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156-562: After the end of World War I , the Rhineland came under Allied occupation . Under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, the German military was forbidden from all territories west of the Rhine or within 50 km east of it. The 1925 Locarno Treaties reaffirmed the then-permanently-demilitarised status of the Rhineland. In 1929, German Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann negotiated the withdrawal of

312-523: A Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand , heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Austria-Hungary held Serbia responsible, and declared war on 28 July. After Russia mobilised in Serbia's defence, Germany declared war on Russia and France , who had an alliance . The United Kingdom entered after Germany invaded Belgium , whose neutrality it guaranteed, and

468-645: A blue-water navy was vital for global power projection; Tirpitz had his books translated into German, while Wilhelm made them required reading for his advisors and senior military personnel. However, it was also an emotional decision, driven by Wilhelm's simultaneous admiration for the Royal Navy and desire to surpass it. Bismarck thought that the British would not interfere in Europe, as long as its maritime supremacy remained secure, but his dismissal in 1890 led to

624-592: A grenade at the Archduke's car and injured two of his aides. The other assassins were also unsuccessful. An hour later, as Ferdinand was returning from visiting the injured officers in hospital, his car took a wrong turn into a street where Gavrilo Princip was standing. He fired two pistol shots, fatally wounding Ferdinand and his wife Sophie . According to historian Zbyněk Zeman , in Vienna "the event almost failed to make any impression whatsoever. On 28 and 29 June,

780-540: A guerrilla warfare campaign and only surrendered two weeks after the armistice took effect in Europe. Before the war, Germany had attempted to use Indian nationalism and pan-Islamism to its advantage, a policy continued post-1914 by instigating uprisings in India , while the Niedermayer–Hentig Expedition urged Afghanistan to join the war on the side of Central Powers. However, contrary to British fears of

936-772: A "general settlement" that would see a return to 1920s stability and have Hitler act diplomatically, much like the Weimar Republic's Stresemann . In January 1936, the French Premier Pierre Laval presented the Franco-Soviet Pact for ratification. Later that month, during a London visit, Neurath informed Eden that Germany would reconsider its stance on the Locarno Pact if other signatories made bilateral agreements that conflicted with its spirit. Eden's subsequent reaction gave Neurath

1092-519: A DB cryptoanalyst, was able to crack part of the Germans' ADFGVX cipher . These intercepts allowed an effective response to the movements of the German Army's 15 division-strong advances under Ludendorff at Montdidier and Compiègne , about 50 miles north of Paris. Prior to World War II, a Deuxième Bureau agent codenamed 'Rex' made contact with Hans-Thilo Schmidt , a German cipher clerk, in

1248-408: A change in policy and an Anglo-German naval arms race began. Despite the vast sums spent by Tirpitz, the launch of HMS  Dreadnought in 1906 gave the British a technological advantage. Ultimately, the race diverted huge resources into creating a German navy large enough to antagonise Britain, but not defeat it; in 1911, Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg acknowledged defeat, leading to

1404-775: A decade, which severely reduced the military's capabilities. Although never outright rejected, Britain was hesitant about the "continental commitment" of deploying a large army in Continental Europe , especially against Germany, due to the heavy losses of World War I. During the Interwar Period, Britain was wary of security commitments in Eastern Europe, seeing the region as potentially drawing them into unwanted conflicts. Their readiness extended mainly to limited engagements in Western Europe. In 1925,

1560-743: A desire for an Austro-German agreement, signaling a potential improvement in Italo-German relations. In February 1936, a caretaker government took charge in Paris under Albert Sarraut, but its diverse makeup resulted in decision-making paralysis. Hitler consulted with Joachim von Ribbentrop and Neurath in late February about potential international reactions to the Rhineland's remilitarisation. Ribbentrop advocated immediate action, while Neurath believed quiet diplomacy would ensure remilitarisation. On February 12, Hitler informed his war minister, Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg, of his intentions. The Chief of

1716-613: A direct threat. The 1908–1909 Bosnian Crisis began when Austria annexed the former Ottoman territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina , which it had occupied since 1878. Timed to coincide with the Bulgarian Declaration of Independence from the Ottoman Empire, this unilateral action was denounced by the European powers, but accepted as there was no consensus on how to resolve the situation. Some historians see this as

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1872-418: A gap between the German armies as they closed on Paris. The French army, reinforced by the British expeditionary corps, seized this opportunity to counter-attack and pushed the German army 40 to 80 km back. Both armies were then so exhausted that no decisive move could be implemented, so they settled in trenches, with the vain hope of breaking through as soon as they could build local superiority. In 1911,

2028-498: A much better foreign minister than Neurath, whereas Neurath viewed Ribbentrop as a hopelessly inept amateur diplomat meddling in matters that did not concern him. In January 1936, Hitler accelerated his plans to remilitarise the Rhineland from 1937 to 1936. This decision was influenced by several factors, including France's ratification of the Franco-Soviet pact, political instability in Paris, Germany's economic challenges, and

2184-548: A possibility. This was accentuated by British and Russian support for France against Germany during the 1911 Agadir Crisis . German economic and industrial strength continued to expand rapidly post-1871. Backed by Wilhelm II, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz sought to use this growth to build an Imperial German Navy , that could compete with the British Royal Navy . This policy was based on the work of US naval author Alfred Thayer Mahan , who argued that possession of

2340-587: A prolific print shop in Geneva that produced millions of white and black pamphlets, leaflets, cards, postage stamps , and other forms of printed propaganda . Following the defeat of France in 1940, the Vichy France regime's intelligence service was organized within the Centre d’information gouvernemental (CIG), under the direction of Admiral François Darlan . Under the command of Colonel Louis Rivet, head of

2496-541: A reputation as Europe's top cryptoanalytical service in the early 20th century. It scored a notable success at the outbreak of World War I when it cracked the German diplomatic cryptographic system. The French cryptoanalysts were able to decipher the lengthy telegram containing the German declaration of war before the German Ambassador in Paris could decipher it. In June 1918, Captain Georges Painvin ,

2652-464: A response to the Franco-Soviet pact, advising a small troop presence to avoid a "flagrant violation" of Locarno. Meanwhile, Göring went to Warsaw to ask Poland to remain neutral if France decided on war in response to remilitarisation. Historians debate Hitler's decision. "Intentionist" historians see it as part of Hitler's world conquest plan, while "functionist" historians view it as an improvised response to economic problems in 1936. On February 26,

2808-834: A revolt in India, the outbreak of the war saw a reduction in nationalist activity. Leaders from the Indian National Congress and other groups believed support for the British war effort would hasten Indian Home Rule , a promise allegedly made explicit in 1917 by Edwin Montagu , the Secretary of State for India . In 1914, the British Indian Army was larger than the British Army itself, and between 1914 and 1918 an estimated 1.3 million Indian soldiers and labourers served in Europe, Africa, and

2964-516: A significant escalation, ending any chance of Austria cooperating with Russia in the Balkans, while also damaging diplomatic relations between Serbia and Italy. Tensions increased after the 1911–1912 Italo-Turkish War demonstrated Ottoman weakness and led to the formation of the Balkan League , an alliance of Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro , and Greece . The League quickly overran most of

