Chapter Twenty-Five –

Post-WWI 1918 C.E.-1939 C.E. –

Sowing the Wind and Reaping the Whirlwind

I.       Introduction

“Chapter Twenty-Five - Post-WWI 1918 C.E. -1939 C.E.” is dedicated to the experience of de Riberas of New Mexico during that period.

By 1821 C.E., the Clan was forced to accept Méjicano hegemony when the el Imperio Méjicano won its freedom from España and assumed those lands which had been for well over two hundred years under España. Méjicano domination only lasted twenty-five years, until 1846 C.E., when the Américanos took the lands which would become her American West and Southwest, including Nuevo Méjico. That year, the de Riberas chose the United States over Méjico. After Méjico’s capitulation to the United States in 1848 C.E., the de Riberas chose American citizenship in the new territory of New Mexico.

Thirteen years later, from 1861 C.E. through 1865 C.E., they served both North and the South during the America Civil War. Nineteen years later, members of the Clan served the United States in the Spanish-American War or Guerra Hispano-Estadounidense of 1898 C.E. Another nineteen years later, the de Riberas served next during the First World War beginning in 1917 C.E.

In this chapter of the de Riberas family history, we shall speak of the twenty-one year period beginning the year after WWI and before the start of the Second World War, in 1939 C.E. To understand the de Riberas that fought in WWII, we must know the conditions and events that shaped their lives. Obviously, given the timeframe, this will be done within the context of a growing and transitioning United States and its political difficulties before the beginning of Europe’s entry into WWII.

To better know what the de Riberas of New Mexico and other Hispanic Americans that fought in WWII were up against, it is important to understand their enemies and what shaped them. One must become acquainted with the existing conditions and circumstances in Europe and Asia which led the world previous to WWII. Here, we will deal in the main with five countries America, Italy, Germany, Japan, and Russia. Why them and not others? I felt it important to provide the reader with some knowledge and insight into these participants of WWII, the world’s foolishness, and its past missteps. All of these resulted in a storm of horrible consequences. As for Britain and France, they have been written about, spoken of, and featured in many films about the period. They are the best-understood combatants of WWII. Therefore, I found it unnecessary to include a great deal about them.

As for America, to be sure racism and prejudice existed in the United States. But as we shall see there was also racial and ethnic hatred and brutality in the European and Asian nations of the period. Yes, American Blacks were lynched and these resulted in race riots and other actions. To say blacks were second-class citizens is an understatement. There was also the mistreatment of Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and others. To not include this ugliness would be wrong. Equally important is the fact that despite those harsh American societal conditions which beset these minority groups, they stood up for, fought for, and in some cases died for this great nation during WWII.

I found it fascinating that the innate love of country could overcome the hurt, pain, and suffering of racism and ethnic hatred. Therefore, to understand American Hispanic participation in WWII, in particular, Nuevo Méjicano Hispanos, this chapter will deal with the world that surrounded them and how that world became what it did.

It had only been eleven years since the end of WWI when the Mexican Repatriation or mass deportation of Méjicanos and Mexican Americans from the United States to Méjico began. Estimates of how many were repatriated to Méjico range from 400,000 to 2,000,000. An estimated sixty percent of those deported were birthright citizens of the United States. The deportations of Méjicanos and Mexican Americans from the United States between 1929 C.E. and 1936 C.E. was a sobering experience for Hispanics. This difficult to accept reality only ended 1940 C.E. after the start of WWII.

Reliable data for the total number repatriated is difficult to come by. There is one estimate that over 400,000 Méjicanos left the United States between 1929 C.E. and 1937 C.E., with a peak of 138,000 in 1931 C.E. Méjicano Government sources suggest over 300,000 were repatriated between 1930 C.E. and 1933 C.E., while Méjicano media reported up to 2,000,000 during a similar span. After 1933 C.E., repatriation decreased from the 1931 C.E. peak but was over 10,000 in most years until 1940 C.E. Research by California state senator Joseph Dunn concluded that 1.8 million had been repatriated. Whatever the true number is, the damage was done.

Here, the reader must be reminded that Hispanic Americans gave their honor, blood, and in some cases, their lives in the service of America in previous wars. While writing the chapter, I came across a quote by Mark Twain that I feel says it all, “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it.” This they had done gladly in the previous war, WWI, only to see Hispanics being mistreated and abused only eleven years later.

This ugly, painful memory was still fresh in the minds of Hispanic Americans after the racial and ethnic degradation ceased in 1940 C.E., just one year before Americans would engage in WWII. Yet, they would once again serve their nation proudly and honorably on the battlefields of Europe, Asia, and elsewhere. What was it they fought for? I believe it was for an ideal. That ideal was America. Francis Scott Key the author of these famous words said it best, “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” He wrote those words in 1814 C.E., one hundred years before WWI had begun during America’s “Second War for Independence, against the British.”

By 1918 C.E., the First World War was over. It had been no picnic. The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was estimated at about 40 million. There are estimates which range from 15 to 19 million deaths and about 23 million wounded military personnel. This ranks the conflict among the deadliest in human history. The total number of deaths includes from 9 to 11 million military personnel. The civilian death toll includes about 6 million due to war related famine and disease civilians, was about 8 million.

The Triple Entente or the Allies lost about 6 million military personnel while the Central Powers lost about 4 million. At least 2 million died from diseases and 6 million went missing, presumed dead. About two-thirds of military deaths in World War I were in battle, unlike the conflicts that took place in the 19th-Century C.E. when the majority of deaths were due to disease. Disease, including the 1918 flu pandemic and deaths of prisoners of war, still caused about one third of total military deaths for all the belligerents.

Andrés S. Rivera of Santa Fé, New Mexico, was a member of the de Ribera Clan who served in the U.S. ARMY (1917 C.E.-1918 C.E.) as a corporal during World War I. He would have understood the ugliness of it all and shared it with the de Ribera family members.

I believe the causes of that war were simply man’s greed and hubris. In Russia there is an old saying that roughly translates to, “If you don’t understand the past, you won’t be able to understand the present, or shape the future.” A nation’s men and women of each generation become its agents for perceived improvements, change, and violence. This they do at any given point during their lifetime. Therefore, they are both accountable and responsible for those decisions and their outcomes. To pretend otherwise is folly!

Unfortunately, mankind of the pre and WWII period would see themselves not as an integrated whole of humanity, but a series of coexisting, disparate tribes with very different social standings. Those nations with power, wealth, and superior weapons were at the top of the social hierarchy. Those less powerful nations, with fewer and more inferior weapons found themselves at the bottom of that hierarchy. How did each nation arrive at its status?

What is called the “Modern Revolution” began in the 18th-Century C.E. and continues to our modern day. It is believed that unprecedented global population growth, industrialization, and the accelerating consumption of fossil fuels had a profound effect for humankind and the earth’s natural and physical environment. 

By the 19th-Century C.E., it was the industrialized states of Europe which dominated the world system of the time. By the end of the 19th-Century C.E., the changes associated primarily with the Modern Revolution moved societies around the globe in to a single, rapidly evolving world. This system linked different regions and peoples culturally, economically, and politically. With the new system, some states and groups accumulated colossal wealth and power. Other states and groups less able to adapt declined into economic and political confusion and failure.

Rapid industrialization gave European states colossal economic and military power leading into the 20th-Century C.E. By 1910 C.E., the European states ruled India, most of Africa, and Southeast Asia. Japan an Asian nation, controlled Korea and Taiwan. The United States, largely of European stock, controlled the Philippines. Other less successful states fell within the sphere of economic and political influence of one or more of these powers. These include China, the Ottoman Empire, and several republics of Latino América.

From the end of WWI in 1918 C.E., the de Ribera family like so many other Americans settled into what they thought would be a better life, after “that War to end all wars.” But that better life was not to last long. The 1920s C.E. did see improved living standards for many Americans. That was until the starting of the Great Depression of 1929 C.E. Its destructive economic affects would be seen well into the next war, which began in Europe ten years later in 1939 C.E.

Just as ocean currents are a result of uncontrollable outside forces, so is our American history. Uncontrollable outside forces as well as controllable forces have had a great impact upon economic, political, and military movements in the course of human history. The failure of nations to anticipate these currents and undercurrents of change have many times led to war. In the case of the Americas, they hid from and tried to pretend away what they knew to be an impending great storm, one which would engulf them and their neighbors. The statement by Sumner Welles was of particular interest here. “Prudence and caution are admirable characteristics of any foreign policy. But they are deadly when they prove to be only synonyms for indecision and timidity.” He was an American government official and diplomat in the Foreign Service. Welles was a major foreign policy adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and served as Under Secretary of State from 1936 C.E. to 1943 C.E., during FDR's presidency. His access to information was relatively unrestricted during the period which gave him great insight into the feeling of the American Public and how these feelings were translated into a national policy of failed neutrality. The uncontrollable outside forces of Japan, Germany, and Italy would force America into WWII.

In the history of mankind, war and peace, feast or famine, and plenty or poverty have been the realities of rising and falling empires. Monarchs and emperors, admirals and generals, captains of industry, and mankind in general have throughout history followed the tides of human events in order to anticipate their effects upon those they are responsible for. But like the ocean there is always the possibility of the flood of economic, political, and military events crashing against nations and overcoming their shores, prepared or not. Waves of human and nation state discontent leading to war can also be obstructed or ignored until it’s too late. So it was with the United States.

As the Americans soon learned, war can travel across the seas from continent to continent, as it did with the Empire of Japan’s attack on Americas’ Pearl Harbor. That great American island naval base and its magnificent fleet were overcome by Japanese hate and envy. On December 7, 1941 C.E., with the attack by the Japanese Empire on the United Sates at Pearl Harbor Hawaii, the de Riberas would again find themselves at war. This time it would be against the Axis Powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan. She would join with an almost beaten Great Britain and her Commonwealth. Later, the Soviet Union would come to the America side of the war. This is why Italy, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia are of importance to this chapter.

The winds of war blew across large and small areas of Europe until the wave of terror soon spread to Asia. China became a Japanese target for takeover and misery. It was soon to engulf the entire world, its name, the Second World War. Therefore, it was necessary to offer some insight into the negative energy that drove these tides of war. Why did the waves of hate and envy impel the Axis warriors of the time to butcher and be butchered on an unparalleled scale?  Where did our friends of the moment, the Soviets really stand?

We know it to be a truth that history does not begin or end at or on a certain date and time. Rather, history is the fluid unfolding of human events which continue ever onward. Like a great ocean, history has strong, powerful, and determined currents which cannot be entirely understood. The ocean can never be truly still nor can human history.

II.     The Social and Political Nature of the Belligerent States Before WWI to 1900

The difficulty for mankind before and after the WWI and prior to WWII was the issue of “Us” vs. “Them.” Simply put, the basic issues of governance, the why, by whom, over whom, were of paramount importance in the countries of the world of the time.

Why? The peoples of the earth continued to struggle to adapt to the latest political solution imposed upon them. Having begun their journey as members of tribes, humankind found each successive transition to something larger to be far more difficult and complex than we of the 21st-Century C.E. could possibly imagine. Today, we often hear the terms country, state, sovereign state, nation, and nation-state used interchangeably. There are, however, differences. The word “country” is used to mean the same thing as state, sovereign state, or nation-state. It can also be used in a less political manner to refer to a region or cultural area that has no governmental status. An example is Coal Country, the coal-mining region of Pennslyvania.

In the case of the Europeans, over time they became subjects of absolute monarchies in which a monarch held absolute power and his subjects went without power or rights. They over time began to force change and demanded instead a “Constitutional Monarchy.” In this latest formulation of the monarchy the sovereign could only exercise authority in accordance with a written or unwritten constitution. In these new constitutional monarchies, the monarch was bound to exercise powers and authorities within the limits prescribed within an established legal framework.  In Europe, the Constitutional Monarchy became political systems in which the monarch acted as a non-party political head of state under the constitution, whether written or unwritten. These monarchs held formal authority and the government legally operated in the monarch's name. In the form typical in Europe the monarch no longer personally set public policy or chose political leaders. In short, a constitutional monarch was "A sovereign who reigns but does not rule."

Soon, constitutional monarchies ranged from countries such as Morocco, where the constitution granted substantial discretionary powers to the sovereign. It also spread to countries such as Japan and Sweden where the monarch retained no formal authorities.

The modern “state” made its entry onto the world stage as a structure that was seen as a territory with its own institutions and populations. It was in effect a political and geopolitical entity. It morphed into the “sovereign state.” In this rendition, it had a permanent population, territory, and government. It also had to have the right and capacity to make treaties and other agreements with other states.

With the growth in the size of sovereign state there were further changes which brought about the “nation.” Its emphasis was on being a cultural and ethnic state. These were now comprised of a large group of people who saw themselves as a cohesive and coherent unit which was based on shared cultural or historical criteria. These provided them with a connectedness to that history, culture, or other commonalities. This large group of people also inhabited a specific territory.

The “nation-state” became the latest in the evolving idea of “Us.” These were recognized as a cultural group or a nation that was also a state. In addition, it might be a sovereign state. This was the idea of the homogenous nation governed by its own sovereign state. It was a structure whereby each state contained one nation. A nation-state was a geographical area which could be identified as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign nation. Its importance was based on its structure. In essence, it is a sovereign state whose citizens or subjects are relatively homogeneous in factors such as language or common descent. It is a form of political organization under which a relatively homogeneous people inhabits a sovereign state. This is especially in a state containing one, as opposed to several, nationalities.

Unlike the other combatants, the United States began its existence as a republic. In its most basic form, the governing and government of that country were considered "public matters," not the private concern or property of the rulers. The primary positions of power within that republic were not inherited. Its founders deliberately formed a government under which the head of state was elected and not a monarch. To expand upon this, the American republic developed as a form of government in which elected individuals represented the citizen body and exercised power according to the “rule of law” under a constitution. In effect, the United States was established as a constitutional republic, a representative democracy which includes the separation of powers with an elected head of state or President. The power of the presidency and its office were held in check by the elected representatives of the people.

It was at this time and under pre-WWII America that the de Ribera family found itself. The United States did not have a homogeneous population. It had been created in the late-1700s C.E., by and large by British Anglo American males who went through the various stages of creation, survival, and dominance by 1783 C.E. These were followed by the unbridled expansion of American “Manifest Destiny.” Her population had grown through rising birth rates and Northern European immigration. American industry and trade had blossomed.

By the period which we are dealing with in the chapter, we find the peoples of various nation-states looking outwardly with their own set of intrinsic views, as to who and what they were. Each identified itself as deriving its political legitimacy from serving as a sovereign nation, with its peoples living in a specific geographic area. In some of these nation-states, their citizens or subjects were relatively homogeneous in language or common descent. For the most part, they established political organizations under which their relatively homogeneous people inhabited a sovereign state. This is especially true in those nation-states contained one, as opposed to several, nationalities. There were, however, many nation-states which had been cobbled together by other powerful nations over a period of time. These were in many cases not composed of a homogeneous population. In such states, their peoples lived in a specific geographic area, with their non-homogeneous population of citizens or subjects not speaking one language or being of a common descent. The result was suspicion, division, and competition within these nation-states for position, power, and resources.

United States and the Western Hemisphere

From its inception 1776 C.E. through 1783 C.E., the United States had been obsessed with its security, and rightly so. Its founders knew only too well how the European sovereigns and nations eyed with envy their former lands on the North American Continent. American warriors, officers, soldiers, sailors, and explorers of the 18th and 19th-Century C.E., would work for the survival and growth of their nation. In its efforts for continual expansion, the American Robert Gray’s would voyage up the Columbia River in 1792 C.E. As a result of his expedition, the United States would claim the Oregon Country region. The United Kingdom, however, had earlier claimed the same region west of the Continental Divide between the undefined borders of Alta California and Russian Alaska. The Third Nootka Convention of 1794 C.E. had called for the joint and exclusive British-Spanish exploitation of the region.

The United States states continued its exploration of the North American Continent with the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804 C.E.-1806 C.E. Five years later, American fur traders aboard the ship Tonquin, traveled into the Oregon Territory to establish a line of trading posts along the Columbia and Missouri Rivers which was to rival the fur trade dominated by the British. It was the New York financier, John Jacob Aster, and the Pacific Fur Company who sent the expedition to rival the fur trade dominated by the British. The Pacific Fur Company was now in a race with the British North West Company to reach the Columbia River and stake a claim to the fur trade in the region.

The Expedition established the town of Astoria, Oregon, in March 1811 C.E. Later, a small party landed and began construction of Fort Astoria in April 1811 C.E. It was to be used as a trading post and as Aster’s chief trading house. They venture was initially successful, but the War of 1812 intervened and the fort was turned over to the British and soon renamed Fort George, after the King. The Americans would once again be found fighting against Great Britain in that war from 1812 C.E. C.E. to 1815 C.E.

As the Américanos continued their Manifest Destiny, in 1819 C.E., she would take España’s Las Floridas and areas north of her Las California.

The 1846 Oregon Treaty would end the long-standing disagreements and a possible war between the parties relating to the Oregon Country issue. The Treaty established the border between British North America and the United States. It placed it along the 49th parallel until the Strait of Georgia, where the marine boundary curved south to exclude Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands from the United States. As a result, a small portion of the Tsawwassen Peninsula, Point Roberts, became an exclave of the United States.

That same Américano Manifest Destiny would drive her next war. American forces would begin active military campaigning against Méjico during the Méjicano-Américano War on March 28, 1846 C.E. They would end that difficult and bloody war in 1848 C.E. after having had secured Texas and another 529,017 square miles of land, nearly half of the original territory of Méjico.

There would be some peace for the next 17 years, as the United States and its people moved westward settling their newly conquered lands. But the Americans would once again enter into a war, an internal civil war, in 1861 C.E. The American Civil War would last through 1865 C.E., leaving the land scarred and hundreds of thousands of Americans dead and wounded. With the end of the war, America’s slavery days were finally behind her, the Southern states were completely beaten.

From 1865 C.E. through 1900 C.E., America would experience population growth and industrial expansion. She would accumulation of great wealth and prestige, which would reach its apex with the Gilded Age. That Age received its name from the many great fortunes created during that period and the way of life that extraordinary wealth supported.

The other nations of the Western Hemisphere had not been so lucky. Their revolutionary separations from España begining in 1821 C.E. had not been easy or bloodless. Each country broke way in its own time, and doing so in its own way. Unfortunately, their individual cultures, levels of education, and political processes failed them. Only the gun gave them an answer.

From their breakaways, until 1900 C.E., the countries of Latino América traded one master for another. The Criollos or Españoles born in the Spanish Américas, fought for control of what was left. Each Latino Américano country continued this bloody and fruitless revolutionary process to the detriment of its people and prosperity. The stabilization did not come easy or to the satisfaction of its peoples.

Italy

Italy had only become a united country in 1861 C.E. after all of the existing states became one nation. Long before Il Duce or "The Leader," Mussolini (July 29, 1883 C.E.-April 28, 1945 C.E.) came on the Italian scene Italy had begun its march toward imperialism. Like other European powers, Italy believed that she had a legitimate right to extend her power and authority into various regions in the Mediterranean and Africa for the purpose of expansion. Italy was also intent to become a major European economic and military power.

In 1866 C.E., Third Italian War of Independence between Italy and the Austrian Empire took place. It ended in an Italian victory and the Armistice of Cormons and Treaty of Vienna. The Kingdom of Italy annexed Venetia and Friuli.

By 1870 C.E., the Capture of Rome occurred. Italy fought against the Papal States and the Second French Empire. It was an Italian victory over the Papal States.

Between 1885 C.E. and 1895 C.E., Italy fought Ethiopia and Mahdist Sudan in the Eritrean War. It was an Italian victory and Italian Eritrea was establishment.

From 1889 C.E. to 1920 C.E., Italy’s interests were to be found in Africa. She engaged in the Pacification of Somalia against various rebels and the Dervish State. It resulted in an Italian victory and the consolidation of Italian Somaliland. Starting in 1890 C.E. through 1894 C.E., Italy engaged in the Mahdist War against Mahdist Sudan. It resulted in an Italian victory with Sudanese invasions being repulsed and the Italians taking Kassala. Between 1895 C.E. and 1896 C.E., Italy fought Ethiopia in the First Italo-Ethiopian War. The war resulted in an Ethiopian victory, the Treaty of Addis Ababa, and Ethiopia being recognised as independent country by Italy. Italy also abrogated the Treaty of Wuchale.

From 1899 C.E. through 1901 C.E., during the Boxer Rebellion Italy joined United Kingdom, Japan, Russia, France, United States, Germany, and Austria-Hungary in military engagements against the Righteous Harmony Society and Manchu-China. This resulted in an Allied victory and the Boxer Protocol which demanded that anti-foreign societies be banned in China.

By 1900 C.E., in a span of 39 short years, Italy had joined its fellow European nations as an expansionist conqueror.

