THE WORLD ATLAS

Chapter · Age of Imperialism

The World Goes to War

The world in 1914

In 1914 European empires rule most of the planet, and an interconnected world economy of steamships, telegraphs and gold-standard trade seems unshakeable. Then, on 28 June, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, is assassinated in Sarajevo.

Within six weeks the great alliances drag Europe into war: Germany and Austria-Hungary, later joined by the Ottoman Empire, against France, Russia and Britain, with the British Empire bringing in India, Canada, Australia and its other dominions. German armies sweep through Belgium but are stopped at the Marne, and by Christmas a line of trenches stretches from the Channel to Switzerland. Fighting spreads to Africa, the Middle East and the Pacific, where Japan seizes German possessions. Elsewhere, China has just become a republic, Mexico is in the middle of a revolution, and the Panama Canal opened in August. Few yet grasp that the war will destroy four empires and kill millions.

Open the map in 1914

The great powers

Region by region

Southern Africa

The Union of South Africa, a British dominion since 1910 under Prime Minister Louis Botha, puts down a pro-German Boer rebellion and invades German South-West Africa. Belgium has ruled the Congo directly since taking it from King Leopold II in 1908, Britain holds the Rhodesias, Bechuanaland and Nyasaland, and Portugal rules Angola and Mozambique. In German East Africa, Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck defeats a British landing at Tanga in November 1914, beginning a four-year guerrilla campaign.

Northern Africa

Almost all of northern Africa is under European rule: France holds Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco (a protectorate since 1912), French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa, while Italy seized Libya from the Ottomans in 1911-1912. Britain declared Egypt a protectorate in December 1914, deposing Khedive Abbas II and installing Hussein Kamel as sultan, and it rules the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and a newly unified Nigeria. Only Ethiopia, under the uncrowned young ruler Lij Iyasu, and Liberia remain independent. Allied forces quickly overrun German Togoland and invade Kamerun.

Europe

Europe's monarchies, Kaiser Wilhelm II's Germany, Emperor Franz Joseph's Austria-Hungary, Tsar Nicholas II's Russia and King George V's Britain, go to war in August alongside the French Republic under President Raymond Poincare. Germany's attack through neutral Belgium is halted at the Marne in September, while Russia is crushed at Tannenberg in East Prussia. Serbia, under King Peter I, resists Austrian invasion, and the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913 have just pushed the Ottomans almost out of Europe and created Albania. Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Scandinavia stay neutral for now.

Middle East & South Asia

The Ottoman Empire, nominally under Sultan Mehmed V but run by the Young Turk triumvirate of Enver, Talat and Djemal Pasha, enters the war on Germany's side in November 1914, and British-Indian troops land at Basra. Persia, under the young Ahmad Shah Qajar, is divided into Russian and British spheres of influence, and Afghanistan under Habibullah Khan stays neutral. The British Raj, under Viceroy Lord Hardinge with its new capital at Delhi, sends Indian soldiers to France and the Middle East. In Arabia, Ibn Saud has taken al-Hasa, and Sharif Hussein rules Mecca under the Ottomans.

Northern & Central Asia

Russian Turkestan, the steppe and Siberia are all part of the Russian Empire, with Bukhara (Emir Alim Khan) and Khiva as Russian protectorates; Tuva became a Russian protectorate in 1914. Outer Mongolia declared independence from China in 1911 under the Bogd Khan, a Buddhist leader, with Russian backing. Russian peasants are settling Siberia and the Kazakh steppe in large numbers, squeezing the nomads off their pastures.

East Asia

The Qing dynasty fell in 1912, and the new Republic of China is dominated by President Yuan Shikai, who has dissolved parliament and driven Sun Yat-sen into exile. Tibet, under the 13th Dalai Lama, and Mongolia act as independent states. Japan, under Emperor Taisho, annexed Korea in 1910 and holds Taiwan; it joins the Allies in August 1914 and captures Germany's base at Qingdao in November.

Southeast Asia

Siam, under King Vajiravudh (Rama VI), is the only independent state; the rest is colonial. France rules Indochina, Britain rules Burma (part of India), Malaya and northern Borneo, and the Dutch govern the East Indies, where the Sarekat Islam movement is the first mass nationalist organisation. The United States rules the Philippines and has promised eventual self-government.

Northern North America

Canada, under Prime Minister Robert Borden, is automatically at war when Britain declares war, and the first Canadian Expeditionary Force sails for Europe in October 1914. Newfoundland is a separate British dominion and also sends troops. Alaska became an organised US territory in 1912, and Denmark rules Greenland.

Southern North America

The United States, under President Woodrow Wilson, declares neutrality but sells food and munitions to the Allies. The Panama Canal, built by the US, opens on 15 August 1914. Mexico is in the middle of its Revolution: the dictator Victoriano Huerta was forced out in July after US troops occupied Veracruz, and the victorious revolutionaries, Carranza, Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata, are now turning on each other.

Northern South America

Brazil, now led by President Venceslau Bras (from November 1914), is the world's coffee giant but is hit by the collapse of the Amazon rubber boom. Juan Vicente Gomez rules Venezuela as dictator, and Colonel Oscar Benavides seized power in Peru in a February coup. Colombia, still bitter over the loss of Panama in 1903, elects Jose Vicente Concha. Britain, the Netherlands and France hold the Guianas.

Southern Cone

Argentina, governed by Victorino de la Plaza after President Saenz Pena's death in August, is among the ten richest countries in the world on the strength of its grain and beef exports. Chile, under Ramon Barros Luco, sees war arrive off its coast: a German squadron sinks two British cruisers at Coronel on 1 November and is destroyed off the Falklands on 8 December. Uruguay, under reforming President Jose Batlle y Ordonez, is building a pioneering welfare state.

Australasia & Oceania

Australia, federated since 1901, changes government during the crisis as Andrew Fisher's Labor replaces Joseph Cook, and pledges support to Britain 'to our last man and our last shilling'. Australian troops seize German New Guinea, New Zealand (a dominion since 1907, under William Massey) takes German Samoa, and Japan occupies Germany's Micronesian islands. The first convoy of Australian and New Zealand (ANZAC) troops sails for Egypt in November.

Events

  1. Japan annexes Korea; Union of South Africa formed; Mexican Revolution begins
  2. Qing dynasty abdicates; Republic of China founded
  3. First Balkan War drives the Ottomans from most of Europe
  4. Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo (28 June)
  5. First World War begins; Germany invades Belgium and France
  6. Panama Canal opens (15 August)
  7. Battles of Tannenberg and the Marne; trench warfare sets in on the Western Front
  8. Ottoman Empire joins the Central Powers; Britain declares a protectorate over Egypt

Moments of this period

Wars of this period

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Sources