[Map: Turkey As the Four Balkan Allies intended to divide it. (1912-13)]

Bulgaria in 1909 announced to the world that she would pay no more tribute to Turkey, and after this was to be counted one of the independent nations of Europe. The Bulgarians had grown so strong and the Turks so weak, that Turkey did not dare go to war, so permitted the matter to go unnoticed. The only thing on which all the Balkan nations and Greece could agree was their bitter hatred of the Turks, who had oppressed and wronged them cruelly for the last three hundred and fifty years.

Russia, always plotting to overthrow Turkey, at last accomplished a wonderful bit of diplomacy. She encouraged Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece to forget their old time dislike of each other, for the time being, and declare war jointly on Turkey. In order that there should not be any quarreling over the spoils when the war was over, the four little nations agreed, in a secret treaty, that when they got through with Turkey, they would divide up the carcass as shown in the opposite map. The head, including Constantinople, was to be left for Russia, of course. Bulgaria was to take the back and the great part of the body, Greece was to annex the drumsticks and the second joint. The rest of the body was to go to Serbia with the exception of the very tail, including the city of Scutari, which was to be given to Montenegro. Serbia was at last to have a seacoast and a chance to trade with other nations than Austria. The Serbs had a grudge against the Austrians, for the latter, taking advantage of the fact that all Serbian trade with Europe had to go through their country, had charged them exorbitant prices for manufactured goods and paid them very little for their own products in return. Bulgaria was to have Kavala (ka va'la) as a seaport on the Aegean and all the coast of that sea as far as the Gallipoli (gal i'po li) peninsula. Greece was to have the important city of Salonika (saloni'ka), southern Macedonia, and southern Albania.

With this secret agreement between them, the four little states went to war with Turkey. In accordance with the new friendship sprung up between Germany and the Ottomans, German officers and generals were sent to Constantinople to drill the Turkish troops. Cannon and machine guns were sent them from German factories, and their rifles were fed with German bullets. The four little countries, accordingly, turned to France and Russia for assistance. Their troops were armed with French cannon and machine guns, and their military advisers were French and Russians. While the big nations managed to keep out of the war themselves, all were strongly interested in one side or the other.

The result was a complete surprise to Austria and Germany. To their consternation and disgust, the four little nations made short work of the Turkish troops. In eight months, Turkey was thoroughly beaten, and the allies were ready to put through their program of dividing up the spoils.

And now, once more, the great powers meddled, and by their interference laid the foundation for future wars and misery. Austria and Germany saw their path to Constantinople and the east cut right in two. Their railroads, instead of passing through a series of countries under German control, now were to be cut asunder by an arm of Slavic states under Russian protection, which would certainly stop German progress toward Asia.

With the map as it had been before the war of 1912, there was one little strip of territory, called the Sanjak of Novibazar, between Serbia and Montenegro, which connected Turkey with Austria. To be sure, this country was inhabited almost entirely by Serbians, but so long as it was under the military control of Austria and Turkey, German railway trains bound for the east could traverse it. Now Serbia and Montenegro proposed to divide this country up between themselves. Serbia, by gaining her seaport on the Adriatic, could send her trade upon the water to find new markets in Italy, Spain, and France.



The Italians had always wanted to control the Adriatic Sea. They longed for the time when the cities of Trieste and Pola should be turned over to them by Austria. The cities of Durazzo (du rat'zo) and Avlona on the Albanian coast were inhabited by many Italians, and Italy had always cherished the hope that they might belong to her. Therefore, the Italians did not take kindly to the Serbian program of seizing this coast. At any rate, as soon as the four little countries announced their intention of dividing up Turkey in Europe among themselves, Austria, Germany, and Italy raised a great clamor.

Another meeting of representatives of the great powers was held, and once more the Germans were able to carry their point. Instead of allowing the four little countries to divide up the conquered land between them, the powers made a fifth small country, the kingdom of Albania, and brought down from Germany a little prince to rule over these wild mountaineers. Notice that the Albanians were not consulted. The great powers simply took a map, drew a certain line on it and said, "This shall be the kingdom of Albania, and its king shall be Prince William of Wied." Again we have a king-made map with the usual trail of grievances.

This arrangement robbed Montenegro of Scutari, robbed Serbia of its seaport on the Adriatic, and robbed Greece of the country west of Janina (ya ni'na). France and Russia did not like this program, but they did not feel like fighting the Triple Alliance to prevent its being put into effect.

[Map: Changes as a Result of the Two Balkan Wars 1912-13]

The three little countries, separated from a great part of their new territory, now turned to Bulgaria, and, practically, said to her, "Since we have been robbed of Albania, we will have to divide up all over again. You must give us part of your plunder in order to 'make it square.'" Now was the time for the ancient ill-feeling between the Bulgarians and their neighbors to show itself. In reply to this invitation, Bulgaria said, in so many words, "Not a bit of it. Our armies bore the brunt of the fight. It was really we who conquered Turkey. Your little armies had a very insignificant part in the war. If you want any more land, we dare you to come and take it." And the Bulgarians made a treacherous night attack on their recent allies, which brought a declaration of war from the three little nations.

This quarrel, of course, was exactly what Germany and Austria wanted. It accomplished their purpose of breaking up this Balkan alliance under the protection of Russia. So with Austria and Germany egging on Bulgaria, and Russia and France doing their best to induce Bulgaria to be reasonable and surrender some land to Greece and Serbia, the second Balkan war began in 1913 almost before the last cannon discharged in the first war had cooled.

Again, Europe was astonished, for the victorious Bulgarians, who had been mainly responsible for the defeat of the Turks, went down to defeat before the Serbians and Greeks on the bloody field of Bregalnitza (breg'al nit za). To add to Bulgaria's troubles, the Turks, taking advantage of the discord among their late opponents, suddenly attacked the Bulgarians in the rear and stole back the city of Adrianople, which had cost the Bulgarians so much trouble to capture. In the meantime, Roumania, which up to this point had had no part in any of the fighting, saw all of her neighbors growing larger at the expense of Turkey. The Roumanian statesmen, asking what was to be their share of the spoils, and moved simply by a greedy desire to enlarge their kingdom, declared war on Bulgaria also.

Poor Bulgaria, fighting five nations at once, had to buy peace at the best price she could make. She bought off Roumania by giving to her a strip of land in the country called the Dobrudja (do brood'ja) between the Danube River and the Black Sea. She had to agree to a new boundary line with Turkey by which the Turks kept Adrianople. She had to give Kavala and the surrounding country to Greece and the territory around Monastir (mo na stir') to Serbia, although these districts were inhabited largely by her own people.

Bulgaria had in vain appealed to her ancient friend and protector, Russia. The Russians were disgusted to think that the Bulgarians had refused to listen to them when they urged them to grant some small pieces of land to Greece and Serbia at the close of the first war. They felt that the Bulgarians had been headstrong and richly deserved what they got. Therefore, Russia refused to interfere now and save Bulgaria from humiliation. In the end, Austrian diplomacy had accomplished a great deal of mischief. The Balkan alliance under the protection of Russia was badly broken up. The old hostility between Serbia and Bulgaria, which had been buried for the time being during the first Balkan war, now broke out with greater force than ever. Bulgaria sulked, feeling revengeful against all of her neighbors, but especially angry at Russia, who had always been her friend before.

Questions for Review

1. Why did the Germans desire a road to the east? 2. What was the one thing on which the Balkan nations were united? 3. What was Russia's purpose in helping to form the Balkan Alliance? 4. Why did the great powers interfere to prevent the four little countries from carrying out their secret agreement? 5. What was the cause of the second Balkan war? 6. Which powers were glad and which were sorry to see it begin? 7. Why was Bulgaria angry with all her neighbors?



CHAPTER XVI

Who Profits?

The race for power on the sea.—The "naval holiday" declined.—The declining birth-rate.—The growth of the Socialists.—The militarists of Germany.—How wars cure labor troubles.—The forces behind the war game.—Profits and press agents.

Let us turn back to the great powers of Europe. We spoke of their mad race, each nation trying to build more ships and bigger ships than its neighbors and to outstrip them in cannon and other munitions of war. The German navy had been growing by leaps and bounds. From being the sixth largest navy in the world, within ten years it had grown to second place. But, fast as the Germans built ships, the English built them more rapidly still. England built a monstrous battleship called the Dreadnaught, which was twice as heavy as any other battleship afloat. Germany promptly replied by planning four ships of the dreadnaught class, and England came back with some still larger vessels which are known as super-dreadnaughts.