Germany

The rise of nationalism in the 19th-Century C.E. made race a centerpiece of political loyalty. The rise of the nation-state and the Pan-Nationalist ideology led the way to the politics of identity which included Pan-Germanism and Pan-Slavism. With the transitioning of the German Pan-Nationalist ideology into the political idea of Pan-Germanism in the 19th-Century C.E., Pan-Nationalists sought to unify all Germans and Germanic-speaking peoples into a single nation-state or Großdeutschland. It was highly influential in German politics during the unification of Germany when the German Empire was proclaimed as a nation-state in 1871 C.E., though without Austria or Kleindeutsche Lösung/Lesser Germany. These became the separate Austro-Hungarian Empire and the German Empire. From the late-19th-Century C.E., in 1891 C.E., many Pan-Germanist activists organized into the Pan-German League and adopted openly ethnocentric and racist ideologies ultimately giving rise to the foreign policy Heim ins Reich. This would be pursued by Nazi Germany under Austrian-born Adolf Hitler from 1938 C.E. It was to be one of the primary factors leading to the outbreak of WWII.

The Pan-Germanist competitor in the areas near Germany was Pan-Slavism. As a political ideology it was concerned with the advancement of integrity and unity for the Slavic-speaking peoples. The movement crystallized in the mid-19th-Century C.E. Its main impact occurred in the Balkans. There, non-Slavic empires had ruled the South Slavs for centuries. These were mainly the Byzantine Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Venice. Extensive Pan-Slavism began much like Pan-Germanism. Both had grown from a sense of unity and nationalism experienced within their ethnic groups after the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars against European monarchies. Slavic intellectuals and scholars of the time in the developing fields of history, philology, and folklore encouraged their shared identity and ancestry. The movement really began to grow after the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 C.E. In its aftermath, leaders of Europe sought to restore the pre-war status quo. Austria's Prince von Metternich expressed that a threat to the proposed return to the status quo in Austria existed as the nationalists were demanding independence from the empire. Most of Austria’s subjects were Slavs, with numerous ethnic groups such as Italians, Romanians, Hungarians, etc. also being part of its population.

Here we must discuss the Teutonic vs. Slavic struggle for dominance. Social-Darwinist theories framed this as a struggle for domination, land, and limited resources in which the parties coexisted rather than fought for these. Integrating these ideas into their own world-view, the Pan-Germanists of the period and later the Nazis, believed that the Germans, the "Aryan race," was the master race and that the Slavs were therefore inferior and quite naturally must be dominated. 

Over the centuries, many Germans had settled in the eastern areas of Europe. Examples of this were the Volga Germans invited to Russia by Catherine the Great, and the Ostsiedlung in medieval times, literally east settling. This German eastward expansion was the medieval migration and settlement of Germanic-speaking peoples from the Holy Roman Empire, especially its southern and western portions, into less-populated regions of Central Europe, parts of west Eastern Europe, and the Baltics. These migratory patterns created ethnic enclaves which blurred the ethnic identities within later nation states. The first half of the 20th-Century C.E. would see an end to the culmination of a millennium-long process of the peaceful intermingling of Germans and Slavs in the nation states of Central Europe. 

In 1900 C.E., during only 39 years, the German Pan-Nationalist ideology having transitioned into the political idea of Pan-Germanism was the centerpiece of Germany’s future goals. These Pan-Nationalists continued in their efforts to unify all Germans and Germanic-speaking peoples into a single nation-state. Pan-Germanism had been influential during the unification of Germany when the German Empire was proclaimed as a nation-state in 1871 C.E., little had changed in the German mind.

Japan

To understand the barbarism of the Empire of Japan during the first half of the 20th-Century C.E., one must examine her history, culture, and Weltanschauung. Firstly, the culture of Japan developed with almost no influence from the outside world. During those years before American intervention, Japan had developed thriving castle towns, cities, increased agriculture, domestic trade, literacy, and laid the groundwork for modernization.

By the 1st-Century C.E., we find the first known written reference to Japan recorded in the Chinese Book of Han. Gradually between the 4th-Century C.E. and the 9th-Century C.E., Japan's kingdoms and tribes became unified under a centralized government. The new structure was nominally controlled by an Emperor. Incredibly, this imperial dynasty has continued to reign over Japan until our day. By 794 C.E., a new imperial capital was established at modern Kyoto. It marked the beginning of the Heian period, a golden age of classical Japanese culture which lasted until 1185 C.E. During the Heian Period and onward, Japanese religious life became a mix of native Shinto practices and Buddhism.

Over the following centuries, the power of the Emperor and the imperial court gradually declined, passing power to the military clans and their armies of samurai warriors. The Samurai were Japan’s military nobility and officer caste founded in medieval and early-modern Japan. In Japanese, they are usually referred to as bushi or buke. The terms are thought to mean “those who serve in close attendance to the nobility.” An early reference to the word samurai appears in the Kokin Wakashū (905 C.E.-914 C.E.), the first imperial anthology of poems, completed in the first part of the 10th-Century C.E. and were usually associated with a clan and their lord. By the end of the 12th-Century C.E., samurai became almost entirely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class and were trained as officers in grand strategy and military tactics. They also numbered less than 10% of t Japan's population of the period.

Minamoto no Yoritomo of the Minamoto clan, seized power after emerging victorious from the Genpei War of 1180 C.E.-1185 C.E. Yoritomo then set up his capital in Kamakura and took the title of shōgun. In 1274 C.E. and 1281 C.E., the Kamakura Shogunate withstood two Mongol invasions. In a little over fifty years, by 1333 C.E., the Kamakura Shogunate was toppled by a rival claimant to the shogunate, ushering in the Muromachi Period. During that Period, regional warlords called daimyōs grew in power at the expense of the shōgun. As a result, eventually Japan would descend into a period of civil war.

Over the course of the late-16th-Century C.E., Japan was reunified under the leadership of various daimyōs until the Tokugawa shogunate. It governed from Edo in modern-day Tokyo, presiding over a prosperous and peaceful era known as the Edo Period (1600 C.E.-1868 C.E.) when it imposed a strict class system on Japanese society and the Sakoku, or locked country policy cut off almost all contact with the outside world. This foreign relations policy of Sakoku was rigidly enforced. In Japan of the time, no foreigner could enter nor could any Japanese leave the country on penalty of death. The result was that Japan’s long period of isolation ensured that Japanese reality was shaped by and for the Japanese only.

The Tokugawa shogunate established Japanese social order by means of a rigorous social hierarchy. At the top of the hierarchy was a powerless but respected emperor. After the emperor came the 140 courtly, entitled families. These privilege few were generally unaware of the harsh realities surrounding them. They had great prestige but no power. Alongside these stood the shogun, he held absolute authority and was the true power of the land. Beneath the shogun were the daimyo or feudal lords. These ruled the warrior clan lands. Each daimyo was obliged to spend half their time supervising their lands, and the other half attending to the shogun in Edo. Under these, were to be found the samurai. They were unconditionally devoted to their shogun, were literate and educated, and were far higher on the social scale than commoners. Samurai of the time lived in castle towns and made up approximately 5% of the population.

Samurai warriors in pre-industrial Japan typically carried a long sword and one short sword, a daisho, meaning big and small. The long sword was the katana and the small sword the wakizashi, which means side arm. The sole purpose of the wakizashi was to serve as an instrument of suicide. Among the samurai, an honorable death was valued above all else. Each lived daily in a state of perpetual preparedness to make this ultimate sacrifice. Even the slightest insult to a samurai could mean death.

The peasant farmers were next on the social scale. Though not wealthy, it was the peasant farmers whose rice taxes allowed the courtly families and samurai to live an extravagant lifestyle. These Tokugawa-era peasant farmers were the most advanced farmers in all of Asia. They grew cotton, tea, tobacco, and sweet potatoes. These peasants were exploited and doomed to remain peasants their entire life, without opportunity for advancement in society. The peasant farmers were followed by the artisans. These were not a well respected as part of Japanese society. The Artisans were deemed useless, as they did not produce their own food and hence paid no rice tax. That is unless he was a bladesmith for a high-ranking samurai.

The merchants were considered even lower than the artisans by 140 courtly, prestigious families. In their eyes, the merchants were nothing as they produced nothing. It was the merchants who actually drove Japan’s economic progress. These entrepreneurs provided a constantly expanding Edo with household items, produce, tatami mats, textiles, trinkets, and wood. A merchant could become wealthy but was never to be accorded social status. As a result, they created their own society, with its own culture, customs, and hierarchy.

Outside the Japanese social order were the geisha, actors, and prostitutes. All were deemed entertainers for the nobility and the samurai, living outside the hierarchy and not ranked on a social scale. Far below everyone else were the outcasts, the eta, the hinin, and the non-humans. Working as butchers, tanners, gravediggers, and dealing with the diseased and the deformed, the etas were subject to terrible prejudices. This stemmed from Shinto and Buddhist dictates against the killing of animals. They were required to live in certain quarters of town and abide by curfews and strict laws.

By the 19th-Century C.E., obtaining the status as a Great Power and international prestige was believed to be dependent upon have a resource-rich colonial empire. Therefore, emphasis was placed on nation’s greatness being based on easy access to sources of raw materials for military and industrial production. This was no different for an emerging Japan.

By her own choice, Japan underwent an amazing industrial, political, and economic transformation from the mid-19th-Century C.E. to the early-20th-Century C.E. This point cannot be understated particularly as it relates to Japanese military power. For it placed military air, land, and sea technology capable of great destructive power in the hands of the Japanese militarists steeped in the Samurai warrior tradition. One without the other would have been bad enough, but with both the world was about to experience a Japanese martial tsunami.

By the second half of the 19th-Century C.E., saw a Japan feeling looked down upon by Western countries. This offers some insight into how the Japanese leadership saw imperialism as the way to gain respect and power. 

By the1860s C.E., Japan saw itself vulnerable to aggressive Western imperialism unless it took control of neighboring areas. Japan rapidly modernized along Western lines. It added industry, bureaucracy, institutions, and military capabilities. These provided the base for eventual imperial expansion into Korea, China, Taiwan, and islands to the south.

By 1868 C.E., the military had a strong influence on Japanese society and would continue to have such from the Meiji Restoration onward. Also known as the Meiji Ishin, the Meiji Restoration (October 23, 1868 C.E. to July 30, 1912 C.E.) was a chain of events that restored imperial rule under Emperor Meiji to Japan in 1868 C.E. Emperor Meiji considered a descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu, saw his divine power restored. This Restoration government viewed Japan as being threatened by alien western imperialism. Thus, the imperial slogan Sonnō jōi “Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians" was replaced with the Fukoku kyōhei "Enrich the state, strengthen the armed forces" Policy. In short, this was one of the prime motivations for strengthening Japan's economic and industrial foundations. On these foundations a very strong military could be built to defend Japan against outside powers. To ensure this new path being taken would be successful an intimate relationship between the military, political leaders in business was developed and enhanced. Therefore, during the Meiji Period almost all leaders in Japanese society shared a set of values and outlooks. And the vast majority of these leaders whether in the military, politics, or business were ex-samurai or descendants of samurai.

Many Japanese were strongly influenced by the recent striking success of Prussia in transforming itself from an agricultural state to a leading modern industrial and military power. They accepted Prussian political ideas, which favored military expansion abroad and authoritarian government at home. The Prussian model also devalued the notion of civilian control over the independent military, which meant that in Japan, as in Germany, the military could develop into a state within a state, thus exercising greater influence on politics in general.

The powerful Japanese General Staff paid close attention to Major Jakob Meckel's views on the superiority of the German military model over the French system as the reason for German victory in the Franco-Prussian War (July 19, 1870 C.E.-January 28, 1871 C.E.).

In 1871 C.E., the Japan’s outcasts were legally liberated and renamed shin heimin, or new common people. Even after 1871 C.E., millions of these full-blooded Japanese shin heimin or as they continued to be called, burakumin, were discriminated against in the areas of employment, marriage, housing, and education.

By 1873 C.E., Japanese militarism in the Empire of Japan was dominating the political and social life of the nation. The strength of the military was seen as being equal to the strength of a nation. The Meiji Period this view brought a rise of universal military conscription, introduced by Yamagata Aritomo in 1873 C.E.

Freedom from civilian control enjoyed by the Japanese armed forces formed a part of the basis for the growth of militarism. By 1878 C.E., the Japanese Imperial Army established the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office. It was modeled after that of the the Prussian General Staff. In terms of authority, the Staff Office was independent of, and equal to Japan’s Ministry of War. The Office would later become superior to the Ministry. Japanese General Staff offices reported directly to the emperor and were responsible for the planning and execution of military operations.  In addition, as the Chiefs of the General Staff were not cabinet ministers they were completely independent of any civilian oversight or control, as they didn’t report to the Prime Minister of Japan. The Imperial Japanese Navy followed soon the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office with the creation of the Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff.

The formation and survival of a Japanese civilian government was subject to both the Army and the Navy pressure. Japanese law required that the Army and Navy ministers must be filled by active duty officers nominated by their respective services. The law also required that a prime minister must resign if he could not fill all of his cabinet posts. With both the Army and the Navy having final say on the formation of a cabinet, they could bring down a cabinet at any time by simply withdrawing their minister and refusing to nominate his successor. This threat forever loomed large when the Japanese military made demands on the civilian leadership.

It took control of Okinawa. Okinawa Island is the largest of the Ryukyu Islands. It had paid tribute to China from the late 14th-Century C.E. Japan took control of the entire Ryukyu island chain in 1609 C.E. and formally incorporated it into Japan in 1879 C.E. Friction between China and Japan had arisen from Japan's taking control over the Ryukyu Islands in the 1870s C.E.

Starting in the early 1880s, the zaibatsu such as Mitsui and Sumitomo strengthened their economic position. During that period, the Japanese government began selling them several industrial plants and mines which become very profitable. Each zaibatsu also owned a bank.

In concert with the rise of the political parties in the late Meiji Period (October 23, 1868 C.E. to July 30, 1912 C.E.), there was the rise of secret and semi-secret patriotic societies, such as the Genyōsha in 1881 C.E. All saw the need for a solution to Japan's domestic issues. The involvement of these societies and political and paramilitary activities, Japanese military intelligence forced the need for overseas expansion.

On January 4, 1882 C.E., the Imperial Rescript was issued by Emperor Meiji of Japan to Soldiers and Sailors enabled the Japanese military to indoctrinate thousands of men from various social backgrounds with military-patriotic values. All military personnel were required to memorize the 2700 kanji document. It also, placed front and center, the concept of unquestioning loyalty to the Emperor as the basis of the Japanese state or kokutai. The Rescript was considered the most important document in the development of the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy. The Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors was that official code of ethics for military personnel. It has often cited along with the Imperial Rescript on Education as the basis for Japan's pre-World War II national ideology.

Japanese Prince Itō Hirobumi (1841 C.E.-1909 C.E.) was prime minister for most of this period 1885 C.E.-1901 C.E. and dominated foreign policy. This is not to say that he didn’t have some influence over the military or its designs for conquest.

At this time, the Japanese Army Staff College requested that Prussian Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke send Major Jakob Meckel to Japan to become an O-yatoi gaikokujin. While in Japan his period in Japan (1885 C.E.-1888 C.E.) was relatively short. There, he worked closely with future Prime Ministers General Katsura Tarō and General Yamagata Aritomo, and with the army strategist General Kawakami Soroku. Numerous recommendations were made by Meckel which were implemented. These included the reorganization of the command structure of the army into divisions and regiments. His recommendations increased army mobility, strengthening army logistics and transportation structure in support of major army bases connected via railways, establishing artillery and engineering regiments as independent commands, and revising the universal conscription system to abolish virtually all exceptions.

Meckel also had a tremendous impact on the development of the Japanese military itself. He’s credited with having introduced Clausewitz's military theories. He replaced the influence of previous French advisors with his own philosophies by training some sixty of the highest-ranking Japanese officers of the time in organization, tactics, and strategy. In addition, Major Meckel implemented the Prussian concept of kriegspiel or war games in a process of refining Japanese tactics. Meckel taught his Japanese pupils that Prussian military success was a consequence of the Prussian officer class's unswerving loyalty to their sovereign Emperor by reinforcing Hermann Roesler's ideal of subservience which was also expressly codified in Articles XI-XIII of the Meiji Constitution.

In the 1890s C.E., Japan was angered at Russian encroachment on its plans to create a sphere of influence in Korea and Manchuria. Japan wanted recognition of Korea as being within the Japanese sphere of influence. It offered to recognize Russian dominance in Manchuria in exchange for Russia agreement. Russia refused and demanded Korea north of the 39th parallel to be a neutral buffer zone between Russia and Japan. At this point, the Japanese government decided upon an eventual war to stop the perceived Russian threat to its plans for expansion into Asia.

Japan’s Prime Minister Prince Itō Hirobumi oversaw the short, victorious First Sino-Japanese War against China (July 25, 1894 C.E.-April 17, 1895 C.E.). In this War, Japan easily defeated China. Unfortunately, after capturing Port Arthur on the Liaotung Peninsula, Japanese soldiers massacred the Chinese.

After its victory over China, Japan joined the ranks of the imperialist powers. The war with China made Japan the world's first Eastern, modern imperial power. The rivalry then moved on to the issues of political influence in Korea and trade. Following these difficulties, Japan began building up a stable political and economic system. It also created a small, but well-trained army and navy.

In its newly won international position, Prince Itō Hirobumi began a more aggressive foreign policy. He negotiated Chinese surrender on terms aggressively favorable to Japan. This included the annexation of Taiwan and the release of Korea from the Chinese tribute system. He also gained control of the Liaodong Peninsula with Darien and Port Arthur. But Russia, Germany, and France acting together in the Triple Intervention, immediately forced Japan to return these to China.

Here it is important to remind the reader that Japan's desire to control Formosa (Taiwan) and Korea as food sources for the growth of their empire. Japanese leadership wanted Manchuria for her iron and coal deposits. These needs had eventually led to the first Sino-Japanese War with China in 1894 C.E.-1895 C.E.

Next, Prince Itō Hirobumi during negotiations of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Commerce and Navigation of 1894 C.E., succeeded in removing some of the onerous unequal treaty clauses that had plagued Japanese foreign relations since the start of the Meiji period.  

Since the end of the First Sino–Japanese War in 1895 C.E., Japan had continued to fear Russian interference with its plans to create a sphere of influence in Korea and Manchuria. Russia had already demonstrated an expansionist policy in the Siberian Far East from the reign of Ivan the Terrible in the 16th-Century C.E. Clearly, Russia had no intention of accepting Japan’s need for territorial expansion.

Having been victorious First Sino-Japanese War against China (July 25, 1894 C.E.-April 17, 1895 C.E.), Japan had for a very short time had Taiwan in her grasp, but was forced to return it. In the Treaty of Shimonoseki of April 1895 C.E., China finally recognized the independence of Korea. It also ceded to Japan Taiwan, the Pescadores Islands, and the Liaotung Peninsula. Japan had felt robbed by the Western Powers, including Russia, of the spoils of her decisive victory over China. These grievances would not be abated with the revised the Treaty of Shimonoseki. It should be noted that now that Japan had succeeded in secured Taiwan in 1895 C.E., the new territory brought her primarily an agricultural colony. Food was import for a growing population and military. Still, more land was needed by Japan for agricultural exploitation.

Importantly, Taiwan became Japan's first colony with an indigenous population. When the Dutch traders arrived in 1623 C.E., they needed an Asian base for trade with Japan and China. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) built Fort Zeelandia there. They soon began to rule the natives. China then took control in the 1660s C.E., and sent in settlers. By the 1890s C.E., there were about 2.3 million Han Chinese and 200,000 members of indigenous tribes.

Perhaps more important, Japan gained Asia-wide prestige by being the first non-European country to operate a modern colony. It learned how to adjust its German-based bureaucratic standards to actual conditions, and how to deal with frequent insurrections. The ultimate goal was to promote Japanese language and culture, but the administrators realized they first had to adjust to the Chinese culture of the people. Japan had a civilizing mission, and it opened schools so that the peasants could become productive and patriotic manual workers. Medical facilities were modernized, and the death rate plunged. To maintain order, Japan installed a police state that closely monitored everyone.

Again, Japan realized that its home islands could only support a limited resource base, and it hoped that Taiwan, with its fertile farmlands, would make up the shortage. Japan expected far more benefits from the occupation of Taiwan than the limited benefits it actually received.

Another concern of Japan’s imperialist leaders was the insufficient resources and raw materials such as iron, oil, and coal. All had to be imported. At this time, the Japanese military began its covetousness of Manchuria's iron and coal, and it wanted Indochina's rubber, and China's vast resources. The army was also in disagreement with the large Japanese business conglomerate or zaibatsu’s financial and industrial corporations on how to manage economic expansion. This became a conflict which affecting domestic politics.

Russia, France, and Germany, however, saw themselves disadvantaged by the treaty and in the Triple Intervention forced Japan to return the Liaotung Peninsula in return for a larger indemnity. Russia for her part, had sought a warm-water port on the Pacific Ocean for its navy and for maritime trade, as Vladivostok was operational only during the summer. China’s Port Arthur was operational all year. In earlier negotiations with China, Port Arthur, a naval base in Liaodong Province, was leased to Russia.