3120-608: A sort of alternative foreign ministry loosely linked to the NSDAP headed by Joachim von Ribbentrop which aggressively sought to undercut the work of the Auswärtiges Amt at every turn. Further exacerbating the rivalry between the Dienststelle Ribbentrop and the Auswärtiges Amt was the fact that Neurath and Ribbentrop utterly hated one another, with Ribbentrop making no secret of his belief that he would be

3276-478: A war on two fronts; the Schlieffen Plan envisaged using 80% of the army to defeat France, then switching to Russia. Since this required them to move quickly, mobilization orders were issued that afternoon. Once the German ultimatum to Russia expired on the morning of 1 August, the two countries were at war. At a meeting on 29 July, the British cabinet had narrowly decided its obligations to Belgium under

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3432-402: A weak Ottoman government, rather than an ambitious Slav power like Bulgaria . Russia had ambitions in northeastern Anatolia while its clients had overlapping claims in the Balkans. These competing interests divided Russian policy-makers and added to regional instability. Austrian statesmen viewed the Balkans as essential for the continued existence of their Empire and saw Serbian expansion as

3588-455: A whole, the Somme offensive led to an estimated 420,000 British casualties, along with 200,000 French and 500,000 Germans. The diseases that emerged in the trenches were a major killer on both sides. The living conditions led to disease and infection, such as trench foot , lice , typhus , trench fever , and the ' Spanish flu '. At the start of the war, German cruisers were scattered across

3744-508: Is known, however, that from 1908 to 1913, military spending by the six major European powers increased by over 50% in real terms. The years before 1914 were marked by a series of crises in the Balkans, as other powers sought to benefit from the Ottoman decline. While Pan-Slavic and Orthodox Russia considered itself the protector of Serbia and other Slav states, they preferred the strategically vital Bosporus straits to be controlled by

3900-598: The Deuxième Bureau indicated that Germany had been violating Versailles throughout the 1920s with the considerable help of the Soviet Union . With the French troops out of the Rhineland, Germany could be expected to violate Versailles only more openly. The Maginot Line, in turn, lessened the importance of the Rhineland's demilitarised status from the view of French security. The foreign policy of Fascist Italy

4056-574: The Schutzkorps was established, and carried out the persecution of Serbs. The assassination initiated the July Crisis, a month of diplomatic manoeuvring between Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, France and Britain. Believing that Serbian intelligence helped organise Franz Ferdinand's murder, Austrian officials wanted to use the opportunity to end their interference in Bosnia and saw war as

4212-641: The World War . In August 1914, the magazine The Independent wrote "This is the Great War. It names itself". In October 1914, the Canadian magazine Maclean's similarly wrote, "Some wars name themselves. This is the Great War." Contemporary Europeans also referred to it as " the war to end war " and it was also described as "the war to end all wars" due to their perception of its unparalleled scale, devastation, and loss of life. The first recorded use of

4368-893: The Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers . Fighting took place mainly in Europe and the Middle East , as well as in parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific , and in Europe was characterised by trench warfare ; the widespread use of artillery , machine guns, and chemical weapons (gas); and the introductions of tanks and aircraft . World War I was one of the deadliest conflicts in history , resulting in an estimated 10 million military dead and more than 20 million wounded , plus some 10 million civilian dead from causes including genocide . The movement of large numbers of people

4524-695: The Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force landed on the island of New Britain , then part of German New Guinea . On 28 October, the German cruiser SMS  Emden sank the Russian cruiser Zhemchug in the Battle of Penang . Japan declared war on Germany before seizing territories in the Pacific, which later became the South Seas Mandate , as well as German Treaty ports on

4680-639: The Bureau central de Renseignements ("Central Intelligence Bureau", BCR) was established the same month and a special section devoted to "preventative defence" was created within the SCR. In July 1939, at the prompting of military intelligence, a counter-intelligence charter was established and the National Council amended the penal code (article 75 and following) to integrate all 1810, 1886, and 1934 counter-intelligence laws. The Deuxième Bureau developed

4836-591: The Hague Conference on German war reparations proposed decreasing the amount of money paid by Germany in reparations in exchange for the British and French forces evacuating the Rhineland. The last British soldiers left in late 1929, and the last French soldiers left in June 1930. As long as the French continued to occupy the Rhineland, it functioned as a form of "collateral" under which the French could respond to any German attempt at overt rearmament by annexing

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4992-733: The Ministry of the Interior . A small intelligence section remained within the General Staff, but the Service de surveillance du territoire ( Territorial Surveillance Service , SST), an agency of the Sûreté générale, became responsible for the pursuit of foreign spies on French soil. Counter-espionage was to be handled by special Sûreté police chiefs. The Deuxième Bureau's statistical section remained in operation until 1 September 1899, when it

5148-486: The Putsch by invading Austria. The Austrian-born Hitler, although deeply offended by Mussolini's blunt assertions that his birthplace was within the sphere of influence of any power other than Germany, realized that he was in no position to do anything except to beat a humiliating retreat. To his disgust, he had to disallow the Putsch that he had ordered and could not follow it up by invading Austria, whose government crushed

5304-721: The Rüstungswende or 'armaments turning point', when he switched expenditure from the navy to the army. This decision was not driven by a reduction in political tensions but by German concern over Russia's quick recovery from its defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and subsequent 1905 Russian Revolution . Economic reforms led to a significant post-1908 expansion of railways and transportation infrastructure, particularly in its western border regions. Since Germany and Austria-Hungary relied on faster mobilisation to compensate for their numerical inferiority compared to Russia,

5460-665: The Stresa Front opposing any further German violations of Versailles after Germany stated in March 1935 that it would no longer abide by Parts V or VI of the Versailles Treaty. In the spring of 1935 joint staff talks had begun between France and Italy with the aim of forming an anti-German military alliance. On 2 May 1935, Laval travelled to Moscow , where he signed a treaty of alliance with the Soviet Union. At once

5616-776: The United States entered the war on the Allied side following Germany's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare against Atlantic shipping. Later that year, the Bolsheviks seized power in the Russian October Revolution , and Soviet Russia signed an armistice with the Central Powers in December, followed by a separate peace in March 1918. That month, Germany launched an offensive in

5772-487: The hydrophone and depth charges were introduced, destroyers could potentially successfully attack a submerged submarine. Convoys slowed the flow of supplies since ships had to wait as convoys were assembled; the solution was an extensive program of building new freighters. Troopships were too fast for the submarines and did not travel the North Atlantic in convoys. The U-boats sunk more than 5,000 Allied ships, at

5928-766: The tank . After the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914, Allied and German forces unsuccessfully tried to outflank each other, a series of manoeuvres later known as the " Race to the Sea ". By the end of 1914, the opposing forces confronted each other along an uninterrupted line of entrenched positions from the Channel to the Swiss border. Since the Germans were normally able to choose where to stand, they generally held

6084-556: The "world power status" missed in the previous war. Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, the Reichswehr planned for wars against France and Poland, anticipating Rhineland's remilitarisation. To prepare, the government maintained barracks, secretly stored military supplies, and built versatile towers along the border. From 1919 to 1932, British defense spending operated under the Ten Year Rule , anticipating no major wars for

6240-588: The 1839 Treaty of London did not require it to oppose a German invasion with military force; however, Prime Minister Asquith and his senior Cabinet ministers were already committed to supporting France, the Royal Navy had been mobilised, and public opinion was strongly in favour of intervention. On 31 July, Britain sent notes to Germany and France, asking them to respect Belgian neutrality; France pledged to do so, but Germany did not reply. Aware of German plans to attack through Belgium, French Commander-in-Chief Joseph Joffre asked his government for permission to cross