At last, the English first lord of the navy, Mr. Winston Churchill, proposed to Germany that each country take a "naval holiday." In other words, he practically said to Germany, "If you people will stop building warships for a year, we will also. Then at the end of the year, we shall be no worse off or better off than we were at the beginning."



Germany laughed at this proposal. To her, it showed that England could not stand the strain very much longer. "Besides," said the Germans, "it is all very well for England to be satisfied with her present navy, which is half again as large as ours. If our navy were the strongest in the world, we too would be glad to have all nations stop building warships," and they laid down the keels of four new super-dreadnaughts.

But other things disturbed the peace of mind of the German militarists. For a long time, the population of France had not been increasing, while Germany almost doubled her numbers from 1860 to 1900. Now, to their dismay, the German birth-rate began to grow less and they saw the population of Russia growing larger by 20% every ten years. Again, they learned that Russia was about to build a series of railroads near the German frontier which would enable them to rush an army to attack Germany at very short notice. The Germans already had such railroads in their own country, but they did not propose to let their neighbors have this advantage also.

Again, France had recently passed a law forcing every young man to put three years in military service instead of two. This would increase France's standing army by 50 per cent. The German people, who up to this time had been very docile and very obedient to the military rule, were showing signs of discontent. The Socialists, a party who represented the working people largely, and who were strongly opposed to war, had been growing very fast. In the last election, they had gained many representatives in the German congress, and had cast over 4,000,000 votes. The only thing that kept them from having a majority in the Reichstag (the German congress) was the fact that in some districts, the voters of the other parties combined against them. In this way, the military class still held control of the German government, but it was afraid that it would not be for long.

With nearly half the able-bodied men in the country spending their time drilling and doing guard duty, the other half of the population had to earn money enough to support their own families and also the families of the men in the army. As one writer has put it, "Every workingman in Europe carried a soldier on his back who reached down and took the bread out of his platter."

The program of Bismarck was still in the minds of the military leaders of Germany. The military class must rule Prussia, Prussia must rule Germany, and Germany must be the greatest power in Europe. To their minds, war between Germany and her allies and the rest of Europe must come. Being warriors by trade and having nothing else to do, they saw that, if the great war were postponed much longer, the chances of Germany's winning it would grow less and less. France and Russia were growing stronger and Germany was unable to catch up to England's navy. It should be remembered that this class made up a small part only of the German nation. Their influence was all out of proportion to their numbers. They controlled the government, and the government controlled the schools and the newspapers. The people believed what they were told. They were simply parts of the war machine. Bismarck's policy had been to crush his enemies one by one. He never entered a war until he was sure that Prussia was bound to win it. In like fashion, the German military chiefs of 1914 hoped to conquer France and Russia before England was ready. It was the old story as told by Shakespeare. "Our legions are brim full, our cause is ripe. The enemy increaseth every day. We, at the height, are ready to decline."

Russia, too, was having her troubles. After the czar had promised the nation a constitution and had agreed to allow a duma or parliament to be called together, the military class, who were trying to keep the common people under control and in ignorance as much as possible had been able to prevent the duma from obtaining any power. It had much less freedom than the German Reichstag. It was permitted to meet and to talk, but not to pass laws. If any member spoke his mind freely, he was sent to Siberia for life. There were murmurs and threats. There were labor troubles and strikes. The people of Russia, especially those living in cities, were learning how little freedom they had, compared with citizens of other countries, and the time seemed ripe for a revolution.

It has always been the policy of kings to take the minds of their people off their own wrongs by giving them some foreign war to think about. Although the Russian government did all that it could to prevent the war without completely betraying Serbia, still the war probably put off the Russian Revolution for two years.

It must be kept in mind that in Germany and especially in Prussia there was a class of people who had no trade but war. These were the so-called Junkers (Yoonkers), direct descendants of the old feudal barons. They were owners of rich tracts of land which had been handed down to them by their fore-fathers. The rent paid to them by the people who lived on their farms supported them richly in idleness. Just as their ancestors in the old days had lived only by fighting and plundering, so these people still had the idea that anything that they could take by force was theirs.

Bismarck was a Junker of Junkers. He had nothing but contempt for the common people and their law-making bodies. In the early days when he was Prime Minister of the Prussian kingdom, the Congress had refused to vote to raise certain moneys through taxes that Bismarck advised, because he wanted to spend all of it in preparations for war. In spite of the vote of the representatives of the people, Bismarck went right on collecting the money and spending it as he wished. Later on, after the Prussian army had won its rapid victories, first over the Danes, then over the Austrians, and lastly over the French, the Prussian people, swollen with pride at what their armies had accomplished, forgave Bismarck for riding rough-shod over their liberties. But Bismarck was able to do what he did because he had the backing of the king and the great land-owning Junker class.

In 1870 this was the only class in Prussia that had any power. By 1914, however, a change had come about. The wonderful development of Germany's trade and manufacturing had brought wealth and power to the merchant class and these had to be considered when plans for war were being formed.

Naturally, the outbreak of war disturbs trade very much, especially trade with foreign countries. A great deal of the German commerce, carried on with Great Britain, the United States, South America, and far distant colonies, had to travel over the ocean. German merchants would never support a war cheerfully if they thought that their trade would be interrupted for any length of time. So the Junkers, when they made up their minds to wage war for the conquest of France and Russia, persuaded the merchants that after these countries had been conquered they would be forced to give a big sum of money to Germany which would more than pay her back for the full cost of the war. Then the Russians would be compelled, as a result of the war, to promise to trade only with German merchants and manufacturers, and thus everybody in Germany would be much richer.[6]

[6] When England came in, the merchants of Germany were very down-hearted, for they saw all their over-seas trade cut off at a blow. But the Junkers called together the leading merchants and bribed them with promises. In the year 1918 one of the prominent manufacturers of Germany made a statement which got out and was published in the countries of the Entente. After telling how the blame for the war was to be laid at the door of the land-owning, military class, he confessed that he personally had been bribed to support the war by the promise of thirty thousand acres of Australian land, which was to be given to him after Germany had conquered the world. This, of course, was pure piracy; the motto of Prussia for some time had been that piracy pays.

There was one class of manufacturers who did not lose trade, but gained it through a war. This was composed of the makers of guns and munitions. They were clamorously back of the Junkers in their demands for war. These people profited by preparation for war. They kept inventing newer and stronger guns so that the weapons which they had sold the governments one year would be out-of-date the next, ready to be thrown on the scrap heap. In this way, the factories were kept working over-time and their profits were enormous. This money, of course, came out of the taxes of the common people.

Their surplus profits the munition makers invested sometimes in newspapers. It was proved in the German Reichstag in 1913 that the great gun-makers of Prussia had a force of hired newspaper writers to keep up threats of war. They paid certain papers in Paris to print articles to make the French people think that the Germans were about to attack them. These same gun-makers in Berlin tried to persuade the German people that the French were on the point of attacking them.

All of this played into the hands of the Junkers by making people all over Europe feel that war could not be avoided. Thus when the Junkers were ready to strike and the great war broke out, people would say, "At last it has come, the war that we knew was inevitable."

Questions for Review

1. Why did Germany decline to take a "naval holiday"? 2. What is meant by "strategic railroads"? 3. Why were the military leaders alarmed at the growth of the Socialist Party? 4. What was the fate of popular government in Russia? 5. How did the Junkers owe their power to the feudal system? 6. How were the German merchants won over to war? 7. What part had the gun-makers in bringing on war?



CHAPTER XVII

The Spark that Exploded the Magazine

The year 1914.—England's troubles.—Plots for a "Greater Serbia."—The hated archduke.—The shot whose echoes shook the whole world.—Austria's extreme demands.—Russia threatens.—Frantic attempts to prevent war.—Mobilizing on both sides.—Germany's tiger-like spring.—The forts of the Vosges Mountains.—The other path to Paris.—The neutrality of Belgium.—Belgium defends herself.

