacity capable of carrying more defensive battles. These choices have a significant place at the beginning of the war and the difference is filled until early 1916.

The 11 March and 10 April, the British and French governments gave their agreement in principle to an annexation of Constantinople by Russia . Two weeks later, on April 24, more than 600 intellectuals Armenians in Constantinople were arrested and deported by the Young Turks , seen as a symbolic date marking the beginning of the Armenian genocide.

The war in the east

British troops during the landing at Gallipoli in May 1915.

Lawrence of Arabia fomented on behalf of the British uprising of the Arab tribes to harass the Turks . With the help of Bulgaria, the Austro-Germans managed to occupy all of Serbia in 1915, forcing the Serbian royal army to cross the country to find refuge in Corfu.

Instead of hitting the big enemy troops where they were well organized, installed in a network of trenches learned, the staff of the Allies decided to bring his shots on defense points most vulnerable, Ally Turkish Germany. On 25 April 1915, an Allied Expeditionary Force landed at the Dardanelles . Control of the straits would allow France and the United Kingdom to supply Russia and encircle the Central Powers. This idea, defended by the head of the British Admiralty, Winston Churchill , leading to a landing at Gallipoli troops consist mainly of Australians and New Zealanders. Despite the bravery of the soldiers of the ANZAC , the Allies are unable to penetrate by surprise in the Ottoman Empire and fail in their successive offensives. The company cost the Allies 145,000 men and is a total failure. The survivors were landed at Salonica , in violation of Greek neutrality to help the Serbs threatened by the Central Powers. The expeditionary force is the Army of the Orient. This army then submits the Serbs and took part in the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918.

After the stabilization of fronts, the Germans take the initiative on the Russian front. On 7 February 1915, the Germans launched an offensive in south-east of the Masurian Lakes , headed by Hindenburg. The Russians are surrounded and retreated to the Niemen. The Germans won spectacular successes, occupying the whole Poland , the Lithuanian and part of Latvia. Lack of ammunition and heavy artillery, the Russians could not stand up, they lose almost two million men, a catastrophe which in the long term, undermining the regime. It does seem as though nothing the Russians retreated in good order on entrenched positions.

The year 1916

French soldiers of the ^87th Regiment near Verdun (France) in 1916.

In early 1916 , the German command decided to use fully the French army by forcing him to commit fully. He chooses to attack Verdun , a pivot of the French fortified front will want to defend at all costs . The site offers the opportunity to attack the French lines on three sides. In addition, the German army has, unlike the French, many railroads that facilitate supply equipment and manpower. Finally, the approach operations may take place in a relatively safe option of forest cover. In the spirit of the German High Command, "it was not primarily to take Verdun . Bloodless, the French army would be unable to complete the planned offensive on the Somme.

Monday, February 21, after a short but violent artillery preparation, the German command launches an attack with three army corps. The two French divisions defending the sixteen miles to the first line are submerged. Very quickly, the commander of ^the Second Army, Philippe Petain , organizing the response. It establishes a connection with Bar-le-Duc , in the back. In 24 hours, 6000 trucks mounted to the front in this route became the Via Sacra. The German assault was repulsed and plugged the gap. But the attacks are going to renew for several months, ever contained. On 6 March the Germans launched another attack on Mort-Homme. "We'll get them! "Ptain wrote in the famous Agenda 10 April. He obtained his troops are regularly renewed before it is too experienced. It is the "revolving door" where the French army knows the hell of Verdun. The outbreak of the Somme offensive in July and a new offensive of the Russians on the Eastern Front forced the Germans to release the pressure on Verdun. In December, Minchin takes up the lost strength. Nearly 700,000 French and German fighters were killed on the battlefield .

Between ¹ July and 18 November 1916 took place the Battle of the Somme . The British and French troops attack and trying to penetrate the fortified German defense lines north of the Somme on a line north-south by 45 km. The offensive was preceded by intense artillery preparation. For a week, 1.6 million shells fell on the German lines. The Allies are convinced that they wound up any resistance from the enemy side. The Somme offensive starting offensive break, gradually turns into a war of attrition. Most British soldiers are committed volunteers who have no experience of fire. From the first minutes, they die in large numbers in the barbed wire which separate the enemies. Soldiers on both sides feel they are living in hell. Debauchery artillery prevent any penetration to succeed. Soldiers often fight for a few meters and can not pierce the enemy's trenches protected by a heavy fire of artillery and lines of barbed wire. The outcome of the Battle of the Somme is very heavy. 650 000 Allies, mainly British, 000 men and 580 on the German side are hors de combat, killed, wounded or missing. Allied troops advance only 13 km on a front of 35 km long.

The year 1917

The Western Front

Australian infantry in the trenches in 1917

1917 a crisis that affects all sectors. Despite the failures of the Battles of Verdun and the Somme, General Nivelle developing a new plan frontal attack to be the last. He chose an area between Reims and Soissons: The Chemin des Dames , he considers poorly defended . For six weeks, from early April to mid-May, successive attacks attempt to conquer this site. During the first attack, 40 000 French fall under the fire of German machine guns impassable. The attack was not a surprise. The Germans had learned from prisoners the next offensive against their site and had greatly improved their positions by putting more guns, building underground shelters for protection and underground 10 to 15 m deep. In all, 270,000 French soldiers were killed.

Photo of Petain , who has cured mutinies of 1917.

The failure of the offensive of the Chemin des Dames immediate consequence of the riots who speak out against the conditions of combat and non combat against the fact itself. Among the 40,000 rebels, there is no desertion, no fraternizing with the enemy. They remain in their quarters and refused to go online. They insult the officers as they deem incompetent. The mutineers were punished with relative moderation by Ptain , who became the commanding general of the French armies in place of Nivelle. There are 629 death sentences and 75 executions eventually. Petain attempts to end the discontent of the soldiers in improving their lives by rest, food and pace of permissions . He also decided not to launch men to the attack as it does not have an absolute superiority in hardware. Indeed, the Americans entered the war alongside the French and British allies in April 1917 offers hope of a turnaround. However, the French command men dare not launch the attack until it does not have an absolute superiority in hardware with the Americans and the tanks. Yet, eager to win one of its own success, the English staff launches offensive at Passchendaele in Flanders in the autumn of 1917. It succeeds only lead to unnecessary death hundreds of thousands of Britons and Germans.

In March 1917 , the Imperial German General Staff made the strategic decision to back the front further north, on the " Hindenburg Line ", and evacuated all of its armed positions occupied since 1914 in the sector of the Aisne. The Germans systematically dynamite emblematic buildings of towns and villages that were occupied. And disappear including the fortresses of Ham (Somme), located nearby, and Coucy (March 27, 1917). This decline can shorten the front and save the forces necessary for its defense. The only victorious Allied offensives of 1917 were held around Arras and Ypres in April and June 1917, when British and Commonwealth troops take some villages the Germans. The capture of Vimy Ridge by Canadians April 9, 1917 became a symbol of Canada's strength and the ability of Canadians to win a goal without British help.

To the south, Italian and Austrian forces clash without result since two and a half on the front of Isonzo north-west of Trieste , with a slight advantage for the Italian army in 1916, had conquered the city of Gorizia at a cons-offensive. The Italians also had penetrated several kilometers into the Tyrol , but no major results. This balance is broken in the fall of 1917 when the Germans decided to support their ally Austria to the Italian front and send 7 divisions. 14 October 1917, at the Battle of Caporetto , Italian soldiers stop at the Austro-German offensive. More than 600,000 Italian soldiers, tired and demoralized, deserted or surrendered. Italy lived under the threat of total defeat. But on Nov. 7, the Italians manage to stop the advance of the Austro-German line on the Piave , about 110 kilometers from the Isonzo front. The Italian defeat Caporetto urges France and the United Kingdom to send reinforcements and to establish the Supreme War Council to coordinate the Allied war effort.

The submarine war and entered the war the United States

During the First World War, the U.S. Army published a recruitment poster featuring the Uncle Sam. The text I want you for U.S. Army may be translated as "I'll claim for the U.S. Army."

In 1917, under pressure from the military, including Admiral Tirpitz , the Kaiser decided to engage in submarine warfare to the death, that is to say sink all ships visiting the United Kingdom, even the neutrals. The Germans hope to quell the UK economy and force it to withdraw from the conflict. In April 1917, German submarines have sunk 847,000 tons , the equivalent quarter of the French merchant fleet. However, the organization of convoys under the protection of the British navy and minesweeping manage to blunt the submarine service. Ultimately, instead of lowering the flag in the United Kingdom and terrorize the neutrals, the submarine war causes excessive U.S. intervention.

In addition, the United Kingdom requests the assistance of Japan. The cruiser Akashi and eight destroyers were sent to Malta , a figure which later increased to 17 vessels, excluding joint command ships. This fleet escort and protect convoys support allies in the Mediterranean, allowing allied troops to be sent to Egypt to Salonika and Marseilles , to take part in the great offensive of 1918. The destroyer Matsu has saved more than 3 000 soldiers and crew of the transport vessel Transylvania, which was torpedoed off the French coasts. In all, Japan has escorted 788 ships in the Mediterranean, including 700,000 troops of the British Commonwealth.

In August 1914, the United States, very isolationist, remain neutral despite the close ties with the Entente countries, particularly the United Kingdom. The blockade imposed by the fleet of the Entente countries practically puts an end to trade between the U.S. and Germany. At the same time, trade and financial links between the U.S. and the Entente countries are growing. The sinking of the British liner Lusitania on 7 May 1915 , killed 128 U.S. citizens, which moves American opinion and tilts in favor of the war.

