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GLOSSARY |
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Anzac is the acronym for the 'Australian and New Zealand Army Corps', formed in December 1914 by combining the Australian Imperial Force and the New Zealand Expeditionary Force under the command of Lieutenant-General Birdwood. The acronym - probably devised by a clerk at Birdwood's headquarters for use on a rubber stamp - was subsequently adopted as the telegraph code for the corps.
Anzac troops served at Gallipoli , in Palestine and on the Western Front. The small cove at Gallipoli where Australian and New Zealand troops landed on 25 April 1915 became known as Anzac Cove, and both countries commemorate Anzac Day on that day every year. The bravery and the endurance displayed by the Anzacs at Gallipoli played a key role in the formation of Australian and New Zealand national identity.
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| The Black Hand was a secret terrorist organisation formed in 1911 to promote the goal of a Greater Serbia. Its members included senior figures within the Serbian military, including Major Voya Tankosic and Chief of Military Intelligence Dragutin Dimitrijevic. The Black Hand was hostile to Austro-Hungarian interests and suspected Austria-Hungary of wanting to become the dominant power in the Balkans. Several members of 'Young Bosnia' (a group closely aligned with the Black Hand) were involved in the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, including Gavrilo Princip , who fired the fatal shots that plunged Europe into war. Princip and his accomplices were equipped with pistols and grenades provided by the Black Hand and this is what provided a clear and unambiguous link between Serbia and the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. |
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In 1914, Britain was the world's leading naval power and, as such, was able to impose a blockade on other states' shipping as an instrument of 'economic warfare'. British officials such as Sir Maurice Hankey had advocated the adoption of such a strategy prior to 1914, and it was quickly implemented once the war began. German ships were seized in ports and on the high seas, and through its control of the North Sea and English Channel, Britain denied access to German ports.
Germany began food rationing within a few weeks of the start of the blockade, and several years of severe privation turned many Austro-Hungarian and German citizens against the war.
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President Wilson delivered his Fourteen Points speech to Congress on 8 January 1918. It was both an expression of American war aims and a liberal response to the Bolshevik call for peace without the Central Powers suffering annexations or indemnities. By that time, American troops were starting to arrive in Europe in significant numbers and they had to know why they were fighting.
Among other things, Wilson called for:
- freedom of navigation in international waters
- the removal of economic barriers and the establishment of fair trade
- reductions in national armaments
- a 'free and impartial adjustment' of all colonial claims
- self-determination for the peoples of Austria-Hungary
- establishment of a Polish state
- formation of an association of nations to guarantee the political independence and territorial integrity of all states.
Wilson also said he was happy for Germany to resume its position as a 'great nation' as long as it didn't try to impose itself on others. As a consequence, Germany looked to Wilson to broker a fair peace deal when they decided to sue for peace in October 1918.
At the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, some of Wilson's aspirations were adopted (e.g. the idea behind the League of Nations) but other ideals found scant acceptance (e.g. the idea of national self-determination outside Europe). |
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An area of 150,000 square miles in north-western Saudi Arabia between the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea. In 1844, the area came under the control of the Turks, who built a railway from Damascus to Medina to improve communications to the holy cities of Medina and Mecca.
In June 1916, the Hejaz Arabs - advised by T E Lawrence - rose in revolt against Turkish rule, spurred on by Britain's promise to support their bid for post-war independence. However, although the Arabs won some well-publicised victories against the Turks and assisted General Allenby's campaign in Palestine, Britain failed to honour these promises and the region was incorporated into Saudi Arabia in 1932. |
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Paul von Hindenburg became chief of the German General Staff in August 1916 and, with General Erich Ludendorff , planned the construction of a system of defensive fortifications behind Germany's northern and central sectors of the Western Front. The Siegfriedstellung, or Hindenburg Line as it was known to the Allies, ran from Arras to Laon. Each sector had its own system of mutually supporting strong-points backed up with barbed wire, trench works and fire power.
After the failure of the 'Michael' offensive in April 1918, Germany's defence depended on the Hindenburg Line. When Allied troops breached it in late September 1918, the generals returned power to Germany's civilian politicians and they began to sue for peace.
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In the early weeks of the war, three elderly armoured cruisers - HMS Aboukir, HMS Hogue, HMS Cressy - were assigned to patrol an area off the Dutch coast known as the 'Broad Fourteens'. Because they were old, slow and generally under-gunned, these vessels were jocularity described as the 'Live Bait Squadron', and some in the Admiralty expressed doubts over the wisdom of assigning such ships to this duty.
These fears were proved valid on 22 September 1914 when the three 'Live Bait' ships were sunk by torpedoes fired by the German U-boat U-9. A total of 1,459 British sailors, many of them cadets or reservists, died in this action. As Winston Churchill was first lord of the Admiralty at the time, these casualties became known as 'Winston's War Babies'.
The loss of these vessels, and the sinking of HMS Pathfinder on 5 September, prompted Admiral Jellicoe to withdraw his most valuable ships to ports outwith the U-boats' range. |
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| Nivelle offensive (2nd Battle of the Aisne) |
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The Nivelle offensive - named after the French army's commander-in-chief, Robert Nivelle - was launched on 16 April 1917 when 19 divisions of the Fifth and Sixth Armies attacked along an 80-kilometre front from Soissons to Reims. Nivelle believed that the war could be won through the adoption of more offensive tactics, but the Nivelle offensive was plagued with problems from the outset.