The year 1914 found England involved in serious difficulties. Her parliament had voted to give home rule to Ireland. There was to be an Irish parliament, which would govern Ireland as the Irish wanted it governed. Ulster, a province in the northeast of Ireland, however, was very unhappy over this arrangement. Its people were largely of English and Scotch descent, and they were Protestants, while the other inhabitants of Ireland were Celts and Catholics. The people of this province were so bitter against home rule that they actually imported rifles and drilled regiments, saying that they would start a civil war if England compelled them to be governed by an Irish parliament.

There were labor troubles and strikes, also, in England, and threatened revolutions in India, where the English government was none too popular. Altogether, the German war lords felt sure that England had so many troubles of her own that she would never dare to enter a general European war.

Meanwhile, the Serbians, unhappy over the loss of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria, were busily stirring up the people of these provinces to revolt. The military leaders who really ruled Austria, were in favor of crushing these attempted uprisings with an iron hand.

One of the leaders of this party, a man who was greatly hated by the Bosnians, was the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nephew of the emperor and heir to the throne. He finally announced that he was going in person to Sarajevo (sae rae ye'vo) in Bosnia to look into the situation himself. The people of the city warned him not to come, saying that his life would be in danger, as he was so hated. Being a headstrong man of violent temper, he refused to listen to this advice, but insisted on going. His devoted wife, after doing her best to dissuade him, finally refused to let him go without her.

When it was known that he was really coming, the Bosnian revolutionists laid their plans. They found out just where his carriage was to pass, and at almost every street corner, they had some assassin with bomb or pistol. One bomb was thrown at him, but it exploded too soon, and he escaped. Bursting with indignation, he was threatening the mayor for his lax policing, when a second assassin, a nineteen year old boy, stepped up with a pistol and shot to death the archduke and his wife.

Many people have referred to this incident as the cause of the great European war. As you have been shown, however, this was simply the spark that exploded the magazine. With the whole situation as highly charged as it was, any other little spark would have been enough to set the war a-going.

The Austrian government sent word to Serbia that the crime had been traced to Serbian plotters, some of them in the employ of the government. It demanded that Serbia apologize; also that she hunt out and punish the plotters at once. And because Austria did not trust the Serbians to hold an honest investigation, she demanded that her officers should sit in the Serbian courts as judges.

Imagine a Japanese killed in San Francisco, and think what the United States would say if the Tokio government insisted that a Japanese judge be sent to California to try the case because Japan could not trust America to give her justice! The Serbians, of course, were in no position to fight a great power like Austria-Hungary, and yet, weakened as they were, they could not submit to such a demand as this. They agreed to all the Austrian demands except the one concerning the Austrian judges in Serbian courts. They appealed to the other powers to see that justice was done them.

Russia growled ominously at Austria, whereupon Germany sent a sharp warning to Russia that this was none of her affair, and that Austria and Serbia must be left to fight it out. In the meantime, Serbia offered to lay the matter before the court of arbitration at the Hague. (In 1899, at the invitation of the czar of Russia, representatives of all the great powers of Europe met at the Hague to found a lasting court which should decide disputes between nations fairly, and try to do away with wars, to as great an extent as possible. The court has several times been successful in averting trouble.)

Great Britain proposed that the dispute between Austria and Serbia should be judged by a court composed of representatives of France, England, Italy, and Germany. Austria's reply to the proposals of England and Serbia was a notice to the latter country that she had just forty-eight hours in which to give in completely to the Austrian demands. In the mean-time, Mr. Sazanoff, the Russian minister of foreign affairs, was vainly pleading with England to declare what she would do in case the Triple Alliance started a war with France and Russia.

Kings and ministers telegraphed frantically, trying to prevent the threatened conflict. The story was sent out by Germany that Russia was gathering her troops, mobilizing them, as it is called. As Russia has so much more territory to draw from than any other country, and as her railroads are not many and are poorly served, it was figured that it would be six weeks before the Russian army would be ready to fight anybody. Germany, on the other hand, with her wonderful system of government-owned railroads, and the machine-like organization of her army, could launch her forces across the frontier at two days' notice. As soon as the Germans began to hear that the Russians were mobilizing their troops against Austria, Germany set in motion the rapid machinery for gathering her own army. She sent a sharp message to Russia, warning the latter that she must instantly stop mobilizing or Germany would declare war. Next the Germans asked France what she intended to do in case Germany and Austria declared war on Russia. France replied that she would act in accordance with what seemed to be her best interests. This answer did not seem very reassuring, and without any declaration of war, the German army rushed for the French frontier.

Now ever since the war of 1870, France had been building a line of great forts across the narrow stretch of ground where her territory approached that of Germany. Belfort, Toul, Epinal, Verdun, Longwy, they ranged through the mountains northeast of France as guardians of their country against another German attack. To rush an army into France over this rough country and between these great fortresses was impossible. Modern armies carry great guns with them which cannot climb steep grades. Therefore, if Germany wanted to strike a quick, smashing blow at France and get her armies back six weeks later to meet the slow-moving Russians, it was plain that she must seek some other approach than that through the Vosges Mountains.



From Aix-La-Chapelle near the Rhine in Germany, through the northern and western part of Belgium, there stretches a flat plain, with level roads, easy to cross. (See map.) Now, years before, Belgium had been promised by France, Prussia, and England that no one of them would disturb its neutrality. In other words it was pledged that in case of a war, no armed force of any of these three nations should enter Belgian territory, nor should Belgium be involved in any trouble arising among them. In case any one of the nations named or in fact any other hostile force, invaded Belgium, the signers of the treaty were bound to rush to Belgium's aid. Belgium, in return, had agreed to resist with her small army any troops which might invade her country.

In spite of the fact that their nation had signed this treaty, the Germans started their rush toward France, not through the line of forts in the mountains, but across the gently rolling plain to the north. They first asked permission of the Belgians to pass through their country. On being refused, they entered Belgian territory just east of Liege (li ezh'). The Belgians telegraphed their protest to Berlin. The Germans replied that they were sorry but it was necessary for them to invade Belgium in order to attack France. They agreed to do no damage and to pay the Belgians for any supplies or food which their army might seize. The Belgians replied that by their treaty with France, England, and Germany they were bound on their honor to resist just such an invasion as this. They asked the Germans how Germany would regard them if they were to permit a French army to cross Belgian territory to take Germany by surprise. The Germans again said that they were sorry, but that if Belgium refused permission to their army to cross, the army would go through without permission. It was a dreadful decision that Belgium had to make, but she did not hesitate. She sent orders to her armies to resist by all means the passage of the German troops. The great war had begun.

[Map: Map showing the Two Routes from Germany to Paris.]

As we look over the evidence the German war lords must bear the blame, almost alone.

The Austrians had been eager to attack Serbia, even in 1913, thinking that this little country had grown too powerful, as a result of her victories in the two Balkan wars. But Austria had counted on "bluffing" Russia to keep out, as she had been bluffed in 1908, and when she saw that this time the Russians meant business, she became frightened and sent word that she might be willing to settle the question without fighting. But the Germans were bent on war, and as they saw their ally wavering, they sent their warning that Russian mobilization would be considered a ground for war.

Now this was ridiculous. In 1908, when the trouble over Bosnia was at its height, both Austria and Russia had their armies mobilized and ready for war for weeks and months. Still no war came out of it. It looked as if Germany was hard put to it to find an excuse for launching her plan to conquer Europe.

Questions for Review

1. Why did Ulster object to home rule? 2. What were the hopes of the Serbians regarding Bosnia? 3. Why did Russia interfere between Austria and Serbia? 4. Why did Russia mobilize her troops? 5. Why was the road through Belgium chosen?



CHAPTER XVIII

Why England Came In

The question of Italy and England.—Italy's position.—The war with Turkey.—Italy declines to join her allies.—England is aware of the German plans.—The treaty with Belgium.—The "defensive" war.—The "scrap of paper."—Germany's rage at England's declaration of war.—England does the unexpected.

France, Belgium, Russia, and Serbia were combined against Austria and Germany. Little Montenegro also rushed to the help of her neighbor and kinsman, Serbia. The question was, what would Italy and England do. Italy, like Russia and Germany, had been having trouble in holding down her people. A revolution had been threatened which would overthrow the king and set up a republic. The Socialist Party, representing the working class, had been growing very strong, and one of their greatest principles was that all war is wrong. They felt that the Triple Alliance made by the Italian statesmen had never bound the Italian people. Throughout the entire peninsula, the Austrians were hated.