The blunders of German diplomacy help its turnaround in January 1917, Minister-Counsellor Zimmermann did not hesitate to promise Mexican alliance against Germany with the United States to pay the victory, the return of lost provinces ( Texas , Arizona and New Mexico ) . The same year, the British attacked the Palestine , which they retain control until 1947. Many Jews settled there after the trials of World War II.

1918, the end of the war

Territory occupied by the Central Powers after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed in March 1918.

French troops under the command of General Gouraud , with their sulfation among the ruins of a cathedral near the Marne , pushing the Germans. 1918

Early 1918, the Allies lost one front with the release of the conflict on Russia. Bolshevik Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (negotiated by Leon Trotsky ) in March 1918. Germany receives a "Gold Train" (content thereof is forfeited to Germany by the Treaty of Versailles ), occupies Poland , the Ukraine , the Finland , the Baltic states and part of the Belarus. The Germans also take advantage of this defection to send significant reinforcements to the western front and try to get a quick victory before the actual arrival of the Americans. It is the "return from the war of movement".

The German High Command (Marshal Hindenburg and Quartermaster General Erich Ludendorff ) knows he has a period of several months - until June-July 1918 - to win a decisive victory over the allied troops. Reinforced by troops from the eastern front, and hoping to force a decision before the arrival of American troops, the Germans put all their strength in final offensive in the west. The German command decided to launch a series of battering against the English, especially since proven Passchendaele. They carry the force at the junction of the French front: knowing the disagreement between Haig and Petain, they hoped to play. It does not take much that the English lines are removed during the offensive of 21 March in the Saint-Quentin . Petain not send reinforcements and we have the authority to Clemenceau and Foch Fayolle help to bring the English and save the situation. An offensive against the French, May 27, the Chemin des Dames , leads the German army at the height of Reims and Soissons, an advance of 60 kilometers.

Paris is again within reach of German guns at long range. Yet the decisive break of the Allied front was not reached, the German High Command is considering a last ditch effort and then wants to direct it against British troops deemed more driving to the discharge into the sea by cutting the French army. This offensive must be preceded by an offensive against the French army to secure the reserves of the latter to prevent his rescue then the British army. Issued on 15 July 1918 by German troops in Champagne , this offensive preliminary "diversion" enables to implement for the first time on this scale tactics of the defensive zone (formalized by General Petain for almost a year) which will help to defeat the German set. German troops enter the front lines in fact French, whose forces are organized in depth, with piers of resistance, oppose a murderous fire. The advance of German troops is important, and they cross the Marne ( Second Battle of the Marne after the September 1914). Ventured far south and arranged in a point without guard against attacks on its flanks, German troops have been upset by the cons-French attack in the region of Villers-Cotterets , which began on 18 July 1918 . The results of this attack is devastating against these German troops are rushing to the north just avoiding encirclement.

Last moments and armistice

German submarine ( Unterseeboot ) to surrender to London in 1918.

As of that date, the German army was never able to undertake offensive action, the initiative is now in the only camp of the Allies who will engage in the months following the attacks cons to regain lost ground during the spring of 1918 against then-major offensives. The great victorious offensive took place on 8 August 1918 . Canadian soldiers, backed by the Australians, the French and the British launch an attack in Picardy and break the German lines. Farther south, the American and French soldiers are also venturing into the Meuse-Argonne offensive , victorious. For the first time, thousands of German soldiers surrendered without a fight. German troops can not resist the allied armies now coordinated by the General Foch. These are reinforced every day by American troops and equipment, for the first Renault FT-17 tanks and a naval and air superiority.

The armistice was called by the Bulgarians on September 26. The Turkish army was annihilated by the British during the Battle of Megiddo. The German generals, mindful of the defeat of Germany in time, think of nothing but hasten the conclusion of the armistice. They would sign it before the opponent does not accurately measure his victory, before he reclaimed the French territory.

On the Italian front in spring 1918, the Austro-Hungarian attempts to force the Italian lines, but it faces stiff resistance at the battle of Piave. October 24, 1918, the Italian army (51 Italian divisions and 7, 2 French allies) launched a major offensive against the Austro-Hungarian forces (63 divisions). The Italians managed to halve the Austrian lines in the battle of Vittorio Veneto. The Austrians, threatened with encirclement, retreating across the frontline. On 3 November, the Italians are the cities of Trento and Trieste. A foothold in the Italian army enters Slovenia to the town of Postumja. The Austro-Hungarian army, demoralized by the defection of many Slavonic quotas, is defeated. She lost 350 000 soldiers and more than 5000 pieces of artillery. Austria itself is almost helpless, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was forced to sign the armistice on Nov. 4, at Villa Giusti in northern Italy. Charles ^I gave up his throne. The defection of Austria-Hungary was a blow to the Germans, who lose their main ally.

In Germany, Wilhelm II refused to abdicate, which results in demonstrations for peace. On 3 November, riots broke out at Kiel sailors refused to fight a battle "for the honor." The revolutionary wave spreads across Germany. November 9, Wilhelm II was forced to abdicate. The Staff requests that the armistice was signed . The government of the new German Republic, so the sign in the Compigne Forest near Rethondes on 11 November 1918 in the train of Marshal Foch , so that Canadian troops launched the latest offensive of the war by attacking Mons , Belgium. Thus, the Germans did not make war on their territory, having camped for four years in enemy territory, they imagine they are really badly defeated. To save face, the German General Staff circulated the theory of the stab in the back. The terms of the armistice they seem even more harsh: surrender of the navy to evacuate the left bank of the Rhine, delivery of 5,000 cannon and 30,000 machine guns, etc.. Yet, compared the devastation in enemy territory, they could undermine that very few German power. In 1918, the strength of a nation lies in the power industry. Later, the Nazi propagandists were able to declare that the army had not done and that the defeat lay with civilians.

The consequences

A heavy human toll

Nations ravaged

The Douaumont Ossuary contains the remains of 130,000 soldiers.

The human toll of the First World War amounted to about 9 million dead and about 8 million disabled , about 6000 deaths per day . Proportionally, France is the most affected country with 1.4 million killed and missing , 10% of the male workforce. The British casualties (including the settlements) amounted to 1.2 million killed. This bleeding is accompanied by a significant deficit of births. The German deficit amounted to 5.436 million, the French deficit to 3.074 million, the Russian deficit is the highest and reaches 26 million . French population stagnation continues, with an aging population that is growing with the use of immigration. The latter participates in the reconstruction of a country where the North is in ruins. Also appears the new phenomenon of broken faces , the name given to disabled war veterans who survive thanks to advances in medicine while keeping serious physical sequelae . The integration of these victims of war that the company should then take place through new laws and organizations like the Union of facial wounds. There are in France at 10 000 and 15 000 major injuries to the face . In the UK , sculptors, like Francis Derwent Wood , manufacture masks to make a human soldiers wounded . Companies postwar brands will keep the war alive for many more years.

Genocide, occupation, deportations and atrocities

Armenians slaughtered around 1918 during the Armenian genocide that claimed over one million victims.

Monument erected Tamines , recall massacre Tamines.

The First World War is also the first conflict to drive an enterprise of extermination and deportation planned by a state of a people constituting a minority under the pretext of sedition : the Armenian genocide was triggered April 24, 1915 by government -young Turkey of the Ottoman Empire who formally it is only a transfer of the Armenian population away from the front. It is mainly between April 1915 and July 1916 between 800,000 and 1.5 million Armenians were massacred, a great majority of the Ottoman Armenian population. At the same time, 275,000 Christians Assyrians were massacred in the eastern Ottoman Empire, that same light of ethnic cleansing. The Ottoman Empire committed another genocide during and after the First World War, that of the Pontic Greeks. From 1916 to 1923, the massacre claimed nearly 360 000 victims . Recognition of the Armenian genocide is still a problem in XXI ^century, although it is recognized as such by a number of countries. The genocide of Pontian Greeks meeting also recognized very limited, like the massacre of the Assyrians.

During the conflict, killings also occur in some countries, particularly in Belgium where the German army commits atrocities against civilians. The myth of the maverick of the war of 1870 made its appearance soon and in retaliation, German troops will engage in deportations and the execution of large numbers of civilians as well as in Belgium in northern France. The occupation of these regions is very hard for people who have to provide a first step needed food to the troops of occupation . Many civilians were conscripted for forced labor and many of them are also taken prisoner and deported to Germany as example 1 500 inhabitants of Amiens who were sent to labor camps . Some will remain prisoners until 1918 .

The occupation and the deportations were accompanied by widespread destruction and killings, most of which take place on Belgian territory. At Tamines , August 22, 1914, are 422 people who are executed , to Haybes , city destroyed, 61 civilians are killed and Dinant , 674 are civilians who were executed by firing squad . At Louvain , the German troops set fire to the city and 29 people were shot . Belgium and France are not the only country to be affected. The city of Kalisz in Poland was bombarded and burned by the Germans in August 1914, civilians are killed. In the ruins of the devastated city, where most of the population is part exodus , there remain only 5,000 inhabitants, so she had before the war 65 000 .

Tribute to soldiers

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Canberra , Australia.

Main article: Lest We Forget , War Memorial and Memorial sites of the First World War.

In the immediate post-war popping up everywhere memorials to honor fallen soldiers on the battlefield. In France, there are approximately 36 000 buildings . In Germany , it is municipalities and churches that organize most often the construction of monuments. These usually consist of a list of the fallen soldiers and there are few monuments that bear national symbols which are preferred leaf oak , the iron cross or a symbolic Christ as Germany lost the war and the Empire having disappeared.

