T2: WWI Effects IDs #26-45

Eastern Front

Eastern Front

Theater of operations that encompassed at its greatest extent the entire frontier between the Russian Empire and Romania on one side and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bulgaria and Germany on the other. It stretched from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south, included most of Eastern Europe and stretched deep into Central Europe as well.

Battle of Tannenberg

Battle between Russia and Germany in the first month of World War I. Fought between August 26 and August 30, 1914, the battle resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Russian Second Army, and the suicide of its commanding general, Alexander Samsonov. A series of follow-up battles (1st Masurian Lakes) destroyed most of the First Army as well, and kept the Russians off-balance until the spring of 1915. The battle is particularly notable for fast rail movements by the Germans, enabling them to concentrate against two Russian armies in turn, and also for the failure of the Russians to encode their radio messages. It brought high prestige to the rising staff-officer Ludendorff and to Hindenburg who had been brought out of retirement to supervise him.

Brusilov Offensive

Also known as the June Advance, was the Russian Empire's greatest feat of arms during World War I, and among the most lethal offensives in world history. Historian Graydon Tunstall called it the worst crisis of World War I for Austria-Hungary and the Triple Entente's greatest victory, but it came at a tremendous loss of life. It was a major offensive against the armies of the Central Powers on the Eastern Front, launched on June 4, 1916, and lasting until late September. It took place in what today is Ukraine, in the general vicinity of the towns of Lviv, Kovel and Lutsk. The offensive was named after the Russian commander in charge of the Southwestern Front.

February/March Revolution

The first of two in Russia in 1917. It was centered on Petrograd (now known as St. Petersburg), then the Russian capital, on Women's Day in March (late February in the Julian calendar). It was confined to the capital and its vicinity, and lasted less than a week. It involved mass demonstrations and armed clashes with police and gendarmes, the last loyal forces of the Russian monarchy. In the last days, mutinous Russian Army forces sided with the revolutionaries. The immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire. Appeared to break out spontaneously, without any real leadership or formal planning. Russia had been suffering from a number of economic and social problems, which were compounded by the impact of World War I. Bread rioters and industrial strikers were joined on the streets by disaffected soldiers from the city's garrison. As more and more troops deserted, and with loyal troops away at the Front, the city fell into chaos, leading to the overthrow of the Tsar. Brought Bolshevik rule and a change in Russia's social structure, and paved the way for the Soviet Union.

Provisional Government

(March 14, 1917 – November 7, 1917) Based in the capital, Petrograd, this was first led by Rodzyanko and was formed in response to the fear that the old tsarist government in Petrograd would call in frontline troops to put down the rebellion that had occurred in the city. When Grand Duke Michael refused to take on the crown after the abdication of Nicholas II, it became the de facto government in Russia. Government ministers had sworn an oath of loyalty to Nicholas. Now that the royal family was no longer in existence, these men had no authority. It was to last for 8 months. It was immediately recognized as the legitimate government of Russia by the Allies – not necessarily because they approved of the collapse of the Romanovs, but because they needed the Russians to keep open the Eastern Front so that the German Army was split and thus weakened. It kept Russia in the war – this was to be a huge error of judgment. The old established props of the tsarist regime, such as the civil service, crumbled away. It had a few competent people in it but not many. Laws were passed that seem to promise a new era for Russia – universal suffrage was introduced, Poland was given its independence, all people were declared equal and all government officials had to be elected by the people. But none of these got to grips with the immediate problems that Russia was experiencing and the leaders of this argued amongst themselves as to the way ahead. This lack of unity led to Rodzyanko resigning.

Bolshevik/October/November Revolution

This was a seizure of state power instrumental in the larger Russian Revolution of 1917. It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) traditionally dated to October 25, 1917. It followed and capitalized on the February Revolution of the same year, which overthrew the Tsarist autocracy and established a provisional government composed predominantly of former nobles and aristocrats. In Petrograd, this was led by Vladimir Lenin, who overthrew the provisional government and gave the power to the local soviets. This immediately initiated the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the world's first self-proclaimed socialist state. As the revolution was not universally recognized, there followed the struggles of the Russian Civil War (1917–1922) and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922.

Vladimir Lenin

One of the leading political figures and revolutionary thinkers of the 20th century, who masterminded the Bolshevik take-over of power in Russia in 1917, and was the architect and first head of the USSR.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Peace treaty signed on March 3, 1918, between the new government of Russia (the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic) and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey), that ended Russia's participation in World War I. In the treaty, Bolshevik Russia ceded the Baltic States to Germany, and its province of Kars Oblast in the south Caucasus to the Ottoman Empire. It also recognized the independence of Ukraine. Russia also agreed to pay six billion German gold mark in reparations. The treaty was practically gone by November 1918, when Germany in effect surrendered to the Allies. However, it did provide some relief to the revolutionary Russian government, already fighting the Russian Civil War, by renouncing Russia's claims on Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania.

