The MegaMilitary Project | Online Edition #551

World War I

World War I began with a minor assassination in the remote corner of a now forgotten European empire. Yet it was to become the first truly global war, embroiling over 36 countries across 5 continents. As the tide swelled and nation upon nation rallied its forces, much of the world still belonged in the nineteenth century: cavalry officers rode to war on horseback, wearing gaudy uniforms and carrying flashing sabers at their sides. Some even took their servants and households. Military convention had changed little since the days of Wellington and Napoleon. World War I changed all that.

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Aden during World War I

Involved Nations WWI
From its annexation in 1839, Aden (now part of Yemen) had been part of British India, under the authority of the governor of Bombay; its position was of considerable significance, as a station serving the Suez Canal and as a trading depot for the interior of Arabia and the Somali coast.
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World War I was triggered by the assassination of Austria-Hungary’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Archduchess Sophie, in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, on June 28, 1914. Europe had been a boiling cauldron for a long time, but this event detonated a devastating chain of events.

Afghanistan during World War I

Involved Nations WWI
The presence of Afghanistan on its frontier had caused much trouble for British India, and the outbreak of the World War instigated consternation for fear that the Afghans took the opportunity of Britain's preoccupation to interfere with the frontier province.
The kings, emperors, czars, and sultans of Europe were, during the apocalyptic years from 1914 to 1918, like dinosaurs self- destructively lashing out against each other, hastening their own end, thrashing about in their own graveyard while new and more total tyrannies looked on, waiting to build upon the bones. As a result, the twentieth centur...
Military operations in central and southern Africa centered on the four German colonies, the largest in area and population being German East Africa (acquired 1885), the others Cameroon, Togoland and South-West Africa (all 1884).
36 nations fought in World War I, and combat extended to the colonial possessions of the principal powers, although on a small scale compared with the titanic struggle in Europe. The great powers fought on the peripheral fronts, hoping to shorten the war and gain territory. In fact, the peripheral action probably served only to prolong the war, ...

Albania during World War I

Involved Nations WWI
Albanian independence from the Ottoman Empire was finally achieved because of the Balkan Wars, and Albania was recognized as a sovereign and neutral state on 29 July 1913.
On the 10th of June 1916, Sherif Hussein Ibn Ali, Amir of Mecca and Keeper of the Holy Cities of Islam, Mecca and Medina, pushed a rifle through the window of his house in Mecca and opened fire on the barracks of the Turkish garrison. The 62-year-old Hussein was an Arab prince, not a military leader, but by this symbolic act of defiance, he sign...
World War I was foremost a conflict fought on land, but it occasioned the largest sea battle in history (Jutland), and the oceans were bitterly contested avenues of supply for the belligerents.
The Arab Revolt was directed against the Muslim Ottoman Empire which had ruled most or the Middle East for centuries. The Revolt also began at the very heart of the Muslim world: in the Hijaz, with its holiest of Muslim cities, Mecca and Medina.
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Dark Secret of the Lusitania - National Geographic Documentary

Dark Secret of the Lusitania - National Geographic Documentary

A German torpedo hit the RMS Lusitania on May 7, 1915. Shortly after, a substantial second explosion shook the ship. Within 20 minutes, the vessel known as the "Greyhound of the Seas" had sunk to the ocean floor, resulting in the deaths of almost 1200 individuals. A new two-step investigation...
Submitted by: Tim Kirsten
22 March 2024

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