You will remember that France had aroused the Italians' anger in 1881 by seizing Tunis. Italy had hoped to snap up this province for herself, for the Italian peninsula was crowded with people, and as the population increased, it was thought necessary that colonies be established to which the people could migrate to have more room. Finally in 1911, in order to divert the minds of the people from revolutionary thoughts, the government organized an expedition to swoop down on Tripoli, which, like Egypt, was supposed to belong to Turkey.

This meant war with the government at Constantinople, and Germany and Austria were very angry at Italy, their ally, for attacking Turkey, with which the Austrians and Germans were trying to establish a firm friendship. However, "self-preservation is the first law of nature," and the Italian king and nobles valued their leadership in the nation much more than they dreaded the dislike of Germany and Austria.

The Germans had counted on Italy to join in the attack on Russia and France, but the Italian statesmen knew the feelings of their people too well to attempt this. Of late years, there had been growing up a friendship between the people of Italy and those of France, and the Italian generals knew that it would be a difficult task to induce their men to fire upon their kinsmen from across the Alps. Therefore, when Austria and Germany demanded their support in the war, they replied by pointing out that the terms of the Triple Alliance bound Italy to go to their help only if they were attacked. "In this case," said the Italians, "you are the attacking party. The treaty does not bind us to support you in any war conquest. What is more, we were not consulted before Austria sent to Serbia her impossible demands. Expect no help from us."

Now the great question arose as to England. The English statesmen were not blind to the German plan. They saw that Germany intended to crush France first, capturing Paris and dealing the French army such an overwhelming blow that it would take it a long time to recover. Then the German armies were to be rushed back over their marvelous system of government-owned railroads to meet the on-coming German tide of Russians.

The Germans knew that they were well provided with ammunition and all war supplies. They knew that they had invented some wonderful guns which were large enough to batter down the strongest forts in the world. They did not have very much respect for the ability of the Russian generals. They had watched them bungle badly in the Japanese war, ten years before. If once France were brought to her knees, they did not fear Russia. Then after France and Russia had been beaten, there would be plenty of time, later on, to settle with Great Britain.

The English statesmen, as we have said, were aware of this plan. They saw that if they were to fight Germany, this was the ideal time. However, Great Britain, having a government which is more in the hands of the people than even that of republican France, did not have the system of forcing her young men to do military service. Her little army in England was made up entirely of men who enlisted in it because they wished to, and because they received fair pay. If England were to enter a great war with Germany, there must be some very good reason for her doing so. Otherwise, her people, who really did not hate the Germans, would never enlist to fight against them. The question was, would anything happen to make the English people feel that they were justified in entering the war on the side of France and Russia.

You will remember that England, France, and Prussia had promised each other to protect Belgium from war. Even in the war of 1870, France and Prussia had carefully avoided bringing their troops upon Belgian soil. Now, however, with the German army invading Belgium, the English statesmen had to decide their course. As heads of one of the nations to guarantee Belgium's freedom, they called on Germany to explain this unprovoked invasion. The Germans made no answer. They were busily attacking the city of Liege. Great Britain gave Germany twenty-four hours in which to withdraw her troops. At the end of this time, with Germany paying no attention still, England solemnly declared war and took her stand alongside of Russia and France.

The Germans were furious. They had no bitter feeling against the French. They realized that France was obliged, by the terms of her alliance, to stand by Russia, but they had confidently counted on keeping England out of the war. In fact, the German ambassador to England had assured the German emperor that England had so many troubles, with her uprising in Ireland and threatened rebellions in India and South Africa that she would never dare fight at this time.

The English people, on the other hand, were now thoroughly aroused. If there is one thing that an Englishman prides himself on, it is keeping his word. The word of the English had been given, through their government, to Belgium that this little country, if it should resist invasion, would be protected, and this word they thought must be kept at all hazards. It made no difference that, aside from her great navy, England was utterly unprepared for the war. Like the decision which Belgium had had to make the day before, this was a crucial step for the British to take, but to their everlasting honor they did not hesitate. In the case of Germany's declaration of war the German laws say that no war can be declared by the Kaiser alone unless it is a defensive war. Therefore, as one American writer has pointed out, this is the only kind of war that the Kaiser ever declares. The German military group, having control of the newspapers, put in a lot of stories made up for the occasion about French soldiers having crossed the border and shot down Germans on August 2nd. They told how French aviators had dropped bombs on certain German cities. As a matter of fact, the French soldiers, by orders of their government, were drawn back from the frontier a distance of six miles in order to avoid any appearance of attacking the Germans. The City Council of Nuremburg, one of the cities that was said to have been bombed by the French, later gave out a formal statement saying that no bombs had fallen on their city and no French aviators had been seen near it. But the German government gave out this "news" and promptly declared a "defensive" war, and the German people had to believe what they were told.

Very different was the case in England. Here was a free people, with free schools and free newspapers. Just as every German had been taught in the schools of his country that Germany was surrounded by a ring of jealous enemies and would one day have to fight them all, so the people of England had been taught in their schools that war between civilized peoples is a hateful thing and must finally disappear from the earth.

The English labor leaders who themselves protested against the war at first, in hopes that the German Socialists would do the same, were doomed to be grievously disappointed, for in Germany the protests against war were still more feeble. The newspapers, with few exceptions, as was previously pointed out, were under the control of the military leaders and the manufacturers of war materials. These papers persuaded the German people that England, through her jealousy of Germany's great growth in trade, had egged on Russia, France, and Serbia to attack Germany and Austria, and then had declared war herself on a flimsy pretext. At first the entire German nation believed this. Until Prince Lichnowsky, the former German ambassador to Great Britain, published a story in which he told how the German government had forced the war in spite of all that England could do to prevent it, the Germans thought, as their war chiefs told them, that the war was forced upon Germany by her jealous enemies.

Thus the military leaders of Germany, descendants of the old feudal nobles, were able to make the whole German nation hate the English people.

When the English ambassador to Berlin went to see the chancellor (as the prime-minister of the German Empire is called) and told him that unless German troops were immediately withdrawn from Belgium, England would declare war, for the Belgian government had a treaty signed by England promising them protection, the German chancellor exclaimed. "What! Would you plunge into this terrible war for the sake of a scrap of paper!" The chancellor was excited. As you have been told before, the Germans were sure that England, being unprepared for the war, would never dare to go into it. This threatened to upset all their well-laid plans for the conquest of France and then Russia. For the moment the chancellor forgot his diplomacy. He blurted out the truth. He showed the world that honor had no place in the minds of the German war lords. To the English a treaty with Belgium was a sacred pledge; to the Germans it was something which could be torn up at a moment's notice if it stood in the way of their interests.

There was a violent outburst against England in all of the newspapers of Germany. A German poet wrote a dreadful poem called "The Hymn of Hate," in which he told how while they had no love for the Frenchman or the Russian, they had no hate for them either. One nation alone they hated—England! "Gott strafe England" (may God punish England) became the war cry of the Germans.

Everything had gone according to their pre-arranged plans until England decided that her promise given to Belgium stood first, even before the terrible loss and suffering of a great war. That any nation should put her honor before her comfort and profit, had never occurred to the war leaders of Germany.

Questions for Review

1. Why did Italy make war on Turkey in 1911? 2. Why did not Italy join in the attack on France? 3. What was Germany's plan? 4. How is the English army different from others? 5. What reason had England for declaring war? 6. Had the German's expected England to attack them? Give reasons for your answer. 7. Why did the phrase "scrap of paper" make such a deep impression on the world? 8. Why did the war lords hate the British so deeply?



CHAPTER XIX

Diplomacy and Kingly Ambition

Turkey throws in her lot with the central empires.—The demands of Italy.—She joins the Triple Entente.—The retreat of the Russians.—The Balkans again.—Bulgaria's bargaining.—German princes on Balkan thrones.—The central empires bid the highest for Bulgarian support.—The attitude of Greece.—Roumania's hopes.

To return to the great war. The diplomats of both sides made all haste to put pressure upon the governments of the countries which were not engaged in the struggle, in order to win them over. Germany and Austria worked hard with Italy, with Turkey, and with Bulgaria. The Turks were the first to plunge in. The party headed by Enver Bey (the young minister of war) saw that a victory for Russia and her allies meant the final expulsion of the Turks from Europe. Only in the victory of Germany and Austria did this faction see any hope for Turkey. It was the latter part of October (1914) when Turkish warships, without any provocation, sailed into some Russian ports on the Black Sea and blazed away with their big guns.