China further paid an indemnity of 200 million silver taels. It also opened up five new ports to international trade, allowing Japan and other Western powers to set up and operate factories in these cities. The only positive result for China came when those factories led the industrialization of urban China, spinning off a local class of entrepreneurs and skilled mechanics.

The Boxer Rebellion of 1899 C.E. through 1901 C.E. saw Japan and Russia as allies who fought together against the Chinese, with Russians playing the leading role on the battlefield.

By 1900 C.E., Japan had been and remained a warrior empire. Only now, its designs were for an empire beyond its shores, on mainland Asia and in the Pacific.

Here it is important to remind the reader that it was Japan's desire to control Taiwan, Korea, and Manchuria that would lead to the Russo-Japanese War with Russia in 1904 C.E.-1905 C.E.

III.    The Lead up to WWI until 1913

One can readily see that these nations were all determined upon a national will of expansion, whether that expansion be through war, treaty, or purchase. Each in its fashion and to some degree had become militaristic in their approach to the settlement of political matters. 

The earlier chapter, Chapter Twenty-Four - Pre-WWI 1899 C.E. through WWI (April April 6, 1917 C.E.-November 11, 1918 C.E.) dealt with that period before WWI. Hopefully, it left the reader better acquainted with the conditions and circumstances which drove and continued to drive the European nation states and Japan toward war. Here, I provide only a brief of that period.

With the outbreak of WWI in August 1914 C.E., the world was in a state of shock. Somewhere deep inside, many knew that this was a great event in all of history. The war arrived upon Europe suddenly, unexpectedly, and massively. The Americans though protected by the vast ocean that separates Europe from North America, were equally shocked.

United States

The Americans prior to WWI had achieved their major long-term goals. She had become master of the North American Continent and of the peoples she had inherited. The United States also had become adept at political and military intervention in the affairs of the neighboring Latino Américano democracies. In both instances, the United States saw its actions as being done in the name of security, both internal and external. This would continue to be their course.

At the start of WWI, America’s shock did not equate to a shock of recognition. Firstly, the war was far away and the Americans didn’t feel only geographically remote from the conflict they also felt morally remote from it. The contrasts between the Old World and the New World were being reinforced by the conflict. As the American Panamá Canal opened in August 1914 C.E., it seemed to announce America’s world ideals of great works of peace, good will, and above all fair play. To the Americans, the Europeans appeared to base their societies and nations on very different ideals those which celebrated ruin and savagery.

During the first months of the war, the dominant American response was one of remoteness and detachment. There were two exceptions. One was a widespread expression of sympathies for the belligerents, though unevenly divided and distributed. Impartiality toward the two sides in the war characterized about half of public sentiment. Among the other half, sympathies ran five to one in favor of the Allies, Britain and France. Sympathy for the Central Powers, principally Germany, was almost entirely held by first-and second-generation German-Americans.

This early mood of remoteness and detachment did not apply to all. There was a small, exclusive group of Americans who did not share those feelings. This was that American “imperial elite” who had maneuvered the United States into acquiring the Philippines, Guam, and Hawaii in 1898 C.E. These were also the men and women who were guiding the country into a full-fledged membership into that exclusive club known as the Great Powers. That group recognized how deeply and dangerously America was involved in world affairs.

Theodore Roosevelt or TR exemplified this group, as he had for sometime been a leading enthusiast of a greater American role in international affairs. While president, he had incessantly preached about the need to awaken America to her duties and international responsibilities. He saw this as the greater glory of the nation and understood the perils of international involvement. Yet, the American public would have none of it!

WWI was a large, ugly, efficient and effective mechanized war. From 1914 C.E. to 1916 C.E., Americans could visualize their sons off to war and posted at the battlefronts in Europe. There to fight among the dead and dying. At best they hoped for a son that returned home unwounded.  At worst, they dreaded their beloved boy dead, lying face down in the mud of an abandoned trench, alone, and uncared for.

At the end of January 1917 C.E. the Germans would resume and foolishly expanded their U-Boat warfare. America promptly severed diplomatic relations and began arming American merchant ships. Two months later the United States intervened in the war. For the next year and a half, the only concern was winning the war. In many countries, especially those in North America, growth had continued during the war as nations mobilized their economies.

Pre-WWII Europe and the Other Belligerent States 1900 C.E.-1914 C.E.:

America’s enemies and their preparation for war must be understood to contextualize the events that brought about WWII. For the purpose of this chapter, here I will provide background on the three most important American enemies of WWII Germany, Italy, and Japan. These belligerent powers had the most radical and far-reaching plans. To be sure, each had different grievances regarding the path of colonialism and the outcomes of WWI. Each of them also understood the fears and weaknesses of the other powers of Europe and Asia and would use them in order to take advantage of the less strong for their own ends.

Early on, rapid industrialization had given the European states colossal economic and military power leading into the 20th-Century C.E. Outside of Europe, European culture, science, and faith in progress and reason also exerted a powerful influence. These ideas were attractive to the local elites who wanted to modernize their societies. As a result of early industrialization, European states ruled India, most of Africa, and Southeast Asia. Immigrants of European origin had also settled other regions, including North America, parts of Latino América, Siberia, and Australasia. In yet other areas European settlers who were the minority, dominated South Africa and Algeria. Other less successful states fell within the sphere of economic and political influence of one or more of these powers. These include China, the Ottoman Empire, and several republics of Latino América.

Integration by areas that had not industrialized into the world system often meant experiencing greater economic weakness and challenges. China, the Ottoman Empire, and Persia are examples of this. They lost much of the economic weight which they had held between the 16th and 18th centuries C.E. At the same time, throughout the world nations found it more difficult to compete in the international markets.

As the most powerful nations grew larger and became more industrialized they experienced a period of social and economic change which transformed them from agrarian societies into industrial societies. Manufacturers and farmers in the industrialized regions enjoyed the advantages of high productivity through new technology and government protection. Those capable of rapid economic and technological changes increasingly were the most competitive among the powerful states. This then involved extensive reorganization of their economies for the purpose of manufacturing. As manufacturing grew, so did the need for scarce natural resources such as coal, iron, copper, water, timber, etc. Soon, Manufacturers and farmers attuned to their political interests lobbied for economic protectionism and it began to rear its ugly head.

Early in the 20th-Century C.E., the most powerful nations created great difficulties for the lesser powers by a returning to economic protectionism and the use of tariffs for blocking access to markets. These same high tariffs on imports undermined their ability to further integrate into the global economy. Capital needed for the advancement of these lesser nations was also made difficult to obtain. This limited the creation and the use of new more efficient and effective technology in these areas of the world.

This need for materials and scarce natural resources to be used to progress a nation’s industrialization process brought with it war and conquest. Soon the unfortunate states not capable of competing successfully, began to resist European domination and worked together to destabilize the world system. Underlying tensions and weaknesses led to a series of crises that altered the world in several important ways.

Before 1914 C.E., the United States, largely of European stock, had solved its living space issues by the taking of most of North America. It also controlled Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and other locations. Its immediate concerns were with maintaining it position of dominance in the Western Hemisphere and increasing trade. With trade came the protection of trade routes. Italy’s intent was to re-establish the Roman Empire, chiefly in the areas of the Mediterranean as a way to resolve her living space problems. Clearly, Germany sought domination of the European continent, and with it, large areas for living space. She also intended to begin settlement in Eurasia. Japan an Asian nation, controlled Korea and Taiwan. Japan’s interest was to first dislodge the European colonial powers in Asia in order to give her free hand in the carving out needed living space. Secondly, she wanted to establish an East Asian powers alliance under the umbrella of the “Rising Sun.” As for Russia, I will say only this. She wanted to reverse the humiliation of her defeat in WWI.

Italy

By the 20th-Century C.E., Italy was an experienced political, diplomatic, and military interventionist European power. She had fought alongside and against many of the other Great Powers which had given her a sense of strength and prominence. While not totally self-assured Italy understood her place in the world and how to use it to gain her needs. The Italians were set on a course of conquest and geographic expansion. 

Beginning in 1902 C.E. through 1903 C.E., Italy joined the United Kingdom and Germany in the Venezolano naval blockade. It achieved a compromise by which the Venezolano debt dispute was resolved.

By 1911 C.E. and 1912 C.E., Italy had invaded the Turkish province of Libya which was then a part of the Ottoman Empire. It was this intervention by Italy that started the Italo-Turkish War. It resulted in a defeat of the Ottoman Empire by Italy. As a result of the war, Italy gained the areas of Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, Fezzan, and the Dodecanese Islands.

Italian claims over Libya dated back to discussions held after the Congress of Berlin in 1878 C.E. During those talks, France and Great Britain agreed for the occupation of Tunisia and Cyprus. At the time, both were a part of the then failing Ottoman Empire. By 1902 C.E., Italy and France signed a secret treaty which accorded freedom of intervention in Tripolitania and Morocco.

In 1912 C.E., Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was a leading member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). But he would not remain so.

Germany

Germany had only become a unified country in 1871 C.E. She had a great deal to do in order to reach the economic and military positions of her European neighbors and become the world power her leaders believed her capable of. Germany’s rise in status between 1871 and 1900 was remarkable. Upon entering the 20th-Century C.E., she wanted far more. Germany’s need for greatness would be stoked and led by Kaiser Wilhelm II of the House of Hohenzollern.

As her ruler, the Kaiser believed entirely in her ability to achieve all that she deserved. His Imperial Germany was the most complex and problematic European power of the time. His presence would prove to be a misfortune not just for Germany, but of the entire world. He embodied the qualities characterised the contemporary German ruling elite. He was an old fashioned militarist with great personal ambition. Unfortunately, he suffered from neurotic insecurity.

Germany in the years leading up to the war was smitten with its Kaiser. He had spent twelve years ruling over the newly-unified Germany. In the first few years of the 20th-Century C.E., He was at his most comfortable. His confident had grown steadily as did his powerful. Wilhelm’s larger-than-life personality was not as stable as it could have been. Germany needed solid leadership while demanding her place and position in the world. In short, German motives and her policies, both domestically and abroad, during the period reflected the Kaiser’s personality.

Kaiser Wilhelm, despite his own insecurities, believed in his country, the power of the monarchy, and his military. His determination that the world would recognize the validity of these beliefs was the driving force behind German society and its politics and at the beginning of the 20th-Century C.E.

With the start of the 20th-Century C.E., Germany decided to challenge Britain’s naval superiority. The German Navy Laws of 1898 C.E. and 1900 C.E. had placed great emphasis on the importance of naval construction. Cost was of little importance. The Kaiser’s hopes of matching Britain naval superiority were misplaced. In fact, the Germans had lost ground on the naval race, as Britain began its own naval reforms.

While Germany was on her march to international power and dominance, Britain, France, and Russia spent the early years of the 20th-Century C.E., renewing and strengthening their relations. This would be at a great expense to Germany. She was beginning to become increasingly isolated.

Here it is important to mention that at the end of the 19th-Century C.E., animosity between Britain and France had almost led to war and that Germany’s allowing an alliance with Russia to lapse, was misguided. Thus, a rapprochement between the parties was essential as a counter balance to Germany’s growing power.

Soon, the lapse of Germany’s alliance with Russia was seen by the Kaiser as an error. He attempted to renew official relations with the Tsar in 1905 C.E., but it was too late. Russian policy makers opted for a stronger relationship with the French. With this international failure, Wilhelm now found his two main allies to be the unstable Austro-Hungarian Empire and untrustworthy Italy. His bid to match Britain’s naval power had failed and colonial gains had faltered. As a result, the Kaiser saw little option but to ensure Germany’s imperial status via open aggression.

Germany’s political policy shift was displayed during the Morocco crises of 1905 C.E. and 1911 C.E. The first crisis was triggered by Germany as an international crisis designed to tear Britain and France apart through the testing of the strength of their Entente Cordiale.

Basically the March 31, 1905 C.E. Morocco crisis, developed after an unplanned state visit to the Sultan in Tangiers. The Kaiser made a speech calling for the continuation of Moroccan independence, knowing that the issue had been a key part of French and British negotiations in 1904 C.E. That eventual agreement allowed France to hold authority over Morocco, providing that they publicly renounced any influence in British-held Egypt. Clearly, Wilhelm was forcing Germany into play, assuming that the latest Anglo-French rapprochement would not survive the crisis.

France was angry at Germany’s interference. She was aware that this potential source of dispute, the continuation of Moroccan independence, could cause her problems with the established authority over Morocco. The disagreement actually went so far as to the possibility of war between the countries.

By 1906 C.E., Britain felt that Germany posed no immediate naval threat. She had already launched construction of the HMS Dreadnought. The Dreadnought was, at the time, the most powerful battleship ever seen. Its range, speed, and firepower outclassed the German battleships leaving them obsolete. Within a year, Britain had seven dreadnoughts, Germany had none. Germany’s military challenge to Britain allowed for animosity to grow between the two countries’ leaders and politicians.  For the British masses, Germany became a symbol of a power driven to obtain international status and global ambitions. Some saw it as was a matter of life and death for the British Empire. Popular opinion began to see Germany as a serious rival to Britain.

There can be no question that Germany entered the 20th-Century C.E. with the aim of demanding and seizing her “place in the sun.” This meant that she wanted increased influence in the world and was demanding colonial acquisitions as held by the other major world powers.

Here, it is important to understand that Germany was still a newly-unified country with an imperial dynasty to protect. Its challenge was to bring together its many different regions and create one whole. She was facing many of the same problems as the other European nations. The rise of the working class was causing a struggle for greater rights and better more prosperous conditions. The country’ parliament, the Reichstag, was extremely limited. Control of it was in the hands of the Kaiser and his ministers. The Reichstag strength was that it was center for democratic debate within the nation. This position forced the royal hierarchy to listen to the needs and wants of the people and left the German politicians with the preoccupation of as how to meet these demands.

Germany’s policy of Weltpolitik, or global policy, became the strategy with which the Kaiser hoped to improve Germany’s international standing and drive her collective nationalism for a new more powerful world empire. Given Germany’s domestic struggles, Weltpolitik was to also to become a foreign policy means for achieving domestic policy ends. Given the political circumstances, the Kaiser’s government embarked on that nationalist campaign of through Weltpolitik, as Germany of the time was in a quite a political mess. Its intent was to reconcile, pacify, rally, unite, and keep the German people behind the Kaiser and his supporters on the political right.

Soon, the policy was used as a domestic media tool for propaganda purposes to exploit the masses. In nationalistic terms, it became a success. Few Germans doubted that their country was the greatest of European powers.

From an international perspective, Germany’s dominant position in Central Europe was a recognized fact. The surrounding nations and greater Europe did not find Germany’s aggressive stance in the region particularly agreeable. Whatever its motives, the German Empire’s continuing rise was inevitable. Weltpolitik became problematic as its implementation was meddlesome in the affairs of other nations, which would lead Germany increasingly into dangerous alliances and opposing political positions with other nations in the years before 1914 C.E.

Fortunately, the situation regarding the continuation of Moroccan independence was resolved On April 7, 1906 C.E. at the Algeciras Conference. French interests were supported by Britain. Also Russia and Italy, Germany’s supposed allies, had also supported her. Until this juncture, the friendship between Britain and France had been a formal one. It now began to develop into a stronger alliance, leaving Germany even more isolated than ever. Germany was essentially humiliated. Lessons that Germany should have learned, however, were immediately forgotten.

Foreign policy issues such as the high drama as Moroccan stand-offs, were interlinked with domestic issues and policies in European countries. For the Germans, life for the masses at home may not have had the same appreciation of internal politics at home. But still, Germany, as in Britain and much of Europe, was learning to cope with an industrial society. Membership of unions was growing dramatically and strikes occurred regularly. Most of these were designed to bring about change in the German political landscape which disturbed the German hierarchy. Despite the Kaiser’s best efforts, Socialism was on the rise and with it came the fear of revolution and revolt. This situation was managed in part due to the unity inspired by Weltpolitik, a series of government-backed social reforms, and a carefully managed coalition between liberal and conservative parties designed to keep the Social Democratic Party on the outskirts of political life. Such a balance couldn’t be maintained forever.

During the year 1909 C.E., the rising costs of Weltpolitik and the naval race forced budgetary changes. The Kaiser’s new plan aimed at raising revenue by taxing consumer necessities such as beer, tobacco and tea, as well as financial activities like check payments. It soon managed to alienate both the laboring and middle classes. 

By 1911 C.E., Germany was once more attempted to gain influence through the use of the Morocco independence issue. A rebellion against the Sultan had broken out in the city of Fez. Russia soon seized upon the situation. Against the wishes of Morocco’s British allies, the French sent in troops to restore order. Germany’s response was to dispatch a gunboat on July 1, 1911 C.E., the SMS Panther to the Moroccan port of Agadir to protect German trade interests. The move was taken by both France and Britain as a challenge. Publicly, France and Britain again stood solidly together. Great Britain soon began a partial mobilization of its navy. Wilhelm and Germany were now angry, embarrassed, and frustrated after being forced to back down. Such would remain the nature of foreign relations in these years leading up to World War I.

A tax compromise was forced upon German politicians. After several attempts, an inheritance tax for landowners was introduced. The result was the angering of the upper classes. It also failed to stop the Social Democratic rise. In 1912 C.E., they became the largest party in the Reichstag with almost a third of the national vote. This changed little. The Kaiser and his Chancellor still controlled Germany. There could be no denying now the first major threat to the Wilhelmine era. The socialist agenda was gaining pace.

November 6, 1913 C.E., the Saverne Affair Occurred. It was a crisis of domestic policy which occurred in the German Empire. There had been political unrest in Zabern (now Saverne) in Alsace-Lorraine where two battalions of Prussian Infantry were garrisoned. A second-lieutenant insulted the Alsatian population and two local Saverne newspapers reported on the offensive comments made by the military officer and the inhabitants began protesting. The military reacted to the protests with arbitrary illegal acts. The affair not only put a severe strain on the relationship between the imperial state of Alsace-Lorraine and the remainder of the German Empire, but also led to a considerable loss of prestige of the Kaiser.

Japan

In the early-20th-Century C.E., Japan’s elite continued to feel that the Western countries looked down on their Empire. Japanese leadership now saw aggressive imperialism as the only way to force the dominant Western nations to respect them and allow Japan to gain power. 

In 1900 C.E., Japan showed its military prowess when 8,000 of its troops joined 9,000 soldiers from the Western powers to fight side-by-side to defeat the Boxer Rebellion in China.  

Prince Katsura Tarō (1848 C.E.-1913 C.E.) would become an unpopular prime minister in his three terms stretching off and on from 1901 C.E. to 1911 C.E. During Prince Katsura Tarō’s first term (1901 C.E.-1906 C.E.), Japan emerged as a major imperialist power in East Asia. Soon his government would elect to abandon the pursuit of the policy of Man-Kan kōkan, the surrendering of Manchuria to the Russian sphere of influence in exchange for the acceptance of Japanese hegemony in Korea. He did this only to avoid a premature Russo-Japanese War. This decision would continue to cause tensions with Russia and escalate toward war.

Prince Katsura Tarō next made a diplomatic tour of the United States and Europe which brought him to Saint Petersburg, Russia, in November 1901 C.E. While there, he met with Russian authorities but was unable to find compromise on the matter of surrendering of Manchuria to the Russian sphere of influence in exchange for the acceptance of Japanese hegemony in Korea.

1901 C.E. continued to see a rise of secret and semi-secret Japanese patriotic societies, such as the Kokuryukai. The Kokuryukai or Black Dragon Society originated as an anti-Russian society. It was an ultra-nationalist reactionary organization in Japan which existed from 1901 C.E. through 1946 C.E., which was closely linked with the Japanese military leadership and the monopolistic bourgeoisie. All of these parties continued to see a need for increased Japanese expansionism overseas.

Prince Itō Hirobumi’s major breakthrough was the Anglo-Japanese Alliance signed on January 30, 1902 C.E. It was a diplomatic milestone which saw an end to Great Britain's “Splendid Isolation.” Britain’s Splendid Isolation is the term used to describe the foreign policy pursued by Britain during the 19th-Century C.E. The policy sought to avoid formal alliances, particularly with other European powers. This Japanese and Britain mutual defense alliance in effect recognized Japan as one of the world's great powers. In terms of foreign affairs, the Anglo-Japanese Alliance marked Japan as a major imperialist power in East Asia.

Earlier, Russia had dispatched forces into Manchuria to aid in the crushing of the Boxer Rebellion. By April 8, 1903 C.E., Russia was by agreement supposed to have completed its withdrawal of these forces in Manchuria. As that day passed, there were no reductions in Russian forces in Manchuria. In Japan, university students demonstrated against both Russia and their own government for not taking any action regarding Russian troop removal.

On July 28, 1903 C.E., Shinichiro Kurino, the Japanese minister in St. Petersburg was instructed to present his country's view opposing Russia's consolidation plans in Manchuria, which he did.