It had been subject to repeated delays, and when the Germans had learned of the French plans, they had taken up easily defended positions on high ground. On the first day, 40,000 French soldiers and 150 tanks were lost, and by 9 May, when the offensive was called off, French casualties stood at 187,000.
The scale of these losses and the operation's lack of success sparked off a wave of mutinies in the French army and Nivelle was replaced by Pétain . |
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The Q-ships were a British invention. They were usually elderly trawlers or freighters masquerading as merchant vessels while carrying hidden guns. (Hence the name: Q=query.) A Q-ship would endeavour to tempt a U-boat into launching a surface attack. Once the U-boat was within range, the Q-ship would unveil its guns and open fire.
Q-ships were highly successful in the early years of the war, sinking numerous submarines. However, the Germans complained that British Q-ships often flew neutral flags - for example, the US flag - and used this as an excuse to change their rules of engagement.
In February 1915, Germany declared all of Britain's coastal waters to be a war zone and advised non-military shipping to enter at their own peril. The adoption of this strategy led to the sinking of more Allied ships, but attacks on civilian ships such as the Lusitania helped to turn world opinion against the Germans. |
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Germany's imperial parliament, an essentially deliberative body of 400 members elected on the basis of universal male suffrage. Despite the appearance of democracy, it was the Kaiser who selected Germany's chancellor and his government, and the Reichstag had no power to draft legislation, initiate policy or control the government's actions. Germany entered the First World War governed by an autocrat.
Germany's princes sat in the Bundesrat (federal council), which acted as a sort of 'upper house' and was supposed to check the non-existent 'power' of the Reichstag. One third of Bundesrat members were drawn from Prussia, and Prussian interests tended to dominate the German government. |
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Kaiser Wilhelm II dominated German political and military life at the start of the war. He appointed the chancellor and his cabinet, determined foreign policy and commanded Germany's armed forces, despite the fact that there was ostensibly a 'Supreme Command'. The first of these was led by Helmuth von Moltke - nephew of the general who led Germany to victory in the 1870 war with France-as Chief of the General Staff (1914), but following the defeat at the Marne, he was told to report himself sick. The Second Supreme Command was headed by von Moltke's successor General Erich von Falkenhayn from 1914 to 1916.
During the course of the war, power began to shift towards a cabal of leading industrialists and senior military figures - mainly Hindenburg and Ludendorff. In August 1916, these two formed the Third Supreme Command when Hindenburg was appointed chief of the General Staff and Ludendorff became his first quartermaster general. They progressively marginalised the Kiaser as the war dragged on.
The Third Supreme Command effectively ran Germany as a military - industrial dictatorship during 1916-18 and anyone who opposed its militant and belligerent strategy was removed from office. The Third Supreme Command retained control until the Allies broke Bulgaria and pierced the Hindenburg Line.
Germany's generals then accepted that Germany could not win the war. Power was transferred to civilian politicians who then had to negotiate a peace deal under very difficult circumstances. |
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Germany and Austria-Hungary signed the Dual Alliance in 1879, an agreement committing the two states to mutual assistance in the event of attack by France or Russia. Austria-Hungary had become estranged from Russia after pursuing a neutral policy during the Crimean War, and Germany was anxious to build bridges with Vienna after the Seven Weeks' War of 1866. The Dual Alliance was expanded into the Triple Alliance in 1882 when Italy joined.
The treaty was renewed every five years. However, Italy proved to be an equivocal partner. In 1902, it reached an understanding with France stating that each country would remain neutral in the event of an attack on the other. When the war began, Italy reneged on its Triple Alliance commitments by declaring itself neutral and, in October, embraced a policy of 'sacro egoismo' (sacred self-interest). It finally entered the war in 1915 on the side of the Allies in the hope of gaining territory from Austria-Hungary.
The Triple Alliance was counter-balanced by the Triple Entente (see below) of France, Russia and Britain. As a result, by 1907 Europe was divided into two armed and rather fearful camps. |
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After many years of rivalry, Britain and France signed an Entente Cordiale (friendly understanding) in 1904. This resolved several colonial disputes and established better diplomatic understanding between the two states. However, it did not commit Britain and France to offer each other military support. The Entente Cordiale was expanded to a Triple Entente in 1907 when Russia and Britain signed an Entente. Russia and France had already concluded a military alliance in 1891-94 with the object of squeezing Germany in any future two-front war.
The Triple Entente was a counter-balance to the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy, but it did not unambiguously commit Britain to support France and Russia in any major conflict. Nonetheless, the division of Europe into two armed camps in the early twentieth century was a significant pre-condition for the outbreak of a major war. |
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| The name given to the German democratic republic that emerged following the abdication of the Kaiser in November 1918. A national assembly was elected to draft a constitution for the new republic in January 1919, and this assembly met in the small city of Weimar, home to the poets Goethe and Schiller. The Weimar Republic was finally extinguished by the Nazis in 1933-34. |
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