6396-563: The 1879 Dual Alliance , which became the Triple Alliance when Italy joined in 1882. For Bismarck, the purpose of these agreements was to isolate France by ensuring the three Empires resolve any disputes between themselves. In 1887, Bismarck set up the Reinsurance Treaty , a secret agreement between Germany and Russia to remain neutral if either were attacked by France or Austria-Hungary. For Bismarck, peace with Russia

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6552-441: The 1913 Treaty of London , which had created an independent Albania while enlarging the territories of Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and Greece. However, disputes between the victors sparked the 33-day Second Balkan War , when Bulgaria attacked Serbia and Greece on 16 June 1913; it was defeated, losing most of Macedonia to Serbia and Greece, and Southern Dobruja to Romania. The result was that even countries which benefited from

6708-417: The 1920s, Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini had started to subsidise the right-wing Heimwehr ("Home Defense") movement in Austria, and after Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss had seized dictatorial power in March 1933, Austria fell within the Italian sphere of influence. The terrorist campaign mounted by Austrian Nazis, which the Austrian government accused of being supported by Germany against

6864-418: The Abyssinia Crisis due to the League's discussions on oil sanctions against Italy. Not long after dawn on March 7, 1936, nineteen German infantry battalions and a handful of planes entered the Rhineland. By doing so, Germany violated Articles 42 and 43 of the Treaty of Versailles and Articles 1 and 2 of the Treaty of Locarno. They reached the river Rhine by 11:00 a.m. and then three battalions crossed to

7020-437: The Allied forces. The last soldiers left the Rhineland in June 1930. After the Nazi regime took power in January 1933 , Germany began working towards rearmament and the remilitarisation of the Rhineland. On 7 March 1936, using the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance as a pretext, Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht to march 20,000 German troops into the Rhineland, which caused joyous celebrations across Germany. The French and

7176-425: The American historian Ernest R. May , there is no evidence for this at this stage. May wrote that the German Army officer corps was all for remilitarising the Rhineland, and only the question of timing of such a move divided them from Hitler. World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War , was a global conflict between two coalitions:

7332-599: The Austrian Nazis' coup attempt. After Barthou was assassinated on 9 October 1934, his work in trying to build anti-German alliances with the Soviet Union and Italy was continued by his successor, Pierre Laval . On 7 January 1935, during a summit in Rome, Laval essentially told Mussolini that Italy had a " free hand " in the Horn of Africa and that France would not oppose an Italian invasion of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). On 14 April 1935, British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald , French Prime Minister Pierre Laval and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini met in Stresa to form

7488-503: The Austrian SS and an announcement by the Austrian Nazis that the Anschluss was at hand. The Austrian Nazis attempted to seize power all over Austria, and the SS Austrian Legion, based in Bavaria, began to attack frontier posts along the German-Austrian border in what looked like the beginning of an invasion. In response, Mussolini mobilized the Italian Army, concentrated several divisions at the Brenner Pass and warned Hitler that Italy would go to war against Germany if it tried to follow up

7644-409: The Austrians and Serbs clashed at the battles of the Cer and Kolubara ; over the next two weeks, Austrian attacks were repulsed with heavy losses. As a result, Austria had to keep sizeable forces on the Serbian front, weakening their efforts against Russia. Serbia's victory against Austria-Hungary in the 1914 invasion has been called one of the major upset victories of the twentieth century. In 1915,

7800-593: The Austrians briefly occupied the Serbian capital, Belgrade . A Serbian counter-attack in the Battle of Kolubara succeeded in driving them from the country by the end of 1914. For the first 10 months of 1915, Austria-Hungary used most of its military reserves to fight Italy. German and Austro-Hungarian diplomats scored a coup by persuading Bulgaria to join the attack on Serbia. The Austro-Hungarian provinces of Slovenia , Croatia and Bosnia provided troops for Austria-Hungary. Montenegro allied itself with Serbia. Bulgaria declared war on Serbia on 14 October 1915 and joined in

7956-493: The Balkan Wars, such as Serbia and Greece, felt cheated of their "rightful gains", while for Austria it demonstrated the apparent indifference with which other powers viewed their concerns, including Germany. This complex mix of resentment, nationalism and insecurity helps explain why the pre-1914 Balkans became known as the " powder keg of Europe ". On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria , heir presumptive to Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria , visited Sarajevo ,

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8112-429: The British Foreign Secretary, Sir Austen Chamberlain , stated at Locarno that the Polish Corridor wasn't "worth the bones of a single British grenadier". Consequently, Chamberlain suggested the Polish Corridor's return to Germany and didn't guarantee the German-Polish border. Even their commitments at Locarno were tentative, evident by Whitehall's restriction against military discussions with Germany, France, and Italy in

8268-468: The British governments, unwilling to risk war, decided against enforcing the treaties . The remilitarisation and the German rearmament changed the balance of power in Europe from France and its allies towards Germany by allowing Germany to pursue a policy of aggression in Western Europe that had been blocked by the demilitarised status of the Rhineland. The fact that Britain and France did not intervene made Hitler believe that neither country would get in

8424-404: The Central Powers. However, the pro-German King Constantine I dismissed the pro-Allied government of Eleftherios Venizelos before the Allied expeditionary force arrived. The Macedonian front was at first mostly static. French and Serbian forces retook limited areas of Macedonia by recapturing Bitola on 19 November 1916 following the costly Monastir offensive , which brought stabilisation of

8580-410: The Chinese Shandong peninsula at Tsingtao . After Vienna refused to withdraw its cruiser SMS  Kaiserin Elisabeth from Tsingtao, Japan declared war on Austria-Hungary, and the ship was sunk in November 1914. Within a few months, Allied forces had seized all German territories in the Pacific, leaving only isolated commerce raiders and a few holdouts in New Guinea. Some of the first clashes of

8736-404: The Deuxième Bureau since 1936, they set up the Bureau des Menées Antinationales (BMA, the "Bureau of Anti-national Activities"), officially an organization opposing Communist activities and resistance efforts and accepted by the Germans under the terms of the armistice. Meanwhile, on 1 July 1940, the Free French government-in-exile in London created its own intelligence service. Under

8892-409: The Deuxième Bureau was reactivated and was reassigned some of the contre-espionnage responsibilities it had had prior to the Dreyfus affair. Commanded by General Charles-Joseph Dupont  [ fr ] , the Deuxième Bureau worked with the Interior Ministry, and especially Commissioner Hennion's mobile counter-espionage brigades, which worked closely with France's border patrols . In August 1911,

9048-603: The Foreign Office, who was normally pro-French, wrote in 1931 that Britain was faced with an "unbearable" French domination of Europe and that a revival of German power was needed to counterbalance French power. Whitehall little appreciated France's economic and demographic weaknesses in the face of Germany's strengths. For example, Germany had a much larger population and economy than France and had been little damaged during World War I although France had been devastated. In March 1933, German Defence Minister General Werner von Blomberg had plans drawn up for remilitarisation. In

9204-525: The Franco-German and Belgian-German borders and the continued demilitarised status of the Rhineland against a "flagrant violation". A German attack on France required Britain and Italy to go to France's aid under Locarno, and a French attack on Germany required Britain and Italy to come to Germany's aid. The American historian Gerhard Weinberg called the demilitarised status of the Rhineland the "single most important guarantee of peace in Europe" by preventing Germany from attacking its western neighbours and, since