From 1904 C.E. through 1913 C.E., foreign trade made up about one quarter of Japan's economic activity. This meant that trade with its colonies accounted for less than 2% of Japan's total economic activity during this period. In essence, her colonies provided only raw materials and food products.

Russian and Japanese imperial ambitions continued over Manchuria and Korea. Earlier, Japan had fought the war against China from 1894 C.E.-1895 C.E. to ensure that Korea would not be used by another imperialist power to threaten Japan's security. These political, economic, and military rivalries would bring about the Russo-Japanese War. Japan seeing Russia as a territorial rival and immediate threat, she had previously offered to recognize Russian dominance in Manchuria in exchange for recognition of Korea as being within the Japanese sphere of influence. Russia had refused. In addition, Russia also demanded that Korea north of the 39th parallel be a neutral buffer zone between Russia and Japan.

By 1904 C.E., with little response from Russia regarding the removal of her troops from Manchuria, Japan continued aggressively upon its nationalistic policy of fukoku kyōhei or rich country, strong military. It emphasized Japan's goals to catch up with the Western powers, develop the country economically, to increase its military strength, and to ensure its existence as an independent nation. 

After Russian-Japanese negotiations broke down in 1904 C.E., the Japanese government now perceived Russia as an imminent threat to its plans for expansion into Asia. Without political progress on the issues Japan chose to go to war.

On February 8, 1904 C.E., three hours before Japan's declaration of war was received by the Russian government, the Japanese Imperial Navy opened hostilities by attacking the Russian Far East Fleet at Port Arthur, China. Tsar Nicholas II was stunned by news of the attack. This surprise attack, the Japanese Navy began the the Russo-Japanese War (1904 C.E.-1905 C.E.) between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan. As it progressed, it quickly moved into the major theatres of operations of Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden in Southern Manchuria and the seas around Korea, Japan, and the Yellow Sea.

As the war intensified, Russia suffered multiple defeats. Still, Tsar Nicholas II (May 18, 1868 C.E.-July 17, 1918 C.E.) remained convinced that Russia would win and remained in the war. The Tsar awaited the outcomes of certain naval battles, which were won by Japan. Despite this, to preserve the dignity of Russia and avert a humiliating peace, Russia ignored Japan's early willingness to agree to an armistice and rejected the idea to bring the dispute to the Arbitration Court at The Hague. Finally, with the question of winning the war was no longer at issue. Russia and Japan entered into mediation.

Japan’s complete military victory over Russia transformed the balance of power in East Asia and surprised world observers. This was the first major modern era military victory of an Asian power over a European one. It resulted in a reassessment by the European Powers of Japan's recent entry onto the world stage. In short, Japan had succeeded in ending the East Asian competition for Korea and Manchuria and expansion of a European nation, the Russian Empire. This was the first major military victory in the modern era of an Asian power over a European one.

By 1905 C.E., Taiwan was producing rice and sugar and paying only for itself, and keeping a small surplus.

Prince Katsura Tarō strengthened diplomatic ties with Western powers including Germany, the United States, and especially Great Britain. He did this through the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1905 C.E. by which the original agreement was renewed and expanded in scope.

With Japan’s triumph over Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, Japan was now truly an imperialist power. She continued to strengthen and modernize her military in order to secure her new overseas empire. Her leaders had a sense that only through a strong military would Japan earn the respect from the Western nations that she felt entitled to. Japan also wanted to gain revisions of previously negotiated treaties which she saw as unequal.

Japan’s victory over Russia also brought about the Taft-Katsura agreement. U.S. Secretary of War William Howard Taft met with Prime Minister Katsura Tarō in Japan. The two concluded the secret Agreement, in which the United States acknowledged Japanese rule over Korea and condoned the Anglo-Japanese alliance. At the same time, Japan recognized U.S. control of the Philippines.

With the Treaty of Portsmouth mediated by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, the war would later be concluded. On September 5, 1905 C.E., the sweeping Treaty ended the Russo-Japanese War (1904 C.E. through 1905 C.E.). At Japan’s request, with President Roosevelt acted as a mediator the two sides of the conflict met on neutral territory in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The Treaty once signed, ceded some Russian property and territory to Japan and ending the war. It gave Japan full control of Korea, the southern Sakhalin Islands, and China’s southern Liaodong Peninsula. Manchuria was returned to China and the Japanese agreed to pay Russia for its lost territory.

Also in 1905 C.E., the Japanese began establishing more formal controls over South Manchuria by forcing China to give Japan ownership rights to the South Manchurian Railway. The Japanese Kwantung Army group began leasing territories in southern Manchuria. It did so by succeeding existing Russian leases. The Kwantung army group of the Imperial Japanese Army would become in the first half of the 20th-Century C.E., the largest and most prestigious command in the IJA. Many of its personnel, such as Chiefs of staff Seishirō Itagaki and Hideki Tōjōwere, would be promoted to high positions in both the military and civil government in the Empire of Japan. It would be chiefly responsible for the eventual creation of the Japanese-dominated Empire of Manchukuo.

By this time, it was clear to all that the Japanese was to use this opening to make further inroads into northeast China. This caused the Roosevelt Administration concern that Japan was violating the ideals of free enterprise and China’s territorial integrity. Simultaneously, leading Japanese officials expressed frustration with the treatment of Japanese immigrants in the United States.

The Empire of Japan and the Korean Empire signed the Eulsa Treaty on November 17, 1905 C.E., which brought Korea into the Japanese sphere of influence as a protectorate. The Treaty was a result of the Japanese victory in the Russo-Japanese War and Japan wanting to increase its hold over the Korean Peninsula.

The earlier Eulsa Treaty led to the signing of the 1907 Treaty on July 24, 1907 C.E. The Treaty ensured that Korea would act under the guidance of a Japanese resident general. Korean internal affairs would now be under Japanese control. Korean Emperor Gojong protested Japanese these actions in the Hague Conference. As a result, he was forced to abdicate in favor of his son, Sunjong.

In 1908 C.E., U.S. Secretary of State Elihu Root and Japanese Ambassador Takahira Kogoro established the Root-Takahira Agreement signed on November 30, 1908 C.E. Japan promised to respect U.S. territorial possessions in the Pacific, its Open Door policy in China, and the limitation of immigration to the United States as outlined in the Gentlemen’s Agreement. The Government of Japan redirected its labor emigrants to its holdings in Manchuria, maintaining that these were not a part of China. For its part, the United States recognized Japanese control of Taiwan and the Pescadores, and the Japanese special interest in Manchuria. By reiterating each country’s position in the region, the Agreement served to lessen the threat of a misunderstanding or war between the two nations.

Between 1894 C.E. and 1910 C.E., Japan developed a handful of huge privately-owned conglomerates called zaibatsu. During the period, these had increased their economic power. Some of the zaibatsu such as Mitsui and Sumitomo had histories of more than 200 years. By 1910 C.E., the zaibatsu’s five largest banks held only 17% of the total market share of loans. Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries accounted for 33% of economic output and 67% of employment in 1910 C.E. Manufacturing and construction contributed only 23% to economic output, and over half of manufacturing production came from cottage industries employing less than five people. Manufacturing consisted mainly of food products and textiles at 34% each, whereas heavy industry made up only 21%.The economic power of the zaibatsu companies during this period would not approach anywhere near their domination just prior to and during World War II. 

The aftermath of the First Sino-Japanese War against China from July 25, 1894 C.E. through April 17, 1895 C.E., and the Russo-Japanese War against Russia from 1904 C.E. through 1905 C.E., left the victorious Japan the dominant power in the Far East. Its sphere of influence now extended over southern Manchuria, Korea, and Taiwan. Unfortunately, the Japanese home islands still lacked resources and raw materials other than a very few coal and iron deposits and a small oil field on Sakalin Island. The continued lack of strategic industrial and military mineral resources remained a large Japanese political issue and problem for Japanese industry. The success of Japan’s securing Korea and Taiwan did little more than bring her another agricultural colony. What she needed were resources to support her growing industrial base for military purposes. 

After a few of her colonial ambitions had been satisfied, Japan had made rapid progress in industrialization and modernization through 1910 C.E. The Japanese modeled their industrial economy closely on the most advanced European models. They started with textiles, railways, and shipping, expanding to electricity and machinery. None the less, Japan was still considered a developing country. Her most serious weakness remained a shortage of raw materials. Industry had run short of copper and coal became a net importer.

On the military front, there was a deep flaw in Japan’s aggressive military strategy. It remained heavily dependence on imports from the United States, Britain, and the Netherlands which supplied oil and iron. This included 100 percent of the aluminum needed, 85 percent of its iron ore, and especially 79 percent of Japan’s oil supplies. This presented her leaders with a dilemma. Japan had difficult choices to make about the available alternatives of peace by remaining one of the less power nations and being dependent upon the stronger ones or war. What would she? It was one thing for the Japanese to go to war with China or Russia, two of the less powerful nations. It was quite another matter to enter into conflict with the key suppliers, who were also rich and militarily powerful.

Prince Katsura Tarō’s second term (1908 C.E.-1911 C.E.) was noteworthy for the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty. It was signed by the representatives of the Korean and Japanese Imperial Governments on August 22, 1910 C.E. Treaty was proclaimed to the public and became effective on August 29th, officially starting the period of Japanese rule in Korea. That same year, despite the two wars, the difficulties associated with Japan’s territorial expansion and military buildup, Japan was still able to begin its Antarctic Expedition in December of 1910 C.E.

By 1911 C.E., the earlier Anglo-Japanese Alliance was renewed and expanded. This was recognition that Japan was becoming a great power through militarization, conquest, diplomacy, and the acquisition of colonies. To understand this remarkable rise, one must realize that the Emperor of Japan Mutsuhito Meiji Tennō (November 3, 1852 C.E.-July 30, 1912 C.E.), from 1867 C.E. until his death in 1912 C.E., had dramatically transformed Japan from a feudal country into one of the great powers of the modern world. During his final years government spending had increased in the area of overseas investments for its new colonies, as Japan had to invest in and improve infrastructure to improve agricultural yields and mining operations. Military defense expenditures had also increased with the dream of a stronger, greater Japan. This left little credit or financial reserves available to cover these or other investments. When Emperor Meiji appointed Prime Minister Saionji Kinmochi, he attempted to moderate his country’s increasing militarism and cut defense spending. The Japanese military industrial complex would have none of it.

By 1912 C.E., Emperor Meiji was dead. Crown Prince Yoshihito (1879 C.E.-1926 C.E.) followed Emperor Meiji and ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne. He was now Emperor Taishō on July 30th. Yoshihito was Emperor Meiji’s third son. During the Emperor Taishō’s Period (1912 C.E.-1926 C.E.), democracy in Japan would develop along with a modern prosperous civilian culture. The previous Emperor Meiji’s Prime Minister, Saionji Kinmochi, continued in his post after the Emperor’s death in service to Emperor Taishō providing some governmental continuity.

That same year, Prime Minister Kinmochi failed to pass his budget through the Diet requesting funding for two additional army divisions. Under the Meiji Constitution, the Minister of the Army, who served as Minister of War and Minister of the Navy, were appointed by their respective services. Their appointments were not made by the Prime Minister. In addition, the military was also directly answerable only to the Emperor, not the elected government. Army Minister, General Uehara Yusaku, unable to get the cabinet to agree on the army's demands, resigned. 

The Army Ministry of the Ministry of War had been a cabinet-level ministry in the Empire of Japan from 1872 C.E. It was charged with the administrative affairs of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The practice was made law under the "Military Ministers to be Active-Duty Officers Law" Gumbu daijin gen'eki bukan sei, in 1900 C.E., by Prime Minister Yamagata Aritomo. It has hoped that the law would curb the influence of political parties in military affairs. The law and the constitution now required that the Army Minister’s eligibility be restricted only to active duty generals or admirals. This gave the military a trump card over the government would have unforeseen effects. With no eligible general of the Imperial Army willing to serve, the Army refused to appoint a successor. Unable to form a cabinet, Saionji resigned on December 21, 1912 C.E. The Army’s action brought down the government. As can be seen, the main threat to representative democracy in Japan proved to be the Japanese military, not the political parties.

The Emperor immediately requested a former army general, Katsura Tarō, to form the new government. He had previously served as Prime Minister twice before and was a member of the genrō. These were retired elder Japanese statesmen considered the "founding fathers" of modern Japan who served as informal extra-constitutional advisors to the emperor, during the Meiji, Taishō periods. Katsura was not a popular choice with the public, which believed he focused his interests more on the military than on the rest of the people. The new Prime Minister’s reappointment would be brief, from December 21, 1912 C.E. to February 20, 1913 C.E. Soon after taking office, the Prime was faced with a ministerial defection of his own. The Japanese Navy sought an increased budget to fund the construction of new battleships. As a negotiating tactic, the Navy threatened to withhold the appointment of a Navy Minister. Unlike his predecessor, the Prime Minister went directly to the Emperor, who issued an edict that the Navy must provide a minister

Katsura’s decisions soon resulted in widespread riots which became known as the Taishō Political Crisis. His appointment was viewed as a plot by the genrō to overthrow the Meiji Constitution. His chief opposition was led by Inukai Tsuyoshi and Ozaki Yukio of the Rikken Seiyūkai party. The Party held a majority of the seats in the Lower House of the Diet of Japan at the time. As they brought criticism against him, Katsura created his own political party rather than compromising on key issues. The Rikken-Dōshi Kai (Dōshikai) or Association of Allies of the Constitution was a political party active in the Empire of Japan in the early years of the 20th-Century C.E. He approached them in an effort to establish his own support base. Katsura was able to convince 90 Diet members, including all 31 members of the Chūō Club and half of the Rikken Kokumintō, to join his new party. The Prime Minister founded the Rikken Dōshikai Party on February 7, 1913 C.E., largely served to support his cabinet against criticism.

Support for Prime Minister Katsura in the Diet continued to fall. He soon lost the support of his backers. The Prime Minister was facing a no-confidence motion. This was the first successful no-confidence motion in Japanese history. After losing the vote of no confidence, Katsura resigned on February 20, 1913 C.E. He was replaced by Yamamoto Gonnohyōe, a former navy admiral. He died later that same year, but the Party survived Katsura's death

IV.   The Europeans Go To War WWI 1914 C.E.-1917 C.E.

Many of the initial grievances which would start the First World War would become irrelevant in the face of the massive new conflict. With the advent of WWI, it is clear that the Great Powers of Europe felt little need to proceed in a peaceful manner unless that peace met their immediate and long-term nationalistic needs. Each had grown accustomed to the use of diplomacy only to obtain their preferred ends. As for treaties, they found the sword mightier than the pen. Few of these European powers would achieve any of their long-term strategic goals. By the end of the conflict, all would see a dramatic reshaping of the continent, however, not as anticipated by the belligerent powers.

The Allies

The United States

Since the 1870s C.E., apprehensive Americans had watched and waited as the major nations of Europe had been building toward war with each other. Preparations had been subtle, but still apparent. By the 1870s C.E., the independent German kingdoms had united and quickly became the largest power on the continent. France was arming heavily in case its centuries-old rival Germany chose to attack her. Fearing the growing German threat, Russia sought to ally itself with Great Britain, France, and even Germany itself for protection. The British having the world's most powerful navy tried hard to remain out of the conflict, but found that her threatening naval strength made that impossible. In Central Europe, provinces within the Austro-Hungarian Empire had become extremely unstable. The leaders of the Ottoman Empire in the Near East continued in their age-long pursuit to expand their power.

It is generally accepted that the European powers had attempt and managed to avoid war. Unfortunately, when it did erupt in the autumn of 1914 C.E., the war quickly escalated into the most deadly war the world had ever seen. On one side united as the Central Powers were the Germans, Austro-Hungarians, and the Ottoman Turks. On the other side stood the Entente Powers of Great Britain, France, and Russia.

The United States had continued in its strong precedent of distancing itself from European political entanglements. Its people and government, Congress and the President, had no desire to displace that position with warmongering. In appealing to the public, Wilson announced that the United States "must be neutral in fact as well as in name" and "impartial in thought as well as in action." Very few citizens wanted the United States to enter the Great War.

Most Americans felt more inclined to side with England and the Entente Allies. Americans continued to conduct business as always. America and its merchants initially traded goods such as food, clothing, medicines, equipment, and even arms to both sides in the war. America’s neutral ports were open to all powers so long as they were used for non-military purposes. At first, both belligerent powers agreed not to interfere with neutral shipping lines. The powers often seized American merchant ships, but both sides paid for the cargo they seized.

During the early course of the war, actions taken by the Germans quickly caused many Americans to look more favorably on the Entente Powers. There began in Germany a perception that the United States traded more with England and France than with her. With the British Navy’s having placed an impenetrable blockade around the European continent Germany began suffering from a severe lack of supplies and food. This was brought on by the Germans were having trouble receiving any goods from the U.S. and other nations

Consequently, Germany began its great submarine campaign in February of 1915 C.E. Submarine, or U-boat, technology had only recently been perfected, and Germany had produced a large fleet of the new vessels prior to the outbreak of war. As submarine technology and its wide usage and application for war was new regular naval ships had few methods of defending against them. The German U-boat campaign soon became so effective that it even astonished Germany by its success. Soon, Germany announced that it could no longer guarantee the safety of neutral ships. With the announcement and the terrible toll German U-boat were taking on shipping, President Wilson understood that this campaign had escalated the carnage of the war to a new level. He extended his services as arbiter to both sides and all nations involved and began to push for mediation and settlement.

That year, of 1915 C.E., President Wilson also sent his trusted friend and advisor Colonel Edward House to England, France, and Germany to propose a peace settlement. None were willing to listen, as each side believed it had the upper hand and would ultimately win the war. In strong statements, Wilson notified Germany that serious consequences would result if American lives were to be lost as a result of illegal German submarine warfare.

By May of 1915 C.E., as Americans learned that the British ocean liner Lusitania had been destroyed by a German submarine, the tension of the issues of Neutrality became more intense. Over 120 Americans, including women and children, were among the nearly 1,200 casualties. America was outraged. Despite this, it was still the wish of the American people, Congress, and Wilson to remain out of the conflict. Wilson next declared that the U.S. would not retaliate, as peace was in the world's best interest. In an effort to persuade Germany, Wilson then dispatched a series of communiqués. In these, he attempted to appeal to their sense of morality in an effort to have them end their attacks on nonbelligerent shipping.

The year 1916 C.E., saw an America committed to steering itself way from the Great War, while still continuing to prepare for the inevitable. Government agencies were being renamed and others were newly constituted. Where the U.S. used her military internationally, she sought to do so with restraint. While not officially American Government actions, American volunteer units began their participation in the War.

In January of 1916 C.E., in the Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad case the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the national income tax. A great deal of money would be needed if the United States entered the war. The national income tax had to stay.

In that same month, the Anti-Militarism Committee changed its name to the Anti-Preparedness Committee. Later in the year, it would become the “American Union Against Militarism.” By whatever name, the organization was set upon neutrality and staying out of WWI, as were the majority of Americans.

On March 6th, Newton D. Baker was appointed Secretary of War for the United States. He was one of several prominent Georgists appointed to positions in the Wilson Cabinet. The economic philosophy Georgism or single tax is an economic philosophy holding that, while people should own the value they produce themselves, economic value derived from land (including natural resources and natural opportunities) should belong equally to all members of society.

From March 8th through March 9, 1916 C.E., the Méjicano bandit and revolutionary, Pancho Villa, led approximately 500 Méjicano raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico, killing 12 U.S. soldiers. In response, a garrison of the U.S. 13th Cavalry Regiment fought back and drove them away. The attack heightened American security concerns.

By March 15th, President Woodrow Wilson sent 12,000 U.S. troops over the U.S.- Méjico border in pursuit of Pancho Villa. The 13th Cavalry regiment was one of those commands to enter Méjicano territory. Rómulo Rivera of New Mexico would serve later during WWI in the 15th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army Troop F. Prior, also did duty along the Méjicano border and the hunt for the Méjicano bandit Pancho Villa.

On March 16th, the U.S. 7th and 10th Cavalry regiments under General John J. Pershing crossed the border to join the hunt for Villa. During the incursion, United States Army aircraft flew their first mission over foreign soil when Curtiss JN-3s of the 1st Aero Squadron carried out reconnaissance over Méjico.

American involvement in WWI was slowly beginning. On April 20, 1916 C.E., the Escadrille Américaine or American Squadron, was established as an American volunteer unit of the French Air Force. Individual Americans were acting even without a national mandate. 

By May 5th, the United States Government began a military occupation and administration of the Dominican Republic when companies of the United States Marine Corps landed. The move was triggered by concerns about possible German use of that nation as a base for attacks on the United States during World War I. It would last until 1924 C.E.

On May 18th, the American Squadron, under French Air Force command achieved its first aerial victory. The Americans had arrived and were serious.