Gallipoli

Campaign of World War I that took place on a peninsula in the Dardanelles strait in the Ottoman Empire between April 25, 1915 and January 9, 1916. The peninsula forms the northern bank of the Dardanelles, a strait that provides a sea route to what was then the Russian Empire, one of the Allied powers during the war. Intending to secure it, Russia's allies Britain and France launched a naval attack followed by an amphibious landing on the peninsula with the eventual aim of capturing the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). The naval attack was repelled and, after eight months' fighting, with many casualties on both sides, the land campaign also failed and the invasion force was withdrawn to Egypt. The campaign was one of the greatest Ottoman victories during the war and a major Allied failure. In Turkey, it is regarded as a defining moment in the nation's history: a final surge in the defense of the motherland as the Ottoman Empire crumbled. The struggle formed the basis for the Turkish War of Independence and the founding of the Republic of Turkey eight years later under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who first rose to prominence as a commander of Turkish forces on the peninsula. The campaign is often considered as marking the birth of national consciousness in Australia and New Zealand and the date of the landing, April 25, is known as "Anzac Day". It remains the most significant commemoration of military casualties and veterans in those two countries, surpassing Remembrance Day.

The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs)

A First World War army corps of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. It was formed in Egypt in December 1914, and operated during the Battle of Gallipoli. General William Birdwood commanded it, which comprised troops from the First Australian Imperial Force and 1st New Zealand Expeditionary Force. They disbanded in 1916, following the Allied evacuation of the Gallipoli peninsula and the formation of further sects. It was reestablished, briefly, in the Second World War during the Battle of Greece in 1942.

Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk)

As a young man, he became a member of the Young Turks, a revolutionary movement of intellectuals. He participated in the Young Turk Revolution of July 1908, which successfully deposed Sultan Abdülhamid II. From 1909 to 1918, he held a number of posts in the Ottoman army. He fought against Italy in the Balkan Wars from 1911 to 1912, and in the second Balkan War he became chief of staff before being posted at the Turkish embassy in Bulgaria. He made a name for himself as the commander of the 19th Division, where his bravery and strategic prowess helped thwart the Allied invasion of the Dardanelles in 1915 at Gallipoli, and received repeated promotions until the Armistice of Mudros ended the fighting in 1918. Although the battles had ended, the treaty gave the Allies the right to occupy forts that controlled major waterways, as well as any territory that might pose a threat to security. In 1919, Ataturk organized resistance to these forces, and when the Treaty of Sèvres was signed at the end of World War I, divvying up the Ottoman Empire, he demanded complete independence for Turkey. The Great National Assembly—the new Turkish parliament—engaged in a series of battles with Greek and Armenian forces until he signed the Treaty of Lausanne on October 29, 1923. This established the Republic of Turkey, and he became the country’s first president.

Enver Pasha

An Ottoman military officer and a leader of the 1908 Young Turk Revolution. He became the main leader of the Ottoman Empire in both the Balkan Wars (1912–13) and in World War I (1914–18). In the course of his career he was known by increasingly elevated titles as he rose through military ranks, including gaining the honorary title Ottoman military officers gained on promotion to the rank of Mirliva.

Armenian Genocide

The Ottoman government's systematic extermination of a specific Christian minority subjects from their historic homeland within the territory constituting the present-day Republic of Turkey. The starting date is conventionally held to be April 24, 1915, the day Ottoman authorities rounded up and arrested some 250 intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople. The killing was carried out during and after World War I and implemented in two phases: the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacre and subjection of army conscripts to forced labor, followed by the deportation of women, children, the elderly and infirm on death marches leading to the Syrian desert. Driven forward by military escorts, the deportees were deprived of food and water and subjected to periodic robbery, rape, and massacre. The total number of people killed as a result has been estimated at between 1 and 1.5 million. Other indigenous and Christian ethnic groups such as the Assyrians, the Greeks and other minorities were similarly targeted for extermination by the Ottoman government, and their treatment is considered by many historians to be part of the same extermination policy. The majority of diaspora communities around the world from this ethnic group came into being as a direct result of this attempted extermination.

Lawrence of Arabia

British Army officer renowned especially for his liaison role during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, and the Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkish rule of 1916–18. The breadth and variety of his activities and associations, and his ability to describe them vividly in writing earned him international fame which was later used for the 1962 film based on his World War I activities.

