Chief Actions: Massacre of Greeks at Chios.
(1)Navarino,Adrianople; (2) Missolonghi.
Results: The treaty of Adrianople, 1829, compelled Turkey to acknowledge the independence of Greece, which chose as king the Bavarian prince Otto I.
CRIMEAN WAR—1854-1856.
(1)Russiavs. (2) Turkey aided by Great Britain, France and Sardinia.
Causes: The question of the political status and future of the lands of the Turkish empire. Immediate cause, the claim of Russia to a protectorate over all Greek Christians living under the sultan’s rule.
Leaders: (1)Mentchikoff,Gortchakoff; (2) Canrobert, Pelissier (France), Raglan, Simpson (England).
Chief Actions: (1)Balaclava; (2) Alma, Siege of Sebastopol, Inkermann.
Results: In the peace of Paris (1856) Russia’s claim to a protectorate is disallowed, the Danube is opened to navigation and the Black Sea is closed to war vessels of all powers.
SEPOY MUTINY—1857-1858.
(1)Sepoysvs. (2) English.
Causes: Uneasiness created by the rapid progress of British ways and rule causes a revolt of native Sepoy troops of India. Immediate cause the rumor that cartridges furnished troops were greased with a mixture of hog and beef fat—the one animal an object of loathing to Mohammedans, the other of religious worship to the Hindu.
Leaders: (1)Nana Sahib; (2) Nicholson, Havelock, Campbell.
Chief Actions: Mutiny of Sepoys at Meerut.
(1)Massacre at Cawnpore; (2) Delhi, Relief of Lucknow.
Results: Following the suppression of the mutiny the charter of the East India company is revoked and India passes directly under the crown, a secretary of state for India being added to the British ministry.
WAR OF ITALIAN LIBERATION—1859.
(1)Sardinia-Piedmont and Francevs. (2) Austria.
Causes: Since 1848 Sardinia-Piedmont had been the center of the movement for Italian unity. Following promises of aid from Napoleon III. Cavour traps Austria into declaring war over the question of disarmament.
Leaders: (1)Victor Emmanuel,Napoleon III.,Garibaldi; (2) Francis Joseph II., Gyulay.
Chief Actions: (1)Montebello,Magenta,Solferino.Peace signed at Zurich, November 10, 1859.
Results: By this war Victor Emmanuel gained Lombardy. In 1860 Tuscany, Parma, Modena and the papal legations were added. In 1861 he gained Sicily and Naples, together with the title King of Italy. Venetia followed as a result of alliance with Prussia in 1866 and the addition of Rome in 1871 completed the unification of Italy.
DANISH WAR—1864.
(1)Austria and Prussiavs. (2) Denmark.
Causes: Incorporation of the duchy of Schleswig with Denmark in violation of treaty of 1852.
Leaders: (1)Gablenz(Austria),Prince Frederick,Charles(Prussia); (2) Dermeza, Gerlach.
Chief Actions: (1)Invasion of Jutland,Storming of Düppel.
Results: Denmark gives up Schleswig-Holstein, which is jointly administered by Austria and Prussia.
AUSTRO-PRUSSIAN WAR—1866.
(1)Prussia with smaller North German States and Italyvs. (2) Austria, Hanover, Saxony, and South German States.
Causes: Friction over Schleswig-Holstein enables Bismarck to force Austria into a war for supremacy in Germany.
Leaders: (1)William I.,Prince Frederick,Charles,Moltke,Victor Emmanuel; (2) Benedek, Archduke Albert, Gablenz, Prince Charles of Bavaria.
Chief Actions: In Bohemia: (1)Soor,Koniggrätz or Sadowa; (2) Trautenau.In the West: (1)Aschaffenburg; (2) Langensala.In Italy: (2) Custozza, Lissa.
Results: Closed with the peace of Prague, August 23, 1866, which authorized the re-establishment of the federated German states, excluding Austria; Austria ceded Venetia to Italy, and her rights in Schleswig-Holstein to Prussia. Hanover, Hesse, Nassau are also annexed to Prussia.
FRANCO-PRUSSIAN WAR—1870-1871.
(1) France vs. (2)Prussiasupported by all German States.
Causes: Jealousy of France at Prussian gains and friction over Hohenzollern candidacy for the throne of Spain. Bismarck’s falsification of the “Ems dispatch” tricked France into a declaration of war.
Leaders: Napoleon III., MacMahon, Bazaine; (2)William I.,Moltke,Prince Frederick Charles,Crown Prince Frederic William.
Chief Actions: (1)Saarbrucken; (2) Weissenberg, Wörth, Vionville, Gravelotte, Sedan, Capitulation of Metz, Orleans, Capitulation of Paris.
Results: Closed in 1871 with the treaty of Versailles with the following results: (1) The French military power was destroyed; (2) the western frontier of Germany was rendered secure; (3) The German empire was established; (4) Germany acquired Alsace and Lorraine. In France Napoleon III. is deposed and the Third Republic established, 1870.