9360-404: The French National Assembly ratified the Franco-Soviet pact. On February 27, Hitler discussed remilitarisation with Göring and Goebbels, deciding it was "still somewhat too early." Hitler's interview with Bertrand de Jouvenel, published on February 29, aimed to shift blame for remilitarisation onto the French government. Hitler finally made the decision on March 1, partly influenced by the focus on

9516-416: The French forces had actually crossed the border and when informed that they had not, he assured Blomberg that Germany would wait until this happened. In marked contrast to Blomberg who was highly nervous during Operation Winter Exercise, Neurath stayed calm and very much urged Hitler to stay the course. The Rhineland coup is often seen as the moment when Hitler could have been stopped with very little effort;

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9672-420: The French loss in the Franco-Prussian War and acknowledgment of poor military planning structures in preparation for those hostilities. The EMG was then divided into two bureaus–the first, composed of civilians, was more of a directorial or leadership branch, charged with general correspondence, troop movements, decorations and decrees, and the second, or the Deuxième Bureau (further subdivided into five sections),

9828-441: The French version of this page.) In 1906, Georges Clemenceau became Président du Conseil . With complete control of Interior Ministry funding, he created special counter-espionage units, the "brigades du Tigre", a reference to Clemenceau's nickname. Commanded by police commissioner Célestin Hennion , the mobile brigades were to handle special operations of the judicial police related to counter-espionage. In February 1907,

9984-400: The General Staff, General Ludwig Beck, warned Hitler that the German Army was ill-prepared for conflict with the French Army. Unknown to Hitler, Eden had written to the Quai d'Orsay in mid-February, suggesting negotiations to surrender rights in the zone. Eden believed this would weaken France's influence in Central and Eastern Europe. Neurath prepared documents justifying remilitarisation as

10140-548: The German High Seas Fleet was confined to port. German U-boats attempted to cut the supply lines between North America and Britain. The nature of submarine warfare meant that attacks often came without warning, giving the crews of the merchant ships little hope of survival. The United States launched a protest, and Germany changed its rules of engagement. After the sinking of the passenger ship RMS Lusitania in 1915, Germany promised not to target passenger liners, while Britain armed its merchant ships, placing them beyond

10296-465: The German Army increased in size from 1908 to 1914, he changed the allocation of forces between the two wings to 70:30. He also considered Dutch neutrality essential for German trade and cancelled the incursion into the Netherlands, which meant any delays in Belgium threatened the viability of the plan. Historian Richard Holmes argues that these changes meant the right wing was not strong enough to achieve decisive success. The initial German advance in

10452-461: The German forces involved in the move were small, compared to the much larger, and at the time more powerful, French military. The American journalist William L. Shirer wrote if the French had marched into the Rhineland, ... in March 1936 the two Western democracies, were given their last chance to halt, without the risk of a serious war, the rise of a militarized, aggressive, totalitarian Germany and, in fact – as we have seen Hitler admitting – bring

10608-453: The German government began a violent press campaign against the Franco-Soviet Pact , which claimed it was a violation of Locarno and an immense danger to Germany by encircling it. In his "peace speech" of May 21, 1935, Hitler stated, "In particular, they [the Germans] will uphold and fulfill all obligations arising out of the Locarno Treaty, so long as the other parties are on their side ready to stand by that pact". That line in Hitler's speech

10764-462: The German right wing would sweep through the Netherlands and Belgium , then swing south, encircling Paris and trapping the French army against the Swiss border. The plan's creator, Alfred von Schlieffen , head of the German General Staff from 1891 to 1906, estimated that this would take six weeks, after which the German army would transfer to the East and defeat the Russians. The plan was substantially modified by his successor, Helmuth von Moltke

10920-426: The Germans bled heavily as well, with anywhere from 700,000 to 975,000 casualties between the two combatants. Verdun became a symbol of French determination and self-sacrifice. The Battle of the Somme was an Anglo-French offensive from July to November 1916. The opening day on 1 July 1916 was the bloodiest single day in the history of the British Army , which suffered 57,500 casualties, including 19,200 dead. As

11076-501: The Grand Hotel of the Belgian town of Verviers . Schmidt, who worked at Defence Ministry Cipher Office in Berlin, sold the French the manuals explaining how to operate the top secret Enigma cipher machine being used by the German Army. Schmidt ultimately provided all the information necessary to crack the complex ciphers, which would play a key role in the Allied victory. In September 1939, when France declared war on Germany in response to Germany's invasion of Poland , Josephine Baker

11232-704: The Locarno's arbitration clause in early 1936, Germany never did. At the same time, Neurath received an intelligence report on 10 January 1936 from Gottfried Aschmann, the Chief of the Auswärtiges Amt 's Press Division, who during a visit to Paris in early January 1936 had talked to a minor French politician named Jean Montiny who was a close friend of Premier Laval, who had frankly mentioned that France's economic problems had retarded French military modernisation and that France would do nothing if Germany remilitarised

11388-688: The Middle East. In all, 140,000 soldiers served on the Western Front and nearly 700,000 in the Middle East, with 47,746 killed and 65,126 wounded. The suffering engendered by the war, as well as the failure of the British government to grant self-government to India afterward, bred disillusionment, resulting in the campaign for full independence led by Mahatma Gandhi . Pre-war military tactics that had emphasised open warfare and individual riflemen proved obsolete when confronted with conditions prevailing in 1914. Technological advances allowed

11544-591: The Nazi dictator and his regime tumbling down. They let the chance slip. A German officer assigned to the Bendlerstrasse during the crisis told H. R. Knickerbocker during the Spanish Civil War : "... we knew that if the French marched, we were done. We had no fortifications, and no army to match the French. If the French had even mobilised, we should have been compelled to retire." The general staff,

11700-784: The Ottomans joined the Central Powers in November. Germany's strategy in 1914 was to quickly defeat France, then to transfer its forces to the east, but its advance was halted in September , and by the end of the year the Western Front consisted of a continuous line of trenches stretching from the English Channel to Switzerland. The Eastern Front was more dynamic, but neither side gained a decisive advantage, despite costly offensives. Italy , Bulgaria , Romania , Greece and others joined in from 1915 onward. In April 1917,

11856-613: The Ottomans' territory in the Balkans during the 1912–1913 First Balkan War , much to the surprise of outside observers. The Serbian capture of ports on the Adriatic resulted in partial Austrian mobilisation, starting on 21 November 1912, including units along the Russian border in Galicia . The Russian government decided not to mobilise in response, unprepared to precipitate a war. The Great Powers sought to re-assert control through

12012-714: The Rhineland. British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden believed that by 1940, Germany might rejoin the League of Nations , accept arms restrictions, and give up European territorial claims if they could remilitarise the Rhineland, reclaim former African colonies, and have "economic priority along the Danube". Ralph Wigram of the Foreign Office proposed allowing Germany's Rhineland remilitarisation in exchange for an "air pact" against bombing and Germany's commitment to stable borders, but this idea didn't gain traction. Eden aimed for

12168-490: The Rhineland. When German reconnaissance learned that thousands of French soldiers were congregating on the Franco-German border, General Blomberg begged Hitler to evacuate the German forces. Under Blomberg's influence, Hitler nearly ordered the German troops to withdraw, but was then persuaded by the resolutely calm Neurath to continue with Operation Winter Exercise. Following Neurath's advice, Hitler inquired whether