The soldiers of different nations lie in cemeteries and burial grounds, as the Douaumont Ossuary. Various associations dealing with graves and the memory of the soldiers. For France, the French Remembrance , for Germany the Deutsche Volksbund Kriegsgrberfrsorge that deals in France than 192 memorials, for Austria the sterreichisches Schwarzes Kreuz , for the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the United States the American Battle Monuments Commission. In different countries, the cult of the Unknown Soldier is in place.

Material destruction

Main article: Reconstruction in France and Belgium after the First World War.

The agricultural and industrial production have collapsed because of the imperatives of the war economy and the mobilization of a large number of assets: France loses 17.3% of its mobilized, the United Kingdom 5.1% and Germany 9.8% . The war leads to a disruption of normal commercial channels. He had to rebuild, revive economic activity and return to a peacetime economy while facing a severe shortage of manpower. In France for example, 50% of farmers died . Compounding the problem, therefore the conversion of the war economy in peacetime economy.

Americans are the first to know the effects, since 1920, with a recession due to a sudden return to a policy deflationary. U.S. steel production down by half, and the car 40% . The U.S. crisis will rapidly expand. First in Japan , then to the UK where the rate of unemployment of 20% in 1921 . In Italy , the main problem is the reintegration into the labor market of a population massively mobilized. There are then in effect unemployed 600 000 resulting in social unrest which will be the direct result Biennio rosso (literally "The Two Years red"), a period marked by stirring revolutionary left. The reconversion of the economy will also generate disruption monetary system. Western economies abandoned the gold standard , the preferred currency in circulation .

Overall map of areas destroyed during the First World War in northern and eastern France.

Material destruction are important and significantly affect housing, factories, farms and other communication infrastructures such as bridges, roads or railways, and this mainly in France which devastated a vast area of 120,000 hectares is the " red zone ". In the north and east of France, eleven departments will be classified in the red zone. Agriculture will be prohibited in many places before dsobusage and clearance that will take several years (only to be completed in the years 2600 to the current pace of discovery and removal of shells and other munitions in the former active red zone), without even considering the treatment of munitions dumped by the millions because considered too dangerous to be dismantled, or lack of financial means for storing and processing security. Three million hectares of land are ravaged by the fighting . Some villages in the Meuse, the Marne or the North are wiped out and can not be rebuilt to their location. Cities are bombed as Reims cathedral sees severely affected or London which receives about 300 tons of bombs . Leuven sees about it his library burned. In France and Belgium established a Ministry of Reconstruction. It is a lean period in archives where all energies are devoted to reconstruction, with an initial dark period where we bring in the prisoners of war in Germany , the Chinese workers saved by the Spanish flu , and a migrant labor , especially for dsobusage. This period will generate some great fortunes in the field of metal recovery. The German has in turn been spared the destruction that had to undergo another. Stphane Audoin-Rouzeau and Annette Becker emphasized that the "productive potential in Germany is intact" .

Aftermath of War

Main article: Sequelae of war.

The aftermath of war are important: the reconstruction must be based on tens of thousands of hectares where physically devastated towns, villages, factories, mine shafts and the fields are sometimes literally erased from the landscape, from polluted soil by thousands of human and animal corpses, made hazardous by the saps , the trenches and billions of shells and other unexploded ordnance or not learned (dangerously lost or stored). Tens of thousands of hectares are severely contaminated with heavy metals and sometimes by chemical weapons that were dismantled or that one does backfire without adequate precautions.

Sequelae geographical

Moreuil , Picardy village totally razed during the Second Battle of the Somme in March 1918 (Castel fighting Sncat and wood in particular) and ^the 3rd Battle of Picardy in August 1918.

Alleys of the old village of Fleury-devant-Douaumont.

At sites where the most shocked explosives and toxic combat are still too many for one can make the soil for agriculture or urbanization, will be planted forest of war , including forest and Verdun the forest of Argonne , which have grown on abandoned fields riddled with shell holes and trenches. In these forests, some villages are not rebuilt. These effects are known terrestrial specialists, especially miners, but it seems that the pollution released by the tens of billions of lead pellets of shrapnel and bullets, or mercury of primers were able to slowly accumulate in ecosystems and certain foods. It is a problem that has not been treated by historians or specialists in public health. No formal studies have not seem interested in the fate of heavy metals and toxic action in soils and ecosystems of the red zone.

Sequelae marine, although concerns appear to have been forgotten for 70 to 80 years. And the Baltic countries they see the environmental situation of the Baltic Sea collapse for years 1990 to 2006, while rediscovering the tens of thousands of tonnes of munitions dumped from 1914 to 1918 and later (including chemical weapons, some starting at flee). Fishermen sometimes back of mustard in their nets in the Baltic . In Belgium, Zeebrugge , incidentally found a deposit of 35,000 tons submerged shells buried there sometime after 1918 and then forgotten. Among these shells, 12 000 tons of mustard gas are charged and chloropicrin still active, a few hundred meters from the beach and the harbor mouth LNG. It is even more late in 2005 that some news articles suggest the publication of a discrete report to the Commission OSPAR listing the deposits of millions of munitions dumped dangerous and polluting, dating from the Great War and subsequent periods. Is facing the coastline that the number of French immersion deposition is most important. While these munitions begin to leak and lose their toxic contents, the question arises about their future. A hundred dead zones have been identified at sea by the UN , most of them coincide with areas of ocean disposal of munitions, which raises the question of evaluating the environmental impacts of toxic waste and / or dangerous underwater. The rate of mercury increase alarmingly in ecosystems and in particular in fish. It is feared that some of this mercury comes from billions of primers fulminate of mercury heads shells and shell casings or bullets or other ammunition (1 g of mercury per primer on average) not ordnance used or discarded at sea and after the war or the next.

Psychological sequelae

Main article: Influenza of 1918.

Coupled with this are serious psychological and health effects: facial injuries , psychological trauma, shock and cons of shock- Spanish flu that killed between 20 and 50 million deaths . There are also unspoken particular regarding the repression of the riots of 1917 among the French, Germans and British, as the mutiny at Etaples. In four years, 2400 "hairy" have been sentenced to death and 600 executed, others saw their sentences commuted to penal servitude . Among these soldiers shot for example , some of which Felix Baudy were reinstated in their honor in the 1920 or 1930. Not to mention the fate of the deserters were shot early in the war and deported to prison when they refuse to submit, as Robert Porchet. This global conflict leaves millions of orphans, unemployed and most importantly, a spirit of hatred and revenge that is already preparing the Second World War. Whereas in France and Belgium are built and decorate the ossuaries and hundreds of cemeteries military, while almost every town or built his monument to the dead, and then come the roaring twenties where it seeks above all to forget, a pacifist wind quickly controlled by States proclaims that the war will be " the end all wars ', that is to say the "lowest of the (war)."

A world reshaped by the peace treaties

Map of Europe in 1923.

The redistribution of the Ottoman Empire as the Treaty of Sevres.

Main article: Treaty of Versailles , Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye (1919) , Treaty of Trianon , Treaty of Neuilly , Treaty of Sevres and Lausanne Treaty (1923).

Four empires collapsed, which profoundly transformed the map of Europe redrawn by the peace treaties of 1919 , strengthened, which will never be broken by any armed presence before 1918. The front consists of several lines of defense dug in the earth, the trenches , connected by hoses to access . Living conditions are appalling in these trenches, although the German trenches are best managed . German troops were indeed very quickly cemented their trenches when the French side, there are sliced potatoes that are resistant to somehow shells. The soldiers are surrounded by mud, vermin, rats and the smell of decaying corpses. In addition, for the most exposed trenches at the front, supplies still inadequate.

A no man's land rendered impassable by dense networks of barbed wire , beaten by the fire of machine guns , separates the first two lines. The danger is permanent, even in periods of calm when activity is low brow, death on anyone during a patrol, a chore, a succession or a bombardment of artillery.

Aerial observation by aircraft and balloons allows armies to know precisely the enemy terrain, so the artillery never fall randomly. The shells that rained day and night do maximum damage. In 1918, there are 250 million shells fired for France . The soldiers are not safe to ten kilometers behind the lines when they are out of range of heavy artillery.

Preview of the film The Battle of the Somme where we see the barbed wire.

It has often criticized the military leaders have led their troops in this war of trench so as costly in lives than useless. Yet, this war of position is not a strategic choice. It is due to the fact that, at the beginning of the industrial era , when Western nations are already capable of producing weapons in mass, technical advances, which have continued to succeed four years, mainly concerned the material and the power of destruction rather than the means to protect themselves.

The uniform of the various armies does not effectively protect the heads of the soldiers. Only in September 1915 that the Adrian helmet replaces the cap for the French. The English in turn distribute the Brodie helmet in the same period . The spiked helmet German offer little protection and is gradually replaced by Stahlhelm in 1916 .

Debauchery artillery prevent any penetration to succeed. Soldiers often fight for a few meters and can not pierce the enemy's trenches protected by a heavy fire of artillery and lines of barbed wire. From 1914 to 1918, nearly 70% of casualties were caused by artillery, against 20% in previous conflicts . Thus, to take the trenches and stop this kind of war, it takes a completely new weapon, which appears later: the tank.

New weapons and new tactics

German military aircraft, brand Aviatik , turning on the wing in the morning light. His machine gun LMG 14 Parabellum is visible at the rear of the observer.

Main article: List of weapons in the First World War.