As America inched toward war, on June 3rd, the U.S. Division of Militia Affairs was renamed the Militia Bureau. Under a new law it was expanded and reorganized to oversee federal funding and other requirements for the National Guard in each state. The 1916 Act also authorized the President to mobilize the National Guard in case of war or other national emergency, and for the duration of the event.

By July 1st, the United States Marine Corps took control of Santo Domíngo.

On July 22nd, during a Preparedness Day parade a bomb exploded on Market Street in San Francisco, California.  The Preparedness Day Bombing occurred when the city held a parade in honor of Preparedness Day. This was in anticipation of the United States' imminent entry into World War I. During the parade a suitcase bomb was detonated, killing ten and wounding 40. This was the worst attack in San Francisco's history.

By July 30th, German agents in an act of sabotage caused the Black Tom explosion in Jersey City, New Jersey. It destroyed an ammunition depot and killed at least 7 people. The Germans were sending ominous warnings to the Neutral America that more was to come.

August 24th, the Council of National Defense was formed. It was to coordinate resources and industry in support of the war effort. It included the coordination of transportation, industrial and farm production, financial support for the war, and public morale. The United States slowly continuing it efforts to expand its infrastructure capabilities for its probable entry into WWI.

August 29th, the United States passed the Jones Act, formally Philippine Autonomy Act of 1916. The statute announced the intention of the United States government to “withdraw their sovereignty over the Philippine Islands as soon as a stable government can be established therein.”

September 7th, the Merchant Marine Act of 1916 established the U.S. Shipping Board. The purpose of the U.S. Shipping Board was to develop water transportation, operate the merchant ships owned by the government, regulate the water carriers engaged in commerce under the flag of the United States, and to enforce the La Follette Seamen's Act regulations. The Board consisted of 5 members and was empowered to form one or more corporations for the purchase, leasing, and operation of merchant vessels with a maximum capital of $50 million.

The Board was to acquire vessels suitable for naval auxiliaries, to regulate commerce on the Great Lakes and the high seas, including the fixing of rates, to cancel or modify any agreement among carriers that were found to be unfair as between carriers and exporters, or which operated to the detriment of United States commerce, and to sanction pooling agreements among shippers which were exempted from the operations of the Sherman Act.

On November 5th, the Everett Massacre took place in Everett, Washington. IWW organizers had gone into Everett to support a five-month-long strike by shingle workers. Once there, vigilantes organized by business had beaten them up with axe handles and run them out of town. The Seattle IWW decided to go to Everett in numbers to hold a rally to show their support for the striking shingle workers. That year, Everett, Washington, was facing a serious depression. There had been ongoing confrontation between business, commercial interests, labor, and labor organizers. A number of labor-organized rallies and speeches were being held in the street. Local law enforcement was firmly on the side of business and opposed the rallies. Soon, an armed confrontation between local authorities and members of the Industrial Workers of the World began, resulting in 7 deaths.

On November 7th, the 1916 C.E., the U.S. presidential election was held. The Democrat, President Woodrow Wilson, narrowly defeated the Republican Charles E. Hughes. Woodrow Wilson would continue his efforts to keep America out of the war.

On November 21st, the United States rejected a German offer of £10000 per-American lost in the earlier sinking of the RMS Lusitania. For Germany’s sinking of the ship, she was accused of breaching the internationally recognised Cruiser Rules. The Germans had sunk the completely defenseless, officially non-military ship, without warning. To make matters worse, they killed almost a thousand civilians, many of whom were children.

On December 31st, 14 journals published Louis Raemaekers's anti-German cartoons. His graphic cartoons depicted the rule of the German military in Belgium, portrayed the Germans as barbarians and Kaiser Wilhelm II as an ally of Satan. He was a Dutch painter and editorial cartoonist for the Amsterdam newspaper De Telegraaf during World War I and noted for his anti-German stance. Immediately after the Germans invaded Belgium, Raemaekers became one of their fiercest critics. The Netherlands had to take sides for the Allies and abandon its neutral stance.

January 11th, German saboteurs set off the Kingsland Explosion at Kingsland, New Jersey (modern-day Lyndhurst). A fire was started in Building 30 of the Canadian Car and Foundry Company at Kingsland in Bergen County, New Jersey. Within a 4 hour period, 500,000 pieces of 3 inch-high explosive shells were discharged, destroyed the entire plant. It was believed to be larger than the nearby 1916 C.E. explosion at Black Tom. This was only one of the many events which would lead to U.S. involvement in World War I.

On January 22nd, President Woodrow Wilson stood before a joint session of Congress and told that body that America must maintain its neutrality in the Great War ravaging Europe. He laid out a vision for a just and peaceful world, a future that included free seas, an international agreement to avoid arms races, a United States that served as a peace broker, and most important of all--peace without victory. “Victory would mean peace forced upon a loser, a victor’s terms imposed upon the vanquished.” In short, the President called for "peace without victory" in Europe.

January 25th, the Danish West Indies were sold to the United States for $30 million. The

American President Woodrow Wilson and his Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, feared that the German government might annex Denmark. In which case, the Germans might also secure the Danish West Indies. It was felt that Germany would then use them as a naval or submarine base from which they could launch additional attacks on shipping in the Caribbean and the Atlantic. 

January 28th, the United States Government ended its search for the Méjicano bandit Pancho Villa. January 30th, General Pershing's troops in Méjico began their withdrawal back to the United States. They reach Columbus, New Mexico by February 5th.

On February 3, 1917 C.E., President Wilson went before Congress and announced the break in the official relations with Germany. This he did because of an announcement two days earlier by Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollwegg regarding the reintroduction of the German Navy’s policy of unlimited submarine warfare. In his speech, Wilson announced that his government had no choice but to cut all diplomatic ties with Germany in order to uphold the honor and dignity of the United States. Wilson maintained that the U.S. did not desire a hostile conflict with the German government. Nevertheless, he cautioned that war would follow if Germany followed through on its threat to sink American ships without warning. This was seen as a prelude to war.

February 24th, the United States ambassador to the United Kingdom, Walter H. Page, was shown the now famous intercepted Zimmermann Telegram. A review of its content found that

Germany was proposing to return the American Southwest to Méjico, if Méjico declared war on the United States.

By March 1st, the U.S. government released the plaintext of the Zimmermann Telegram to the American public. It set off a storm of protest, pushing America close to war.

On March 2nd, with the enactment of the Jones Act, Puerto Ricans were granted United States citizenship. The action it was thought would bring the Puerto Ricans closer to America as allies.

March 4th, President Woodrow Wilson began his second term. Wilson's second term would be dominated by the America's entry into World War I and the aftermath of that war's destruction and confusion. 

March 31st, the United States took possession of the Danish West Indies, which became the US Virgin Islands.

President Woodrow Wilson had been re-elected in 1916 on a platform of strict neutrality. Late that same year, he had attempted to broker a peace between the Allies and the Central Powers. While Germany looked at favorably upon it, it was eventually rejected by both France and Great Britain. On April 2nd, the President asked the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany. “The world must be made safe for democracy,” U.S. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed on that day in 1917 C.E.

By May 18th, the Selective Service Act was passed by the U.S. Congress. It gave the President the power of conscription for WWI. On June 5th, World War I conscription had begun in the United States.

June 15th, the U.S. enacted the Espionage Act to prohibit interference with military operations or recruitment. It also was established to prevent insubordination in the military, and to prevent the support of United States enemies during wartime.

On July 1st, a labor dispute ignited a race riot in East St. Louis, Illinois, which leaves 250 dead. From July 1st through July 3, 1917 C.E., a small Illinois city located across the river from its Missouri counterpart was overrun with violence. A smoldering labor dispute turned deadly as rampaging whites began brutally beating and killing African-Americans. By the end of the three-day crisis, the official death toll was 39 black individuals and nine whites, but many believe that more than 100 African-Americans were killed.

On July 12th, the Phelps Dodge Corporation in what was to be called the “Bisbee Deportation,” deported over 1,000 suspected IWW members from Bisbee, Arizona. The men were boarded onto cattle cars provided by the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad. Over 2,000 members of a deputized posse were used for this deportation action which some believed to constitute an illegal kidnapping and deportation of about 1,300 striking mine workers, their supporters, and citizen bystanders.

In August, the Green Corn Rebellion took place in central Oklahoma. It was an uprising by several hundred farmers against the World War I draft. Many had remained fiercely against American involvement in the war.

August 3rd, the New York Guard is founded. The Guard is a state volunteer force which augments and supports the New York National Guard with manpower and skills. Guard members were a volunteer, unpaid force which served at the direction of the Governor. They assisted the National Guard in planning, training for and executing state emergency support and disaster missions, and provided legal and medical pre-deployment assistance to the National Guard units and other reserve components as requested.

Following the detention of an African American soldier, 156 soldiers of the Third Battalion of the all-black Twenty-fourth United States Infantry Regiment, marched on Houston August 23rd. They took part in what would be called the “Houston Riot,” which occurred after some disagreement with the Houston Police Department. Almost from the arrival of the Twenty-fourth Infantry in Houston, Texas, the presence of black soldiers in the segregated city caused conflict. There, the soldiers encountered segregated street cars and white workers at Camp Logan who demanded separate tanks of drinking water. The soldiers from the Twenty-fourth had been involved in a number of clashes with the city police, several of which resulted in the soldiers receiving minor injuries. By the end of the riot, 4 soldiers and 15 civilians died. It was follow by courts-martial, and 19 soldiers are hanged.

On November 17th, the U.S. Navy destroyers U.S.S. Fanning and U.S.S. Nicholson captured the Imperial German Navy U-boat SM U-58 off the south-west coast of Ireland. This was the first combat action in which U.S. ships took a submarine, which they is then scuttled.

November 24th, 9 members of the Milwaukee Police Department were killed by a bomb in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was the most fatal single event in U.S. police history up till that time. At the time, it was believed that the bomb was placed at the church by sympathizers of the anarchists who were arrested in connection with the Bay View riot of September 9th, 1917 C.E.

Rómulo Rivera of New Mexico served during WWI in the 15th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army Troop F. Prior, the 15th did duty along the Méjicano border and the hunt for the Méjicano bandit Pancho Villa from December 1917 C.E. to March 1918 C.E.

December 6th, the U.S. Navy destroyer U.S.S. Jacob Jones was torpedoed and sunk German submarine U-53 in the Atlantic Ocean, killing 66 crew members. It was the first significant American naval loss of the war.

On December 26th, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson used the Federal Possession and Control Act to place most U.S. railroads under the United States Railroad Administration. The aim of this action was to more efficiently transport troops and materials for the war effort.

Italy

Historians have generally noted that Europe’s Great Powers had managed to avoid war for so long, that when it did erupt in the autumn of 1914 C.E., it quickly escalated into the most deadly war the world had seen. On one side were the Germans, Austro-Hungarians, and the Ottoman Turks united as the Central powers, while Great Britain, France, and Russia fought together as the Entente Powers on the other.

Since the 1870s C.E., most of the major countries in Europe had been gearing for war with each other. Preparations had been subtle. The independent German kingdoms united in the 1870s C.E. had quickly become the largest power on the European Continent. The rebellious provinces within the Austro-Hungarian Empire were making Central Europe extremely unstable. The aggressive leaders of the Ottoman Empire in the Near East sought to expand their power.

Meanwhile, the British a member of the Entente Powers were attempting to remain out of the conflict, but found that having the world's most powerful navy made that impossible. France was arming heavily in case its centuries-old rival Germany chose to attack. Russia also feared the growing German threat and sought to ally itself with Great Britain, France, and even Germany itself for protection.

Italian and German fascism began their rise to power for many reasons, too numerous to outline here. In part, the rise of German fascism was in reaction to the international communist and socialist uprisings in Germany which was one of the most troubling of the ongoing difficulties.

From 1914 C.E. through 1918 C.E., Italy engaged in World War I. It fought on the Allied side which would eventually include the United Kingdom, Indian Empire, Dominion of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Newfoundland, Belgium, France, Russia, Japan, United States, Serbia, Greece, and other Allies. Their opponent was the Central Powers.

By 1915 C.E., Italian fascist ideology or Fascism was founded in Italy and became associated with a series of three political parties, all led by Benito Mussolini. He had been expelled from the PSI for advocating military intervention in World War I, in opposition to the party's stance supporting neutrality. Mussolini then denounced the PSI. His political views would now center on nationalism instead of socialism. That same year, Italy entered World War I in May 1915 C.E., by declaring war on Austria-Hungary.

By 1916 C.E., Italy had fought many battles with little real progress. The Royal Italian Army under the command of Chief of Staff and Field Marshall Luigi Cadorna engaged in the Isonzo, the main battlefield on the Italian Front. The goal of these offensives was the capture fortress of Gorizia which would permit the Italian armies to pivot south and to march on toward Trieste.

February 14th, the first bombing of the city of Milan, Italy, occurred. Two Austrian planes dropped bombs on Porta Romana and Porta Volta.

After the winter lull, from March 9th through March 15, 1916 C.E., the Italians launched their Fifth Battle of the Isonzo. Austrian-Hungarian troops were able to repulse the Italian offensive. The battle soon concluded due to poor weather which was bad for trench warfare.

From May 15th through June 10, 1916 C.E., the Battle of Asiago took place. Following the stalemate, the Austrian forces began planning a counteroffensive in Trentino. It was to be directed over the plateau of Altopiano di Asiago, with the aim of breaking through to the Po River plain. It was hoped that this would cut off the Italian Armies in the North East of the country. The failed offensive resulted in no gain.

June 11th, Prime Minister Antonio Salandra resigned due to the indecisive outcome of the Battle of Asiago. June 18th, Paolo Boselli formed a new Cabinet. The new Italian government was characterized as one of national unity consisting of nineteen ministers, representing all political groups.

July 12th, two Austrian subjects Cesare Battisti and Fabio Filzi who had enlisted in the Italian army were captured by the Austrians. They were condemned them as deserters. They were also hanged by the Austrians in Trento for being exponents of Trentino irredentism. This irredentism was a nationalist movement during the late 19th and early-20th centuries in Italy. The irredentist goals promoted the unification of geographic areas in which indigenous ethnic Italians and Italian-speaking persons formed a majority, or substantial minority, of the population.

August 6 through August 17, 1916 C.E., the Italians launched both the Battle of Doberdò and the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo. The result was a success greater than the previous attacks. In actuality, the offensive gains nothing of strategic value. They did take Gorizia which boosted Italian spirits.

August 28th, Allied Italy declared war on Germany of the Central Powers.

The Seventh Battle of the Isonzo took place from September 14th through September 17, 1916 C.E. The Italians attempted to extend their hold of their newly-won Gorizia bridgehead in attacks to the south-east of the town. With a greater concentration of resources on a single area the Italians intended to reduce the severely high casualty rate sustained to date. The attack was called off after three days of heavy casualties.

October 5th, the Italian Government was informed of the content of the agreement for the partition of the Asian part of the Ottoman Empire which signed in May between France, England, and Russia. Italy soon advanced its reservations about these agreements. Next, she demanded from the signers parts of Asia Minor which included the Turkish provinces of Aidin (Smyrna), Konya, and Adana. These would be allocated to Italy as agreed in the 1915 Treaty of London.

The Eighth Battle of the Isonzo took place from October 10th, through October 12, 1916 C.E. The attack was essentially a continuation of attempts made during the previous Seventh Battle of the Isonzo to extend the bridgehead established at Gorizia during the Sixth Battle of the Isonzo in August 1916 C.E. Heavy Italian casualties required that the initiative be called off pending the army's recuperation.

The failed Ninth Battle of the Isonzo which took place from November 1st through November 4, 1916 C.E. was called off. The Italians, weakened by continual offensive operations throughout the year of 1916 C.E., had seen five Isonzo operations. This was in addition to four undertaken the year before. The Italian Army command found it necessary to take a lengthy break for the winter.

December 13th, 10,000 Austrian and Italian soldiers were killed by avalanches in the Dolomites, a mountain range located in northeastern Italy. Reports suggested that both sides deliberately fired shells into the weakened snowpacks in an attempt to bury the other side. This became known as "White Friday."

Mussolini had entered the Royal Italian Army and served during WWI. By 1917 C.E., he was wounded and discharged.

February 25th, at a national congress of the PSI in Rome the division between reformists and hard-liners increased. Only Costantino Lazzari’s proposed agenda was approved and managed to avoid fracture.

April 26th, the Agreement of St.-Jean-de-Maurienne between France, Italy and the United Kingdom was signed at Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. Drafted by the Italian Baron and Foreign Minister, Sidney Sonnino, it was a tentative agreement to settle its Middle Eastern interest. The agreement was needed by the Allies to secure the position of Italian forces in the Middle East and to balance the military power drops at the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I as Russian (Tsarist) forces were pulling out of the Caucasus Campaign. Italy would receive a part of southwestern Anatolia, including İzmir (Smyrna).

May 1st, anarchist and anti-war revolutionary riots broke out in Milan, Italy, and in the suburbs of the city and some other towns in Lombardy. The intensity and spread of the Italian protests had followed an irregular pattern, with a peak at the time of the war. There would then be an immediate reduction following the general mobilization. This resulted from repression, the absorption of unemployment in the mobilized industry, the measures for sharecroppers and tenants, and the launching of subsidies for the families of those recalled into service. An upturn in spring 1916 C.E. was succeeded by a new and more intense surge the following winter and the peak of summer 1917 C.E.

By May 8th, the PSI and the Italian General Confederation of Labor (CGIL), the socialist parliamentary group, and the PSI sections of Milan and Turin met in Milan, Italy. After fierce debate, a call was approved inviting organizations and individual workers to comply with "discipline" to the directives of the party and not to take "isolated and fragmented" initiatives.

The Tenth Battle of the Isonzo was fought from May 10th through June 8, 1917 C.E. The Italians advanced to within 15 km of Trieste almost reaching the coastal town of Duino. A major Austro-Hungarian counter-offensive launched later on June 3rd would reclaim virtually all lost ground. By the time the battle was called off little territory had been gained.

By May 23rd, after almost a month of civil violence in Milan, Italy, the Italian Army forcibly took over the city from anarchists and anti-war revolutionaries. Fifty people were killed and 800 arrested.

June 10th, a proclamation was issued by the commander of the Italian troops in Albania, General Giacinto Ferrero, promising freedom and independence of Albania under the protection of Italy. It had been approved by Baron and Foreign Minister Sidney Sonnino without consulting the Council of Ministers. The proclamation provoked strong reactions on the part of ministers of the Interventionist left. The Republican Ubaldo Comandini and the socialist reformists, Leonida Bissolati and Ivanoe Bonomi, presented their resignation in protest to Prime Minister Paolo Boselli.

The Battle of Mount Ortigara was fought from June 10th through 25, 1917 C.E. After fierce and bloody fighting the Italian 52nd Alpine Division managed to capture the top of Mount Ortigara. The Austro-Hungarian command immediately sent many trained reinforcements which retook it.

Italy established an Italian protectorate over Albania on June 23rd, in an effort to secure a de jure independent Albania under Italian control. The protectorate would remain until the summer of 1920.

June 30th, the Italian Filippo Turati (November 1857 C.E.-29 March 29, 1932 C.E.) called on the government to start peace negotiations. A sociologist, criminologist, poet, and Socialist politician and leader in the Chamber of Deputies, he was respected politician.

The Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo was fought from August 18th through September 12, 1917 C.E. The offensive soon bogged down. After the battle, the Austro-Hungarian Army could not have withstood another attack. The Italian Army was also exhausted. But so were the Italians, who could not find the resources necessary for another assault. In the final analysis, the battle was another inconclusive bloodbath. By now, many in the Italian Army were tired of war. The Chief of Staff, General Luigi Cadorna, understood the situation within the ranks and warned Prime Minister Boselli of a vast work of socialist incitement within the army.

By August 21st, an insurrection referred to as "peace and bread" occurred in Turin. The uprising quickly became an open rebellion against the war. There were also huge anti-militarist demonstrations. In the case with the demonstrations, the popular attitudes towards military intervention during the conflict of WWI was based upon the existence of dissent with respect to the war was widespread throughout Italy. This was to counter the prevailing line of interpretation that argued for a unanimous consensus for WWI.

In Italy during the fifteen years preceding the First World War, a large number of very serious episodes of popular unrest had been taking place. These were motivated by lack of food, in particular, of bread, the basic food of most of the population.

Both types involved town and country and were often connected. This was quite unlike other WWI Western belligerent countries in which bread riots had largely ceased after the first half of the 19th-Century C.E.

October 4th, heavy criminal sanctions were proclaimed in Italy against anyone who incited or committed acts of defeatism by royal decree. The decree would be abolished later on November 19, 1918 C.E.

The Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo was fought from October 24th through November 12, 1917 C.E.  Also known as Battle of Caporetto, there mutinies and plummeting morale crippled the Italian Army from within. The Italian soldiers lived in poor conditions and engaged in attack after attack that often yielded minimal or no military gain. To bolster the Italians, the French and British sent reinforcements to the Italian Expeditionary Force. Meanwhile the Austrians received desperately needed reinforcements from the German Army. The Germans, to further undermine the Italians, introduced infiltration tactics to the Austrian front. They also helped work on a new offensive. Soon, the Austro-Hungarian forces, reinforced by German units, were able to break into the Italian front line due to the use of stormtroopers and the infiltration tactics. In addition, the Central Powers used poison gas which played a key role in the collapse of the Italian Second Army. 

