Wars, World

World War I

Initially referred to as the “Great War,” the war of 1914–1918 was elevated retrospectively to world status as historians sought a new vocabulary to capture the enormity of the struggle and to distinguish it from previous conflicts. The war began as a European “civil war” between Germany, France, Britain, Russia, Italy, and Austria-Hungary, but spread quickly to engulf the German-aligned Ottoman Empire. By 1915, there were three key theaters of war: in Europe on the Western Front through France and Belgium, the Russian or Eastern Front, and on the margins of the Ottoman Empire, including the attempted British invasion of the Dardanelles at Gallipoli. German possessions in the Southwest Pacific were quickly confiscated and at negligible cost by Australian forces after the outbreak of war in August 1914.

The scope of World War I is directly related to the spread of imperial globalization in the 19th century. British and French colonies in Asia and Africa supplied troops and military equipment for their respective imperial war efforts. On the British side, fighting forces were drawn from North America, Asia, the Pacific, and Africa. On the French side, troops were drawn from North and West Africa and Asia. Although not an active combatant, Japan, too, declared war on Germany in 1914 and, as an ally of Britain, Japanese naval vessels guarded Australian and New Zealand military transports travelling across the Indian Ocean to the Middle East and Europe. The United States entered the war on the side of Britain, France, and Russia in 1917 and committed troops to the front. Many other nations, from Asia and Latin America, joined the war in name only, including Nationalist China, which declared war on Germany and Austria in 1917.

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