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64-574: The idea of a future "buffer zone" to be cleared of Poles and Jews was discussed officially at highest levels as early as 1914. In July 1917 the German supreme command under General Ludendorff , as part of the debate and planning regarding the cession of the "border strip" to Germany, specified its own designs in a memorandum. It proposed annexing a greatly enlarged "border strip" of 20,000 square kilometres, and ethnically cleansing its Polish and Jewish population (numbering between 2,000,000 and 3,000,000) from

128-579: A general mobilization , Germany viewed the act as provocative. The Russian government promised Germany that its general mobilization did not mean preparation for war with Germany but was a reaction to the tensions between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. The German government regarded the Russian promise of no war with Germany to be nonsense in light of its general mobilization, and Germany, in turn, mobilized for war. On 1 August, Germany sent an ultimatum to Russia stating that since both Germany and Russia were in

192-631: A decisive victory against the Russians was impossible. The second concern was the Battle of Verdun , the centrepiece of Falkenhayn's western strategy. Falkenhayn wrote after the war that his intention was to draw the French Army into a battle of attrition and wear them down. As the French position became desperate, Falkenhayn expected a British relief effort near Arras which would be destroyed, leaving

256-595: A diplomatic cover for an inevitable Austro-Hungarian declaration of war on Serbia. Russia had warned Austria-Hungary that the Russian government would not tolerate Austria-Hungary invading Serbia. However, with Germany supporting Austria-Hungary's actions, the Austro-Hungarian government hoped that Russia would not intervene and that the conflict with Serbia would remain a regional conflict. Austria-Hungary's invasion of Serbia resulted in Russia declaring war on

320-416: A formal ultimatum to Serbia demanding a full-scale investigation of Serbian government complicity in the assassination and complete compliance by Serbia in agreeing to the terms demanded by Austria-Hungary. Serbia submitted to accept most of the demands. However, Austria-Hungary viewed this as insufficient and used this lack of full compliance to justify military intervention. These demands have been viewed as

384-510: A general mobilization in expectation of war. On 3 August 1914, Germany responded to this action by declaring war on France. Germany, facing a two-front war, enacted what was known as the Schlieffen Plan , which involved German armed forces moving through Belgium and swinging south into France and towards the French capital of Paris . This plan was hoped to quickly gain victory against the French and allow German forces to concentrate on

448-458: A great colonizing task. The current world war provides the opportunity for Germany to resume in a resolute way its colonizing mission in the East". For administrators like Schwerin, the plan was to be accompanied by massive expulsion of Poles as in his words "new land can usually only be won at the expense of those who own the land". The German nobility in certain versions of the plan were to become

512-584: A major power in the Horn of Africa . Its ruler, Lij Iyasu , was widely suspected of harbouring pro-Islamic sentiments and being sympathetic to the Ottoman Empire. The German Empire also attempted to reach out to Iyasu, dispatching several unsuccessful expeditions to the region to attempt to encourage it to collaborate in an Arab Revolt -style uprising in East Africa. One of the unsuccessful expeditions

576-598: A nervous breakdown on 9 September. Moltke was replaced by the Prussian Minister of War, Lieutenant General Erich von Falkenhayn , first informally in September and then officially on 25 October 1914. Although Tappen was retained as head of the Operations Division, Falkenhayn brought in two of his own associates, General Adolf Wild von Hohenborn and General Hugo von Freytag-Loringhoven , into

640-507: A state of military mobilization, an effective state of war existed between the two countries. Later that day, France , an ally of Russia, declared a state of general mobilization. In August 1914, Germany attacked Russia, citing Russian aggression as demonstrated by the mobilization of the Russian army, which had resulted in Germany mobilizing in response. After Germany declared war on Russia, France, with its alliance with Russia, prepared

