Central Powers

The Central Powers started with the Dual Alliance between the German Empire and Austria-Hungary.^[3] Then the Ottoman Empire joined with the German–Ottoman alliance,^[4] then Bulgaria with the Bulgaria–Germany treaty.^[5]

The name Central Powers is derived from the location of its member countries; all four were located between the Russian Empire in the east and France and the United Kingdom in the west.^[6]

In the Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive, German forces launched an assault on Russian positions to lessen pressure on the Austro-Hungarians to the south, diverting Russian troops from the Austro-Hungarian lines.^[7] At the Battle of Caporetto, Austro-Hungarian forces broke through the Italian lines, in part due to the German use of mustard gas on the Italian Second Army.^[8]

Germany had plans to create a Mitteleuropa economic association. Members would include Austria-Hungary, Germany, and others.^[9]

 

 

At the start of the war, the Central Powers consisted of the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Ottoman Empire joined later in 1914, followed by the Tsardom of Bulgaria in 1915.^[6]

Nation	Date of entry
Austro-Hungarian Empire	28 July 1914
German Empire	1 August 1914
Ottoman Empire	2 August 1914, announced 29 October 1914
Tsardom of Bulgaria	14 October 1915

 

 

 

 

In early July 1914, in the aftermath of the assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and faced with the prospect of war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, Kaiser Wilhelm II and the German government informed the Austro-Hungarian government that Germany would uphold its alliance with Austria-Hungary and defend it from possible Russian intervention if a war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia took place.^[10] When Russia enacted a general mobilization, Germany viewed the act as provocative.^[11]: 39 The Russian government promised Germany that its general mobilization did not mean preparation for war with Germany but was a reaction to the tensions between Austria-Hungary and Serbia.^[11]: 39 The German government regarded the Russian promise of no war with Germany to be nonsense in light of its general mobilization, and Germany, in turn, mobilized for war.^[11]: 39 On 1 August, Germany sent an ultimatum to Russia stating that since both Germany and Russia were in a state of military mobilization, an effective state of war existed between the two countries.^[11]: 95 Later that day, France, an ally of Russia, declared a state of general mobilization.^[11]: 95

In August 1914, Germany attacked Russia, citing Russian aggression as demonstrated by the mobilization of the Russian army, which had resulted in Germany mobilizing in response.^[12]

After Germany declared war on Russia, France, with its alliance with Russia, prepared a general mobilization in expectation of war. On 3 August 1914, Germany responded to this action by declaring war on France.^[13] Germany, facing a two-front war, enacted what was known as the Schlieffen Plan, which involved German armed forces moving through Belgium and swinging south into France and towards the French capital of Paris. This plan was hoped to quickly gain victory against the French and allow German forces to concentrate on the Eastern Front. Belgium was a neutral country and would not accept German forces crossing its territory. Germany disregarded Belgian neutrality and invaded the country to launch an offensive towards Paris. This caused Great Britain to declare war against the German Empire, as the action violated the Treaty of London that both nations signed in 1839 guaranteeing Belgian neutrality.^[14]

Subsequently, several states declared war on Germany in late August 1914, with Italy declaring war on Germany in August 1916,^[15] the United States in April 1917,^[16] and Greece in July 1917.^[17]

After successfully beating France in the Franco-Prussian War, the German Empire incorporated the province of Alsace-Lorraine upon its founding in 1871. However, the province was still claimed by French revanchists,^[18][19] leading to its return to France at the Treaty of Versailles.^[20]

The German Empire was late to colonization, only beginning overseas expansion in the 1870s and 1880s. Colonization was opposed by much of the government, including chancellor Otto von Bismarck, but it became a colonial power after participating in the Berlin Conference. Then, private companies were founded and began settling parts of Africa, the Pacific, and China. Later these groups became German protectorates and colonies.^[21]

Cameroon was a German colony existing from 1884 until its complete occupation in 1915. It was ceded to France as a League of Nations Mandate at the war's end.^[22]