Aviation and armored: This war is an opportunity for the defense industry to introduce new materials that help the maturation of techniques and methods. Many military and industrial sectors have developed including the aviation. Now, the aerial reconnaissance allows the adjustment of artillery fire and the precise mapping of enemy lines. The air also helps to strafe and bomb positions. Indeed, this period saw the first aerial bombardment in history. This is especially the zeppelin that handle this task, so first rudimentary (shells dropped by hand at the beginning, before the development of the first bombers, the first "heavy bomber", the German Zeppelin Staaken VGO1 , renamed Staaken Zeppelin-R1, will fly for the first time April 11, 1915). The dogfights reveal many pilots nicknamed the "ace" as the German Richthofen , the "Red Baron", the French Roland Garros , Fonck and Guynemer , English Mannock , Canadian Bishop , or the South African Andrew Beauchamp-Proctor.

The armored vehicles appear to cover the soldiers in the attack position, with the first massive attack of tanks English in the Battle of Cambrai. Railway Field ( Pchot system installed to serve fronts. The naval guns mounted on cars are invented and carried near the front.

Chemical Weapons

British soldiers victims of tear gas during the Battle of Estaires in April 1918.

Main article: Chemical warfare during the First World War.

The use of chemical weapons during the First World War began in August 1914 when the French troops against German troops use a tear gas , the xylylbromide, gas developed by the Parisian police. Subsequently, the different sides have tried to make chemical weapons more effective, although the Hague Conferences have banned the use of poisonous weapons.

The German Empire , starved of raw materials, then uses the products he has in abundance, including chlorine, rejected by the chemical, is available in large quantities. German troops use the chlorine thus presenting him as an irritant gas and non-fatal, does not thereby affect the agreements of the Hague Conference. The first massive use of gas takes place April 22, 1915 at the Second Battle of Ypres. 150 tons of chlorine are released by 5000 dead and 10,000 wounded. The gas war started.

Chemical weapons are contained in cylinders, of shells , the bombs or grenades. The gases used are highly volatile: chlorine , phosgene , "mustard gas" , arsines or chloropicrin . The detection of some of these chemical weapons is almost impossible at the time. Indeed, the consequences of inhalation on the human body being visible only after three days, we can not know in time whether there was contamination or not. Hence the production of preventive defenses such as gas masks.

The Home Front

The share of women

Women of all ages making shells, France, 1917.

Related Articles: Feminism and Feminism in France.

In all countries, women are becoming an essential support for the war effort. France, 7 August 1914 , they are called to work by the head of government Viviani . In the cities, those who manufacture weapons in factories (like factories Schneider at Le Creusot) is nicknamed "munitionnettes. Women have made in four years 300 million shells and more than 6 billion cartridges. Now, women are also distributing the mail, handle administrative tasks and drive the vehicles. An allowance is provided for women mobilized . For example, in the Pas-de-Calais , a major allocation of 1.25 fr (fr scope to 1.50 August 4, 1917), with an increase of 0.50 en in 1914 (increased to 1 fr the August 4, 1917), is paid to women conscripts. According to the County Recorder, 171 253 applications were reviewed by committees at cantonal July 31, 1918, for more than 115,000 beneficiaries selected, a monthly expense of approximately CHF 6 million of the August 2, 1914 July 21, 1918. The works of war and various solidarity movements complement the device.

In rural areas, women getting down on the farm. Many young women are engaging as nurses in hospitals that receive each day, thousands of wounded. They assist doctors operating on the battlefield. Some are godmothers of war: they write letters of encouragement and send packages to soldiers, they sometimes encounter in their permissions.
With the First World War, women have taken the first step on the path of emancipation. But for many, the post-war was a return to normal and traditional values. In 1921, working women in France were not more numerous than before 1914. Some have however, achieved a unique level of responsibility. About 700,000 war widows also become heads of families. In some countries, like Germany and the United States , the right to vote is granted to women from 1919. France is waiting for 1945 to finally allow women to become citizens.

Colonies

Postcard of the French army in Africa running at Amiens , France , in 1914 or 1915.

Main article: Colonies in the First World War.

The colony played a key role during the First World War, providing Allied soldiers, labor and raw materials.

French Empire

134 000 " Senegalese riflemen "(a military body formed in 1857 by Napoleon III ) are mobilized in reinforcement of French troops, often at the forefront. Similarly, nearly 270,000 North Africans are mobilized and approximately 190,000 (including 125,000 Algerians) are fighting in Europe . In October 1915 , a decree ordering the mobilization of Africans over 18 years. A member of Senegal, Blaise Diagne , thinks keeping is an opportunity for Africans' s emancipate . These men come from black Africa ( Senegal , Burkina Faso , Benin , Mali and Niger ), North Africa ( Algeria , Tunisia , Morocco and Mauritania ) and Madagascar , in China , from Indochina , the Caribbean and Guyana. In total, between 550,000 and 600,000 have been mobilized and about 450 000 from combat in Europe and the East ^, . The number of fatalities is estimated at more than 70,000 of which about 36,000 North Africans and 30 000 "Senegal." Loss rates, calculated relative to the number of fighters actually incurred or 450,000, are 16% overall, 19% for North Africans and 23% for "Senegalese" ^,

Regarding feats performed by these troops, some regiments are among the most decorated French Army after the war. Thus, the sixteen regiments of infantry in North Africa operating at 31 August 1918, all received the feed , the award at least two citations to the order of the army, seven received the feed to the colors of the Cross War , five colors of the forage in the Military Medal and the four colors of forage Legion of Honor ^{, , , ,} . Africans, to a lesser extent, receiving honors as the 43 ^th battalion of Senegalese infantry is cited four times in the order of the Army, including a citation for the capture of Fort Douaumont in the Infantry Regiment colonial Morocco (RICM) , and receives the feed in the colors of the Military Medal .

British Empire

The British Empire mobilized about 1.3 million men in the Dominions, which will give priority to the French front, and slightly more than 1.4 million in India (about 870 000 soldiers). The big difference is that the French colonial soldiers served on the European front, France and the Balkans, while the Indians served in very large majority in the Middle East. Only 12% came in France . The Indian casualties were estimated at 64,000 killed .

In Egypt, the Khedive Abbas Hilmi II called the Egyptians to fight against the United Kingdom , which placed Egypt under his protectorate and replaced by his uncle Abbas Hussein Kamal .

Balance Sheet

Main article: Casualties of the First World War.

Even if the image of the "native" allows for the soldier, the overall bias remains. Subsequently, before and after decolonization , the blood debt incurred by France during the two world wars will weigh heavily in the reproaches of ingratitude made against it, even if, contrary to a tenacious black legend, the number of "indigenous" war dead was not proportionally higher than that of metropolitan areas.

The loss of prestige of Europeans in the colonies and the world is important. In Africa , the Franco-British seized the German colonies , the Japanese do the same in China, capturing the German colony of Tsingtao and the Pacific, where they seized several islands north of the equator, which form the mandate of the Pacific Islands. The Australians captured German New Guinea and New Zealand's German Samoa. The settlements have provided food, raw materials and sharpshooters "Senegal" and North Africans who participated in all the "hard knocks" of war. In the aftermath of the war, the colonized peoples no longer believe what they are taught - the natural superiority of the metropolis - and demanding an improvement in their plight. At this early decline of European influence in the colonies complemented by the expansion of the United States , the biggest beneficiaries of the war, and Japan, whose capital is now place in London and Paris . Between 1915 and 1917, all countries involved in the conflict are forced to restructure their industry: it is immediately apparent that stocks are grossly inadequate to support the war effort. If she had not sought to increase its production, France , for example, would have to run short of ammunition for heavy artillery, two months after the outbreak of war . In Italy, where Marinetti and other futurists are the enthusiastic singers of the era of the machine, the production of machine guns going on, between 1915 and 1918, from 613 to 19 904 units, automobiles, 9200-20 000. 10 400, the manufacture of munitions to 88 400 units per day .

Face chemical attack of the German army, the Ministry of War encouraged the production of liquid chlorine in France. Several factories were born at that moment, as in Jarrow Isere whose creation in 1916. Often they were sites that can exploit hydropower, because chlorine was obtained by electrolysis. If this chemical unit still exists, the plant chlorine Boussens Haute-Garonne, also launched in 1916, has disappeared. It is possible to consult a series of photographs that chronicle the development of this production unit Boussens chlorine through the "reportage" photography by Jean Charri engineer at the plant .

The war costs weigh heavily on the budgets of states trying to cope with their heavy deficit through various methods: public borrowing (Germany), the increase of direct taxes ( United Kingdom ), the issue government loans and increasing the circulation of money (Italy and France). The labor force employed in industry sectors related to the war effort also increases. It should fill the positions vacated by men called to the front. For that, we appealed to women and labor colonial or foreign in France, at the end of the war, 1.7 million people affected in the war industry, there are 497,000 soldiers, 430 000 women, 425 000 civilians, 133 000 Young, Colonial 61 000 and 40 000 prisoners.

Borrowing war in France, raising campaigns are conducted with gold to finance civilian war. But the main funding source is the United States, either in cash or by credit purchase of equipment.

The State

Photo of the Imperial War Cabinet UK.

States benefit from the war to increase their powers and areas of expertise. So do we attend first to a problem of centralization of power, visible in England through the Imperial War Cabinet of Lloyd George who has only four ministers, including a general, Jan Smuts . In Germany, the Kaiser's powers are also strengthened, and it applies to those of the Emperor in Austria. In France, the Sacred Union allows a freeze, temporary political divisions. After being cleared in 1914, the French Parliament resumes control of the government and the military command soon, despite the omnipotence of Joffre .