By October 26th, the Italian military disaster at Caporetto of October 25th, led to the fall of the Paolo Boselli government.

On October 30th, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando who had been a strong supporter of Italy's entry in the war became Italy’s Prime Minister. He would continue in that role through the remainder of the war. He successfully led a patriotic national front government, the Unione Sacra, and reorganized the army.

The seizure of power in November 1917 C.E. in Russia by the internationalist-minded and radical Bolsheviks, confirm Italy’s fears about their stated intent to overthrow capitalism across the world. It had become clear to all that they had begun supporting communist parties in many countries and assisted in the setting up of Bolshevik-like regimes in Hungary, Bavaria, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia. There was also the German nationalist’s fear of the establishment of a Slavic empire.

In the wake of the severe Italian setback at Caporetto, the Allied powers held the Rapallo Conference in Rapallo, Italy, from November 5th through November 7, 1917 C.E. During the conference it was decided that the Allies form a Supreme War Council at Versailles, to coordinate allied plans and actions, and promised the Italians additional aid.

November 9th, General Luigi Cadorna of the Italian Army was relieved of command. Italy's allies Britain and France had sent eleven divisions to reinforce the Italian front, and insisted upon his dismissal. The new Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando appointed as the Chief of General Staff the respected General Armando Diaz. November 10th, the Italian Front on the Piave effectively resisted an enemy offensive. They did so despite the superiority of Austro-Germans resources and manpower employed. The Germans would gradually withdraw their military contingent from the Italian Front in the following month to prepare for the great offensive in the spring of 1918 C.E. on the Western Front.

Japan

In the first week of World War I, Japan proposed to the United Kingdom, that Japan would enter the war if it could take Germany's Pacific territories.

At the outbreak of World War I, Japan decided to honor the terms of its 1902 C.E. alliance with Great Britain. In August of 1914 C.E., it declared war on Germany. This was despite deep misgivings among many in the government and army who felt Germany would eventually prevail. In fact, many European politicians thought that the War would be over by Christmas 1914 C.E. The war in Europe, however, quickly became a stalemate along the Western Front. Both sides dug into trenches having been unable to achieve a decisive victory. Japan had not yet sent troops to the Western Front and had not yet sent her navy as far as Europe.

On August 7, 1914 C.E., the British government officially asked Japan for assistance in destroying the raiders from the Imperial German Navy in and around Chinese waters.

Japan sent Germany an ultimatum on August 23, 1914 C.E., which went unanswered. Japan then formally declared war on Germany in the name of the Emperor Taishō on that same day. 

On August 25, 1914 C.E., when Vienna refused to withdraw the Austro-Hungarian cruiser SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth from Qingdao, a city in eastern Shandong Province on the east coast of China, Japan declared war on Austria-Hungary. Next, Japanese military forces began to quickly occupy German-leased territories in the Far East.

On September 2, 1914 C.E., Japanese forces landed at China's Shandong province in China during World War I. They soon surrounded Imperial Germany’s settlement at the port of Qingdao (Tsingtao).

On September 6, 1914 C.E., the Imperial Japanese Navy’s first Japanese aircraft carrier, the Wakamiya, conducted the world's first successful naval-launched air raids against German forces during World War I. The aircraft carrier had been converted from a transport ship into a seaplane carrier and commissioned in August 1914 C.E. She was equipped with four Japanese-built French Maurice Farman seaplanes powered by Renault 70 hp engines. These seaplanes took off and landed on the water were lowered from and raised to the deck by crane. One of these seaplanes launched by the Wakamiya unsuccessfully attacked the Austro-Hungarian cruiser Kaiserin Elisabeth and the German gunboat Jaguar with bombs in Qiaozhou Bay off the port of Qingdao. Neither was hit.

During October 1914 C.E., the Imperial Japanese Navy acted virtually independently of Japan’s civil government. It seized several of Germany's island colonies in the Pacific. They took the Maríana, Caroline, and Marshall Islands with virtually no resistance.

The Allied nations of Japan and the United Kingdom began their joint naval and army military operations against Imperial Germany’s settlements in China between October 31st and November 7, 1914 C.E. The attack on the German port of Qingdao (Tsingtao) had begun these operations and soon became known as the Siege of Tsingtao. The siege was the first encounter between Japanese and German forces and also the first Anglo-Japanese operation of the war. Japan’s capture the German colony of Qingdao concluded with the surrender of German colonial forces on November 7, 1914 C.E.

After the event, the Imperial Japanese Navy continued patrolling the South China Sea and went as far as the Indian Ocean. The German East Asiatic Squadron was effectively chased out of the Pacific Ocean. But there were no more major battles.

After the outbreak of World War I, Japan adopted a more independent and activist approach toward China. The earlier activist China policy of the government of Japan under Prime Minister Ōkuma Shigenobu had been uncompromising.  By early in 1915 C.E., Ōkuma Shigenobu presented the Republic of China, then under General Yuan Shikai, with what came to be called the “Twenty-One Demands.” It consisted of five groups. Group 1 related to the German surrender and concerned the disposal by Japan of German interests on the Shandong Peninsula. Groups 2 and 3 were matters which were already under negotiation.  Group 2, was the extension of Japan’s lease on the Liaodong Peninsula and management control over the South Manchuria Railway, which were due to expire in a few years. Group 3, dealt with the transfer of Hanyeping, China’s biggest steelmaker, to joint ownership. Group 4, was a ban on further coastal or island concessions by China to other powers.

Group 5 demands as presented were an ultimatum to force China to accept the rest of the demands. These were those that Japan could not have made under the conditions that had prevailed before the start of the war. They called for a great increase in Japanese influence over China. The demands concluded with the “hopes” of Group 5. It included calls for China to hire Japanese political, financial, and military advisors. It also demanded that China put its police under joint Chinese-Japanese administration and to use the same weaponry as Japan. It also wanted China to grant Japan the right to build a railway connecting Wuchang with the Jiujiang-Nanchang line. Finally, Japan demanded that China consult with Japan before accepting foreign capital for railways, mines, and port facilities in Fujian Province. Japan subsequently was forced to rescind group 5, since these threatened the interests of other powers, in particular because of opposition from Britain and the United States.

The uncompromising, more independent and activist approach toward China, would be carried on by the cabinet of Ōkuma Shigenobu’s successor, Terauchi Masatake (1916 C.E.-1918 C.E.). Masatake adopted a less heavy-handed approach, seeking to win over the Chinese government of Duan Qirui and increase Japan’s influence in China through a series of loans (the Nishihara Loans). Terauchi’s government also focused on China’s potential as a supplier of natural resources, hoping to establish closer economic ties between the two countries. While the war raged in Europe, Japan thus had a free hand to pursue policies of its own making toward China.

By January 22, 1916 C.E., Japan launched its first domestically manufactured blimp. This non-rigid airship or barrage balloon had no internal structural framework or a keel. Unlike semi-rigid and rigid airships such as the Zeppelins, the Japanese blimp relied on the pressure of the lifting gas inside the envelope to strengthen the envelope to maintain their shape. The airship’s primary purpose was for reconisense, receiving an aerial view of enemy movements. Unlike planes, the blimp could hover in place to watch developments. They were also used as bombing platforms. Blimps were very effective in the Navies as convoy escorts, anti-submarine platforms, and over the horizon views and targeting for battleships. The blimp left Tokorozawa at 1:30 p.m. and, after landing and refueling at Toyohashi, landed in Osaka at 5:10 p.m. the next day.

On July 3, 1916 C.E., Japan and Russia signed a treaty whereby each pledged not to make a separate peace with Germany, and agreed to consultation and common action should the territory or interests of each in China be threatened by an outside third party. Although Russia had a claim to Chinese territory by the Kyakhta and other treaties, Japan discouraged Russia from annexing Heilongjiang and began to slowly push the other powers out, such as the Germans in the Twenty-One Demands of 1915 C.E. The delineating line between Russian (north) and Japanese (south) spheres of influences in China was the Chinese Eastern Railway.

On November 2, 1916 C.E., Prince Hirohito was formally proclaimed Crown Prince and heir apparent.

On December 18, 1916 C.E., the British Admiralty again requested naval assistance from Japan. Two of the four cruisers of the First Special Squadron at Singapore were sent to Cape Town, South Africa, and four destroyers were sent to the Mediterranean for basing out of Malta.

Britain’s Royal Navy had been operating in the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea with resources which were stretched thin, when Germany declared unrestricted warfare in February 1917 C.E. Earlier British requests for naval cooperation from Japan were often declined. Requests for Japanese coordination activities with Royal Navy squadrons in the Pacific and South Atlantic appeared to be high-risk ventures for the Japanese. These ventures appear to have been detached from Japanese interests.

By spring of 1917 C.E., millions had died and there was no end in sight. In Japan, however, what was then called the “Great War” barely registered with the public. That was to change.

In April 1917 C.E., Great Britain requested more assistance from Japan, as the British Royal Navy’s escort vessels had been gradually worn down by the resumed unrestricted U-boat campaign in the North Atlantic. Japan decided to initially send eight destroyers and a flagship cruiser to assist British ships in the Mediterranean Sea. The eventual deployment of these Japanese destroyers in 1917 C.E. was a display of Japanese solidarity with Britain. It was also a concession to constant appeals.

With the American entry into World War I on April 6, 1917 C.E., the United States and Japan found themselves on the same side, despite their increasingly acrimonious relations over China and competition for influence in the Pacific. By April 13, 1917 C.E., Rear-Admiral Sato Kozo on the cruiser Akashi with the 10th and 11th destroyer units, comprised of eight destroyers, arrived in Malta via Colombo and Port Said. Japan next sent “The Second Special Squadron (SSS)” to carry out escort duties for Allied troop transports and anti-submarine operations. The Japanese SSS was officially independent with its first 14 destroyers based at Malta, but received its duty orders from the British commander at Malta. Its main mission was to escort and protect British ships from German submarines which were traveling between Marseille, France, and Malta, between Taranto, Italy, and Malta, and between Alexandria, Egypt, and Malta. U-boats had inflicted heavy losses since the war began.

During the war, the SSS would eventually be comprised of the Akashi, Izumo, and Nisshin a total of 3 cruisers. It would have 14 destroyers, 8 of which were of the Kaba-class, 4 of the Momo-class, and 2 of the ex-British Acorn-class. There were also 2 sloops, and 1 tender (Kanto). The Japanese squadron would make a total of 348 escort sorties from Malta, escorting 788 ships containing around 700,000 soldiers, thus contributing greatly to the war effort. A further 7,075 people would be rescued from damaged and sinking ships. In return for this assistance, Great Britain recognized Japan's territorial gains in Shantung and in the Pacific islands north of the equator.

No ships had been lost while the SSS carried out its escort duties for troop transports and anti-submarine operations. During its activities in the Mediterranean the squadron engaged in 34 combat operations and a rescue mission. One was when a German U-boat sank the transport ship Transylvania in May 1917 C.E. Two Japanese destroyers helped rescue the majority of the 3,300 personnel on board, a feat of bravery that ended with 27 Japanese officers and sailors receiving awards from King George V.

On June 11, 1917 C.E., the Kaba-class destroyer, Sakaki, was hit by a torpedo from an Austro-Hungarian submarine (U 27) off Crete and sunk. There were 59 Japanese sailors killed in the action including Commander Taichi Uehara, the ship’s captain. The ship would later be salvaged and repaired.

It has been noted that the Imperial Japanese Navy was highly efficient, though they made little effort to learn from the bitter British experience in the Mediterranean against U-boat attacks. The navy eventually took on board some Royal Navy anti-submarine warfare practices locally, but these were never absorbed into the Japanese naval doctrine, with tragic results in the Pacific War. Japanese officers have noted that the lessons learned by its navy in the WWI Mediterranean, especially submarine and anti-submarine warfare, were neither properly learned nor implemented as policy by the navy as a whole.

China’s attempt to participate in the European war was complicated by domestic turbulence. Japan’s bid for supremacy in China compelled President Yuan Shikai to propose the Twenty-one Demands in 1915 C.E., and after Yuan’s death, there were two governments in China, one in Beijing and one in Guangzhou. Moreover, the friction between President Li Yuanhong and Prime Minister Duan Qirui deepened the rivalry between government and Parliament. The different political parties who supported the policy to participate in the war, including the Kuomintang members of the parliament, sided with Li, while the Chun-pu Tang, or Progressive Party, sided with Duan.

After Duan’s return to power in July 1917 C.E., the country remained divided. Duan’s government was too distracted by internal strife to garner support for China’s participation in the European war. However, for most Chinese politicians, the best way to take advantage of the European war was to promote China internationally, a goal which garnered a common consensus across the political spectrum. Working towards a new China in the post-war period became a great dream for many.

The United States and Japan signed the Lansing–Ishii Agreement of November 2, 1917 C.E., to help reduce tensions involving Japan’s aggressive, militaristic, uncompromising expansion in the Pacific and China.

In late 1917 C.E., Japan exported 12 Arabe-class destroyers, based on Kaba-class design, to France. She was begining to become a highly competent armaments manufacturer as a result of her naval and army military buildup and improvement.

Russia

Following the loss of the war with Japan in 1905 C.E., serious disturbances took place in Saint Petersburg. As a result, Tsar Nicholas was persuaded to accept a reduction in his power. In March, 1905 C.E., the Tsar announced plans to form a Russian Parliament called the State Duma, a consultative body. Many Russians felt that this reform did not go far enough toward a more open and representative government. Over the next few years, the country would remain unstable and gradually become chaotic.

The Constitutional-Democratic Party, also known as the Cadets or “The People’s Freedom Party,” was formed in 1905 C.E. It consisted primarily of the radical-liberal intelligentsia. Its membership had dwindled to 730 by the beginning of the war in 1914 C.E. The political and social activities of the socialists continued to become more aggressive. This forced the Russian police to repress the Social Democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries, the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRs) and Trudoviki. Meanwhile, the social democrats, Bolsheviks and Mensheviks’, internal divisions, like those of the radical rightists (Black Hundreds) caused their numbers to diminish. The rightists’ and liberals’ activities were now limited to parliamentary struggle.

“The Union of 17 October,” known as the Octobrists, was founded in 1906 C.E. as the main moderate liberal party. It however, could not come to an agreement with the authorities and practically ceased activity after the death of Prime Minister Petr Arkad’evich Stolypin (1861 C.E.-1911 C.E.).

All national Russian parties were represented in one of the two houses of parliament, the State Duma or the State Council. The two houses legislated together in concert with the emperor who selected the members of government. Under the election legislation of June 3, 1907 C.E., the Duma was comprised mainly of landowners of medium-size and large landholdings and the bourgeoisie. These strengthened the moderate liberals’ and centrists’ influence. The second house, the State Council, was made up half of civil servants chosen by the monarch and half of elected members of the upper classes.

On August 31, 1907 C.E., Russia joined Britain and France to form the Triple Entente when Germany decided to form the Triple Alliance. Germany was considered to be Russia’s main territorial threat. This threat was reinforced by Germany's decision under which the terms of the military alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy agreed to support each other if attacked by either France or Russia.

The Progressives, a small liberal group of Moscow bourgeoisie was formed in 1912 C.E. This loosely affiliated group was unable to organize themselves into a political party.

Industrial unrest in Russia had remained a continued problem throughout this period. By 1912 C.E. hundreds of striking miners were massacred at the Lena goldfields.

In that same year, the Russian Army Air Service (RAAS) was established. 

Russia was in political crisis on the eve of the First World War. The Russian political parties did not represent particular social classes, but were essentially intelligentsia strongholds. This left the political parties in a state of organizational and ideological stagnation.

In 1914 C.E., Tsar Nicholas II ruled the Russian Empire as an absolute Monarch, but with little control. At that time, the Russia Empire included Poland and Finland. It also include and large parts of Transcaucasia, a small but densely populated region to the south of the Caucasus Mountains. The region included three independent states. There was Georgia in the northwest, Azerbaijan in the east, and Armenia, situated largely on a high mountainous plateau south of Georgia and west of Azerbaijan.

The population of Russia was 166 million. The majority of Russians were Slavs, Jews, Turks, and there were dozens of other nationalities. Several of these groups wanted regional autonomy. This became a constant source of political conflict.

At the beginning of World War I, the highly competitive and argumentative Russian political parties found themselves in a deep crisis. In contrast, the State Duma had become the epicenter of the country’s political life. The “Holy Alliance” established between the authorities and society was only a temporary break in the confrontation between government and parliamentary opposition. This brief respite could not hold.

By 1914 C.E., the Russian Army was the largest army in the world. Unfortunately, Russia's poor roads and railways made the effective deployment of these soldiers problematic. Its Navy had 4 battleships, 10 cruisers, 21 destroyers, 11 submarines, and 50 torpedo boats. That year, Russia’s RAAS was established and grew to 360 aircraft and 16 airships. This made it the largest airforce in the world. What appeared to be a formidable military was in fact a backward institution, with poor leadership, and little or no effective and efficient infrastructure. 

During the first six months of 1914 C.E., almost one half of the total industrial workforce in Russia took part in strikes.

On August 1, 1914 C.E., Germany declared war on Russia. This caused France and Belgium to begin full mobilization.

At the “historic session” of the Russian State Duma on August 8, 1914 C.E., only the rightists and the moderates supported the authorities without reservation. Representatives of the Trudoviki and the Social-Democrats supported defense from external aggression, but condemned the “fratricidal slaughter of nations.” There was unity of the country against a common enemy, but not unity between the Duma and the government. 

Many Duma deputies set off for the front after the war began and some would die in battle. The All-Russian Union of Zemstvos and the All-Russian Union of Cities were founded to help at the front. The leader of the liberal wing of government saw these organizations as a means for cooperating with the moderate opposition. The unions had no legislative basis and were badly organized, but received large credits from the treasury free of any conditions.

The Russian Ministry of War was commanded by General Sukhomlinov. Tsar Nicholas named his uncle, the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, Commander in Chief. Under their leadership Russia entered the First World War with the largest army in the world with 1,400,000 soldiers. Fully mobilized, the Russian army expanded to over 5,000,000 soldiers. None the less, at the outset of war Russia could not arm all its soldiers, having a supply of 4.6 million rifles.

In August 1914 C.E., Russia launched its first offensive in East Prussia against Germany. The Russian First Army aimed straight into the heart of East Prussia which was being held by the German Eight Army. The Russian Second Army’s strategy was to cut off the Eighth army's line of retreat. Once Eastern Prussia was secure, the Russian Ministry of War planned to march on Berlin.

At the Battle of Tannenberg, both the First and Second Russian Armies rapidly compromised the German positions in East Prussia, but outran their logistical support. After weeks of loses, the remaining German Eighth Army left their defensive positions and marched between the advanced positions of both Russian armies. The German Army turned west and attacked the flank of the Russian Second Army. Within four days of fighting, bogged down in lakes and swamps, the Russian Second Army was defeated. A week later, the Eighth German Army bolstered by reinforcements drove the Russian First Army completely out of Prussia.

Also in August, Russia was engaging Austria-Hungary to the South with better success. The Russian Army quickly shattered their front line on the border of Galacia, forcing the Austrian army to retreat.

On September 3, 1914 C.E., the Southern Russian Army captured Lemberg, the then capital of Galacia, in Western Ukraine. The Southern Russian Army continued to push on to Cracow in present-day Poland. Its mission was to continue into Silesia, the South-Western portion of the German Empire, present-day Czechoslovakia.

Shortly after the fall of Lemberg, Germany assembled a new army in Eastern Prussia, designated the Ninth German Army. It was to assist Austria and prevent the Russian Army from advancing on Silesia. The Ninth was to cut straight through Poland, then a territory of Russia, and capture Warsaw. It was then to continue on to Galicia to engage the Russian Southern Army.

Once the German Ninth army got underway, it met extremely heavy resistance in Poland. Despite seven months of intense fighting the army was unable to capture Warsaw. Meanwhile, to the South, the Russian Southern Army was unable to penetrate Silesia but kept hold of Galicia. Soon, the German High Command realized a war with two fronts would be impossible maintain. The Command issued orders to its troops on the Western Front to dig in and hold their ground. This represented a shifting of German attention to Russia.

By November 1914, the police arrested five Bolshevik Duma deputies who were then convicted for anti-war propaganda. This did not provoke an open response from the opposition.

European newspapers were publishing information regarding the war and Russian reactions to it. Soon, rumors of a separate peace often appeared in the press in 1915 C.E. This gave rise to accusations that the Russian government was making efforts to conclude a separate peace. The actual facts were that nothing of the sort was underway

Russia experienced bumper harvests in 1915 C.E. Despite this, Food shortages still existed.