12324-518: The Rhineland. Neurath did not pass on Aschmann's report to Hitler, but he placed a high value upon it. Neurath was seeking to improve his position within the Nazi regime; by repeatedly assuring Hitler during the Rhineland crisis that the French would do nothing without telling Hitler the source of his self-assurance, Neurath came across as a diplomat blessed with an uncanny intuition, something that improved his standing with Hitler. Traditionally in Germany

12480-519: The Rhineland. Once the last French soldiers left the Rhineland in June 1930, it could no longer play its "collateral" role, which opened the door for German rearmament. The French decision to build the Maginot Line in 1929 was a tacit French admission that it would be only a matter of time before German rearmament on a massive scale would begin sometime in the 1930s and that the Rhineland was going to be remilitarized sooner or later. Intelligence from

12636-613: The Russian Stavka agreed with the French to attack Germany within fifteen days of mobilisation, ten days before the Germans had anticipated, although it meant the two Russian armies that entered East Prussia on 17 August did so without many of their support elements. By the end of 1914, German troops held strong defensive positions inside France, controlled the bulk of France's domestic coalfields, and inflicted 230,000 more casualties than it lost itself. However, communications problems and questionable command decisions cost Germany

12792-650: The Serbian retreat toward the Adriatic coast in the Battle of Mojkovac on 6–7 January 1916, but ultimately the Austrians also conquered Montenegro. The surviving Serbian soldiers were evacuated to Greece. After the conquest, Serbia was divided between Austro-Hungary and Bulgaria. In late 1915, a Franco-British force landed at Salonica in Greece to offer assistance and to pressure its government to declare war against

12948-566: The Soviets to change their position toward maintaining the Versailles system. In September 1933, the Soviet Union ended its secret support for German rearmament, which had started in 1921. Under the guise of collective security, Soviet Foreign Commissar Maxim Litvinov started to praise the Versailles system, which the Soviet leaders had denounced as a capitalist plot to "enslave" Germany. In

13104-590: The Stresa Front with Italy, even at the cost of Ethiopia. The French reluctance to impose sanctions against Italy revealed a strategic division between Paris and London. The ensuing diplomatic tensions presented Germany with an opportunity to contemplate the remilitarisation of the Rhineland. The complexity of the situation was further exacerbated when the Hoare–Laval Pact , a controversial proposal to partition Ethiopia between Italy and an Ethiopian rump state,

13260-651: The West was very successful. By the end of August, the Allied left, which included the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), was in full retreat , and the French offensive in Alsace-Lorraine was a disastrous failure, with casualties exceeding 260,000. German planning provided broad strategic instructions while allowing army commanders considerable freedom in carrying them out at the front, but von Kluck used this freedom to disobey orders, opening

13416-485: The Younger . Under Schlieffen, 85% of German forces in the west were assigned to the right wing, with the remainder holding along the frontier. By keeping his left-wing deliberately weak, he hoped to lure the French into an offensive into the "lost provinces" of Alsace-Lorraine , which was the strategy envisaged by their Plan XVII . However, Moltke grew concerned that the French might push too hard on his left flank and as

13572-627: The activities that would include intelligence collection. In 1876, a Statistiques et de reconnaissances militaires ("Military Statistics and Recognition") section was added to the Deuxième Bureau. In 1886, a law was passed penalizing espionage activity (another would be passed in 1934). In October 1894 the Dreyfus affair occurred and proved so politically divisive that, in May 1899, the government shifted responsibility for counter-espionage to

13728-446: The aggressor, German Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg delayed the commencement of war preparations until 31 July. That afternoon, the Russian government were handed a note requiring them to "cease all war measures against Germany and Austria-Hungary" within 12 hours. A further German demand for neutrality was refused by the French who ordered general mobilization but delayed declaring war. The German General Staff had long assumed they faced

13884-701: The arrest of suspects and judicial enquiries. In April 1934, the Direction Générale de la Sûreté Générale was changed to the Direction Générale de la Sûreté nationale , with a post of Controller-General in command of Counter-Intelligence. In March 1935, the position was given authority over the territorial police, the Police de l’Air , the TSF and the police carrier pigeon service . In June 1936, Colonel Louis Rivet succeeded Colonel Roux as head of

14040-474: The attack by the Austro-Hungarian army under Mackensen's army of 250,000 that was already underway. Serbia was conquered in a little more than a month, as the Central Powers, now including Bulgaria, sent in 600,000 troops in total. The Serbian army, fighting on two fronts and facing certain defeat, retreated into northern Albania . The Serbs suffered defeat in the Battle of Kosovo . Montenegro covered

14196-543: The best way of achieving this. However, the Foreign Ministry had no solid proof of Serbian involvement. On 23   July, Austria delivered an ultimatum to Serbia, listing ten demands made intentionally unacceptable to provide an excuse for starting hostilities. Serbia ordered general mobilization on 25   July, but accepted all the terms, except for those empowering Austrian representatives to suppress "subversive elements" inside Serbia, and take part in

14352-483: The border and pre-empt such a move. To avoid violating Belgian neutrality, he was told any advance could come only after a German invasion. Instead, the French cabinet ordered its Army to withdraw 10 km behind the German frontier, to avoid provoking war. On 2 August, Germany occupied Luxembourg and exchanged fire with French units when German patrols entered French territory; on 3   August, they declared war on France and demanded free passage across Belgium, which

14508-537: The campaign saw the first use of anti-aircraft warfare after an Austrian plane was shot down with ground-to-air fire, as well as the first medical evacuation by the Serbian army. Upon mobilisation, in accordance with the Schlieffen Plan , 80% of the German Army was located on the Western Front, with the remainder acting as a screening force in the East. Rather than a direct attack across their shared frontier,

14664-649: The capital of the recently annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina . Cvjetko Popović , Gavrilo Princip , Nedeljko Čabrinović , Trifko Grabež , Vaso Čubrilović ( Bosnian Serbs ) and Muhamed Mehmedbašić (from the Bosniaks community), from the movement known as Young Bosnia , took up positions along the Archduke's motorcade route, to assassinate him. Supplied with arms by extremists within the Serbian Black Hand intelligence organisation, they hoped his death would free Bosnia from Austrian rule. Čabrinović threw

14820-494: The capitalist states, "We will enter the fray at the end, throwing our critical weight onto the scale, a weight that should prove to be decisive". To promote that goal, the global triumph of communism, the Soviet Union tended to support German efforts to challenge the Versailles system by assisting the secret rearmament of Germany, a policy that caused much tension with France. An additional factor in Franco-Soviet relations

14976-466: The chance of a decisive outcome, while it had failed to achieve the primary objective of avoiding a long, two-front war. As was apparent to several German leaders, this amounted to a strategic defeat; shortly after the First Battle of the Marne , Crown Prince Wilhelm told an American reporter "We have lost the war. It will go on for a long time but lost it is already." On 30 August 1914, New Zealand occupied German Samoa (now Samoa ). On 11 September,

15132-399: The conduct of foreign policy had been the work of the Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Office), but starting in 1933 Neurath had been faced with the threat of Nazi "interlopers in diplomacy" as various NSDAP agencies started to conduct their own foreign policies independent of and often against the Auswärtiges Amt . The most serious of the "interlopers in diplomacy" was the Dienststelle Ribbentrop ,