The power then extends its field of competence. The censorship is everywhere rehabilitated in the name of national interest. In France, it takes the form of an Act of August 4, 1914, voted in an emergency, banning any article capable of revealing information to the enemy or to discourage the French (especially by revealing the reality of living conditions in the trenches). This law was later relieved by Clemenceau in 1917, and he was now allowed to criticize government action. However it will remain effective until October 1919, a year after the end of hostilities. Ironically, censorship was tightened in France than in Germany or England, which raises the question of its compatibility with democratic rule, but also helped prevent the German General Staff knows the seriousness of the moral crisis in 1917 .

Other aspects

Attempts at peace

Main article: Attempts at peace during the First World War.

Numerous peace attempts were born during the First World War and since 1914, ranging from admonition to calm the secret negotiations for a peace sign. One of the players in these peace efforts is Pope Benedict XV who was against the war from its September 3, 1914 election as the conflict raged . In response to the Socialists supporting the war, other socialists are meeting in Zimmerwald in 1915 and are against the war. Early attempts date back to the 1916 peace with the peace proposal by Germany that proves to be little serious and the proposal of U.S. President Wilson. Negotiations are also taking place between Germany and Japan to obtain a separate peace negotiations fail to Germany.

Photo of Pope Benedict XV, circa 1915.

It was in 1917 that we find the largest number of peace attempts, this year marking somehow the pinnacle of weariness about the war. The most serious of the peace proposals of 1917 is the secret negotiations of Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma , because, being perfect intermediate step-brother of the Emperor of Austria-Hungary, Charles ^I. Officer in the Belgian army, Sixtus of Bourbon Parma receives a note from the emperor, in agreement with his foreign minister, in which he offers not only a separate peace but also the return of Alsace-Lorraine to France without agreement on this subject with Germany . Raymond Poincare and Lloyd George to show so strongly interested in these proposals, but the Italians, who do not want to hear a white peace with Austria-Hungary are blocking. They want full implementation of the Pact of London. The negotiations are suspended.

No one can know exactly if it is the expression of genuine belief or a desire not to leave the grounds of pacifism socialists , the second major proposal of the peace the year 1917 issued by Pope Benedict XV. In his proclamation of August 9, 1917, released on the 16th, the Pope calls on belligerents to peace, in very vague terms, making no mention of the case of Alsace-Lorraine . These proposals are strongly rejected by the French Catholic opinion. In Germany, the Reichstag is trying to influence the political course and announce a resolution of peace July 17, 1917, which also fails.

Will then follow a series of secret negotiations with the matter said Briand-Lancken in September 1917 that begins with negotiations between the Count of Brocqueville , Belgian Prime Minister in exile in Havre , and Baron Von Lancken, director general of the Government of Belgium under German authorities, who then has the support of Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg . For Lancken, Belgium could serve as an intermediary for peace negotiations and requested a meeting with French Prime Minister iki / Aristide_Briand "alt =" Aristide Briand "> Aristide Briand, in September 1917. Based on a misunderstanding , but they fail. It was not until November 11 so that the armistice come to end four years of war.

POWs

Russian soldiers captured at Tannenberg

Main article: Prisoners of War of the First World War in Germany.

About eight million soldiers were taken prisoners in camps during the First World War. Each nation is committed to follow the agreements of the Hague Conferences demanding fair treatment of prisoners of war. In general, the survival rate of prisoners of war was much higher than that of the soldiers on the forehead . In general, what are whole units that are going. Cases of prisoners traveling individually are rare. At the Battle of Tannenberg , 92 000 Russian soldiers who are captured . More than half of Russian losses were prisoners. The proportions for other countries are: Austria-Hungary 32%, Italy 26% France 12% Germany 9% and 7% United Kingdom. The number of Allied prisoners amounts to approximately 1.4 million (this figure does not include Russia, 2.5 to 3.5 million soldiers were taken prisoner). The Central Powers are in turn 3.3 million men captured .

During the conflict, Germany is 2.4 million prisoners , Russia 2.4 million , the United Kingdom about 100 000 , France about 450 000 and Austria-Hungary between 1.2 and 1.86 million . The time of capture is a moment of the most dangerous effect is reported in the case of some soldiers who were killed ^, . Once prisoners reached their camp began for them a life of deprivation, and diseases, many of whom will die. The conditions of captivity in Russia are the most terrible: there is famine and the ravages of 15 to 20% of prisoners died. In Germany where the food situation is also dire, it is 5% who die.

The Ottoman Empire also treats its prisoners badly . Nearly 11,800 British soldiers, mostly Indians, were taken prisoner during the siege of Kut in April 1916. 4250 of them die in captivity . While prisoners are very low, Ottoman officers forced them to walk 1100 miles to the Anatolia. The survivors are forced to build a railway in the Taurus Mountains.

Historiography

Main article: Kriegsschuldfrage.

The chronology of events reveals how the issue of accountability remains. The latter are effectively dispersed over decisions. Nothing in this succession was inevitable. Determine responsibility, it is necessarily given a weight value to each episode, every decision:

• the degree of involvement of Serbian state services, probably without the knowledge of its officers, in preparing and carrying out the attack;
• neglect of the warning given by the ambassador on Serbian threat of an attack ;
• the misjudgment of the Kaiser when he gives his conditional support to Austria-Hungary, convinced that Russia will not intervene;
• the desired hardness of the ultimatum, Austria-Hungary;
• the degree of pressure that Germany has actually put on Austria-Hungary to negotiate the condition rejected by Serbia without losing face to the opposing parties;
• the degree of flexibility in the face of pan-Slavic, Serbian Prime Minister, if favorable to good agreement with his neighbor;
• the fact that the Tsar Nicolas II was unable or able to oppose the warmongers of his government, and to have accepted the idea of a secret mobilization, which was almost immediately known to the Germans;
• the support given discreetly to Russia by the French government which, having already refused to support Russia in previous Balkan wars, fears that the Triple Entente becoming a hollow alliance;
• acceptance of non-compliance with the military treaty that binds the two countries.

Which promotes probably inevitable aspect of events is the feel of war openly displayed by public opinion. The nationalism exacerbated prevailing in all European countries has played an important role. In France, the vengeful feelings about the Alsace-Lorraine excite the hatred of the "German" (drawings by Hansi are an example) . Across the Rhine, intending to have to fight on two fronts, the Schlieffen Plan recommends that Germany struck first, which compels it to the extreme vigilance towards the mobilization of armies. Moreover, unlike the situation in 1908 or 1911, the negotiation time related to mobilization can play. The German plan presupposes the evacuation of troops arrived at the railroad hub of Aix la Chappelle to Belgium under pain of engorgement, which means that German mobilization means war. None of peace mechanisms could operate. No arbitration was an option in Europe, insofar as the alliances made all nations stakeholders. The royal families had less formal ties since the death of Victoria. The pope's influence was limited by the break with the secular France since 1905. Capitalism phase of protectionism is refocusing on colonial economies. Finally, international workers were destabilized by the assassination of Jaures and the wishes of national units.

Thus, all countries were ready for war. One might think that a spark would be enough to set fire to Europe. This is the thesis that some historians put forward to explain the mass acceptance by European society in the conflict, even a resolution to fight. That is what is called the Patriotic consent .

In Germany, the long-standing consensus that this country was free of any responsibility for the outbreak of the war has been undermined by the work of a historian, Fritz Fischer , published in 1961 as part of the war aims of Imperial Germany. This iconoclastic theory, originally a huge controversy in Germany, wants the imperialist (European hegemony), combined with a strategy including armed conflict, would have favored the declaration of war on Austria-Hungary Serbia, to the satisfaction of political and military elites, as well as pan-German movement. This is the starting point of the Kriegsschuldfrage , the question of war guilt, which poisons the atmosphere for a long time .

The classic thesis concerning the question of responsibility is the "mechanism" of the French historian Jean-Baptiste Duroselle : qu'advienne fearing an unfavorable international situation to their national interests, European states have made decisions "for the case where "," rather than ". Duroselle summary, from this view, the situation in five points :

1. Germany goes to war or risk losing its ally Austria-Hungary.
2. France prefers to go to war rather than threaten the strength of its alliance with Russia.
3. Russia declares war to prevent new Slavs came under control of the Austro-Hungarian.
4. England, in keeping with its policy since 1793, prefers to declare war rather than risk seeing a major power move to Antwerp.
5. Austria-Hungary would prefer to finish with Serbia rather than being dissolved by the national movements.

Other names

Once the war ended, she is unquestionably the greatest war that ever existed. It is then called "Great War" or "war of wars" . It is also called " end all wars ', that is to say the "lowest of the (war)," meaning that it is the war after which there will be more. These names illustrate the perception by contemporaries after the war, assuming that the horrific nature dissuade countries from doing another.

This war can not get his qualifier First World War until the moment there are more than one. The name "World War" is the most famous example of retronym.

To better represent the mindset of people living in the period between the wars , it still uses the term "Great War".

It is sometimes called "war 1914 - 1918" or "War of 1914 - 1918", which makes it easier to place it in time relative to the ' War 1939 - 1945 , "also called" war of 1939 - 1945 "or yet war 40 to 45 in Belgium.

