The Story of the Great War, Volume 1: Introductions; Special Articles; Causes of War; Diplomatic and State Papers
History
The Story of the Great War, Volume 1: Introductions; Special Articles; Causes of War; Diplomatic and State Papers
World War, 1914-1918
Unquestionably, honors at the end of the campaign in 1915 were with
Germany. She had held her line solidly in the west. She had stripped
the country of northern France and Belgium of all the machinery of
its factories which would be useful to her. She had been relieved of
any necessity of feeding the Belgian population, or of the menace
that would have come from the threat of a famine in either Belgium
or northern France by the American Food Commission which at first
had received supplies from America to carry on their work, and later
had depended almost altogether upon grants from the French and
English Governments and upon large voluntary contributions from
England. In the east she had gained territory almost equal in area
to that of Prussia itself. All Poland was hers. Her governor general
ruled Warsaw. Her situation as to food supplies was improved by the
occupation of immense productive areas. She had made war with all
her energy, and in want of able-bodied men to gather her own
harvests, she had used the hosts of prisoners which she had taken
from Russia. But, despite her victories, bravely and skillfully won,
she was still a nation in siege, with no communication with the
outside world, except through neutral countries.
In the second winter with uninterrupted energy she again turned
toward the southeast for another military adventure. Rumania still
held fast to her neutrality. In Bulgaria the Central Powers were to
succeed in gaining a fourth ally, which in sheer military advantage
was probably worth more than the accession of Italy to her enemies.
Though Russia had won her freedom for Bulgaria in '76, no sentiment
drew her to Russia's assistance when Russia was losing. No
statesmanship is more matter of fact than that of the Balkans.
Bulgaria had an old score to settle with Serbia, which had joined
Rumania and Greece against her in making the Second Balkan War,
after she had borne the brunt of the first against Turkey. Then,
besides, the military temptation offered the Bulgarian staff was
irresistible. Serbia had been through two wars before the heavy
drain of this one. A country of swineherds and miserable villages,
dependent for munitions upon England and the Allies--she was caught
in a wedge, with Bulgaria on the one side and the Austro-Hungarian
advance on the other. At the most the Central Powers had probably no
more than 300,000 troops--about the same number that the Bulgars
had. Against such a combination, Serbia, caught between the blades
of a pair of scissors, could make no successful resistance unless
assistance came from England and France, which the British and
French public demanded should be sent. There was no hope of
sufficient allied forces reaching Serbia in time to rescue her, but
the Allies, particularly the British, could not afford to see
Saloniki occupied by the Austro-Germans or by their friends, the
Bulgarians. Up to the Balkan War Saloniki was Turkish; then it
became Greek.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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