In January of 1915 C.E., the Russian Duma resumed its governing activities and its sessions proceeded calmly. 

With the Russian political struggles renewed in the spring of 1915 C.E., the political Progressive Bloc was founded. By March 1915 C.E., the Progressives were unhappy with the government’s policy of placing military orders abroad and legislation on progressive taxation. They became politically active, calling for an extended session. The onset of the German attack at the front and a shortage of ammunition stirred up the long-festering opposition mood. The political struggle was revived under the slogan “Patriotic Alarm.” Its main demand was the opposition’s access to power in order to conduct the war more efficiently.

A German offensive opened on April 15, 1915 C.E. By then, the Russian Army was short of ammunition and supplies and began to fall back to the East.

Earlier, with the beginning of the war, nationalists and moderate liberals experienced a “patriotic fervor.” In France, such a mood, along with the government’s unconditional support for war, became known as the “Holy Alliance” (l’Union Sacrée), and this idea was also actively exploited in Russia. The Octobrists hoped to re-establish contact with the government, whereas the Progressives counted on war orders. Only the main Cadet newspaper, Rech, opposed supporting Serbia and the “patriotic hysteria.” As a result, it was closed down by the authorities. Despite reopening a few days later, Rech trod very carefully up until May 1915 C.E.

In June and July 1915 C.E., four unpopular conservative ministers resigned. The Duma was convened.

From June 8th through June 10, 1915 C.E., the ninth All-Russian Congress of Trade and Industry took place. The participants demanded the immediate convening of the Duma. On the initiative of the Progressives the Congress decided to create regional and central Military-Industrial Committees made up of bureaucrats and members of the business elite.

On June 9, 1915 C.E., Lemberg was recaptured by Germany. The Russian Southern Army front was by now compromised and the Army in retreat.

The Cadets’ party slogan was “responsible ministry” or government responsible to parliament. They soon unexpectedly acted in contradiction to their own party slogan. The Cadets feared a strengthening of the Octobrists, the centrists in the Duma. At a party conference from June 19th through June 21, 1915 C.E., the Cadets proposed the slogan “ministry of confidence.” In Soviet historiography, this step was associated with the Cadets’ shift to the right. However, this demand was not more moderate, but merely less clearly defined, and would allow the party to maneuver successfully later.

From June 30th through July 12, 1915 C.E., the German Twelfth Army began its attack from the northwest, East Prussia and Pomerania. It next spearheaded an offensive into Poland resulting in both Russian and Polish soldiers being crushed.

In July 1915 C.E., the Head Committee of the VZS and VSG (Zemgor) was created. A VZS member Prince Evgenii Nikolaevich Trubetskoi (1863 C.E.-1920 C.E.) described the public mood as believing in victory and no one believing in the government. Nonetheless, all settling of accounts with the government was unconditionally set aside. It was felt that there was a time for everything and when the army returned from the trenches they would deal with the government.

On July 9, 1915 C.E., after a desperate battle, the Russian Ministry of War conceded to let their troops retreat from Poland. The German Army chased the retreating Russians.

With the fall of Warsaw in August 1915 C.E., the political crisis deepened. The Council of Ministers, headed by its informal leader, Krivoshein, attempted to reach agreement with parliament. Most of the Duma’s factions (excluding the rightists and socialists) and three groups in the State Council were interested in the creation of an inter-chamber alliance. The Progressive Bloc’s program included demands for political and religious amnesty, the abolition of restrictions on nationalities and faiths (Poles, Jews, etc.), and the freedom of trade unions. Constitutional reforms (legislation on army supplies, providing for refugees and the wounded, equal rights of peasants, reform of local government, the law on cooperatives, etc.) were wide-ranging, but even the Cadets had not prepared all the necessary draft legislation. The Bloc’s main demand was the formation of a “ministry of confidence.”

The liberals’ efforts to achieve a compromise with the authorities were later considered to be genuine. In emigrant and Western historiography, the Progressive Bloc has been seen as the “last chance” to save the monarchy, whereas Soviet historians were inclined to regard their attempt as being too weak. However, the Bloc’s actions in August 1915 C.E. and later do not support the view that the liberals had genuinely tried to achieve a political compromise with the government.

On the anniversary of the war’s outbreak August 1, 1915 C.E., the Cadets’ apparent move to the right allowed them to patch up their relations with the Duma’s majority. But much more important was legislation on Special Councils. These included representatives of the state apparatus, the bourgeoisie and the parliament, and which were to supervise the organization of defense and supplies. Legislation on wartime censorship was also approved. Government bills on the liquidation of German land-ownership, which the Progressives and the Cadets considered no less important, caused disagreement. The Cadets warned that the authorities wanted to “hide behind a shield of Germanophobia.” Russian anti-German sentiment had always been a mainstay of its politicians.

By September 1915 C.E., two-thirds of the German Army was deployed on the Eastern front.

The “Crisis of the Opposition” Russian political situation ran from the autumn (September - October) of 1915 C.E. through the summer (May 12th through August 1st) 1916 C.E.

Serious changes were made in the Russian government in the autumn of 1915 C.E. Krivoshein resigned and Aleksei Nikolaevich Khvostov (1872 C.E.-1918 C.E.). One of the leaders of the Duma’s rightists became Minister of Internal Affairs, the second most senior post in the government.

From September 5th through September 8, 1915 C.E., the socialist-internationalists gathered at a conference in the Swiss village of Zimmerwald. Despite the efforts of the Bolshevik leader Vladimir Il’ich Lenin (1870 C.E.-1924 C.E.) to push through the radical idea of “transforming the imperialistic war into a civil war,” a moderate pacifist version of the manifesto was adopted. The radicals formed the "Zimmerwald Left.”

The moderates regarded the program as a basis for behind-the-scenes bargaining with the government, but the Cadets managed to publish it on September 7, 1915 C.E. as a declaration of the Bloc. The leader of the nationalist-progressives, Vasilii Vital’evich Shul’gin (1878 C.E.-1976 C.E.), recalled: “The Cadets … dragged us into a struggle for power ….”

General opinion holds that the Bloc represented the peak of the Cadets’ influence. A meeting took place on September 9, 1915 C.E. between the Bloc’s representatives and ministers, where the deputies not only demanded the fulfillment of the Bloc’s program, but also the resignation of the ministers themselves.

The negotiations resulted in the government advocating for the Duma’s suspension, which took place September 16, 1915 C.E.

By the end of September, the German advance halted their chase of the retreating Russians to reinforce all the gains it had made.

On October 9, 1915 C.E., there was a meeting of the Petrograd Electoral College to elect the members of the TsVPK and the Petrograd VPK’s workers’ groups, but it was the Bolsheviks who were successful. The elections were annulled and were carried out again only two months later. As a result, the Menshevik Kuz’ma Antonovich Gvozdev (1882 C.E.-1956 C.E.) became the chairman of the TsVPK workers’ group, but at the first TsVPK meeting with the participation of the workers’ representatives, Gvozdev contested the election and raised the issue of convening a workers’ congress. Even the Mensheviks were not prepared to be an obedient tool in the hands of the bourgeoisie.

At the end of November 1915 C.E., a decision to oppose the Progressive Bloc was reached at meetings of representatives of the rightist parties in Petrograd and Nizhnii Novgorod, though the meetings did not lead to any kind of strengthening of the rightist parties, which were beset by organizational and ideological crisis.

With the dissolution of the Duma, the initiative passed once again to the public organizations. The VPK formed workers’ groups, which were to become legal organizations of defense workers. The initiators of the workers’ groups not only proposed establishing control over the workers’ movement, but also gaining leverage over the authorities and the Petrograd business elites.

The year 1916 C.E., would see two million Russian soldiers killed or seriously wounded and a third of a million taken prisoner. Millions of peasants were conscripted into the Tsar's armies but supplies of rifles and ammunition remained inadequate. It is estimated that one third of Russia's able-bodied men were serving in the army. The peasants were therefore unable to work on the farms producing the usual amount of food.

By the beginning of 1916 C.E., Khvostov came to a compromise with the Progressive Bloc, relying on the moderate nature of his demands.

The most valuable commodity throughout the war was grain and the Russian Kulaks understood this with absolute clarity. Throughout 1916 C.E., the average urban laborer ate between 200 and 300 grams of food a day. Hoping to raise prices, these Kulaks hoarded their food surplus. Food prices climbed higher than any other commodity during the war. Despite a bumper harvest, in 1916 C.E., Russian food prices accelerated three times higher than wages. The price of grain in 1916 C.E., already at two and a half rubles per-pud, was anticipated to be raised to twenty five rubles per-pud.

From the 12th-Century C.E. through the 20th-Century C.E., in the Russian Ukraine, Byelorussia, the pud or pood was a unit of mass used in the grain trade. In Muscovy and Imperial Russia the weight of a Pood was a unit of mass equal to 40 funt. The measure of “40 funty,” was approximately about 36 pounds, 1 ounce. In trade in the 19th-Century C.E. it was commonly taken as exactly 36 pounds avoirdupois. The U.S.S.R. would abolish the pood in 1924 C.E.

At the beginning of 1916 C.E., with ever increasing political tensions and protests in Russia, the Minister of War General Sukhomlinov was arrested and replaced by General Alexis Polivanov.

On February 2, 1916 C.E., Premier Ivan Logginovich Goremykin (1839-1917), who had opposed the convening of the Duma, was dismissed. The opening of the Duma saw a unique event. It was a visit from Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia. In response, the Progressive Bloc did not give up on its demands, but could not see through its program because of internal divisions. The national question was removed from the agenda.

During the sixth Cadet Party conference from March 2nd through March 5, 1916 C.E., the Progressive Bloc’s behavior displeased the delegates and the leftist wing of the Cadets’ Central Committee.

The second VPK congress took place from March 10th through March 13, 1916 C.E., adopting a resolution demanding an amnesty and “responsible ministry.

On March 25, 1916 C.E., the same demand was made by a VSG congress, and in reply the government curtailed state funding of the social organizations.

At the next socialist-internationalists conference in the Swiss village of Kienthal from April 24th through April 30, 1916 C.E., a more radical manifesto that spoke of the necessity of the working class seizing power was adopted. In Russia, socialist-internationalists in the Duma and a number of workers’ groups were carrying out anti-war propaganda.

The Second International (1889 C.E.-1916 C.E.), the original Socialist International, was an organization of socialist and labor parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889 C.E. At the Paris meeting, delegations from twenty countries participated. The International continued the work of the dissolved First International, though excluding the still-powerful anarcho-syndicalist movement and unions, existing until 1916 C.E.

The Second International dissolved in 1916 C.E. during World War I because the separate national parties that composed the International did not maintain a unified front against the war, instead generally supporting their respective nations' role.

On May 22, 1916 C.E., Russia launched its second and last major offensive of the war. The Russian Army opened offensive operations along an enormous front, from Pinsk in Southwest Byelorussia, to the Russian border with Romania. The advance was nearly 400 kilometers long. It continued for ten weeks, inflicting heavy losses on the Austrian-Hungarian Army. Despite the Russian offensive, however, the front remained largely intact.

Meanwhile, domestic protests had been continuing in Russia. With the new Russian Army offensive protests broke out in masse. The government’s weak response consisted of political shuffling. Several Generals, administrators, etc., were dismissed. This did not mollify the workers, peasants, and soldiers, who remained in support of ending the war. Thousands were arrested.

In June of 1916 C.E., the conflict spilled over into a meeting of the Duma, resulting in the Progressive Bloc’s moderate wing proposing the swift curtailment of the session.

The war’s outbreak led to a severe crisis and the paralysis of the Second Communist International. The Mensheviks and the SRs split into a number of tendencies representing different degrees of “defensism” and internationalism. The internationalists tried to organize anti-war propaganda within Russia, but this was hampered by wartime censorship and the arrest of Bolshevik deputies.

In August of 1916 C.E., Tsar Nicholas dismissed Nikolai Kikolaevich and assumed personal command of the Russian Military.

The aggravation of the domestic crisis, above all, problems with food, in the autumn of 1916 C.E. pushed the authorities to reach a new compromise with the opposition. The Deputy Chairman of the Duma and member of the Progressive Bloc, Aleksandr Dmitrievich Protopopov (1866 C.E.-1918 C.E.), was made Minister of Internal Affairs on October 1, 1916 C.E., but he was an unfortunate choice. His unexpected appointment was seen as a provocation designed to split the Bloc and resulted in “the struggle against the ‘renegade’ Protopopov” becoming one of the Bloc’s main slogans.

By November 1916 C.E., food prices were four times as high as before the war. As a result strikes for higher wages became common in Russia's cities. The Duma became a stronghold of the country’s discontent, aimed at attacking the government. On the eve of the new session on November 14, 1916 C.E., the Progressives presented the Bloc with an ultimatum to include its demands for “responsible ministry” in the declaration. The moderate wing’s refusal resulted in the Progressives leaving the Bloc. Saving the situation, Miliukov accused the government of treason.

On November 14, 1916 C.E., Miliukov accused the authorities of preparing for a separate peace from the podium of the Duma, putting the question: “What is this, idiocy or treason?” Addressing the government on the Bloc’s behalf, he declared: “We will fight you … by all legal means until you go.”Miliukov subsequently admitted: “I, it would seem, thought at that moment that since revolution was unavoidable, I had to try to take it into my own hands.” Earlier in 1915 C.E., European newspapers had rumored that a separate peace was being negotiated. These appeared often in the press. The collected materials were alleged to be evidence of Premier Boris Vladimirovich Shtiurmer’s (1848 C.E.-1917 C.E.) efforts to conclude a separate peace. In actual fact, nothing of the kind had occurred. But Miliukov decided to go further and directly blamed the highest authorities.

On November 23, 1916 C.E., Prime Minister Shtiurmer resigned. The Minister of Transport, Aleksandr Federovich Trepov (1862 C.E.-1928 C.E.) who had tried to come to an agreement with the opposition, was named prime minister. This was in essence an offer to satisfy some of the Bloc’s demands. He soon introduced the deputies to the convention Russia had signed with the allies in 1915 C.E., under which it would receive Constantinople and the Straits upon victory. The Duma, however, rejected the government’s proposal. At that point, relations with the authorities were extremely confused, even among the rightists.

On November 27, 1916 C.E., a workers’ group decided to organize a demonstration at the State Duma. In its call to the workers, the main task was defined as “the decisive removal of the autocratic regime and the complete democratization of the country.”

On December 2, 1916 C.E., one of the rightist leaders, Vladimir Mitrofanovich Purishkevich (1870 C.E.-1920 C.E.), made a speech accusing the government of “Germanophilism” and stifling “public initiative.” By December 9, 1916 C.E., the State Council was demanding the removal from power of “dark forces” and the formation of a government based on the “confidence of the country.” Zemgor congresses in December 1916 C.E. were forbidden, but they met all the same. At a VZS congress L’vov announced: “Forget about further attempts to work together with the true authorities! …. There ARE no authorities ….” A VSG congress adopted a resolution calling on the Duma “to do its duty, and not to disperse until its main task – the formation of a responsible government – is achieved.”

On December 30, 1916 C.E., a government group was formed comprising Guchkov, the Progressive Aleksandr Ivanovich Konovalov (1875 C.E.-1949 C.E.), the Cadet, Nikolai Vissarionovich Nekrasov (1879 C.E.-1940 C.E.), the Trudovik Kerenskii, and the industrialist Mikhail Ivanovich Tereshchenko (1886 C.E.-1956 C.E.). Its purpose was to plan a palace coup. “The Five” were in constant contact with socialist groups in Petrograd. They also attempted the establishment of contact with the military, but were unsuccessful. L’vov also had a meeting where it was decided to carry out a palace coup in favor of Nikolai Nikolaevich, Grand Duke of Russia (1856 C.E.-1929 C.E.) and establish a “responsible government” headed by L’vov. The Grand Duke, however, refused, saying that the army would not support a coup. On that same day, the murder of Grigorii Efimovich Rasputin (January 21, 1869 C.E.-December 30, 1916 C.E.) was planned. Rasputin was accused of having a dangerous influence on the emperor. He was known to be a self-proclaimed holy man and mystic. He had befriended the family of Tsar Nicholas II, and had gained considerable influence with the royal family.

The Russians that prospered the most during the war were peasant land-owners or Kulaks. In Russian and Soviet history, they were the wealthy or prosperous peasants. Generally, they were characterized as a people owning a relatively large farm, and several head of cattle and horses, and who was financially capable of employing hired labor and leasing land. Before the Russian Revolution of 1917 C.E., the kulaks were major figures in the peasant villages. They often loaned money, provided mortgages, and played central roles in the villages’ social and administrative affairs. These cunning Kulaks bribed local officials to prevent conscription. They also saw a field of opportunity open up during the war. While more and more peasants were sent to their deaths on the front lines, Kulaks grabbed up their land in a free-for-all. By 1917 C.E, Kulaks owned more than 90% of the arable land in European Russia, where once the majority or arable land had been in the hands of peasant communes.

By now food prices were many, many times as high as before the war. As a result, worker strikes for higher wages continued. By February 1917 C.E., fifty-eight workers’ groups had been formed. The workers had become political!

By February 1917 C.E., there were 244 VPKs in existence. The Octobrist leader Aleksandr Ivanovich Guchkov [1862 C.E.-1936 C.E. was chairman of the Central VPK (TsVPK)]. He had wide-ranging connections in the public, industrial, and military spheres of power. The VPKs’ task was the “organization of society” under the auspices of the Moscow entrepreneurship. Their official reason for existing was to help at the War Front. For this, their material benefit was a 1 percent commission for serving as the intermediary. The VPKs turned out to be ineffective as they could only fulfilled 6 to 7 percent of orders received.

The Duma resumed activity on February 27, 1917 C.E. Kerenskii called for the “immediate destruction of the medieval regime, whatever it takes.”

The renewal of Russian party political life in March to October 1917 C.E. culminated in out-and-out confrontation between the parties and the fall of the Provisional Government.

Russian parties, not only the radical ones, were considerably more active under revolutionary conditions than in periods of relative calm. The right-wing parties gradually lost governmental support, and with the increased anti-government mood in the country, the people’s trust. By the beginning of the revolution they had practically gone into opposition, but this did not help them, since they were banned after the events of February 1917 C.E. The educated professional classes were considerably stronger in government institutions (parliament) or those receiving state funding (Zemgor and the Military-Industrial Committees), though they were mainly used for political purposes. The liberals played an important role in the preparation and victory of the Revolution in Russia, but the Revolution, having eliminated the old order (including the State Duma) quickly led to a crisis among the moderates’ forces. The Russian police effectively contained the radical left’s activities during the war period, but they were genuinely resurgent after the Revolution in March 1917 C.E. In the end, the victory was won by those who proposed the most decisive methods of fulfilling the population’s demands.

Developments within the country as well as constant military tension strengthened the Leftists’ position. Russian political confrontations reached their peak in the period of “the attack on the government,” leading to the February Revolution of 1917 C.E. The February Revolution was the first of two revolutions which took place in Russia on March 8, 1917 C.E. The main events of the revolution took place in and near Petrograd in present-day St. Petersburg, the then-capital of Russia. The area had seen long-standing discontent with the monarchy an erupted into mass protests against food rationing on March 8th. Revolutionary activity lasted about eight days, involving mass demonstrations and violent armed clashes with police and gendarmes, the last loyal forces of the Russian monarchy. By March 10, 1917 C.E., Kerenskii was demanding the formation of a government “under the control of the people,” It was also a proclamation for freedom of speech, assembly, and organization. The Menshevik Nikolai Semenovich Chkheidze (1864 C.E.-1926 C.E.) pointed out that “the streets have already made their voice heard … and these streets are to be reckoned with.”

The next day, the session was suspended until April. Kerenskii and Chkheidze were connected to small-scale SR, Menshevik and Bolshevik organizations that took an active part in agitation among the workers and soldiers of the Petrograd garrison. On March 12th, mutinous Russian Army forces personnel sided with the revolutionaries. Despite the socialist leaders not having serious hopes for success, on March 12, 1917 C.E., the revolution in Petrograd was won. Three days later, the Tsar Nicholas II abdicated, ending Romanov dynastic rule and the Russian Empire. A Russian Provisional Government under Prince Georgy Lvov replaced the Council of Ministers of Russia.

The Zemgor, TsVPK, bourgeoisie and Cadets supported the Provisional Government, with the Cadets forming part of the government and taking part in formulating the government program. At the seventh party conference from April 7th through April 10, 1917 C.E., it was announced that the Cadets had always upheld not only “liberal, libertarian and democratic” principles, but also stood “on the basis of socialism.” The congress unanimously declared the main task to be the founding of a “democratic parliamentary republic” in Russia and called for the continuation of the war of the “democratic union against the union of monarchist reactionaries till the victorious end and a just and lasting peace.”

The Eighth Congress from May 22nd through May 25, 1917 C.E. adopted the principle of sovereignty of regional authorities and access to the land and supported Polish independence. Ideologically the Cadet Party became a right-leaning social-democratic party.