See also

Related Articles

• Review of the First World War in France
• Chronology of the First World War
• List of wars
• List of films about the First World War
• War Memorial and War Memorial pacifists
• Consent Patriotic
• Treaty of Versailles
• German concentration camps 1914-1918
• Sykes-Picot
• Sarajevo assassination
• Broken faces
• Commemoration
• Hairy
• Manifesto of the 93
• Red zone (the aftermath of war)
• Obusite
• Military history of Australia during the First World War
• Military history of Portugal during the First World War
• History of Italy during the First World War
• Italian Front (World War)
• Greece in World War I

Battles of the First World War

• Battle of Arras (1917)
• Battle of the Somme ¹July 1916 - 18 November 1916
• Battle of the Chemin des Dames
• Battle of the Dardanelles
• Battle of Verdun
• Battle of the Aisne (1914)
• Battle of the Aisne (1918)
• Battle of Vimy Ridge
• Battle of Loos
• Battle of Neuve-Chapelle
• Battle of Pozieres
• Battle of Mouquet Farm
• First Battle of Ypres (from 29 October to 24 November 1914 ), also called Battle of Flanders.
• Second Battle of Ypres (from 20 April to 24 May 1915 );
• Third Battle of Ypres (from 31 July to 6 November 1917 ), also called Passchendaele ;
• Fourth Battle of Ypres (from April 9 to 29 April 1918 ), also called Battle of the Lys.
• Battle of Lige

External Links

• Category Ist World War directory dmoz
• Site ^of the 90th anniversary of the armistice : A site dedicated to year 18 in 18 counties crossed by the front line of 1918 (site created at the initiative of the ONAC )
• Holdings on the First World War
• Fund of the 1914-1918 war , kept in the Lyon Municipal Library
• Oral Histories of the First World War: Veterans from 1914 to 1918 , Library and Archives Canada
• Route details of all the French regiments of the Great War
• Database of documents of the French army
• Mapping daily from the Journals of the Marches and Operations
• Ernest Gabard, Lessons of War - 1915-1916
• Folder on the First World War
• 1914 1918 War, Battle of the Machines 1915 (Alsace Lorraine), Memorial Linen - History of the position of DCA 96
• Texts on the causes of the First World War
• Texts on the beginning of the First World War and the year 1914
• Texts about the First World War (after 1914)
• Texts on the mutinies of the First World War (1917)
• Texts on the end of the First World War, 1918
• Map of alliances in 1914
• Collaborative International Research and Debate on the War of 1914-1918 , CRID 14-18 (association of researchers that provides scientific texts and educational resources including a directory of links)
• Battle casualties: an English study for the First World War
• The press during the First World War
• Conference devoted to the construction of myths Belgian Great War (2009) .
• Letters from soldiers written during the First World War, audio version
• Photo album of a Canadian soldier - Battle of Ypres
• Photo album of a German soldier - Rail Engineering - Eastern Front 1917

Bibliography

Historical Studies

Historiography

• Paul Cunisset-Carnot , La Vie Champs during the War (1917)
• Jacques Droz, Causes of the First World War. Test historiography, ed. du Seuil, "Points"-story, 1997
• Jules Isaac, a historical debate: 1914, Origins of War, ed. Rieder, 1933
• Antoine Prost and Jay Winter, Penser la Grande Guerre, Seuil, 2004
• Dennis Showalter (ed.), History in Dispute: The First World War, Detroit, St. Martins Press, 2002

Newest

• Verdun in Cayenne , Porchet Robert (1891-1964) - Michel Valette , ed. Scholarly India, 2007.

General works

• Stphane Audoin-Rouzeau (ed.) and Jean-Jacques Becker (Eds.), Encyclopedia of the Great War 1914-1918, Bayard, Paris, 2004 ( ISBN 2-227-13945-5 )
• Stphane Audoin-Rouzeau and Annette Becker, 14-18, find the War history Folio, Gallimard, 2000, ( ISBN 2-07-030163-X )
• Stphane Audouin-Rouzeau et al (Eds.), Violence War 1914-1945, Brussels, ed. Complex, 2002
• Fernard Gambiez (general) and Marcel Suire (Colonel) History of the First World War, ed. Fayard, two vols., 1968-1971
• Pierre Miquel, La Grande Guerre, ed. Fayard, 1983
• Pierre Renouvin, The European Crisis and the Great War, Presses Universitaires de France, 1969
• Hew Strachan, The First World War, France Leisure Publishing, Oxford, 2004
• John Keegan, The First World War, ed. Perrin Collection Tempus.

Monographs

• JCG Rohl, From Bismarck to Hitler, Problems and Perspectives in History, Longman, 1970
• Michel Valette, De Verdun in Cayenne , ed. The scholarly Indies, 2007. ( ISBN 978-2-84654-150-3 )
• Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, The Great War the French, ed. Perrin, 1994
• Pierre Miquel, Les Pollux: France sacrificed, ed. Plon, coll. "Terre humaine", 2000
• Id The generals Hash: errors of command during the war of 14-18, ed. Plon, 2001, repr. Pocket, 2003
• Id die at Verdun, eds. Tallandier, 2002
• Id The Battle of the Marne, ed. Perrin, 2004
• Idem, La Butte bloody. The tragic mistake of Petain in 1915, ed. Plon, 2006
• (In) Edward J. Erickson, Ottoman Army Effectiveness in WWI: A Comparative Study, London , Routledge, 2006
• Olivier Faron, Children of mourning. Orphans and wards of the state of the First World War, 1914-1941, ed. La Dcouverte, 2001 (book from a clearance to conduct research )
• Fritz Fitsch, The War Aims of Imperial Germany, ed. Treviso, 1970
• Olivier Lepick, The Great War chemical, Presses Universitaires de France , 1998
• Michel Goya, flesh and steel, the invention of modern warfare (1914-1918), ed. Tallandier, 2004, ( ISBN 2-84734-163-3 )
• Stephanie Petit, The Great War widows, bereaved eternal?, Ed. Swan, 2007
• Leon Schirmann, Summer 1914. Lies and disinformation, eds Italy, 2003, ( ISBN 2-910536-34-3 )
• (In) Trevor Wilson, The Myriad Face of the World. Britain and the Great War, Cambridge , Polity Press, 1986

Literature

• Pictorial History of the War of 1914 to Gabriel Hanotaux of the French Academy - Full Text
• The Firing Squad of the Great War and collective memory) of Nicolas Offenstadt published in 2000 a book collection resumed in Paperback Editions Odile Jacob.

Testimonials

Main article: First World War literature.

• Verdun in Cayenne , Porchet Robert (1891-1964) - Michel Valette , ed. Scholarly India, 2007. ( ISBN 978-2-84654-150-3 ). Seen by a hairy pacifist: On the front of the beginning of the conflict until Verdun, shot for example, and desertion, court martial and prison.
• Beautiful Small World, History of Hairy told the children of Raymond Renefer by Thierry Marie Gabrielle, Somogy Edition Art - For his 8 year old daughter, Renefer, artist and soldier on the front, tells the daily lives of hairy. In the trenches, the assault or break: this book is a narrative of "first hand" which still retains all its value as evidence.
• Oral Histories of the First World War: Veterans 1914-1918 at Library and Archives Canada.
• Hand cut of Blaise Cendrars.
• Send hairy is a collection of letters from soldiers to their families compiled by Jean-Pierre Guno, Yves Laplume Pecnard and Jerome in 1998 , ed. Tallandier and Biblio.
• Storm of Steel of Ernst Jnger is the story of a young German officer on his four years of war and combat in the trenches.
• Fields of Honour of Jean Rouaud , ed. Editions of midnight.
• A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot Folio ed. Gallimard French novel ed. Denol price Interallie 1991.
• The war diaries of Louis Barthes , cooper, prefaced by Remy Cazals in 1978 ed La Dcouverte. The diary of a hairy with known major battles of the conflict.
• Tales from the trenches is a collection of stories hairy ed. The 3 orange Publishing.
• 14-18 - Frontline, Jean Lopez
• Send Letter hairy forehead and books are letters written by hairy ed. Librio.
• The Hash Generals, Pierre Miquel , Editor Pocket, 2003.
• The Hairy, Pierre Miquel.
• The mud of Flanders and Other Stories of the Great War, Max Deauville , Ed. LABOR, 2006.
• Notebooks of an infantryman ( 7 August 1914 - 16 August 1916 ), Ed Charles Delvert Memorial de Verdun, 1981, reprinted by Editions of Riaux, 2003, (ISBN)
• The Violets trenches - Letters of a soldier who did not like war, Stephen Tanty, preface by Annette Becker , Italics Publishing, 2002 (Excerpts of letters were published in Tanty lyrics hairy).
• Invasion 14 , Maxence Van der Meersch , Paris, Albin Michel, 1935.
• Looking for Soldier, The Great War as seen by the gunner John Combs (who was a professional photographer) Nicolas Meaux - Mark Combs. Editions France Loisirs 2006 with permission Publishing Acropolis.
• Jean Rouppert , a designer in the turmoil of the Great War, Ronald Mller, Paris: L'Harmattan, 2007, 224 pages, with illustrations.

Filmography

• The Grand Parade of King Vidor , 1925.
• In the West, nothing new in 1928 , in 1930 by Lewis Milestone (All Quiet On The Western Front) from In the West Front (Im Westen nichts Neues) of Erich Maria Remarque.
• La Grande Illusion of Jean Renoir , 1937.
• Paths of Glory of Stanley Kubrick , 1957, which is an indictment of the absurdity of the Great War and the stupidity of militarism.
• The room officers of Franois Dupeyron , 2001, on the lives of disabled war veterans.
• A Very Long Engagement , by Jean-Pierre Jeunet , based on the novel by Sebastien Japrisot, released in 2004.
• Merry Christmas from Christian Carion , released in 2005 , the fraternization between enemy camps in the trenches and their punishment.
• Fragments of Antonin of Bomin Gabriel , released in 2006.