15288-520: The cost of 199 submarines. World War I also saw the first use of aircraft carriers in combat, with HMS  Furious launching Sopwith Camels in a successful raid against the Zeppelin hangars at Tondern in July 1918, as well as blimps for antisubmarine patrol. Faced with Russia in the east, Austria-Hungary could spare only one-third of its army to attack Serbia. After suffering heavy losses,

15444-522: The creation of new independent states, including Poland , Finland , the Baltic states , Czechoslovakia , and Yugoslavia . The League of Nations was established to maintain world peace, but its failure to manage instability during the interwar period contributed to the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Before World War II , the events of 1914–1918 were generally known as the Great War or simply

15600-449: The creation of strong defensive systems largely impervious to massed infantry advances, such as barbed wire , machine guns and above all far more powerful artillery , which dominated the battlefield and made crossing open ground extremely difficult. Both sides struggled to develop tactics for breaching entrenched positions without heavy casualties. In time, technology enabled the production of new offensive weapons, such as gas warfare and

15756-542: The criminal police, general intelligence, and counter-espionage. His command included a filing and archiving section, a section devoted to propaganda ( propagande révolutionnaire , PR) and the SR and SCR. The SR provided a clearinghouse for centralized intelligence-gathering while the SCR was a small team of specialized counter-intelligence officers reporting to the Ministry of War, while a team of police officers were in charge of

15912-965: The crowds listened to music and drank wine, as if nothing had happened." Nevertheless, the impact of the murder of the heir to the throne was significant, and has been described by historian Christopher Clark as a "9/11 effect, a terrorist event charged with historic meaning, transforming the political chemistry in Vienna". Austro-Hungarian authorities encouraged subsequent anti-Serb riots in Sarajevo . Violent actions against ethnic Serbs were also organised outside Sarajevo, in other cities in Austro-Hungarian-controlled Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia. Austro-Hungarian authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina imprisoned approximately 5,500 prominent Serbs, 700 to 2,200 of whom died in prison. A further 460 Serbs were sentenced to death. A predominantly Bosniak special militia known as

16068-443: The demilitarised zone rendered Germany defenseless in the West, by making it impossible to attack its eastern neighbours by leaving Germany open to a devastating French offensive if the Germans tried to invade any state guaranteed by the French alliance system in Eastern Europe, the cordon sanitaire . The Versailles Treaty also stipulated that Allied military forces would withdraw from the Rhineland by 1935. The British delegation at

16224-688: The disruption caused by the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, which weakened the Stresa Front. French Ambassador André François-Poncet confronted Prince Bernhard von Bülow, the State Secretary at the Auswärtiges Amt, in a January 1936 meeting, accusing Germany of planning to send troops back to the Rhineland. However, this intelligence was not shared with Britain or France. Italy's Benito Mussolini, frustrated with sanctions related to Italy's Ethiopian campaign, expressed

16380-585: The early 1930s. The cornerstone of interwar French diplomacy had been the cordon sanitaire in Eastern Europe, which was intended to keep both the Soviets and the Germans out of Eastern Europe. France had thus signed treaties of alliance with Poland in 1921 , with Czechoslovakia in 1924, with Romania in 1926 and with Yugoslavia in 1927. The cordon sanitaire states were intended as a collective replacement for Imperial Russia as France's chief eastern ally and emerged as areas of French political, military, economic and cultural influence. It had always been assumed by

16536-534: The event of a Locarno violation. Overall, British foreign policy during the 1920s and 1930s favored appeasement , adjusting the Versailles-established system to Germany's benefit, hoping this would ensure peace. A key British goal at Locarno was to enable Germany's peaceful territorial ambitions in Eastern Europe, believing improved Franco-German ties would weaken France's cordon sanitaire . Once France had abandoned its allies in Eastern Europe as

16692-643: The expansion of the French colonial empire . In 1873, Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors , which included Austria-Hungary , Russia and Germany. After the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War , the League was dissolved due to Austrian concerns over the expansion of Russian influence in the Balkans , an area they considered to be of vital strategic interest. Germany and Austria-Hungary then formed

16848-408: The fall of 1933, he began to provide a number of the paramilitary Landspolizei units in the Rhineland with secret military training and military weapons to prepare for remilitarisation. General Ludwig Beck 's memo of March 1935 on the need for Germany to secure Lebensraum (living space) in Eastern Europe had accepted that remilitarisation should take place once it was diplomatically possible. It

17004-434: The fighting on their land. In 1934, French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou decided to end to any potential German aggression by building a network of alliances that was intended to encircle Germany. He made overtures to the Soviet Union and Italy. Until 1933, the Soviet Union had supported German efforts to challenge the Versailles system, but the strident anticommunism of the German regime and its claim for Lebensraum led

17160-400: The first time on the Western Front. Several types of gas soon became widely used by both sides and though it never proved a decisive, battle-winning weapon, it became one of the most feared and best-remembered horrors of the war. In February 1916, the Germans attacked French defensive positions at the Battle of Verdun , lasting until December 1916. Casualties were greater for the French, but

17316-595: The front. Serbian and French troops finally made a breakthrough in September 1918 in the Vardar offensive , after most German and Austro-Hungarian troops had been withdrawn. The Bulgarians were defeated at the Battle of Dobro Pole , and by 25 September British and French troops had crossed the border into Bulgaria proper as the Bulgarian army collapsed. Bulgaria capitulated four days later, on 29 September 1918. The German high command responded by despatching troops to hold

17472-542: The globe, some of which were subsequently used to attack Allied merchant shipping . These were systematically hunted down by the Royal Navy, though not before causing considerable damage. One of the most successful was the SMS ; Emden , part of the German East Asia Squadron stationed at Qingdao , which seized or sank 15 merchantmen, a Russian cruiser and a French destroyer. Most of the squadron

17628-415: The goal of seeking to dominate Europe. British policy toward Germany was a dual-track policy of seeking a "general settlement" in which "legitimate" German complaints about the Versailles Treaty would be addressed, but the British would rearm to negotiate with Germany from a position of strength, to deter Hitler from choosing war as an option and to ensure that Britain was prepared in the worst case that Hitler

17784-549: The high ground, while their trenches tended to be better built; those constructed by the French and English were initially considered "temporary", only needed until an offensive would destroy the German defences. Both sides tried to break the stalemate using scientific and technological advances. On 22 April 1915, at the Second Battle of Ypres , the Germans (violating the Hague Convention ) used chlorine gas for

17940-400: The idea of the "continental commitment". When British rearmament began in 1934, the army received the lowest priority in terms of funding, after the air force and the navy, which was partly to rule out the option of "continental commitment". Increasingly, the British came to favor the idea of "limited liability" under which if the "continental commitment" were to be made, Britain should send only

18096-592: The impression that Britain might support Germany against France in the event of Rhineland's remilitarisation. The Locarno treaty contained a clause that called for arbitration of "all disputes" in which "the parties are in conflict as to their respective rights". Both Neurath and State Secretary Prince Bernhard von Bülow felt the Franco-Soviet Pact violated the Locarno agreement but advised Hitler against seeking arbitration, fearing it would remove their excuse for remilitarisation. Though Neurath hinted at invoking