German East Africa was founded in 1885 and expanded to include modern-day Tanzania (except Zanzibar), Rwanda, Burundi, and parts of Mozambique. It was the only German colony to not be fully conquered during the war, with resistance by commander Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck lasting until November 1918. Later it was surrendered to the Allies in 1919 and split between the Belgian Congo, Portuguese Mozambique, and the newly founded colony of Tanganyika.^[23]

South West Africa, modern-day Namibia, came under German rule in 1885 and was absorbed into South Africa following its invasion in 1915.^[24]

Togoland, now part of Ghana, was made a German protectorate in 1884. However, after a swift campaign, it was occupied by the Allies in 1915 and divided between French Togoland and British Togoland.^[25]

The Jiaozhou Bay Leased Territory was a German dependency in East Asia leased from China in 1898.^[26] Japanese forces occupied it following the Siege of Tsingtao.^[27]

German New Guinea was a German protectorate in the Pacific. It was occupied by Australian forces in 1914.^[28]

German Samoa had been a German protectorate since the Tripartite Convention.^[29] It was occupied by the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in 1914.^[30]

Date[31][32][33]	Declared by	Declared against
1914
1 August	Germany	Russia
3 August		Belgium   France
4 August	Britain	Germany
6 August	Serbia
8 August	Montenegro
23 August	Japan
1915
28 August	Italy	Germany
1916
9 March	Germany	Portugal
28 August		Romania
1917
6 April	United States	Germany
7 April	Panama
	Cuba
27 June	Greece
22 July	Siam
4 August	Liberia
14 August	China
26 October	Brazil
1918
23 April	Guatemala	Germany
6 May	Nicaragua
23 May	Costa Rica
12 July	Haiti
19 July	Honduras

 

 

Austria-Hungary regarded the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand as having been orchestrated with the assistance of Serbia.^[10] The country viewed the assassination as setting a dangerous precedent of encouraging the country's South Slav population to rebel and threaten to tear apart the multinational country.^[11]: 39 Austria-Hungary sent a formal ultimatum to Serbia demanding a full-scale investigation of Serbian government complicity in the assassination and complete compliance by Serbia in agreeing to the terms demanded by Austria-Hungary.^[10] Serbia submitted to accept most of the demands. However, Austria-Hungary viewed this as insufficient and used this lack of full compliance to justify military intervention.^[10] These demands have been viewed as a diplomatic cover for an inevitable Austro-Hungarian declaration of war on Serbia.^[10]

Russia had warned Austria-Hungary that the Russian government would not tolerate Austria-Hungary invading Serbia.^[10] However, with Germany supporting Austria-Hungary's actions, the Austro-Hungarian government hoped that Russia would not intervene and that the conflict with Serbia would remain a regional conflict.^[10]

Austria-Hungary's invasion of Serbia resulted in Russia declaring war on the country, and Germany, in turn, declared war on Russia, setting off the beginning of the clash of alliances that resulted in the World War.^[34]

Austria-Hungary was internally divided into two states with their own governments, joined through the Habsburg throne. Austria, also known as Cisleithania, contained various duchies and principalities but also the Kingdom of Bohemia,^[35] the Kingdom of Dalmatia,^[36] and the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria.^[37] Hungary (Transleithania) was composed of the Kingdom of Hungary^[38] and the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia.^[39] In Bosnia and Herzegovina, sovereign authority was shared by both Austria and Hungary.^[40]

Date[31][32][33]	Declared by	Declared against
1914
28 July	Austria-Hungary	Serbia
1 August	Montenegro	Austria-Hungary
6 August	Austria-Hungary	Russia
12 August	Britain   France	Austria-Hungary
25 August	Japan
28 August	Austria-Hungary	Belgium
1915
23 May	Italy	Austria-Hungary
1916
15 March	Austria-Hungary	Portugal
28 August	Romania	Austria-Hungary
1917
27 June	Greece	Austria-Hungary
22 July	Siam
14 August	China
7 December	United States
10 December	Panama
1918
6 May	Nicaragua	Austria-Hungary

 

 