RUSSO-TURKISH WAR—1877-1878.
(1)Russiavs. (2) Turkey.
Causes: Turkish misgovernment and revolts in her Christian subject provinces, which were barbarously put down (“Bulgarian atrocities”) arouse all Europe but Russia alone declares war.
Leaders: (1)Grand Duke Nicholas,Gurka,Grand Duke Michael,Alexander II.; (2) Suleiman Pasha, Osman Pasha, Mukhitar Pasha.
Chief Actions: (1)Passages of the Danube at Shitova,Shipka Pass,Plevna,Storm of Kars.
Results: By the peace of San Stefano as revised in the congress of the powers at Berlin, Montenegro, Servia and Roumania become independent; Bulgaria remains tributary but receives a Christian prince; Russia obtains large indemnity and part of Armenia and also Bessarabia.
CHINESE-JAPANESE WAR—1894-1895.
(1)Japanvs. (2) China.
Causes: Rival claims to suzerainty over Korea.
Leaders: (1)Ito,Yamagata,Oyama,Nogi; (2) Tso, Yeh, Wei.
Chief Actions:Yalu River,Port Arthur,Wei-hai-wei,Niuchwang.
Results: Treaty of Shimonoseki, signed April 17, 1895, removed Korea from Chinese influence; ceded Formosa and the Pescadores to Japan, and awarded to the latter an indemnity of $180,000,000.
SOUTH AFRICAN OR BOER WAR—1899-1902.
(1)Great Britainvs. (2) Transvaal, Orange Free State.
Causes: Resistance by the Boers to the British form of government in the Transvaal.
Leaders: (1)Sir George White Buller,Methuen,Roberts,Kitchener,French; (2) Cronje, Botha, De Wet, Delarey.
Chief Actions: (1)Siege of Ladysmith,Paardeberg; (2) Colenso, Spion Kop, Vaal Krantz, Magersfontein.
Result: Boers surrendered May 31, 1902; are granted the right of self-government under British sovereignty, and united with other self-governing British colonies in South Africa, in 1910, to form the Union of South Africa.
RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR—1904-1905.
(1)Japanvs. (2) Russia.
Causes: Russian encroachments in Manchuria, and their fortification of Port Arthur.
Leaders: (1)Togo,Kuroki,Oku,Nodzu,Oyama,Nogi; (2) Kuropatkin, Alexieff, Makaroff, Stoessel, Stakelberg, Linievitch.
Chief Actions: (1)Port Arthur and Chemulpo,Vladivostok,Yalu River,Dalny,Siege of Port Arthur,Mukden,Sea of Japan.
Results: Closed September 5, 1905, by treaty of Portsmouth by which Korea passes under control of Japan, China regains Manchuria, and Japan is granted important railroad rights.
BALKAN WAR—1912-1913.
(1)Montenegro,Bulgaria,Servia and Greecevs. (2) Turkey.
Causes: Discontent with Turkish rule in Macedonia.
Leaders: (1)Savoff,Dimitrieff,Putnik,Constantine; (2) Nazim Pasha, Mukhtar Pasha, Abdullah Pasha.
Chief Actions: (1)Kirk Kilisseh,Lule Burgas,Monastir.
Results: Turkey appealed to the powers, November 3, 1912, for intervention, and an armistice was signed December 3, 1912, ending one of the shortest and most sanguinary wars in history. The treaty of peace was signed May 30, 1913.
(2)Servia,Greece,Roumania,Turkeyvs. Bulgaria.
Causes: Disputes over the division of Macedonia.
Chief Actions: Mainly astounding atrocities and the re-occupation of Adrianople by Turkey.
Results: Reorganization of the Balkan states. Albania was made independent under an international commission of control; Crete was ceded to Greece; Macedonia was divided among Greece, Servia, and Bulgaria; and Roumania gained a strip from the northwest of Bulgaria. On September 17, 1913, an agreement between Bulgaria and Turkey provided that the latter retain Adrianople, Kirk Kilisseh, and Dimotika. September 28 the treaty between Bulgaria and Turkey was signed at Constantinople.
EUROPEAN WAR—1914-1917.
(1) Entente Allies (Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Belgium, Servia, Montenegro, Roumania, Portugal, Japan) vs. (2) Teutonic Allies (Germany, Austro-Hungary, Turkey, Bulgaria).
Causes: (1) The immediate occasion of this great conflict was the murder of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess of the Austro-Hungarian empire, on June 28, 1914, at Sarajevo, Bosnia, through the alleged instigation of a Servian revolutionary society, called the Narodna Odbrana, which had for its purpose the disrupting of the Austro-Hungarian empire, particularly those parts inhabited largely by Servians and other Slavic races, followed by a demand on the part of the Austro-Hungarian government that Servia suppress the criminal organization and permit the former to co-operate in the inquiry as to the accomplices on Servian territory in the murders of the Prince and Princess. This demand was refused by Servia, which immediately received the support of Russia, France and Great Britain, while Austria-Hungary received the support of Germany, and, later, of Turkey.