18252-469: The intelligence service and of a new organization, the Service de centralisation des renseignements ("Central Intelligence Service", SCR). The SCR, headquartered at 2 bis avenue de Tourville, Paris, was run by Commandant Guy Schlesser. In March 1937, the government decreed that territorial surveillance was the responsibility of the police alone, to be executed by strictly legal means. A new organization,

18408-470: The investigation and trial of Serbians linked to the assassination. Claiming this amounted to rejection, Austria broke off diplomatic relations and ordered partial mobilisation the next day; on 28 July, they declared war on Serbia and began shelling Belgrade . Russia ordered general mobilization in support of Serbia on 30 July. Anxious to ensure backing from the SPD political opposition by presenting Russia as

18564-513: The leadership of General Charles de Gaulle , Major André Dewavrin was assigned to command the organization. Initially known as the Service de Renseignements (SR) , the agency changed its name to Bureau Central de Renseignements et d’Action Militaire (BCRAM) in April 1941, and again in January 1942 to Bureau Central de Renseignements et d’Action (BCRA) the name by which it was best known. At

18720-519: The line, but these forces were too weak to re-establish a front. Deuxi%C3%A8me Bureau The Deuxième Bureau de l'État-major général ("Second Bureau of the General Staff") was France's external military intelligence agency from 1871 to 1940. It was dissolved together with the Third Republic upon the armistice with Germany. However the term " Deuxième Bureau " ( French: [døzjɛm byʁo] ), like " MI6 " and " KGB ", outlived

18876-465: The ocean, even to neutral ships. Since there was limited response to this tactic, Germany expected a similar response to its unrestricted submarine warfare. The Battle of Jutland in May/June 1916 was the only full-scale clash of battleships during the war, and one of the largest in history. The clash was indecisive, though the Germans inflicted more damage than they received; thereafter the bulk of

19032-513: The officer said, considered Hitler's action suicidal. General Heinz Guderian , a German general interviewed by French officers after the Second World War, claimed: "If you French had intervened in the Rhineland in 1936 we should have been sunk and Hitler would have fallen." That Hitler faced serious opposition gains apparent weight from the fact that Ludwig Beck and Werner von Fritsch did indeed become opponents of Hitler but according to

19188-511: The original organization as a general label for the country's intelligence service. French military intelligence was composed of two separate bureaux prior to World War II. The Premier Bureau was charged with informing the high command about the state of French, allied and friendly troops, while the Deuxième Bureau developed intelligence concerning enemy troops. The Deuxième Bureau was celebrated for its cryptanalytical work, but it

19344-499: The oversight of counter-espionage activities was assigned to the administration of the judiciary police that supervised the mobile brigades. In 1913, the government officially assigned counter-espionage operations on foreign soil to the Ministry of War, with the Ministry of the Interior being responsible for border security and prosecution. In May 1915, the Section de Centralisation du Renseignement ("Central Intelligence Section", SCR)

19500-519: The peace of the world". The Locarno Treaties , signed in October 1925 by Germany, France, Belgium, Italy and Britain, stated that the Rhineland should continue its demilitarised status permanently. Locarno was regarded as important by being a voluntary German acceptance of the Rhineland's demilitarised status, as opposed to the Diktat of Versailles. Locarno's terms had Britain and Italy vaguely guarantee

19656-728: The price of better relations with Germany, the Poles and Czechoslovaks would be forced to adjust to German demands and maintain peace by handing over the territories that were claimed by Germany such as the Sudetenland , the Polish Corridor and the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk , Poland). The British tended to exaggerate French power, and even Sir Robert "Van" Vansittart , the Permanent Under-Secretary at

19812-801: The protection of the " cruiser rules ", which demanded warning and movement of crews to "a place of safety" (a standard that lifeboats did not meet). Finally, in early 1917, Germany adopted a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare , realising the Americans would eventually enter the war. Germany sought to strangle Allied sea lanes before the United States could transport a large army overseas, but, after initial successes, eventually failed to do so. The U-boat threat lessened in 1917, when merchant ships began travelling in convoys , escorted by destroyers . This tactic made it difficult for U-boats to find targets, which significantly lessened losses; after

19968-601: The reactionary Dollfuss regime, had the aim of overthrowing him to achieve the Anschluss , which caused considerable tensions between Rome and Berlin. Mussolini had warned Hitler several times that Austria was within the Italian, not the German, sphere of influence and that the Germans had to cease trying to overthrow Dollfuss, an Italian protégé. On 25 July 1934, the July Putsch in Vienna had seen Dollfuss assassinated by

20124-420: The same. Hitler had always taken the line that Germany did not consider itself bound by the Diktat of Versailles but would respect any treaty that it willingly signed, such as Locarno, under which Germany had promised to keep the Rhineland permanently demilitarised. Thus, Hitler always promised during his "peace speeches" to obey Locarno, not Versailles. On 7 June 1935, MacDonald resigned as prime minister and

20280-403: The smallest-possible expeditionary force to Europe but reserve its main efforts towards the war in the air and on the sea. Britain's refusal to make the continental commitment on the same scale as World War I caused tensions with the French, who believed that it would be impossible to defeat Germany without another large-scale ground force and deeply disliked the idea that they should do the bulk of

20436-437: The states of the cordon sanitaire that a German attack would cause France to respond by starting an offensive into western Germany. Before 1933, German military and diplomatic leaders viewed the Rhineland's demilitarised status as temporary, aiming to remilitarise it when diplomatically opportune. In December 1918, Germany's top generals, viewing the army as a "state within the state", sought to rebuild their military to achieve

20592-469: The term First World War was in September 1914 by German biologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel who stated, "There is no doubt that the course and character of the feared 'European War' ... will become the first world war in the full sense of the word." For much of the 19th century, the major European powers maintained a tenuous balance of power , known as the Concert of Europe . After 1848, this

20748-691: The threat posed by the closing of this gap was more important than competing with the Royal Navy. After Germany expanded its standing army by 170,000 troops in 1913, France extended compulsory military service from two to three years; similar measures were taken by the Balkan powers and Italy, which led to increased expenditure by the Ottomans and Austria-Hungary. Absolute figures are difficult to calculate due to differences in categorising expenditure since they often omit civilian infrastructure projects like railways which had logistical importance and military use. It

20904-590: The war ended with the Armistice of 11 November 1918 . The Paris Peace Conference of 1919–1920 imposed settlements on the defeated powers, most notably the Treaty of Versailles , by which Germany lost significant territories, was disarmed, and was required to pay large war reparations to the Allies. The dissolution of the Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman Empires redrew national boundaries and resulted in

21060-601: The war involved British, French, and German colonial forces in Africa. On 6–7 August, French and British troops invaded the German protectorates of Togoland and Kamerun . On 10 August, German forces in South-West Africa attacked South Africa; sporadic and fierce fighting continued for the rest of the war. The German colonial forces in German East Africa , led by Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck , fought

21216-427: The way of Nazi foreign policy. That made him decide to quicken the pace of German preparations for war and the domination of Europe. On 14 March 1936, during a speech in Munich, Hitler stated, “Neither threats nor warnings will prevent me from going my way. I follow the path assigned to me by Providence with the instinctive sureness of a sleepwalker". Under Articles 42, 43 and 44 of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles , which

21372-418: The west , which despite initial successes left the German Army exhausted and demoralised. A successful Allied counter-offensive from August 1918 caused a collapse of the German front line. By early November, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary had each signed armistices with the Allies, leaving Germany isolated. Facing a revolution at home , Kaiser Wilhelm   II abdicated on 9 November, and