The Ottoman Empire joined the war on the side of the Central Powers in November 1914. The Ottoman Empire had gained strong economic connections with Germany through the Berlin-to-Baghdad railway project that was still incomplete at the time.^[41] The Ottoman Empire made a formal alliance with Germany signed on 2 August 1914.^[42]: 292 The alliance treaty expected that the Ottoman Empire would become involved in the conflict in a short amount of time.^[42]: 292 However, for the first several months of the war, the Ottoman Empire maintained neutrality though it allowed a German naval squadron to enter and stay near the strait of Bosphorus.^[43] Ottoman officials informed the German government that the country needed time to prepare for conflict.^[43] Germany provided financial aid and weapons shipments to the Ottoman Empire.^[42]: 292

After pressure escalated from the German government demanding that the Ottoman Empire fulfill its treaty obligations, or else Germany would expel the country from the alliance and terminate economic and military assistance, the Ottoman government entered the war with the recently acquired cruisers from Germany, along with their own navy, launching a naval raid on the Russian ports of Odessa, Sevastopol, Novorossiysk, Feodosia, and Yalta,^[44][45] thus engaging in military action in accordance with its alliance obligations with Germany. Shorty after, the Triple Entente declared war on the Ottoman Empire.^[42]: 293

Date[31][32][33]	Declared by	Declared against
1914
1 November	Russia	Ottoman Empire
5 November	France   Britain
11 November	Ottoman Empire	Russia   Britain   Japan
2 December	Serbia	Ottoman Empire
3 December	Montenegro
5 December	Japan
1915
21 August	Italy	Ottoman Empire
1916
30 August	Ottoman Empire	Romania
1917
27 June	Greece	Ottoman Empire

 

After Bulgaria's defeat in July 1913 at the hands of Serbia, Greece and Romania. It signed a treaty of defensive alliance with the Ottoman Empire on 19 August 1914.^[46] Bulgaria was the last country to join the Central Powers, which it did in October 1915 by declaring war on Serbia.^[32] It invaded Serbia in conjunction with German and Austro-Hungarian forces.^[47]

Bulgaria held claims on the region of Vardar Macedonia then held by Serbia following the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 and the Treaty of Bucharest (1913).^[48] As a condition of entering the war on the side of the Central Powers, Bulgaria was granted the right to reclaim that territory.^[49][50]

Date[31][32][33]	Declared by	Declared against
1915
14 October	Bulgaria	Serbia
15 October	Britain   Montenegro	Bulgaria
16 October	France
19 October	Italy   Russia
1916
1 September	Bulgaria	Romania
1917
2 July	Greece	Bulgaria

 

In opposition to offensive operations by Union of South Africa, which had joined the war, Boer army officers of what is now known as the Maritz Rebellion "refounded" the South African Republic in September 1914. Germany assisted the rebels, with some operating in and out of the German colony of German South-West Africa. The rebels were all defeated or captured by South African government forces by 4 February 1915.^[51]

 

The Senussi Order was a Muslim political-religious tariqa (Sufi order) and clan in Libya, previously under Ottoman control, which had been lost to Italy in 1912.^[52] In 1915, they were courted by the Ottoman Empire and Germany, and Grand Senussi Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi declared jihad and attacked the Italians in Libya and the British in Egypt in the Senussi Campaign.^[53]

Date[54]	Declared by	Declared against
1915
21 August	Italy	Senussi

 

In 1915, the Sultanate of Darfur renounced allegiance to the Sudanese government and aligned with the Ottomans. They were able to contact them via the Senussi. Prior to this they were a British ally. The Anglo-Egyptian Darfur Expedition preemptively invaded to prevent an attack on Sudan.^[55] A small force was sent after the sultan and he was killed in action in November 1916.^[56] The invasion ended with an Anglo-Egyptian victory in November 1916.^[55]

The Zaian Confederation began to fight against France in the Zaian War to prevent French expansion into Morocco.^[57] The fighting lasted from 1914 and continued after the First World War ended, to 1921. The Central Powers (mainly the Germans) began to attempt to incite unrest to hopefully divert French resources from Europe.^[58]

 

The Dervish State fought against the British, Ethiopian, Italian, and French Empires between 1896 and 1925.^[59] During World War I, the Dervish State received many supplies from the German and Ottoman Empires to carry on fighting the Allies. However, looting from other Somali tribes in the Korahe raid eventually led to its collapse in 1925.^{[60][61][62][63]}

Both the Ottomans and Germans had client states, they are listed below.