Some of the older Turkish statesmen were terrified, and did their best to get the government at Constantinople to disclaim all responsibility for this act of their naval commanders. The "Young Turks," however, were all for war on the side of Germany. What is more, Russia, always anxious for an excuse to seize Constantinople, would not allow the Turks to apologize for their act and keep out of trouble. She declared war on Turkey, and was quickly followed by France and England.

Both sides now set to work on Italy. It was plain that all the sympathies of the Italian people were with France and England. The six grandsons of Garibaldi formed an Italian regiment and volunteered for fighting on the French lines. Two of them were killed, and at their funerals in Rome, nearly all the inhabitants of the city turned out and showed plainly that they too would like to be fighting on the side of France.

You will remember that Italy wanted very much to gain the provinces of Trentino and Istria, with the cities of Trent, Trieste (tri es'te), Pola (po'lae), and Fiume (fe u'me), all inhabited by Italian people. The possession of these counties and cities by Austria had been the greatest source of trouble between the two nations. Italy now came out boldly, and demanded, as the price of her keeping out of the war, that Austria give to her this land inhabited by Italians. Germany urged Austria to do this, and sent as her special ambassador, to keep Italy from joining her enemies, Prince von Bulow, whose wife was an Italian lady, and who was very popular with the Italian statesmen.

For months, von Bulow argued and pleaded, first trying to induce Italy to accept a small part of the disputed territory and then, when he found this impossible, doing his best to induce Austria to give it all. Austria was stubborn. She did not take kindly to the plan of giving away her cities. She offered to cede some territory if Italy should wait until the end of the war.

This did not satisfy Italy. She was by no means certain that Austria and Germany were going to win the war and was even less sure that Austria would be willing, in case of her victory, to give up a foot of territory. It seemed to the Italian statesmen that it was "now or never" if Italy wished to get within her kingdom all of her own people. In the month of May 1915 Italy threw herself into the struggle by declaring war on Austria and entering an alliance with Russia, France, and England.



Meanwhile, the Russians were having difficulties. They had millions and millions of men, but not enough rifles to equip them all. They had plenty of food but very little ammunition for their cannon. Austria and Germany, on the other hand, had been manufacturing shot and shells in enormous quantities, and from the month of May, when the Russians had crossed the Carpathian Mountains and were threatening to pour down on Buda-Pest and Vienna, they drove them steadily back until the first of October, forcing them to retreat nearly three hundred miles.

In the meantime, the Balkans again became the seat of trouble. You will recall that Bulgaria, who had grown proud because of her victory over Turkey in the war of 1912, was too grasping when it came to a division of the conquered territory. Thus she brought on a second war, in the course of which Greece and Serbia defeated her, while Roumania took a slice of her territory and the Turks recaptured the city of Adrianople. The czar of Russia had done his best to prevent this second Balkan war, even sending a personal telegram to Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria and to King Peter of Serbia, begging them for the sake of the Slavic race, not to let their quarrels come to blows. Bulgaria, confident of her ability to defeat Greece and Serbia, had disregarded the Russians' pleadings, and as a result Russia did not interfere to save her when her neighbors were robbing her of part of the land which she had taken from Turkey.

It will be recalled that Macedonia was the country which Bulgaria had felt most sorry to lose, as its inhabitants were largely Bulgarian in their blood, although many Greeks and Serbs were among them. Therefore, just as Italy strove by war and diplomacy to add Trentino to her nation, so Bulgaria now saw her chance to gain Macedonia from Serbia. Accordingly, she asked the four great powers what they would give her in case she entered the war on their side, and attacked Turkey by way of Constantinople, while the French and English were hammering at the forts along the Dardanelles.[7]

[7] England and France needed wheat, which Russia had in great quantities at her ports on the Black Sea. On the other hand France and England, by supplying Russia with rifles and ammunition, could strike a hard blow at Germany.

The four powers, after much persuasion and brow-beating, finally induced Serbia to agree to give up part of Serbian Macedonia to Bulgaria. They further promised Bulgaria to give her the city of Adrianople and the territory around it which Turkey had reconquered. But Bulgaria was not easily satisfied. She wanted more than Serbia was willing to give; she wanted, too, the port of Kavala, which Greece had taken from her. This the allies could not promise.

In the meantime, Bulgaria was bargaining with Austria, Germany, and Turkey. France, England, and Russia were ready to pay back Serbia for the loss of Macedonia, by promising her Bosnia and Herzegovina in case they won the war from Austria. In like fashion, Austria and Germany promised Bulgaria some Turkish territory and also the southern part of the present kingdom of Serbia, in case she entered the war on their side.

Now the king of Bulgaria, or the czar, as he prefers to call himself, is a German. (As these little countries won their independence from Turkey, they almost always called in foreign princes to be their kings. In this way it had come about that the king of Greece was a prince of Denmark, the king of Roumania was a German of the Hohenzollern family, while the czar of Bulgaria was a German of the Coburg family, the same family which has furnished England and Belgium with their kings.)

The Bulgarians themselves are members of the Greek Catholic Church, and they have a very high regard for the czar of Russia, as the head of that church. Czar Ferdinand had no such feeling, however. He wanted to be the most powerful ruler in the Balkan states, and it made no difference to him which side helped him to gain his object.



About this time, the Russians had been forced to retreat to a line running south from Riga, on the Baltic Sea, to the northern boundary of Roumania. The French and English had been pounding at the Dardanelles for some months, but the stubborn resistance of the Turks seemed likely to hold them out of Constantinople for a long time to come. The checked Italians had not been able to make much headway against the Austrians through the mountainous Alpine country where the fighting was taking place. In the west, the Germans were holding firmly against the attacks of the British and French. The czar of Bulgaria and his ministers, thinking that the German-Austrian-Turkish alliance could win with their help, flung their nation into its third war within four years. This happened in Octoher, 1915.

Now at the close of the second Balkan war, when Serbia and Greece defeated Bulgaria, they made an alliance, by which each agreed to come to the help of the other in case either was attacked by Bulgaria. Roumania, too, was friendly to Greece and Serbia, rather than to treaty Bulgaria, for the Roumanians knew that Bulgaria was very anxious to get back the territory of which Roumania had robbed her, in the second Balkan war. In this way, the Quadruple Entente (Russia, Italy, France, and England) hoped that the entry of Bulgaria into the war, on the side of Germany and Turkey, would bring Greece and Roumania in on the other side.

The Greek people were ready to rush to Serbia's aid and so was the Greek prime minister. The queen of Greece, however, is a sister of the German emperor, and through her influence with her husband she was able to defeat the plans of Venizelos (ven i zel'os), the prime minister, who was notified by the king that Greece would not enter the war. Venizelos accordingly resigned, but not until he had given permission to the French and English to land troops at Salonika, for the purpose of rushing to the help of Serbia. (Greece also was afraid that German and Austrian armies might lay waste her territory, as they had Serbia's, before England and France could come to the rescue.)

Meanwhile poor Serbia was in a desperate state. The two Balkan wars had drained her of some of her best soldiers. Twice the Austrians had invaded her kingdom in this war, and twice they had been driven out. Then came a dreadful epidemic of typhus fever which was the result of unhealthful conditions caused by the war. Now the little kingdom, attacked by the Germans and Austrians on two sides and by the Bulgarians on a third, was literally fighting with her back to the wall. She had counted on Greece to stand by her promise to help in case of an attack from Bulgaria, but we have seen how the German queen of Greece had been able to prevent this. Serbia hoped that Roumania, too, would come to her help. However, as you have been told, the king of Roumania is a German of the Hohenzollern family, a cousin of the emperor, and in spite of the sympathy of his people for Italy, France, and Serbia, he was able to keep them from joining in the defense of the Serbs.

Now Roumania ought to include a great part of Bessarabia (bes a ra'bi a), which is the nearest county of Russia, and also the greater part of Transylvania and Bukowina (boo ko vi'na), which are the provinces of Austria-Hungary that lie nearest; for a great part of the inhabitants of these three counties are Roumanians by blood and language. They would like to be parts of the kingdom of Roumania, and Roumania would like to possess them. The Quadruple Entente would promise Roumania parts of Transylvania and Bukowina in case she joined the war on their side, while the Triple Alliance was ready to promise her Bessarabia. Roumania, as was said before, was originally settled by colonists sent out from Rome, and in the eleventh century a large number of people from the north of Italy settled there. On this account, Roumania looks upon Italy as her mother country, and it was thought that Italy's attack upon Austria would influence her to support the Entente.

