Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/August 2018/Op-ed


 * By TomStar81

In 1914 the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand had sparked a political crisis that resulted in the outbreak of World War. This triggered several European-based multi-national alliances to activate, which in turn caused many neutral or nominally neutral nations to join. The aftermath of the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and the failure of the Central Powers to push the Allied Powers back, coupled with the collapse of the Russian Empire as a result of mismanagement by Emperor Nicholas II, led to nations that had up to that point been mere observers beginning to stake a claim in the war, no doubt with the hopes of getting something for being on the winning side.

This first nation to do so was Italy, declaring its nation to be at war with Germany on August 28, 1916. From there, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria expanded their war efforts by declaring war against Romania by the end of 1916. Across the Atlantic Ocean and in response to the renewed U-boat campaign, the United States, Cuba, and Panama would declare war against Germany in rapid succession. A few days later, perhaps in response to the United States entering the war and the Monroe Doctrine, which stipulates that the United States will not tolerate European interference in its affairs in Central and South America, Brazil and Bolivia severed their ties with the German Empire. This would eventually result in the Central and South American nations of Costa Rica, Peru, Uruguay, Brazil, Ecuador, Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Honduras either following Brazil and Bolivia in severing diplomatic relations with Germany or outright declaring war against Germany during 1916-18.

Germany's problems with diplomacy extended to the Asia-Pacific region as well. In July, Siam (now Thailand) would declare war against Germany, and China, with whom Germany had attempted to maintain relations and had briefly back a monarchist coup in hopes of improving those relations, would join the fight against Germans in 1917. With Germany's defeat looking increasingly imminent, the Allies looked to strike the final blow, which began on August 8, 1918, in what is now known as the Hundred Days Offensive. This, the last major offensive combat operation of the Western Front, ultimately succeeded in throwing the Germans from the territory gained in 1914. The Hundred Days Offensive would seal the victory of Allied Powers, which would eventually lead to an armistice and in time a fragile peace.