(2) The underlying causes were the following:
(a) The policy of Russia (popularly known as Pan-Slavism), an age-long political creed of Russian ambition, to dominate the Balkan countries and extend her dominions to the Bosphorus, the Ægean and the Adriatic.
(b) The ambition of France to regain Alsace-Lorraine, lost to her by the Franco-Prussian war.
(c) The determination of Great Britain to check the growth of Germany, politically, industrially, and especially commercially.
(3) More remote causes, and more specious ones, are alleged to be:
(a) The European political doctrine of the “Balance of Power,” which was the outgrowth of the Napoleonic wars, and received its first stamp of approval at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, which settled the important boundaries of the map of Europe for more than half a century afterward. Subsequently, the “great powers” of Europe assumed the point of view that any acquisition of power, territory or population by any one of them entitled all the others to compensation; so that the relative strength and importance might not be disturbed. This rule has been applied to every important war since Napoleon’s time, and any threatened disturbance of this “balance” has always had in it the germ of a general conflict. Hence arose the historic “alliances,” known as the Triple Alliance, on the one hand, and the Triple Entente, comprising France, Russia and Great Britain, on the other.
(b) Militarism, so-called, with its attendant jealousies and obstacles to social and economic reforms, and which might be said to be the direct fruits of the “balance of power” doctrine, as is also the doctrine of the “guaranteed neutrality” of certain small countries of Europe, which astute European diplomacy created for the purpose of “buffer” states.
Military Leaders: (1) Kitchener, French, Haig, Joffre, Grand Duke Nicholas, Kouropatkin, Brusiloff, Admirals Fisher and Jellicoe; (2) Emperor William, Hindenburg, Mackensen, Kluck, Falkenhayn, Archduke Frederick, Hoetzendorf, Crown Prince Frederick William, Admiral Tirpitz, Crown Prince Rupprecht, Enver Pasha.
Chief Theaters of Action: (1) Belgium; (2) Northern France; (3) Poland; (4) Dardanelles; (5) Servia and Balkans; (6) Roumania; (7) Austro-Italian Front; (8) Lithuania; (9) North Sea and Inlets; (10) Mediterranean; (11) German Colonial Possessions throughout the world.
Results: Except for the loss of Germany’s Colonial Possessions, the results of the war to date (1917) largely preponderate in favor of the Teutonic Allies—the land campaigns being almost overwhelmingly in their favor. (See further Great Battles of the World.)
Chronology of Great Events:
1914
June 28.—Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and the Duchess of Hohenberg at Sarajevo, Bosnia, by Servian student.
July 28.—Austria declares war on Servia, and hostilities commence, after Germany and Austria refuse England’s invitation to a conference.
August 1.—Germany formally declares war on Russia, and troops are ordered mobilized.
France mobilizes.
August 3.—Germany declares war on France. German troops enter Belgium.
August 4.—War declared by England on Germany.
August 6.—Austria declares war against Russia.
August 9.—Servia declares war on Germany.
August 11.—Montenegro declares war on Germany.
August 12.—France declares war on Austria-Hungary.
August 12.—England declares war on Austria.
August 23.—Japan in state of war with Germany.
August 25.—Austria declares war on Japan.
August 29.—Austria declares war on Belgium.
August 30.—Paris prepares for a siege.
September 5.—England, France and Russia agree not to treat for peace separately.
October 30.—Russia declares state of war exists with Turkey.
November 5.—Great Britain officially announces state of war with Turkey.
Servia severs diplomatic relations with Turkey.
1915
February 17.—Germans begin submarine campaign by sinking British collier without warning.
February 24.—Britain closes Irish and North channels to all navigation.
March 1.—Great Britain declares virtual blockade of German coast.
March 15.—British council order prohibits all traffic to and from Germany.
May 23.—Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
October 14.—Bulgaria declares war on Servia.
1916
August 27.—Italy declares war on Germany.
Roumania entered the war on the side of the allies.
October 11.—Upon demand of Great Britain and France the entire Greek fleet and sea-coast forts were turned over to the allies or dismantled.
December 7.—David Lloyd George accepted British post of Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.
December 8.—Roumanian army trapped in Prahova Valley, surrendered to General von Mackensen’s forces.
December 12.—Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg announced to the Reichstag that Germany and her allies proposed to enter forthwith into peace negotiations.
1917
February.—The chief occurrences in the opening months of this year were the blockade declared by Germany against the Entente Allies, and the announcement of unrestricted submarine warfare upon neutral shipping to the nations composing that alliance. This course was justified by the German government as a retaliation against the starvation blockade instituted by Great Britain and her allies.
This table includes those battles of decisive or far-reaching importance upon the destinies of the contestants. The dates are according to the Old Style, or Julian, calendar down to 1582; after that date, according to the New Style, or Gregorian, calendar. The victors in the various battles are printed inbold-facetype. Details of minor American battles will be found in connection with theOutline Tables of American History. †Naval battles. *Indecisive results.