704-638: A successful Allied advance in Macedonia . The Ottoman Empire followed suit on 30 October 1918 in the face of British and Arab gains in Palestine and Syria . Austria and Hungary concluded ceasefires separately during the first week of November following the disintegration of the Habsburg Empire and the Italian offensive at Vittorio Veneto ; Germany signed the armistice ending the war on

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768-944: A territory of 8,000 square kilometres and settling it with ethnic Germans. Poles living in Prussia, especially in the province of Posen , were to be "encouraged" by unspecified means to move into the German-ruled puppet state of the Kingdom of Poland . The German minority living in Congress Poland, which had earlier suggested the annexation of all territory up to Łódź in a letter to the German government, also supported such proposals. The German government developed and agreed to these plans in March 1918, and in April gained support in

832-653: The Dritte OHL (Third OHL) but Hindenburg was "neither the intellectual centre of the strategic planning [...] nor of the new war economy", as proposed in the Hindenburg Programme of 31 August 1916. He was mostly a figurehead and a representative of the military command to the public. Control was mainly exercised by his deputy, General of Infantry Erich Ludendorff , who held the title Erster Generalquartiermeister (First Quartermaster General). The duumvirate increasingly dominated decision making on

896-629: The Allies in 1915 and divided between French Togoland and British Togoland . The Jiaozhou Bay Leased Territory was a German dependency in East Asia leased from China in 1898. Japanese forces occupied it following the Siege of Tsingtao . German New Guinea was a German protectorate in the Pacific. It was occupied by Australian forces in 1914. German Samoa was a German protectorate following

960-753: The Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 and the Treaty of Bucharest (1913) . As a condition of entering the war on the side of the Central Powers, Bulgaria was granted the right to reclaim that territory. In opposition to offensive operations by Union of South Africa , which had joined the war, Boer army officers of what is now known as the Maritz Rebellion "refounded" the South African Republic in September 1914. Germany assisted

1024-465: The Battle of Tannenberg and First Battle of the Masurian Lakes had made Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg a popular hero and contrasted starkly with the stalemate in the west. Hindenburg and his supporters sought to shift Germany's main effort to the eastern front to knock Russia out of the war. Falkenhayn resisted this, believing that France and Great Britain were the true opponents and that

1088-740: The British , Ethiopian , Italian , and French Empires between 1896 and 1925. During World War I, the Dervish State received many supplies from the German and Ottoman Empires to carry on fighting the Allies. However, looting from other Somali tribes in the Korahe raid eventually led to its collapse in 1925. Both the Ottomans and Germans had client states , they are listed below. States listed in this section were not officially members of

1152-910: The German Empire , Austria-Hungary , the Ottoman Empire , and Bulgaria ; this was also known as the Quadruple Alliance. The Central Powers' origin was the alliance of Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1879 . Despite having nominally joined the Triple Alliance before, Italy did not take part in World War I on the side of the Central Powers and later joined on the side of the Allied Powers . The Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria did not join until after World War I had begun. The Central Powers faced, and were defeated by,

1216-456: The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria . Hungary ( Transleithania ) comprised the Kingdom of Hungary and the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia . In Bosnia and Herzegovina , sovereign authority was shared by both Austria and Hungary. The Ottoman Empire joined the war on the side of the Central Powers in November 1914. The Ottoman Empire had gained strong economic connections with Germany through

1280-719: The Prussian House of Lords ; the plans for this were debated and developed across a wide spectrum of political parties and interested groups such as political scientists , industrialists, and nationalist organisations like the Pan-German League . Friedrich von Schwerin, head of administration in Frankfurt/Oder and chairman of the Settlement Commission , stated, "The German people, the greatest colonizing people on earth, have again been given

1344-566: The Race to the Sea as the German and Franco-British armies attempted to outflank each other to the north. The campaign culminated at First Battle of Ypres where both combatants attacked but failed to make a breakthrough. Two strategic issues dominated the remainder Falkenhayn's tenure as Chief of the General Staff. First was the priority accorded to the eastern and western fronts. Victories at