Client state	State in charge
Poland[64]	Germany
Lithuania[65]	Germany
Belarus[66]	Germany
Ukraine[67]	Germany
Crimea[68]	Germany
Kuban[69]	Germany
Courland and Semigallia[70]	Germany
United Baltic Duchy[71]	Germany
Finland[72]	Germany
Georgia[73]	Germany
Don[74]	Germany
Jabal Shammar[75]	Ottoman Empire
Azerbaijan[76]	Ottoman Empire
Qatar[77]	Ottoman Empire
Yemen[78]	Ottoman Empire

States listed in this section were not officially members of the Central Powers. Still, during the war, they cooperated with one or more Central Powers members on a level that makes their neutrality disputable.

 

The Ethiopian Empire was officially neutral throughout World War I but widely suspected of sympathy for the Central Powers between 1915 and 1916. At the time, Ethiopia was one of only two fully independent states in Africa (the other being Liberia) and a major power in the Horn of Africa. Its ruler, Lij Iyasu, was widely suspected of harbouring pro-Islamic sentiments and being sympathetic to the Ottoman Empire.^[79] The German Empire also attempted to reach out to Iyasu, dispatching several unsuccessful expeditions to the region to attempt to encourage it to collaborate in an Arab Revolt-style uprising in East Africa. One of the unsuccessful expeditions was led by Leo Frobenius, a celebrated ethnographer and personal friend of Kaiser Wilhelm II. Under Iyasu's directions, Ethiopia probably supplied weapons to the Muslim Dervish rebels during the Somaliland Campaign of 1915 to 1916, indirectly helping the Central Powers' cause.^[80]

The Allies jointly pressured the aristocracy for the designated emperor's removal on the 10th of September, 1916 stating he was a threat to both the Allies and Ethiopia.^[81] Fearing the rising influence of Iyasu and the Ottoman Empire, the Christian nobles of Ethiopia conspired against Iyasu. Iyasu was first excommunicated by the Ethiopian Orthodox Patriarch and eventually deposed in a coup d'état on 27 September 1916. A less pro-Ottoman regent, Ras Tafari Makonnen, was installed on the throne.^[80]

 

Liechtenstein was officially neutral throughout World War I, though the general population and government was supportive of the Central Powers, particularly Austria-Hungary, of which the two countries had been in a customs union since 1852. However, from September 1914 food deliveries from Austria-Hungary began to decrease, which quickly soured the initial war support.^[82] By 1916 all food deliveries from Austria-Hungary had ceased, which forced Liechtenstein to seek closer ties with Switzerland in order to ensure food deliveries continued.^[82][83] From 1916, Liechtenstein was embargoed by the Entente countries due to their connections to the Central Powers, which caused mass unemployment in the country.^[84] The government remained sympathetic to the Central Powers until 7 November 1918, when the November 1918 Liechtenstein putsch took place and a new government took power.^[85]

Upper Asir revolted away from Asir in 1916, possibly with Hejazi aid,^[86] and fought against them.^[87] It was led by Hasan bin Ali al-Aidh.^[88] It was then partitioned between the Saudi and the Idrisi on 30 August 1920.^[86]

The Kingdom of Greece was in a political dispute with Venizelists. The Central Powers supported the royalists until King Constantine's abdication in 1917.^[89]

Following their armistice with the Central Powers, Romania was involved in the Russian Civil War against both the Whites and the Reds. Romania fought alongside the Central Powers until it rejoined the war against them on November 10, 1918.^[90]

Kelantanese rebels were supported by the Ottoman and German Empires during their rebellion against the Allied forces in 1915.^[91]

Other movements supported the efforts of the Central Powers for their own reasons, such as the radical Irish Nationalists who launched the Easter Rising in Dublin in April 1916; they referred to their "gallant allies in Europe". However, most Irish Nationalists supported the British and allied war effort up until 1916, when the Irish political landscape was changing. In 1914, Józef Piłsudski was permitted by Germany and Austria-Hungary to form independent Polish legions. Piłsudski wanted his legions to help the Central Powers defeat Russia and then side with France and the UK and win the war with them.^[92] Below is a list of these non-state combatants.