The Arab Revolt

Instigated by a specific bureau of the British Foreign Office, this started with the help of Britain in June 1916 at the Battle of Mecca, led by Sherif Hussein of Mecca whose aim was securing independence from the ruling Ottoman Turks and creating a single unified Arab state spanning from Syria to Yemen. Though it has tended to be regarded as one rooted in a secular nationalist sentiment, in June 1916, the Sherif did not present it in those terms; rather, he accused the Young Turks of violating the sacred tenets of Islam and called certain Muslims to sacred rebellion against the ostensibly "impious" Ottoman government. At the end of the war, the Egyptian Expeditionary Force had seized Palestine, Transjordan, Lebanon, large parts of the Arabian peninsula and southern Syria. Medina, cut off from the rest of the Ottoman Empire, would not surrender until January 1919. The United Kingdom agreed that it would support their independence if they rose against the Ottomans. The two sides had different interpretations of this agreement. In any event, the United Kingdom and France reneged on the original deal and divided up the area in ways that they felt was unfavorable to them under the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement. The Hedjaz region of western Arabia became an independent state under Hussein's control, until 1925, when, abandoned and isolated by the British policy–which had shifted support to the al Saud family–it was conquered by Ibn Saud and renamed Saudi Arabia.

Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca

Hashemite Arab leader who was the Emir of Mecca from 1908 and, after proclaiming the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire, King of the Hejaz from 1916 to 1924. At the end of his reign he also briefly laid claim to the office of Caliph.

Faisal

On October 23, 1916 in Wadi Safra, he met Captain T. E. Lawrence, a junior British intelligence officer from Cairo. Lawrence, who envisioned an independent post-war Arabian state, sought the right man to lead the Arab forces and achieve this. In 1916–18, he headed the army of rebellion that confronted the Turks in what was to become Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria. After a 30-month-long siege he conquered Medina, defeating the defense organized by Fakhri Pasha and looting the city. He also worked with the Allies during World War I in their conquest of Greater Syria and the capture of Damascus in October 1918. He became part of a new Arab government at Damascus, formed after the capture of that city in 1918. He became King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria or Greater Syria in 1920, and was King of Iraq from 23 August 1921 to 1933. He was a member of the Hashemite dynasty. He fostered unity between Sunni and Shiite Muslims to encourage common loyalty and promote pan-Arabism in the goal of creating an Arab state that would include Iraq, Syria and the rest of the Fertile Crescent. While in power, he tried to diversify his administration by including different ethnic and religious groups in offices. However, his attempt at pan-Arab nationalism may have contributed to the isolation of certain religious groups.

Sykes-Picot Agreement

A secret negotiation between the governments of the Britain and France, with the assent of Russia, defining their proposed spheres of influence and control in the Middle East should the Triple Entente succeed in defeating the Ottoman Empire during World War I. The negotiation of the treaty occurred between November 1915 and March 1916. It was concluded on May 16, 1916. It effectively divided the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire outside the Arabian peninsula into areas of future British and French control or influence. An "international administration" was proposed for Palestine. The terms were negotiated by two French diplomats. The Russian Tsarist government was a minor party to this, and when, following the Russian Revolution of October 1917, the Bolsheviks exposed this.

Zionism

A nationalist and political movement of Jews and Jewish culture that supports the re-establishment of a Jewish homeland in the territory defined as the historic Land of Israel (roughly corresponding to Palestine, Canaan or the Holy Land). This emerged in the late 19th century in central and eastern Europe as a national revival movement. Soon after this most leaders of the movement associated the main goal with creating the desired state in Palestine, then an area controlled by the Ottoman Empire. Until 1948, the primary goals of this were the re-establishment of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel, ingathering of the exiles, and liberation of Jews from the anti-Semitic discrimination and persecution that occurred in their Diaspora. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, this continues primarily to advocate on behalf of Israel and address threats to its continued existence and security.

Balfour Declaration

On November 2, 1917, a foreign secretary wrote a letter to Britain’s most illustrious Jewish citizen, Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild, expressing the British government’s support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Britain’s public acknowledgement and support of the Zionist movement emerged from its growing concern surrounding the direction of the First World War. Against this backdrop, the government of Prime Minister David Lloyd George—elected in December 1916—made the decision to publicly support Zionism, a movement led in Britain by Chaim Weizmann, a Russian Jewish chemist who had settled in Manchester. The motives behind this decision were various: aside from a genuine belief in the righteousness of the Zionist cause, held by Lloyd George among others, Britain’s leaders hoped that a formal announcement in favor of Zionism would help gain Jewish support for the Allies in neutral countries, in the United States and especially in Russia, where the powerfully anti-Semitic czarist government had just been overthrown with the help of Russia’s significant Jewish population.