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1408-701: The Russian Empire in the east and France and the United Kingdom in the west. Some examples of the Central Powers collaborating are listed below. In the Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive , German forces launched an assault on Russian positions to lessen pressure on the Austro-Hungarians to the south, diverting Russian troops from the Austro-Hungarian lines. At the Battle of Caporetto , Austro-Hungarian forces broke through

1472-600: The Tripartite Convention . It was occupied by the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in 1914. Austria-Hungary regarded the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand as having been orchestrated with the assistance of Serbia . The country viewed the assassination as setting a dangerous precedent of encouraging the country's South Slav population to rebel and threaten to tear apart the multinational country. Austria-Hungary sent

1536-735: The United States in April 1917, and Greece in July 1917. After successfully beating France in the Franco-Prussian War , the German Empire incorporated the province of Alsace-Lorraine upon its founding in 1871. However, the province was still claimed by French revanchists , leading to its recession to France at the Treaty of Versailles. The German Empire was late to colonization, only beginning overseas expansion in

1600-797: The Zimmermann Telegram , provoked the United States to enter the war. The OHL also ensured safe passage for Lenin and his associates from Switzerland to Russia . After the October Revolution , the OHL negotiated the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk to free troops for the 1918 German spring offensive on the Western Front . As the tide of the war turned against Germany with the Allied Hundred Days Offensive , in late September 1918, Ludendorff called for

1664-464: The "colonial administration". The plan has been described by historian Hajo Holborn as the first instance in modern European history of planning the removal of whole populations as a solution to national conflicts. By removing the Polish population, all resistance to Germanization of Polish territories would be bypassed. Parts of the plans were adopted by Nazi Germany after the war, and implemented in

1728-551: The "parliamentarisation" of the German government and immediate armistice negotiations. When he reversed course and demanded the fight to be resumed in October, the government refused his demand and Ludendorff threatened to quit. His bluff was called and he was replaced by Lieutenant-General Wilhelm Groener . Though Ludendorff had expected Hindenburg to follow him, the Field Marshal remained in office until his resignation from

1792-513: The 1870s and 1880s. Colonization was opposed by much of the government, including chancellor Otto von Bismarck , but it became a colonial power after participating in the Berlin Conference . Then, private companies were founded and began settling parts of Africa, the Pacific, and China. Later these groups became German protectorates and colonies. Cameroon was a German colony existing from 1884 until its complete occupation in 1915. It

1856-705: The Allied Powers, which themselves had formed around the Triple Entente . The Central Powers started with the Dual Alliance between the German Empire and Austria-Hungary. Then the Ottoman Empire joined with the German–Ottoman alliance , then Bulgaria with the Bulgaria–Germany treaty . The name "Central Powers" is derived from the location of these countries; all four were located between

1920-466: The Allies in 1919 and split between the Belgian Congo , Portuguese Mozambique , and the newly founded colony of Tanganyika . South West Africa , modern-day Namibia , came under German rule in 1885 and was absorbed into South Africa following its invasion in 1915. Togoland , now part of Ghana , was made a German protectorate in 1884. However, after a swift campaign , it was occupied by

1984-792: The Army in the summer of 1919. As the German Revolution began, Hindenburg and Groener advised the Emperor to abdicate . Groener subsequently came to an agreement with the Social Democrat leader Friedrich Ebert known as the Ebert–Groener pact under which the Army leadership agreed to back the new republican government. With the war over in November 1918, the OHL was moved from Spa to Schloss Wilhelmshöhe in Kassel , to supervise

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2048-501: The Berlin-to-Baghdad railway project that was still incomplete at the time. The Ottoman Empire made a formal alliance with Germany signed on 2 August 1914. The alliance treaty expected that the Ottoman Empire would become involved in the conflict in a short amount of time. However, for the first several months of the war, the Ottoman Empire maintained neutrality though it allowed a German naval squadron to enter and stay near