• For a more detailed list: Category: Film on the First World War

References

1. (en) Julin Casanova, " The Treaty of Versailles and Its Consequences , "December 16, 2002. Accessed December 23, 2008
2. (en) Klaus J. Baden and Allison Brown, Migration in European History, Blackwell, 2003, 167 p. ( ISBN 0631189394 )
3. Jean-Yves Le Naour (ed.), The Great War, First, Paris, 2008 ( ISBN 978-2-7540-0840-2 )
4. ^{a and b} (in) Tony Ashworth, Trench Warfare 1914-1918, Macmillan Press, London, 2000, 3-4 p.
5. (en) Stephen Van Evera, "The Cult of the Offensive & the Origins of the First World War", in: International Security, Vol. 9, No. 1, 1984, p. 62.
6. (en) Fritz Fischer, War of Illusions: German Policies from 1911 to 1914, trans. (1975), p. 69.
7. Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, The Great War the French, Paris, 2002, p. 34.
8. (en) Fritz Fischer, War of Illusions: German Policies from 1911 to 1914, trans. (1975).
9. Raymond Poidevin, Germany of Wilhelm II to Hindenburg 1900-1933, ditions Richelieu, Paris, 1972, p.57-62.
10. Raymond Poidevin, op. cit., p.65.
11. (de) Fritz Fischer, Krieg der Illusionen, Dsseldorf, 1969, P.640-641.
12. Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, op. cit., p.39.
13. Raymond Poidevin, op. cit., p.64.
14. Raymond Poidevin, The economic and financial relations between Germany and France from 1898 to 1914, Paris, 1969, p.819
15. Peter Renouvin indicates that evidence is lacking to establish this thesis: Pierre Renouvin, European Crisis and the First World War, Paris, 1962, p.211-212.
16. Renouvin Pierre, op. cit., p.212-213.
17. Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, The Great War of 1914-1918 French, Perrin, 2002, p.35.
18. Jean-Claude Ggot, The French population in the ^nineteenth and ^twentieth centuries, Editions Ophrys, 1989, p.17.
19. AJP Taylor, The War Plans, 1914, Lausanne, 1971, p.96.
20. Raymond Poidevin, op. cit., p.54.
21. Raymond Poidevin, op. cit., p. 174.
22. Raymond Poidevin, op. cit., p.176.
23. Frdric Moal, France and Italy in the Balkans, 1914-1919 Proceedings Adriatic, Paris, 2006, p.26.
24. ^{a , b and c} Raymond Poidevin, op. cit., p.39.
25. Raymond Poidevin, op. cit., p.40.
26. Raymond Poidevin, op. cit, p.148.
27. Jules Isaac, a historical debate. The problem of the origins of the war, Paris, 1933, p. 26-27.
28. Stphane Audoin-Rouzeau and Annette Becker (ed.), Violence in War 1914-1945: comparative approaches of the two world wars, Editions Complexe, 2002, p.54.
29. Jean Ruhlmann, History of Europe class = "Roman"> ^twentieth century, Brussels, 1994, p.308.
30. Raymond Poidevin, op. cit., p.142.
31. Michel Launay, Versailles, a peace sloppy?: The ^twentieth century was a bad start, Editions Complexe, 1999, p.112.
32. Dominique Lejeune, La France de la Belle Epoque 1896-1914, Paris, 2002, p.109.
33. Pierre Miquel, La Grande Guerre, Fayard, 1983, p.54.
34. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.59.
35. ^{a and b} Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, op. cit., p.18.
36. Telegram No. 196 / 8, dated July 24 the ambassador of Serbia in Saint Petersburg, Spalaikovitch to the presidency of Serbia in Belgrade, to the attention of Pasic
37. Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, op. cit., p.19.
38. August 1, 1914 Beginning of the Great War , herodote.net (article on the general mobilization in France)
39. Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, op. cit., p.21.
40. Quoted in: Sergei Dmitrievich Sazonov, Fatal Years, Payot, 1927, p.241.
41. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.73.
42. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.50.
43. Jean-Noel Grandhomme, op. cit., p.27.
44. (en) C. Spencer Tucker, Laura Matysek Wood and Justin D. Murphy, The European Power in the First World War: An Encyclopedia, Garland, 1999, p. 279.
45. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.52.
46. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.46.
47. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.19.
48. Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, op. cit., p.37.
49. Stphane Audoin-Rouzeau and Annette Becker, The Great War, p.22.
50. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.24.
51. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.25.
52. Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, op. cit., p.49.
53. Michel Dreyfus, The Socialist Europe: Identity, Politics, Europe, Editions Complexe, 1991, p.59.
54. Hans Kempe vaterlndischen Die Schriften, Volume 7, Reinhard Welz Vermittler Verlag GmbH, 2005, p.19.
55. Leon Schirmann, Summer 1914: lies and misinformation: how to "sell" a war ..., Italy, 2003, p.134.
56. Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, The Great War of 1914-1918 French, Perrin, 2002, p. 279.
57. (en) Keith Robbins, The First World War, Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York, 1984, p.103f.
58. (de) Ernst Rudolf Huber, op. cit., p.218.
59. Jean-Jacques Becker, the Great War, a story published in Franco-alllemande Tallandier in 2008. ^{[ref. incomplete]}
60. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.100.
61. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.124.
62. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.164.
63. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.191.
64. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p. 208.
65. Jean-Jacques Becker in the Great War, a Franco-German history published in 2008 in Tallendier. ^{[ref. incomplete]}
66. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p. 158-162
67. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.284.
68. ^{a and b} Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.327-329.
69. Peter Milza / Serge Berstein, Italian Fascism, 1919-1945, Le Seuil, 1980, pp.33-34.
70. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.286-287.
71. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., P.300.
72. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p. 315-317.
73. Pierre Miquel, op. cit. p.354f.
74. Quoted in Marc Ferro, The Great War, 1914-1918, Gallimard, 1969, p.141.
75. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.362.
76. Pierre Miquel, op. cit. p.373f.
77. Pierre Miquel, op. cit. p.370ff.
78. Pierre Miquel, op. cit. p.407f.
79. Stphane Audoin-Rouzeau and Annette Becker, op. cit., p.90-91.
80. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.389.
81. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.391.
82. Pierre Miquel, op. cit. p.392f.
83. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.511.
84. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.547.
85. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p. 574.
86. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.576.
87. (de) Erich Ludendorff, Meine Kriegserinnerungen 1914-1918, Berlin, 1919, p.553.
88. Stphane Audoin-Rouzeau and Annette Becker, op. cit., p.120.
89. (en) Spencer Tucker, World War I: Student Encyclopedia, Santa Barbara, 2005, p.444.
90. ^{a and b} Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.606.
91. (en) Derek ALDCROFT, From Versailles to Wall Street from 1919 to 1929, Berkeley, Los Angeles, 1977, p.15.
92. See: Sophie Delaporte, The broken faces: the wounded from the front of the Great War, Noesis Publishing, 1996.
93. Riaud Xavier, First World War and dentistry, practitioners of emergency, Paris, 2008, p.113.
94. (en) Laura Greenwald, Heroes With A Thousand Faces: True Stories of People with Facial Deformities and Their Quest for Acceptance, Cleveland Clinic Press, 2007, p.73.
95. Joseph Yacoub, La question Assyrian Chaldean, the European Powers and the League (1908-1938), 4 vols., Lyon, 1985, p.156.
96. (en) Merrill D. Peterson, Starving Armenians: America and the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1930 and After, Virginia Press, 2004, p.124.
97. ^{a and b} (by) Alan Kramer, Dynamic of Destruction: Culture and Mass Killing in the First World War, Oxford University Press, 2007, p.22.
98. Annette Becker, the Forgotten Great War. Humanitarian and culture of war, occupied populations, deported civilians, prisoners of war, Noesis, 1998, p.42-53.
99. ^{a and b} Annette Becker, op. cit., p.55.
100. A. Lemaire, The Tragedy of Tamines Tamines, 1957, p.188.
101. Georges Henri Dumont, History of Belgium, The Scream, 1999, P.512.
102. (nl) Ernest Persoons, Steden van Belgi: Leuven, Brussels, 1984, p.98.
103. Kalisz before and after war
104. Stphane Audoin-Rouzeau and Annette Becker, op. cit., p.124.
105. Jean-Noel Grandhomme, The First World War in France, Rennes, 2002, p.106.
106. Jean-Claude Ggot, The French population in the ^nineteenth and ^twentieth centuries, Editions Ophrys, 1989, p.48.
107. ^{a and b} Pierre Milza, From Versailles to Berlin, Armand Colin, 2007, p.38.
108. (en) Hans-Joachim Braun, The German Economy in the Twentieth Century, Routledge, 1990, p.37.
109. Olivier Hueber, General economy, Editions Technip, 2005, p.83.
110. ^{a and b} Stphane Audoin-Rouzeau and Annette Becker, op. cit., p.121.
111. (en) Spencer Tucker, op. cit., p.709.
112. (de) Delpal Bernard, "Zwischen Vergeltung und der Humanisierung Lebensverhltnisse. Kriegsgefangene in Frankreich 1914-1920 "in: Jochen Oltmer (Ed.), Europa Kriegsgefangene im Ersten Weltkrieg of, Paderborn, 2006, p.160.
113. Anne Biraben, the military cemeteries of France, Paris, 2005, p.177.
114. Arnaud Du Crest Recruitment difficulties during periods of unemployment, Paris, 2000, p.84.
115. Yves Buisson Risks CBRN knowledge for action, Xavier Montauban SA, 2004, p.134.
116. Evelyn Mill, The Virus, The Blue Rider, 2007, p.109.
117. Offenstadt Nicolas, The shot of the Great War and collective memory (1914-1999), Odile Jacob, 1999, p.21.
118. Pierre Miquel, op. cit. p.599f.
119. ^{a and b} Stphane Audoin-Rouzeau and Annette Becker, op. cit., p.30.
120. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.186-224.
121. Jean Ruhlmann, op. cit., p.320.
122. (en) Simon Dunstan and Ron Volstad, Flak Jackets: 20th Century Military Body Armour, Osprey Publishing, 1984, p.5.
123. (fr) William Martin / Ian Drury / Howard Gerrard, Verdun 1916, Osprey Publishing, 2001, p.17.
124. Peter Grison, The Great War a lieutenant of artillery war diaries from 1914 to 1919: books 1914 to 1919, L'Harmattan, 1999, p.7.
125. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.360.
126. The call of the French Viviani
127. Act of August 5, 1914, circular Prefectural April 1915 Page 749 of Report of the Archivist (departmental); departmental archives, municipal and hospital; Arras (accessed 2009 12 30)
128. Jacques Frmeaux colonies in the Great War, 14-18 Editions, 2006, p.63
129. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.459.
130. France and Great Britain in China will recruit only non-combatants, following an agreement dating from the Qing Dynasty
131. ^{a and b} Frmeaux Jacques, op. cit., p.202-207
132. Stphane Audoin-Rouzeau and Annette Becker, op. cit., p.78.
133. The decision to build the Great Mosque of Paris , the first mosque built in France, was taken after the First World War to commemorate the 36,000 North Africans, mainly sharpshooters, killed lor this conflict, Maurice Barbier, Secularism, The Harmattan, 1995 98
134. Another source of more detailed reports mobilized 565,000 (including 97,100 killed or missing):
     • 175,000 Algerians (including 35,000 killed or missing)
     • 40,000 Moroccans (including 12,000 killed or missing)
     • Tunisians 80,000 (including 21,000 killed or missing)
     • 180,000 black Africans (of which 25,000 killed or missing)
     • Malagasy 41,000 (including 2,500 killed or missing)
     • Indochinese 49,000 (including 1,600 killed or missing)
     Pascal Blanchard and Sandrine Lemaire, colonial culture, France is conquered by the Empire (1873-1931), Editions Autrement, 2002, p.117
135. twelve Algerian / Tunisian , two Moroccans and two mixed Zouaves / Rifles)
136. two or three citations to the order of the army
137. four or five citations in the order of the Army
138. cited six times in the order of the Army
139. A total of about 815 regiments of all weapons have been committed by France during the First World War and only 23 units of the Army (including 6 battalions) received feed at the color of Legion of Honor (at least 6 quotations about the Army), and among them there are four regiments of riflemen (the second RTA , RTT 4th , 7th RTA Rifles and 4th Zouaves mixed-Rifles , which became the 16th RTT in 1920 )
140. The forage on the site of France-phaleristique.com
141. Jean-Louis Larcade, Zouaves and infantrymen, Argonaut, 2000
142. The Forage 1914-1918 , supplement of the newspaper L'Illustration 1919
143. After its dissolution, its decorations will go to the first regiment of Senegalese riflemen in 1919
144. Encycolpdie of the Great War 1914-1918, Bayard, 2004, pp.339-346
145. Jacques Frmeaux, "The imperial troops in the heart of war" in history, economics and society, and SEDES UDC Editions, 2004, Volume 23, Numbers 1-4, p.216
146. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.287.
147. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.226-282.
148. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p. 232.
149. (en) John R. Schindler, Isonzo: The Forgotten Sacrifice of the Great War, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001, p.277.
150. These documents are available on www.flickr.com
151. On the position of Smuts: Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.535.
152. Louis Girard, The Third Republic, Encyclopaedia Universalis, DVD, 2007.
153. Jean-Jacques Becker, The French in the Great War, Robert Laffont, 1980.
154. Francis Latour, The Papacy and the problems of peace during the First World War, Paris, L'Harmattan, 1996, p.36.
155. (de) Cartarius Ulrich (Hrsg.), Deutschland im Ersten Weltkrieg. Text und Dokumente 1914-1918, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1982, p.208.
156. Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, The Great War the French, Paris, P.300.
157. Raymond Poidevin, op. cit., p. 214.
158. ^{a and b} Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, The Great War the French, p.301.
159. ^{a and b} Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, The Great War the French, p. 302.
160. (en) Anne R. Pierce, Woodrow Wilson and Harry Truman: Mission and Power in American Foreign Policy, New Brunswick, 2007, p.82.
161. (en) Geo G. Phillimore and Hugh HL Bellot, Treatment of Prisoners of War, Transactions of the Grotius Society Vol. 5, 1919, p.47-64.
162. Marc Ferro, The Great War, 1914-1918, Gallimard, 1969, p.109.
163. (en) Niall Ferguson, The Pity of War: Explaining World War I, 1998, p. 368-369.
164. (de) Uta Hinz, Gefangen im Groen Krieg. Kriegsgefangenschaft in Deutschland 1914-1921, Klartext Verlag, Essen, 2006, p.238.
165. (de) Reinhard Nachtigal, Die-Kriegsgefangenen Mittelmchte Repatriierung der aus dem revolutionren Ruland. Heimkehr zwischen Agitation und intervention Brgerkrieg 1918-1922 ", In: Jochen Oltmer (Ed.), op. cit., p. 239.
166. (de) Panikos Panayi, "Normalitt hinter Stacheldraht. Kriegsgefangene in Grobritannien 1914-1919 ", In: Jochen Oltmer (Ed.), op. cit., p.128.
167. (de) Delpal Bernard, "Zwischen Vergeltung und der Humanisierung Lebensverhltnisse. Kriegsgefangene in Frankreich 1914-1920 ", In: Jochen Oltmer (Ed.), op. cit., p.152.
168. (de) Hannes Leidinger / Verena Moritz, "Verwaltene Massen. Kriegsgefangene in der Donaumonarchie 1914-1918 ", In: Jochen Oltmer (Ed.), Europa Kriegsgefangene im Ersten Weltkrieg of, Paderborn, 2006, p.54.
169. (en) See: Dale Blair, No Quarter: Unlawful Killing and Surrender in the Australian War Experience, 1915-1918, 2005
170. (en) Show: Tim Cook, The Politics of Surrender: Canadian Soldiers and The Killing of Prisoners In The First World War The Journal of Military History, Vol.70, No.3, 2006, P.637-665.
171. (en) Gary Jonathan Bass, Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2000, p.107.
172. (en) Mesopotamia Campaign
173. Pierre Miquel, op. cit., p.35-36.
174. Annette Becker and Stphane Audoin-Rouzeau, 14-18, Reclaiming the war, Paris, Gallimard, 2000.
175. Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, Europe, history of its peoples, Paris, 1998, p 523.
176. Jean-Baptiste Duroselle, Europe, history of its peoples, p 524.
177. "This word [war] does not deserve never capitalized, unless the war is Great, or mad world." Jean-Pierre Lacroux, "War" [pdf]] in Orthotypographie, pp. 43-44. Published posthumously under the title Orthotypo editions Quintet in 2008 ( ISBN 978-2-86850-147-9 ).