Each country wanted to be a friend of the winning side, in order to share in the spoils. In this way, whenever it looked as if the Quadruple Entente did not need her help Roumania was eager to offer it, at a price which seemed to the allies too high. When, however, the tide turned the other way, she lost her enthusiasm for the cause of her friends, fearing what the central empires might do to her.

Questions for Review

1. What was the motive of Turkey in joining the war? 2. Why were the Russians not sorry to have Turkey declare war on them? 3. What were the feelings of the Italian people? 4. What were the Italian diplomats anxious to gain? 5. What were the demands of Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria upon the Entente powers? 6. Why did Bulgaria join the central empires? 7. Why did Greece keep out of the conflict? 8. What were Roumania's hopes?



CHAPTER XX

Back to the Balkans

The troubles of Crete.-The bigotry of the "Young Turks."—Venizelos in Greece.—The pro-German king.—The new government at Salonika.—The downfall of Constantine.—The ambitions of Roumania.—Pro-Germans in Russia.—Roumania declares war.—Russian treachery and German trickery.—The defeat of Roumania.

Greece

You will remember the name of Eleutherios Venizelos, the prime minister of Greece, who tried to get that country to stand by her bargain from Crete with Serbia (pages 239-240). Now Venizelos had originally come from Crete, a large island inhabited by Greeks, but controlled by Turkey for many years (see map). In 1897 the Turks had massacred a number of Greek Christians on the island, and this act had so enraged the inhabitants of Greece that they forced their king to declare war on Turkey.

Poor little Greece was quickly defeated, but the war called the attention of the Great Powers of Europe to the cruelties of the Turks, and they never again allowed Crete to be wholly governed by them. For over a year Great Britain, France, Russia, and Italy had their warships in Cretan ports and the government of Crete was under their protection.

Finally they called in, to rule over the island, a Greek prince, Constantine, the son of the king. Eight years later he had become very unpopular through meddling with Cretan politics—on the wrong side—and had to leave.

The It was at this time that Venizelos came to the front. The Cretan government was really independent, like a little kingdom without a king, and he was its true ruler. Now all the Greeks had looked forward to the time when they might be united in one great kingdom. The shores of Asia Minor and the cities along the Aegean Sea and the Dardanelles were largely inhabited by Greeks. Crete and the islands of the Aegean had once been part of Greece and they never would be content until they were again joined to it. The Cretan government was ready to vote that the island be annexed to Greece, when in 1908 there came the revolution of the "Young Turks" which drove the old Sultan from his throne (page 186).

The Young Turks at the outset of their crusade against the government were tolerant to all the other races and religions in their country. At first the Armenians, the Jews, the Albanians, the Greeks, and the Bulgarians in the Turkish Empire were very happy over the result of the revolution. It looked as if a new day were dawning for Turkey, when it would be possible for these various races and different religions to live side by side in peace.

No sooner were the young Turks in control of the government, however, than they began to change. "Turkey for the Turks, and for the Turks only" became their motto. With this in mind they massacred Bulgarians and Greeks in Macedonia (page 85) and Armenians in Asia Minor. The thought of the loss of Crete roused their anger and they began scheming to get it back under Turkish rule.

In 1910 Venizelos, seeing the danger of his beloved island, left for Greece, hoping there to stir up the people to oppose the Turks and annex Crete. His wonderful eloquence and his single-hearted love for his country soon made him as prominent on the mainland as he had been in his island home. Before long he was chosen as prime minister of Greece.

He found the country in a very sad condition. The military officers were poorly trained. What was worse, they did not know this, but imagined that their army was the best in the world. The politicians had plundered the people and there was graft and poor management throughout the government.

Venizelos made a wonderful change. He sent to the French republic for some of their best generals. These men thoroughly made over the Greek army and taught the Greek officers the real science of war.



Venizelos soon showed the politicians that he could not be frightened, controlled, or bribed. He discharged some incompetent officials and forced the others to attend to business. In fact he reorganized the whole government service in a way to make every department do better work. Few countries in Europe were as well managed as was Greece with Venizelos as its prime minister.

Every Greek hates the Turks and looks forward to the time when no man of Greek descent shall be subject to their cruel rule. You have been told how the Russians have looked forward to the day when Saint Sophia, the great mosque of the Turks, shall once more become a Christian cathedral. In the same way the Greeks have passionately desired to see Constantinople, which was for over a thousand years the capital of their empire, freed from the control of the Turk. Little by little, from the time when the Greeks first won their independence from Turkey in 1829, the boundary of their kingdom has been pushed northward, freeing more and more of their people from the rule of the Ottomans. Venizelos, aiming to include in the kingdom of Greece as many as possible of the people of Greek blood, was scheming night and day for the overthrow of the Turkish power in Europe. You have been told how the Russian diplomats astonished the world by inducing Bulgaria to unite with the Greeks and the Serbs, two nations for whom she had no love, in an alliance against the Turks. Many people felt that this combination would never have been possible without the far-seeing wisdom of of Venizelos. In fact, some historians give him the credit of first planning the alliance.

His greatest trouble was with his own countrymen. The Greeks, as you have been told, have always claimed Macedonia as part of their country, whereas, in truth, there are more Bulgarians than Greeks among its inhabitants. Venizelos, having agreed before the attack on Turkey that the greater part of Macedonia should be given to Bulgaria, had hard work after the victory in convincing his countrymen that this was fair. In fact, the claims of the three allies to this district proved the one weak spot in the combination. The occupation of this country by Greeks and Serbs in the course of the first war against Turkey, while the Bulgarians were defeating the main Turkish army just northwest of Constantinople, brought on the second war. Bulgaria was not willing to give up Macedonia to the Greeks and Serbs, and her troops made a treacherous attack on her former allies (June, 1913) which brought on the declarations of war referred to.

At the close of the second war, when Bulgaria, attacked by five nations at once, had to make peace as best she could, the Greeks took advantage of her by insisting on taking, not only Salonika but also Kavala, which by all rights should have gone to the Bulgars. Venizelos was willing to be generous to Bulgaria, but the Greeks had had their heads turned by the extraordinary successes of their armies over the Turks and Bulgarians and as a result insisted upon being greedy when it came to a division of the conquered lands.

Let us return now to events in Greece after the world war had begun: In March, 1915, when the great fleets of France and England made their violent attack on the forts of the Dardanelles, intending to break through and bombard Constantinople, Venizelos was eager to have Greece join the conflict against the Turks. He felt sure that Turkey, in the end, would lose the war and that her territory in Europe would be divided up among the conquering nations. He wanted to get for Greece the shores of the Dardanelles and the coast of Asia Minor, where a great majority of the inhabitants were people of Greek blood. The king of Greece, Constantine, as has been explained, is a brother-in-law of the German Kaiser and has always been friendly to Germany. He and Venizelos had been good friends while both were working for the upbuilding of Greece, but a little incident happened shortly after the Balkan wars which led to a coolness between them.

King Constantine, while on a visit to Berlin, stood up at a banquet and told the Kaiser and the German generals that the fine work of the Greek soldiers in the two wars just fought had been due to help which he had received from German military men. This statement angered the French very much, for you will remember that it was French generals who had trained the Greek army officers. Venizelos, very shortly after this, made a trip to Paris and there publicly stated that all credit for the fine condition of the Greek army was due to the Frenchmen who had trained its officers before the war of 1912. This was a direct "slap in the face" of the king but it was the truth and everyone in Greece knew it. From this time on it was evident to everybody that Venizelos was friendly to the French and English, while the King was pro-German.

Accordingly, in March, 1915, when Venizelos urged the Greek government to join the war on Turkey, the king refused to give the order. Venizelos, who was prime minister, straightway resigned, broke up the parliament, and ordered a general election. This put the case squarely up to the people of Greece and they answered by electing to the Greek parliament one hundred eighty men friendly to Venizelos and the Triple Entente as against one hundred forty who were opposed to entering the war.