Bulgaria signed an armistice with the Allies on 29 September 1918, following a successful Allied advance in Macedonia.^[98] The Ottoman Empire followed suit on 30 October 1918 in the face of British and Arab gains in Palestine and Syria.^[99] Austria and Hungary concluded ceasefires separately during the first week of November following the disintegration of the Habsburg Empire and the Italian offensive at Vittorio Veneto;^[100][101] Germany signed the armistice ending the war on the morning of 11 November 1918 after the Hundred Days Offensive, and a succession of advances by New Zealand, Australian, Canadian, Belgian, British, French and US forces in north-eastern France and Belgium. There was no unified treaty ending the war; the Central Powers were dealt with in separate treaties.^[102]

Central Powers by date of armistice Country Date Flag Name   Bulgaria 29 September 1918   Ottoman Empire 30 October 1918   Austria-Hungary 4 November 1918   Germany 11 November 1918

Central Powers treaties Country Treaty of Results Date Signed Flag Name   Germany Versailles Germany was required to demilitarize the Rhineland, to reduce their army to 100,000 men, and the navy to 15,000 sailors, and to pay 132 billion gold marks (US$33 billion). Tanks, submarines, and an air force were all forbidden. 28 June 1919   Austria Saint-Germain 10 September 1919   Bulgaria Neuilly 27 November 1919   Hungary Trianon 4 June 1919   Ottoman Empire/ Turkey Sèvres/Lausanne The Treaty of Sèvres caused resentment among the Turkish populace of the Ottoman Empire and resulted in the outbreak of the Turkish War of Independence, after which the Treaty of Lausanne was signed. 10 August 1920/24 August 1923

•  
  The collapse of the Central Powers in 1918
•  
  A postcard depicting the flags of the Central Powers' countries
•  
  Poster for a 1916 charity bazaar raising funds for widows and orphans of the Central Power states
•  
  The leaders of the Central Powers in 1914

Below is a table of the leaders of the Central Powers.

Leaders

Portrait	Leader	Title	Time period
	Franz Joseph I[103]	Emperor of Austria and Apostolic King of Hungary	1848–1916
	Karl I[103]	Emperor of Austria and Apostolic King of Hungary	1916–1918
	Wilhelm II[103]	German Emperor	1888–1918
	Mehmed V[103]	Sultan of the Ottoman Empire	1909–1918
	Mehmed VI[103]	Sultan of the Ottoman Empire	1918–1922
	Ferdinand I[104]	Tsar of Bulgaria	1887–1918
	Ali Dinar[105]	Sultan of Darfur	1899–1916
	Manie Maritz[106]	Leader of the Maritz Rebellion	1914–1915
	Mohammed Abdullah Hassan[107]	Emir of the Dervish State	1896–1920
	Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi[108]	Leader of the Senussi	1902–1933
	Saud bin Abdulaziz[109]	Emir of Jabal Shammar	1908–1920
	Fatali Khan Khoyski[110]	Prime Minister of Azerbaijan	1918–1919
	Pavlo Skoropadskyi[111]	Hetman of Ukraine	1918–1918

• Central Powers intervention in the Russian Civil War
• Color books, transcripts of official documents released by each nation early in the war
• Diplomatic history of World War I
• Home front during World War I covering all major countries
• International relations of the Great Powers (1814–1919)
• Axis powers
• Kaiserreich (disambiguation)
• Spa Conferences (First World War)

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• Clark, Christopher. The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 (2013)
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