21528-415: The west bank of the Rhine. At the same time, Baron von Neurath summoned the Italian ambassador Baron Bernardo Attolico , the British ambassador Sir Eric Phipps and the French ambassador André François-Poncet to the Wilhelmstrasse to hand them notes accusing France of violating Locarno by ratifying the Franco-Soviet pact, and announcing that as such Germany had decided to renounce Locarno and remilitarise

21684-432: Was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic. The causes of World War I included the rise of Germany and decline of the Ottoman Empire , which disturbed the long-standing balance of power in Europe, as well as economic competition between nations triggered by industrialisation and imperialism . Growing tensions between the great powers and in the Balkans reached a breaking point on 28 June 1914, when

21840-403: Was challenged by Britain's withdrawal into so-called splendid isolation , the decline of the Ottoman Empire , New Imperialism , and the rise of Prussia under Otto von Bismarck . Victory in the 1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War allowed Bismarck to consolidate a German Empire . Post-1871, the primary aim of French policy was to avenge this defeat, but by the early 1890s, this had switched to

21996-484: Was charged with military statistics, archival and historical work, geodesy and topography. This entire structure would be replaced three years later by a reworked general staff, even more similar to the Prussian one in terms of command structure. In March 1874, the high command was reorganized again, replacing the original two bureaus with six smaller sections. As part of the reorganization, the new Deuxième Bureau, called “ Statistique militaire - Bureau historique ,” took up

22152-428: Was created and assigned to Commandant Ladoux. It was attached to the 2ème Bureau, which also administered the operations of the Bureaux centraux de renseignement (BCR). Altogether the organization was known as the 5ème Bureau. The SCR was attached to the Section de renseignements ( Intelligence Section , SR) in April 1917. In February 1917, the Président du Conseil put a commissioner of the Sûreté Nationale in charge of

22308-430: Was criticized for its involvement in the Dreyfus affair and its consistent overestimation of German military formations prior to World War II. Its final director was Colonel Louis Rivet. On June 8, 1871, the French Ministry of War authorized the creation of a service charged with performing "research on enemy plans and operations". The creation of a reworked Etat Major Général (or General Staff) came in response to

22464-419: Was disbanded. The name (literally, Second Desk) refers to the organization of the French general staff in four desks: 1st for personnel, 2nd for intelligence, 3rd for operations, 4th for logistics. This numerical designation survives in the first four staff numbers of the continental staff system practiced by most NATO armies: S1 for personnel, S2 for intelligence, S3 for operations, S4 for logistics. (See also

22620-446: Was generally believed by German military, diplomatic and political elites that remilitarisation would be impossible before 1937. The change of regime in Germany in January 1933 caused alarm in London, but there was considerable uncertainty about Hitler's long-term intentions, which underscored much of British policy towards Germany until 1939. The British could never quite decide if Hitler wanted merely to reverse Versailles or if he had

22776-408: Was imposed on Germany by the Allies after World War I , Germany was "forbidden to maintain or construct any fortification either on the Left bank of the Rhine or on the Right bank to the west of a line drawn fifty kilometers to the East of the Rhine". If a violation "in any manner whatsoever" of the article took place, it "shall be regarded as committing a hostile act... and as calculated to disturb

22932-415: Was leaked. Its exposure led to strong negative reactions in both Britain and France, resulting in the resignation of British Foreign Secretary Samuel Hoare . Meanwhile, Germany extended support to Italy during the Abyssinia Crisis, further strengthening Italo-German ties. This shift in relations, combined with the diplomatic friction between Britain and France, set the stage for Germany's maneuvers regarding

23088-427: Was recruited by the Bureau and provided them with information as an "honorable correspondent". Raymond Arthur Schuhl, a French propagandist who had served in the 6th Section of the Deuxieme Bureau until the fall of France, became the OSS Chief of Morale Operations in Switzerland and was its principal forger through the war. Schuhl operated for the OSS under the cover name Robert Salembier (code name "Mutt"). He oversaw

23244-654: Was refused. Early on the morning of 4   August, the Germans invaded, and Albert I of Belgium called for assistance under the Treaty of London . Britain sent Germany an ultimatum demanding they withdraw from Belgium; when this expired at midnight, without a response, the two empires were at war. Germany promised to support Austria-Hungary's invasion of Serbia, but interpretations of what this meant differed. Previously tested deployment plans had been replaced early in 1914, but those had never been tested in exercises. Austro-Hungarian leaders believed Germany would cover its northern flank against Russia. Beginning on 12 August,

23400-600: Was returning to Germany when it sank two British armoured cruisers at the Battle of Coronel in November 1914, before being virtually destroyed at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December. The SMS Dresden escaped with a few auxiliaries, but after the Battle of Más a Tierra , these too were either destroyed or interned. Soon after the outbreak of hostilities, Britain began a naval blockade of Germany . This proved effective in cutting off vital supplies, though it violated accepted international law. Britain also mined international waters which closed off entire sections of

23556-445: Was succeeded by Stanley Baldwin . On October 3, 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia, marking the onset of the Abyssinia Crisis . The British government, buoyed by public opinion in favor of collective security , championed sanctions against Italy through the League of Nations . This British stance on collective security created tensions with France. The French prioritized their security concerns regarding Nazi Germany and hoped to preserve

23712-532: Was the Russian debt issue. Before 1917, the French had been by far the largest investors in Imperial Russia and the largest buyers of Russian debt. Thus, the decision by Vladimir Lenin in 1918 to repudiate all debts and to confiscate all private property owned by Russians or foreigners, had hurt French business and finance quite badly. The questions of both the Russian debt repudiation and of compensation for French businesses that had been affected by Soviet nationalisation policies poisoned Franco-Soviet relations until

23868-586: Was the foundation of German foreign policy but in 1890, he was forced to retire by Wilhelm II . The latter was persuaded not to renew the Reinsurance Treaty by his new Chancellor , Leo von Caprivi . This gave France an opening to agree the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1894, which was then followed by the 1904 Entente Cordiale with Britain. The Triple Entente was completed by the 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention . While not formal alliances, by settling long-standing colonial disputes in Asia and Africa, British support for France or Russia in any future conflict became

24024-453: Was to maintain an "equidistant" stance from all the major powers and to exercise the "determinant weight" with which the power Italy chose to align would decisively change the balance of power in Europe. The price of such an alignment would be support for Italian ambitions in Europe and/or Africa. The foreign policy goal of the Soviet Union was set forth by Joseph Stalin in a speech on 19 January 1925 that if another world war broke out between

24180-459: Was truly intent on conquering Europe. In February 1934, a secret report by the Defence Requirements Committee identified Germany as the "ultimate potential enemy" against which British rearmament was to be directed. Although the possibility of German bombing attacks against British cities increased the importance of having a friendly power on the other side of the English Channel , many British decision-makers were cool, if not downright hostile, toward

24336-406: Was written by Foreign Minister Baron Konstantin von Neurath , who wished to reassure foreign leaders who felt threatened by Germany's denunciation in March 1935 of Part V of Versailles, which had disarmed Germany. Meanwhile, Neurath wanted to provide an opening for the eventual remilitarisation of the Rhineland and so he hedged the promise to obey Locarno by adding that it was only if other powers did

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