Venizelos, once more prime minister as a result of this election, ordered the Greek army to be mobilized. At this time the fear was that Bulgaria, in revenge for 1913, would join the war on the side of the Germans and Turks and attack Greece in the rear. In order to keep peace with Bulgaria Venizelos was willing to give to her the port of Kavala, which Greece had cheated her out of at the close of the second Balkan war. He felt that his country would gain so much by annexing Greek territory now under the rule of the Turks that she could afford to give up this seaport, whose population was largely Bulgarian. Constantine opposed this, however, and the majority of the Greeks, not being as far-sighted as their prime minister, backed the king. When the attack by the Central Powers on Serbia took place, as has been told, Venizelos a second time tried to get the Greek government to join the war on the side of France and England. He said plainly to the king that the treaty between Greece and Serbia was not a "scrap of paper" as the German Chancellor had called the treaty with Belgium, but a solemn promise entered into by both sides with a full understanding of what it meant. The king, on the other hand, insisted that the treaty had to do with Bulgaria alone and that it was not intended to drag Greece into a general European war. As a result, he dismissed Venizelos a second time, in spite of the fact that twice, by their votes, the Greeks had shown that they approved of his policy.

Now Greece is a limited monarchy. By the terms of the constitution the king must obey the will of the people as shown by the votes of a majority of the members of parliament. In spite of the vote of parliament the king refused to stand by the Serbian treaty. From this time on he was violating the law of his country and ruling as a czar instead of a monarch with very little power, as the Greek constitution had made him.

Things went from bad to worse. In the meantime the French and English had landed at Salonika in order to rush to the aid of the hard-pressed Serbs. You have already been told how Venizelos arranged this. Their aid, however, had come too late. Before they could reach the gallant little Serbian army it had been crushed between the Austrians and Germans on one side and the Bulgarians on the other, and its survivors had fled across the mountains to the coast of Albania. The French and English detachments were not strong enough to stand against the victorious armies of Germany, Austria, and Bulgaria. They began to retreat through southern Serbia. King Constantine notified the Allied governments that if these troops retreated upon Greek soil he would send his army to surround them and hold them as prisoners for the rest of the war. France and England replied by notifying him that if he did this they would blockade the ports of Greece and prevent any ships from entering her harbors. This act on the part of France and England, while it seemed necessary, nevertheless angered the proud Greeks and strengthened the pro-German party in Athens. The king took advantage of this feeling to appoint a number of pro-Germans to important positions in the government. Constantine allowed German submarines to use certain ports in Greece as bases of supply from which they got their oil and provisions. The Greek army was still mobilized, and the small force of French and English, which had retreated to Salonika, were afraid that at any moment they might receive a stab in the back by order of the Greek king.

In May, 1916, the Germans and Bulgarians crossed the Greek frontier and demanded the surrender of several Greek forts. When the commander of one of them proposed to fight, the German general told him to call up his government at Athens over the long distance telephone. He did so and was ordered to give up the fort peaceably to the invaders. We have already seen what the answer of the Belgians had been on a like occasion. To be sure, the French and English were already occupying Greek soil, but they had come there under permission of the prime minister of Greece to do a thing which Greece herself had solemnly promised that she would do, namely, to defend Serbia from the Bulgars.

This surrender of Greek territory to the hated Bulgarians was too much for Venizelos. He gave out a statement to the Greek people in which he declared that the king had disobeyed the constitution and was ruling as a tyrant; that he was betraying his country to the Germans and Bulgars and that all loyal Greeks should refuse to obey him. At Salonika, under the protection of the British and French, together with the admiral of the Greek navy and one of the chief generals in the army, Venizelos set up a new government—a republic of Greece.

Shortly after this the commander of a Greek army corps in eastern Macedonia, acting under orders from King Constantine, surrendered his men to the Germans, along with all their artillery, stores, and the equipment which had been furnished to them by the French to defend themselves against the Germans! In the meantime, the Bulgarians had seized Kavala.

The control of the Adriatic Sea had been a matter of jealousy between the Italians and Austrians even during the years when they were partners in the Triple Alliance. Even before Italy entered the war on the side of France and England, her government, fearing the Austrians, had sent Italian troops to seize Avlona. The Prince of Albania, finding that he was not wanted, had deserted that country, and there had been no government at all there since the outbreak of the great war. However, the presence of this Italian garrison prevented the forces of the central powers from advancing southward along the Adriatic coast.

Gradually, France and England increased their forces at Salonika. The gallant defender of Verdun, General Sarrail, was sent to command the joint army. During the summer of 1916, Italians came there to join the French and British. A hundred thousand hardy young veterans, survivors of the Serbian army, picked up by allied war ships on the coast of Albania, were refitted and carried by ship around Greece to Salonika. Here they joined General Sarrail's army, rested and refreshed, and frantic for revenge on the Germans and Bulgars. Several thousands of the Greek troops, following the leadership of Venizelos, deserted the king and joined the allies.

Meanwhile, in Athens one prime minister after another tried to steer the ship of state. The people of Greece were in a turmoil. The great majority of them were warm friends of France and England—all of them hated the Turks. The pro-German acts of the king, however, provoked the French and English to such an extent that they frequently had to interfere in Athens. The Greek people resented this interference and on one or two occasions fights broke out when allied sailors marched through the streets of the capital. Matters reached a climax in June, 1917. The governments of France, England, and Italy felt that they could stand the treacherous conduct of King Constantine no longer. They knew that he was assisting Germany in every possible way. They knew that their camp was full of spies who were reporting all their movements to the Bulgarians. They felt that at the first chance he would order his army to attack Sarrail in the rear. They finally sent an ultimatum to him ordering him to give up the throne to his second son. The oldest son, the crown prince, having been educated in Germany and sharing King Constantine's pro-German sentiments, was barred from succeeding his father. This seemed a high-handed thing to do but there was no other way out of a difficult situation. Constantine had allowed his sympathies with his wife's brother to prevent his country from carrying out her solemn treaty; had ruled like an absolute monarch; had plotted with all his power for the overthrow of Russia, France, and England, the three countries which had won Greece its independence in the first place and which still desired its people to have the right to rule themselves.

The guns of the allied fleet were pointed at Athens. More than half of the Greek people favored Venizelos and the Entente as against the king and Germany. A second[8] time within four months a European monarch who was out of sympathy with his subjects was forced to resign his crown.

[8] The first was the Czar of Russia, as is told in a later chapter.

With Constantine out of the way, there was nothing to prevent the return to Athens of Venizelos. With great enthusiasm the people hailed his coming, as, once more prime minister, he summoned the members of parliament lawfully elected in 1915, and took control of the government.

In July, 1917, the Greek government announced to the world that, henceforth, Greece would be found in the war on the side of France, Great Britain, and the other nations of the Entente.

Roumania

You will recall that when Bulgaria attacked Serbia the Serbs hoped for help from Roumania. For they knew that Bulgaria had a grudge against Roumania also, because of the Bulgarian territory which she had been compelled to give up to her neighbor on the north at the close of the second Balkan war. They expected this fear of Bulgarian revenge to bring the Roumanians to the rescue.

You have read how Roumania wished for certain lands in Russia as well as in Hungary that are inhabited by her own people. For a long time the government at Bukharest hesitated, fearing to plunge into the war before the time was ripe, and dreading the danger of choosing the wrong side.

The key to the situation was Russia. If Roumania were to go to war she would have to count strongly on the help of her great neighbor to the north.

Meanwhile, strange things were happening in Russia. You will remember that there are two million Germans living in that part of the Russian domain which borders the Baltic Sea. (The states of Livonia and Courland were ruled in the olden times by the "Teutonic knights.") These Germans are much better educated, on the whole, than the Russians; they are descendants of old feudal warriors and as such are men of force and influence in the Russian government. It was a common thing to find German names, like Witte, Von Plehve, Rennenkampf, and Stoessel among the list of high officials and generals in Russia. In this way there were a great many people prominent in the Russian government, who secretly hoped that Germany would win the war and were actively plotting with this in view. "There is a secret wire from the czar's palace to Berlin," said one of the most patriotic Russian generals, explaining why he refused to give out his plans in advance. Graft and bad management, as well as treachery, were all through the nation. Train-loads of ammunition intended for the Russian army were left piled up on the wharves at the northern ports. Guns sent by England were lost in the Ural mountains. Food that was badly needed by the men at the front was hoarded by government officials in order to raise prices for their friends who were growing rich through "cornering" food supplies.[9]

[9] When a group of men buy a sufficient amount of any one article so as to keep it from being sold in great quantities and make it appear that there is not enough to go around, they are said to "corner" the market. Three or four men in America at various times have been able to corner the wheat market or the corn market or the market for cotton.