2112-461: The Central Powers. Still, during the war, they cooperated with one or more Central Powers members on a level that makes their neutrality disputable. The Ethiopian Empire was officially neutral throughout World War I but widely suspected of sympathy for the Central Powers between 1915 and 1916. At the time, Ethiopia was one of only two fully independent states in Africa (the other being Liberia ) and

2176-638: The Eastern Front. Belgium was a neutral country and would not accept German forces crossing its territory. Germany disregarded Belgian neutrality and invaded the country to launch an offensive towards Paris. This caused Great Britain to declare war against the German Empire, as the action violated the Treaty of London that both nations signed in 1839 guaranteeing Belgian neutrality. Subsequently, several states declared war on Germany in late August 1914, with Italy declaring war on Germany in August 1916,

2240-796: The Empire. After the formation of the German Empire in 1871, the Prussian Army , Royal Saxon Army , Army of Württemberg and the Bavarian Army were autonomous in peacetime, each kingdom maintaining a separate war ministry and general staff to administer their forces. On the outbreak of war, the Constitution of the German Empire made the German Emperor commander-in-chief of the combined armies ( Oberster Kriegsherr , "supreme warlord"). The Emperor's role as commander-in-chief

2304-399: The General Staff, after the latter resigned in late June. He resigned from his position as head of Kommandostelle Kolberg (as the staff had become on the formal dissolution of the OHL) in September 1919. Central Powers The Central Powers , also known as the Central Empires , were one of the two main coalitions that fought in World War I (1914–1918). It consisted of

2368-442: The German war effort, to an extent that they are sometimes described as de facto military dictators , supplanting the Emperor and Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg , whom they managed to have replaced with Georg Michaelis in the summer of 1917. Through the Hindenburg Programme, a total war strategy, the OHL sought decisive victory. Ludendorff ordered the resumption of the unrestricted U-boat Campaign , which, along with

2432-416: The Irish political landscape was changing. In 1914, Józef Piłsudski was permitted by Germany and Austria-Hungary to form independent Polish legions . Piłsudski wanted his legions to help the Central Powers defeat Russia and then side with France and the UK and win the war with them. Below is a list of these non-state combatants. Bulgaria signed an armistice with the Allies on 29 September 1918, following

2496-456: The Italian lines, in part due to the German use of mustard gas on the Italian Second Army . Germany had plans to create a Mitteleuropa economic association. Members would include Austria-Hungary, Germany, and others. At the start of the war, the Central Powers consisted of the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire . The Ottoman Empire joined later in 1914, followed by the Tsardom of Bulgaria in 1915. In early July 1914, in

2560-416: The Marne . Communications between OHL and the front line broke down and Hentsch was dispatched by Moltke to the headquarters of the 1st Army and the 2nd Army to assess the situation. After discovering that the armies were separated from each other by a gap of 25 mi (40 km) and in danger of being encircled, Hentsch ordered a retreat to the Aisne . On hearing the news from the front, Moltke suffered

2624-434: The OHL. Hohenborn served as Generalquartiermeister until January 1915 when he succeeded Falkenhayn as Prussian Minister of War. Freytag-Loringhoven replaced Hohenborn as Generalquartiermeister . Falkenhayn centralised decision making and emphasised secrecy, rarely explaining himself to his subordinates, which has caused historians difficulty in assessing his intentions. After taking command Falkenhayn became engaged in

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2688-498: The Ottoman Empire and Germany, and Grand Senussi Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi declared jihad and attacked the Italians in Libya and the British in Egypt in the Senussi Campaign . In 1915, the Sultanate of Darfur renounced allegiance to the Sudanese government and aligned with the Ottomans. They were able to contact them via the Senussi . Prior to this they were a British ally. The Anglo-Egyptian Darfur Expedition preemptively invaded to prevent an attack on Sudan. A small force