Notes

1. This war has received different names: see Other names.

WWI
European military theater : Balkans Western Front Eastern Front Italian Front Front of the Middle East : Caucasus Mesopotamia Sinai and Palestine Dardanelles Persia African theater : Southwest West East North Theatre in the Asia-Pacific : Headquarters Tsingtao
Key Participants ( People )	Forces Agreement Russian Empire French Empire : France British Empire : United Kingdom , Australia , Canada , British India , New Zealand , Newfoundland , Union of South Africa Italy Romania U.S. Serbia Portugal China Japan Belgium Montenegro Greece Armenia Brazil Central Powers German colonial empire : Germany Austria-Hungary Ottoman Empire Bulgaria
Chronology	Pre-conflict Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) Italo-Turkish War (1911-1912) First Balkan War (1912-1913) Second Balkan War (1913) Prelude Origin Sarajevo Assassination crisis of July 1914 Battle Frontier Battle of Cer First Battle of the Marne Battle of Tannenberg Battle of Lemberg Battle of Masurian Lakes Battle of Kolubara Battle Sarkam First Battle of Ypres 1915 Second Battle of Ypres Battle of the Dardanelles Battles of the Isonzo Battle of Warsaw Conquest of Serbia Headquarters Kut 1916 Battle of Erzurum Battle of Verdun Offensive Lake Naroch Trentino Offensive Battle of Jutland Battle of the Somme Offensive Brussilov Conquest of Romania 1917 Capture of Baghdad Second Battle of Arras Kerensky Offensive First Battle of Ypres Battle of Caporetto Battle of Cambrai 1918 Armistice Erzincan Treaty of Brest-Litovsk Spring Offensive Offensive Hundred Days Meuse-Argonne Offensive Battle of Vittorio Veneto 1918 Armistice Armistice with Ottoman Empire Other Conflicts Maritz Rebellion (1914-1915) Indo-German Conspiracy (1914-1919) Easter Rising (1916) Russian Revolution (1917) Finnish Civil War (1918) Post-conflict Russian Civil War (1917-1921) Armenian-Azerbaijani War (1918-1920) Armenian-Georgian War (1918) German Revolution (1918-1919) Hungarian-Romanian War (1918-1919) Uprising Greater Poland (1918-1919) Estonian War of Independence (1918-1920) Latvian War of Independence (1918-1920) Lithuanian Wars of Independence (1918-1920) Ukrainian War of Independence (1917-1921) / Fr.orgGuerre_russo-polonaise_de_1920 "alt =" Russo-Polish War of 1920 "> Russo-Polish War of 1920 (1919-1921) Polish-Lithuanian War (1920) Irish War of Independence ( 1919-1921) Turkish War of Independence including the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1923) Invasion of Georgia (1921) Irish Civil War (1922-1923)

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