The czar of Russia truly desired his country to win the war. On the other hand his wife was a cousin of the Kaiser, a German princess whose brothers were fighting in the German army, and she had little love for her adopted country. The poor little Czarevitch, eleven years old, remarked, early in the war, "When the Russians are beaten, papa weeps; when the Germans are beaten, mamma weeps." In spite of her German sympathies the Czarina had great influence with her husband, and the scheming officials who were secretly plotting the downfall of Russia were able to use this influence in many ways.

In 1916, a new prime minister was appointed in Russia—a man named Sturmer, of German blood and German sympathies. The Russians, after their long retreat in 1915 had gradually gotten back their strength, and had piled up ammunition and gathered guns for a new attack. This began early in June, 1916, when General Brusiloff attacked the Austro-Hungarians in Galicia and Bukowina and drove them back for miles and miles, capturing hundreds of thousands of prisoners. You will remember that the Bohemians, although subjects of Austria- Hungary, are Slavs and have no love for the Austrians of German blood who rule them. Two divisions made up of Bohemian troops helped General Brusiloff greatly by deserting in a body and afterwards re-enlisting in the Russian army.

In northern France, the British and French had at last gained more guns and bigger guns than the Germans had, and by sheer weight of metal were pushing the latter out of the trenches which they had held for over two years. It seemed to Roumania that the turning point of the war had come. With the Russians winning big victories over Austria, and the French and English pushing back the Germans in the west, it certainly looked as though the end were in sight.

Now the king of Roumania, as you have been told is a Hohenzollern, a distant cousin of the Kaiser of Germany, but, just the opposite from the case in Greece and Russia, his wife was an English princess, and she was able to help the party that was friendly to France and Great Britain. The man who had and worked early and late to get his countrymen to join the Entente was Take Jonescu, the wisest of the Roumanian statesmen, the man who predicted at the close of the second Balkan war that the peace of Europe would again be broken within fourteen months.[10]

[10] As an actual fact, there was only twelve and a half months between wars.

[Map: What The Allies Wished]

By the summer of 1916, the Roumanians had at last decided that if they wanted to get a slice of Bessarabia from Russia and the province of Transylvania from Hungary, they must jump into the war on the side of the Entente. It is claimed by some that they had planned to wait until the following winter in order to get their army into the best of condition and training, but that the treacherous prime minister of Russia, Sturmer, when he found that they were determined to make war on Germany and Austria, persuaded them to plunge in at once, knowing that they were unprepared and that their inexperienced troops would be no match for the veterans of the central powers. At any rate, about the first of September Roumania declared war on Austria and joined the Entente.

The French and English had wished the Roumanians to declare war first on Bulgaria and, attacking that country from the north while General Sarrail attacked it from the south, crush it before help could arrive from Germany, much in the fashion in which poor Serbia had been caught between Austria and Bulgaria a year previously. The Roumanians, however, were eager to "liberate" their brothers in Transylvania, and so, urged on by bad advice from Russia, they rushed across the mountains to the northwest instead of taking the easier road which led them south to the conquest of Bulgaria. (See maps.)

[Map: How Roumania was crushed]

Germania, Turkey, and Bulgaria at once declared war on Roumania. The battle-field in France, owing to continued rains and wet weather, had become one great sea of slimy mud, through which it was impossible to drag the cannon. General Brusiloff in Galicia had pushed back the Austrians for many miles but a lack of ammunition and the arrival of strong German re-inforcements had prevented his re-capturing Lemberg. The Russian generals on the north, under the influence of the pro-German prime minister, were doing nothing. The Italians and Austrians had come to a deadlock. The country where they were fighting was so mountainous that neither side could advance. North from Salonika came the slow advance of General Sarrail. His great problem was to get sufficient shells for his guns and food for his men. All the time, too, he had to keep a watchful eye on King Constantine, lest the latter launch the Greek army in a treacherous attack on his rear. For the time being, then, the central powers were free to give their whole attention to Roumania.

Profiting by the mud along the western front and trusting to the Russians to do nothing, they drew off several hundred thousand men from France and Poland and hurled them all together upon the Roumanians. At the same time, another force composed of Turks, Bulgarians, and some Germans marched north through the Dobrudja to attack Roumania from the south. Thus, the very trick that the French wished Roumania to work upon Bulgaria was now worked upon her by the central powers. France and England were helpless. They sent one of the best of the French generals to teach the Roumanians the latest science of war, but men and guns they could not send. Look at the map and see how Roumania was shut off from all help except what came from Russia. Here Sturmer was doing his part to help Germany. Ammunition and troops which were intended to rescue Roumania, never reached her. The Germans had spies in the Roumanian army and before each battle, knew exactly where the Roumanian troops would be and what they were going to do.

The German gun factories had sold to Roumania her cannon. On each gun was a delicate sight with a spirit level—a little glass tube supposed to be filled with a liquid which would not freeze. Slyly the Germans had filled these tubes with water, intending, in case Roumania entered the war on their side, to warn them about the "mistake." When the guns were hauled up into the mountains and freezing weather came, these sights burst, making the guns almost useless. Overwhelmed from both the northwest and the south, the Roumanian army, fighting gallantly, was beaten back mile after mile. Great stores of grain were either destroyed or captured by the Germans. The western part of Roumania where the great oil wells are, fell into the hands of the invaders, as did Bukharest, the capital.

Sturmer had done his work well. Germany, instead of being almost beaten, now took on fresh courage. Thanks to Roumanian wheat, Roumanian oil, and above all, the glory of the victories, the central powers were now in better shape to fight than if Roumania had kept out of the war. The German comic papers were full of pictures which declared that as England and France had always wanted to see a defeated Hohenzollern they might now take a long look at King Ferdinand of Roumania.

Questions for Review

1. What was the great disappointment connected with the rise to power of the "young Turks"? 2. What would you say was the secret of the success of Venizelos in Greece? 3. What mistake did the Greeks make at the close of the war of 1913? 4. What was the real cause of the strife between Venizelos and King Constantine? 5. Would King Constantine have been justified in holding as prisoners the French and British troops who were driven back upon Greek soil? 6. What right had Venizelos to set up a republic? 7. Was it right for the Entente to force the resignation of King Constantine? 8. What made Roumania decide to join the Entente? 9. How was the Roumanian campaign a great help to the Central Powers?



CHAPTER XXI

The War Under the Sea

Britannia rules the waves.—Enter the submarine.—The blockade of Germany.—The sinking of the Lusitania and other ships.—The trade in munitions of war.—The voyages of the Deutschland.—Germany ready for peace (on her own terms).—The reply of the allies.—Germany's amazing announcement.—The United States breaks off friendly relations.

You will remember how hard the Germans had worked, building warships, with the hope that one day their navy might be the strongest in the world. At the outbreak of the great war in 1914 they were still far behind England in naval power. On the other hand, it was necessary for the English to keep their navy scattered all over the world. English battleships were guarding trade routes to Australia, to China, to the islands of the Pacific. The Suez Canal, the Straits of Gibraltar, the Island of Malta—all were in English hands, and ships and guns were needed to defend them.

The German navy, on the other hand, with the exception of a few cruisers in the Pacific Ocean and two warships in the Mediterranean, was gathered in the Baltic Sea, the southeastern part of the North Sea, and the great Kiel Canal which connected these two bodies of water. It was quite possible that this fleet, by making a quick dash for the ports of England, might find there only a portion of the English ships and be able to overwhelm them before the rest of the English navy should assemble from the far parts of the earth.

Winston Churchill, whose name you have read before, had the foresight to assemble enough English vessels in home waters in the latter part of the month of July, 1914, to give England the upper hand over the fleet of Germany. As a result, finding the British too strong, the Germans did not venture out into the high seas to give battle. A few skirmishes were fought between cruisers, then some speedy German warships made a dash across the North Sea to the coast of England, shelled some small towns, killed several men, women, and children and returned, getting back to the Kiel Canal before the English vessels arrived in any number.