2752-424: The Ottoman and German Empires during their rebellion against the Allied forces in 1915. Other movements supported the efforts of the Central Powers for their own reasons, such as the radical Irish Nationalists who launched the Easter Rising in Dublin in April 1916; they referred to their "gallant allies in Europe". However, most Irish Nationalists supported the British and allied war effort up until 1916, when

2816-436: The Ottoman government entered the war with the recently acquired cruisers from Germany, along with their own navy, launching a naval raid on the Russian ports of Odessa , Sevastopol , Novorossiysk , Feodosia , and Yalta , thus engaging in military action in accordance with its alliance obligations with Germany. Shorty after, the Triple Entente declared war on the Ottoman Empire. After Bulgaria's defeat in July 1913 at

2880-429: The aftermath of the assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and faced with the prospect of war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia , Kaiser Wilhelm II and the German government informed the Austro-Hungarian government that Germany would uphold its alliance with Austria-Hungary and defend it from possible Russian intervention if a war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia took place. When Russia enacted

2944-404: The chiefs of the Operations Division, Colonel Gerhard Tappen , and the Information Division, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hentsch  [ de ] . These officers were often dispatched to subordinate headquarters to investigate and make decision on behalf of OHL. Although the German armies were victorious in the Battle of the Frontiers their advance was brought to a halt at First Battle of

3008-416: The country, and Germany, in turn, declared war on Russia, setting off the beginning of the clash of alliances that resulted in the World War. Austria-Hungary was internally divided into two states with their own governments, joined through the Habsburg throne. Austria, also known as Cisleithania , contained various duchies and principalities but also the Kingdom of Bohemia , the Kingdom of Dalmatia , and

3072-506: The general population and government was supportive of the Central Powers, particularly Austria-Hungary , of which the two countries had been in a customs union since 1852. However, from September 1914 food deliveries from Austria-Hungary began to decrease, which quickly soured the initial war support. By 1916 all food deliveries from Austria-Hungary had ceased, which forced Liechtenstein to seek closer ties with Switzerland in order to ensure food deliveries continued. From 1916, Liechtenstein

3136-401: The genocidal Generalplan Ost . Oberste Heeresleitung The Oberste Heeresleitung ( German pronunciation: [ˈoːbɐstə ˈheːʁəsˌlaɪtʊŋ] , "Supreme Army Command", OHL ) was the highest echelon of command of the army ( Heer ) of the German Empire . In the latter part of World War I , the Third OHL assumed dictatorial powers and became the de facto political authority in

3200-415: The hands of Serbia, Greece and Romania . It signed a treaty of defensive alliance with the Ottoman Empire on 19 August 1914. Bulgaria was the last country to join the Central Powers, which it did in October 1915 by declaring war on Serbia. It invaded Serbia in conjunction with German and Austro-Hungarian forces . Bulgaria held claims on the region of Vardar Macedonia then held by Serbia following

3264-457: The outbreak of World War I , the Großer Generalstab (Great General Staff) formed the core of the Supreme Army Command, becoming the General Staff of the Field Army. Colonel General Helmuth von Moltke, who had been Chief of the General Staff since 1906, continued in office, as did most of the division heads. Partially as a result of these longstanding working relationships, Moltke delegated substantial authority to his subordinates, especially to

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3328-400: The rebels, with some operating in and out of the German colony of German South-West Africa . The rebels were all defeated or captured by South African government forces by 4 February 1915. The Senussi Order was a Muslim political-religious tariqa ( Sufi order ) and clan in Libya , previously under Ottoman control , which had been lost to Italy in 1912 . In 1915, they were courted by

3392-422: The remnants of both armies to be mopped up. As the battle developed casualties between the two armies were roughly equal. After the failure of Falkenhayn's strategy at Verdun, the opening of the Battle of the Somme and the entry into the war of the Kingdom of Romania on the Allied side in August 1916, he was replaced on 29 August by Hindenburg. The tenure of Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg became known as

3456-434: The strait of Bosphorus . Ottoman officials informed the German government that the country needed time to prepare for conflict. Germany provided financial aid and weapons shipments to the Ottoman Empire. After pressure escalated from the German government demanding that the Ottoman Empire fulfill its treaty obligations, or else Germany would expel the country from the alliance and terminate economic and military assistance,

3520-413: The war: In addition to the General Staff of the Field Army, the Supreme Army Command consisted of the Emperor's Military Cabinet, the Intendant General (responsible for supply), senior advisers in various specialist fields (Artillery, Engineers, Medicine, Telegraphy, Munitions and Railways) and representatives from the four German War Ministries and representatives of the other Central Powers . The Emperor

3584-421: The withdrawal of the German armies from the occupied territories. The final location of the OHL was at Kolberg after February 1919 as the military focus had shifted to preventing territorial encroachment by the Second Polish Republic . In July 1919, the Supreme Army Command and Great General Staff were disbanded by order of the Treaty of Versailles . For a few days, Groener had replaced Hindenburg as Chief of

3648-449: Was a threat to both the Allies and Ethiopia. Fearing the rising influence of Iyasu and the Ottoman Empire, the Christian nobles of Ethiopia conspired against Iyasu. Iyasu was first excommunicated by the Ethiopian Orthodox Patriarch and eventually deposed in a coup d'état on 27 September 1916. A less pro-Ottoman regent, Ras Tafari Makonnen , was installed on the throne. Liechtenstein was officially neutral throughout World War I, though

3712-412: Was also Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial German Navy , which was led by the German Imperial Admiralty Staff and from August 1918 by the Seekriegsleitung (SKL, Naval Warfare Command). Co-ordination between OHL and SKL was poor at the beginning of the war. For example, the navy did not even know about the Schlieffen Plan , an initial attack on France through Belgium . Upon mobilizing in 1914 at

3776-413: Was ceded to France as a League of Nations Mandate at the war's end. German East Africa was founded in 1885 and expanded to include modern-day Tanzania (except Zanzibar ), Rwanda , Burundi , and parts of Mozambique . It was the only German colony to not be fully conquered during the war, with resistance by commander Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck lasting until November 1918. Later it was surrendered to

3840-406: Was embargoed by the Entente countries due to their connections to the Central Powers, which caused mass unemployment in the country. The government remained sympathetic to the Central Powers until 7 November 1918, when the November 1918 Liechtenstein putsch took place and a new government took power. Upper Asir revolted away from Asir in 1916 and fought against them. The Kingdom of Greece

3904-429: Was in a political dispute with Venizelists . The Central Powers supported the nation until King Constantine's abdication in 1917. Following their armistice with the Central Powers, Romania was involved in the Russian Civil War against both the Whites and the Reds. Romania fought alongside the Central Powers until the country rejoined the war against them on November 10, 1918. Kelantanese rebels were supported by

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3968-413: Was largely ceremonial and authority lay with the Chief of the German General Staff , who issued orders in the Emperor's name. The pre-war Chief of the General Staff was Colonel General Helmuth von Moltke and the Oberste Heeresleitung was the command staff led by Moltke as Chief of the General Staff of the Army. The General Staff was initially formed into five divisions and two more were created during

4032-408: Was led by Leo Frobenius , a celebrated ethnographer and personal friend of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Under Iyasu's directions, Ethiopia probably supplied weapons to the Muslim Dervish rebels during the Somaliland Campaign of 1915 to 1916, indirectly helping the Central Powers' cause. The Allies jointly pressured the aristocracy for the designated emperor's removal on the 10th of September, 1916 stating he

4096-515: Was sent after the sultan and he was killed in action in November 1916. The invasion ended with an Anglo-Egyptian victory in November 1916. The Zaian Confederation began to fight against France in the Zaian War to prevent French expansion into Morocco . The fighting lasted from 1914 and continued after the First World War ended, to 1921. The Central Powers (mainly the Germans) began to attempt to incite unrest to hopefully divert French resources from Europe. The Dervish State fought against

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