The SRs’ third convention from June 7th through June 17, 1917 C.E. supported the coalition Provisional Government. The Mensheviks could not overcome their internal divisions and, despite their representatives’ participation in the Provisional Government, lost political initiative. The Bolsheviks were the only significant force that had not supported the government. In the elections to the Moscow City Duma in July, the SRs received 58 percent of the vote, the Bolsheviks 20 percent and the Cadets almost 17 percent. In the August elections to the Petrograd City Duma the SRs obtained 37 percent of the vote, the Bolsheviks 33 percent, and the Cadets almost 22 percent.

By August 1917 C.E., the membership of the Cadet Party exceeded that of 1906 C.E., at around 70,000 members. But the Cadets were unable to become the ruling political elite, having failed to create cells within the state apparatus, industry or army, as the socialists had actively been doing. The Cadets supported General Lavr Georgievich Kornilov (1870 C.E.-1918 C.E.), and the party was severely damaged after the collapse of his authority. At this time the significance of the socialists increased, with their leaders returning from emigration and exile. In the autumn, the membership of the SRs reached 1,000,000, the Mensheviks, 200,000, and the Bolsheviks 350,000.

After the success of the February Revolution in Russia, the parties’ circumstances changed dramatically. Political freedoms were announced. The Revolution led to the resurgence of the Left as a whole, from the Cadets to the Bolsheviks. The Centrist and Rightist parties, on the other hand, practically ceased to exist. The Black Hundreds were outlawed. Soon, the Provisional Government opposed the resumption of the State Duma’s and the State Council’s which had been the main pillars of the moderates and rightists’ activities. The houses were officially dispersed on October 19, 1917 C.E., prior to the convening of the Constituent Assembly.

The newly established Soviet government issued the “Land Decree of October 26, 1917 C.E.,” by which the peasants took back their land from the Kulaks. The urban populations of Russia had been allowed to buy only one pound of bread per-adult, per-day. In practice, workers sometimes went days without food. As a result, food slowly came back into the cities again. On that same day, the Soviet issued a decree of peace. The government insisted that all belligerent powers open immediate negotiations for a democratic peace without annexations, and guarantee the right of every nation to self-determination, and allowing all of the former territories of Russia to have self-determination. The Entente refused to recognize the Soviet government, and continued the war.

To at solidify power and to gain legitimacy, Soviet allowed elections to a Constituent Assembly to be held in Soviet Russia on November 25, 1917 C.E. They elections were the first attempt to do this on a nationwide basis in world history. They were universal, equal, direct, and conducted by secret ballot. The elections were held according to a proportional, multiple-mandate system with lists being compiled separately for each electoral district. In the course of these elections, the SRs received 39.5 percent of the vote, the Bolsheviks 22.5 percent, the Cadets 4 to 5 percent, the Mensheviks 3.2 percent, and others socialists, national parties, religions, etc. for a total of 30.3 percent.

At this juncture, one must understand that a weakened Russia had been moving toward a state of collapse when the Russian Imperial Empire fell. The Russian Civil War was fought and lost to the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks’ seizure of power in Russia then led next to a crisis among their opponents in the socialist camp, with the majority of SRs and Mensheviks not recognizing it. Despite this, the new Soviet government had already removed Russia from the First World War.

In the end, the future Soviet Union was created. The Left SR party had already been formed and its members were represented in the coalition Soviet government. What followed was the Cadet Party was banned on December 11, 1917 C.E. The Soviet was now in control, or so they thought.

On January 9, 1918 C.E. a “Declaration on the Volunteer Army,” an anti-Bolshevik force, was written by Miliukov on behalf of the Don Cossack Command called for armed struggle with the Bolsheviks. The struggle for power in Russia would continue.

Central Powers

The Central Powers were Austria-Hungary, Germany, the Ottoman Empire, and the nation of Bulgaria. Here, I shall only deal with Germany only and not the Austro-Hungarian Empire or Austria-Hungary, as she ceased to exist after WWI and was not a factor in WWII.  My emphasis on Germany only is essentially due to the fact that Austria, the Ottoman Empire, and the nation of Bulgaria would be of little consequence during the new Great War, WWII.

Germany

On July 5, 1914 C.E., powerful leaders within Austria-Hungary and Germany held a council at Potsdam. They met to discuss the possibilities of war with Serbia, Russia, and France. By August 1, 1914 C.E., the German Empire declared war on the Russian Empire. Following Russia's military mobilization in support of Serbia, Germany also began its mobilization. That same day, World War I broke out.  By August 3rd, Germany declared war on France. The next day, on August 4th, Germany declared war on neutral Belgium and German troops invaded her. On that day, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany after she failed to respect Belgian neutrality. By August 7th, French and British forces invaded and occupied Togoland the German protectorate and colony in West Africa.

In Europe, the Battle of Mulhouse began on August 9th. It was the opening attack by the French army against Germany. Also called the Battle of Alsace, the battle was part of a French attempt to recover the province of Alsace, which France had ceded to the new German Empire following defeat in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 C.E.-1871 C.E. On that same day, the German submarine Unterseeboot 15 was sunk by the British Town-class light cruiser HMS Birmingham.

In Asia, the Republic of China canceled Germany’s lease of Kiaochow Bay (Kiautschou) on August 23rd. 

In Africa, following an unopposed invasion, a New Zealand expeditionary force occupied the German colony of German Samoa on August 23rd.

That same day in Europe, the Battle of Mons began August 23rd. It was the first major action of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in the First World War. The Battle was a subsidiary action of the Battle of the Frontiers, in which the Allies clashed with Germany on the French borders. The German forces are defeated.

The naval Battle of Heligoland was fought on August 28th. It took place in the south-eastern North Sea, when the British attacked German patrols off the north-west German coast. Three German cruisers were sunk by British cruisers.

The First Battle of the Marne was fought north-east of Paris from September 5th through September 12, 1914 C.E. BEF and the French 6th Army attacked German forces. Over 2 million soldiers participated, with 500,000 killed or wounded. It was a victory for the Anglo-French forces.

The next day, British, French, and German forces began the First Battle of the Aisne. It lasted from September 13th through September 28, 1914 C.E. The Battle was the Allied follow-up offensive against the right wing of the German First Army under the command of Alexander von Kluck and the German Second Army led by Karl von Bülow as they retreated after the First Battle of the Marne earlier in September 1914 C.E.

On September 21st, all German armed forces in German New Guinea, that large island off the continent of Australia, surrender to the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force.

The Manifesto of the Ninety-Three was proclaimed in Germany on October 4th. The proclamation endorsed by 93 prominent German scientists, scholars and artists, declaring their unequivocal support of German military actions in the early period of World War I. These actions were elsewhere called the Rape of Belgium. The Manifesto galvanized support for the war throughout German schools and universities, but many foreign intellectuals were outraged.

British, French, and German forces fought the First Battle of Ypres between From October 19th through November 22, 1914 C.E. The engagement was fought on the Western Front around Ypres, in West Flanders, Belgium.

In South America, the Battle of Coronel was a First World War Imperial German Naval victory over the Royal Navy on November 1, 1914 C.E. It was fought off the Pacific Coast of central Chile near the city of Coronel. The East Asia Squadron of the Kaiserliche Marine or the Imperial German Navy led by Vice-Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee met and defeated the British West Indies Squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock.

On November 7th, following the Siege of Tsingtao, Japanese armed forces assumed control of the German colonial concession at Kiaochow Bay (Kiautschou). The Siege of Tsingtao was the attack on the German port of Tsingtao (Qingdao) in China by Japan and the United Kingdom. The siege against Imperial Germany took place from October 31st through November 7, 1914 C.E. The siege was the first encounter between Japanese and German forces and also the first Anglo-Japanese operation of the war.

The Battle of the Falkland Islands took place that archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf on December 8, 1914 C.E. It was a naval action between the British Royal Navy and Imperial German Navy. The British, after a defeat at the Battle of Coronel on November 1st, had sent a large force to track down and destroy the victorious German cruiser squadron. Commanding the German squadron of two armored cruisers, SMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the light cruisers SMS Nürnberg, Dresden and Leipzig, and three auxiliaries was Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee. Von Spee was attempting a raid on the British supply base at Stanley in the Falkland Islands. A larger British squadron which consisted of the battle cruisers HMS Invincible and Inflexible, the armored cruisers HMS Carnarvon, Cornwall and Kent, the armed merchant cruiser HMS Macedonia, and the light cruisers HMS Bristol and Glasgow had arrived in the port the day before.

The advanced cruisers of the German squadron were detected early. By that morning, the British battle cruisers and cruisers were in pursuit of the five German vessels, these having taken flight in line abreast to the southeast. All except the German auxiliary Seydlitz were hunted down and sunk.

In Europe on the fifth month of the war, during the week leading up to the December 25th, French, German, and British soldiers crossed trenches along the Western Front to exchange seasonal greetings and talk. In some areas, men from both sides ventured into no man's land on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to mingle and exchange food and souvenirs. While the Christmas truce was widespread, it was a series of unofficial ceasefires. It happened as hostilities had entered somewhat of a lull as leadership on both sides reconsidered their strategies following the stalemate. There were joint burial ceremonies and prisoner swaps. Several of these meetings ended in carol-singing. Men played games of football with one another, giving one of the most memorable images of the truce. Fighting still continued in some sectors. In others, the sides settled on little more than arrangements to recover bodies.

Here, I must offer the following statement as a testament to those men who had been fighting in the trenches of WWI. I do so with the understanding that Western culture of the 21st-Century C.E. has lost much of its emphasis on religion and God. This saying circulated during WWI. "There are no atheists in trenches." It appeared in “The Western Times” newspaper of Devon, England, in November 1914 C.E. A speaker at a memorial service for a fallen soldier held at St. Matthias’ Church, Ilsham, read from the letter of an unnamed chaplain serving at the front. With the dead strewn about in the trenches among the living and with the knowledge that one might be next, thoughts of God were apt to creep in to one’s mind and heart. So must have been the thoughts and hopes of an afterlife.

In the German homeland, on January of 1915 C.E., the German Government announced the reduction in bread rations. After a radical split from the SPD, Socialists and Communists staged major strikes. Also striking were the Independent Social Democratic Party alongside syndicalists and the Revolutionary Spartacists. These would increase steadily into 1916 C.E. 

Chancellor of Germany, Georg Michaelis, resigned on November 1, 1917 C.E. He was replaced by Count Georg von Hertling who accepted the appointment as German Chancellor and Minister-President of Prussia. Hertling was the first politician to hold either post; his predecessors had either been career civil servants or military men.

V.   The Unfinished War - After WWI 1918 and Before WWII to 1939

The United States 1918 C.E.-1939 C.E.

There are many of the de Ribera Clan that entered the United States military before, during, and after the WWI conflict. These are only but a few of those who would go off to war to protect America’s honor:

Andrés S. Rivera of Santa Fé, New Mexico was born on February 23, 1898 C.E. He served in the U.S. ARMY (1917 C.E.-1918 C.E.) as a corporal during World War I. He died on July 13, 1991 C.E. at the age of 93, in New Mexico. He is buried in the Santa Fe National Cemetery at 501 North Guadalupe Street, Santa Fé, NM, 87501 in Section: J, Site: 311L.

Andrés S. Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery, 501 North Guadalupe Street, Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: J

Site: 311L

Birth: Feb 23 1898

Death: Jul 13 1991

Age: 93

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: CPL

War: WORLD WAR I

Andrés Rivera CPL, Santa Fé, NM

U.S. World War I Records (1917 C.E.-1919 C.E.) show Rómulo Rivera of New Mexico as a member of the U.S. Army on January 1, 1918 C.E. When the United States entered World War I, the 15th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army sailed for France as one of the four mounted regiments on duty with the Allied Expeditionary Force. The fighting had already bogged down into trench warfare and the role of horse cavalry was nearly over. The 15th was called upon to dismount and relieve exhausted infantry units in the trenches. It was the tank that finally broke the trench lines to end both the war and the role of the horse soldier.

Rómulo Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery, 501 North Guadalupe Street, Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: U

Site: 279A

Birth: Jan 2 1899

Death: May 28 1965

Age: 66

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PVT

War: WORLD WAR I

Rómulo Rivera PVT, Santa Fé, NM

Other members of the de Ribera clan that fought in WWI include:

Abelino Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: X

Site: 522

Birth: Oct 12 1897

Death: Apr 13 1972

Age: 74

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PVT

War: WORLD WAR I

Abelino Rivera PVT, Santa Fé, NM

Alfredo Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: V

Site: 1598

Birth: Apr 8 1896

Death: Oct 22 1969

Age: 73

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PFC

War: WORLD WAR I

Alfredo Rivera PFC, Santa Fé, NM

Catarino Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: R

Site: 728

Birth: Feb 13 1888

Death: Feb 24 1962

Age: 74

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PFC

War: WORLD WAR I

Catarino Rivera PFC, Santa Fé, NM

Epolito Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: V

Site: 2025

Birth: Apr 5 1895

Death: Jan 9 1971

Age: 75

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PVT

War: WORLD WAR I

Epolito Rivera PVT, Santa Fé, NM

Juan José Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: V

Site: 2300

Birth: Sep 2 1891

Death: Oct 25 1971

Age: 80

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PVT

War: WORLD WAR I

Juan Rivera PVT, Santa Fé, NM

Ulysses Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: R

Site: 210

Birth: Jan 1 1905

Death: Aug 11 1963

Age: 58

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: TEC 5

War: WORLD WAR I

Ulysses Rivera TEC 5, Santa Fé, NM

José M Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: V

Site: 1556

Birth: Nov 11 1888

Death: Aug 3 1969

Age: 80

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PFC

War: WORLD WAR I

José Rivera PFC, Santa Fé, NM

José Miguel Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: 6

Site: 1432

Birth: Nov 11 1896

Death: Feb 28 1985

Age: 88

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PVT

War: WORLD WAR I

José Rivera PVT, Santa Fé, NM

Manuel Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: V

Site: 1231

Birth: Aug 26 1895

Death: Oct 29 1967

Age: 72

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: CPL

War: WORLD WAR I

Manuel Rivera CPL, Santa Fé, NM

Seberiano Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: A

Site: 1158

Death: Aug 23 1918

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: 2/LT

Seberiano Rivera 2/LT, Santa Fé, NM

Adelaido Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: T

Site: 156

Birth: Dec 12 1900

Death: Apr 15 1943

Age: 42

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PVT

War: WORLD WAR I

Adelaido Rivera PVT, Santa Fé, NM

Agustín Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: W

Site: 366

Birth: Mar 22 1896

Death: May 11 1973

Age: 77

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PVT

War: WORLD WAR I

Agustín Rivera PVT, Santa Fé, NM

Alejandro Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: 6

Site: 658

Birth: Jun 20 1898

Death: Aug 26 1985

Age: 87

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PVT

War: WORLD WAR I

Alejandro Rivera PVT, Santa Fé, NM

Encarnation Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: V

Site: 881

Birth: Sep 7 1890

Death: Dec 16 1966

Age: 76

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PVT

War: WORLD WAR I

Encarnation Rivera PVT, Santa Fé, NM

Eufemio Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: 3

Site: 415

Birth: Nov 15 1892

Death: May 2 1980

Age: 87

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PVT

War: WORLD WAR I

Eufemio Rivera PVT, Santa Fé, NM

Luís G Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: N

Site: 227

Birth: Nov 20 1893

Death: Oct 1 1978

Age: 84

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PVT

War: WORLD WAR I

Luís Rivera PVT, Santa Fé, NM

Adelaido Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: 4

Site: 449

Birth: Jul 23 1895

Death: Oct 16 1982

Age: 87

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PVT

War: WORLD WAR I

Adelaido Rivera PVT, Santa Fé, NM

Francisco Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: V

Site: 121

Birth: May 18 1894

Death: Oct 15 1954

Age: 60

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PVT

War: WORLD WAR I

Francisco Rivera PVT, Santa Fé, NM

José Ysidoro Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: V

Site: 2244

Birth: Jan 25 1893

Death: Nov 19 1971

Age: 78

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PVT

War: WORLD WAR I

José Rivera PVT, Santa Fé, NM

José Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: N

Site: 55A

Birth: May 2 1890

Death: Sep 25 1959

Age: 69

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PVT

War: WORLD WAR I

José Rivera PVT, Santa Fé, NM

Noverto Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: R

Site: 603

Birth: Jun 3 1888

Death: Jan 1 1964

Age: 75

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PVT

War: WORLD WAR I

Noverto Rivera PVT, Santa Fé, NM

Ricardo Rivera Santa Fé, New Mexico

Santa Fe National Cemetery
501 North Guadalupe Street
Santa Fé, NM 87501

Section: Z

Site: 361

Birth: Jul 18 1892

Death: Jul 22 1974

Age: 82

Branch: US ARMY

Rank: PVT

War: WORLD WAR I

Ricardo Rivera PVT, Santa Fé, NM

Toward the end of the WWI, the German Revolution or November Revolution began in November of 1918 C.E. It was a civil conflict in the German Empire that resulted in the replacement of the German federal constitutional monarchy with a democratic parliamentary republic that later became known as the Weimar Republic. Later, the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch, named after its leaders Wolfgang Kapp and Walther von Lüttwitz, would attempt a coup d'état to undo the German Revolution.

As WWI ended in November 1918 C.E., the result was an Allied victory over the Central Powers which ensured the destruction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the annexation of Trentino-Alto Adige, Gorizia and Gradisca, Istria, Trieste, Zara, and the Julian March to the Kingdom of Italy. The Armistice of Villa Giusti set the stage for the Treaty of Versailles and assured the Allies of German demobilization.

After Germany’s defeat in WWI in 1918 C.E., the Treaty of Versailles would be concluded. "The Big Four," David Lloyd George of Great Britain, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando of Italy, Georges Clemenceau of France, and President Woodrow Wilson of the United States were aware that they would make all the major decisions at the upcoming Paris Peace Conference. France and other victorious European countries were in a desperate situation. WWI had a devastating effect on their economies. Their security was in question and morale had plummeted. As a result, the soon to be held Paris Peace Conference of 1919 C.E. would provide them an opportunity to punish Germany for begining and prolonging the war. The victors charged Germany with sole responsibility for WWI. The first step towards satisfying revenge for the victor countries against Germany, especially France, was the War-Guilt Clause. The French nation understood clearly that her true position was of an artificial and transitory nature. The Treaty terms were also to include provisions for the demilitarization of the Rhineland (Ten Points “X.”), the prohibition of unification with Austria and the Sudetenland (Ten Points “VIII.”), loss of the German-speaking territories such as Danzig and the area of Eupen-Malmedy, limitations on the Reichwehr making it a token military force (Ten Points “X.”). These left the German population humiliated, dissatisfied, and angry. All of this was done by the other Allied Powers, despite U.S. President Wilson's wish to include his Fourteen Points. 

Immediately, problems would begin to arise for Germany’s new Weimar Government. The most serious internal cause of difficulties in Germany was the instability of the political system. Large sectors of politically active Germans simply rejected the legitimacy of the Weimar Republic which undermined efforts at reconciliation and normalization. Underpinning this were the strong currents of Revanchism, taken from the French word "revenge." This was the manifestation of German political will to reverse territorial losses incurred by Germany following WWI and the rise of a social movement toward nationalism to resist the Allied victors. Secondly, there were the heavy financial payments that Germany had to pay the Allies in the form of war reparations. These would become unbearable later with the worldwide “Great Depression.”

With the war’s end, the American WWI demobilization effort began almost immediately. It proved to be chaotic. Wilson promptly dismantled wartime boards and regulatory agencies thus impairing the Nation’s ability to achieve an orderly return to a peacetime economy. The poorly managed military discharged four million soldiers with little or no planning. The soldiers were returned to civilian life with a small amount of money and few benefits.

In the aftermath of WWI, the global economy soon began to decline and an economic recession hit much of the world. Thankfully, in the United States from 1918 C.E. through 1919 C.E., the economy experienced only a modest retreat and soon a mild recovery. Next to follow was the bursting of an artificial American wartime farm price bubble. This left many farmers bankrupt or deeply in debt after having purchase new land to expand production.

It was into this uncertain world that Gavino Rivera, a member of the de Ribera Clan was born on March 24, 1918 C.E. at Santa Fé, Santa Fé County, New Mexico, U.S.A. He would later serve in WWII in the U.S. Army’s, C Battery, 200th Coast Artillery (AA). Gavino was a National Guardsman when his regiment was federalized on January 6, 1941 C.E. He would later be serving with the 200th in the Philippines when Imperial Japanese Army began its invasion on December 8, 1941 C.E. On April 9, 1942 C.E., American and Filipino forces making a last stand on the Bataan Peninsula would be compelled to surrender. Gavino would survive the “Bataan Death March” that followed. He would later be liberated from Fukuoka POW Camp 17, Omuta, Japan, where he was used as slave labor until liberated after the war. He would pass away in Albuquerque, Bernalillo County, New Mexico, U.S.A. on May 17, 2005 C.E.

In this year, as other de Riberas were coming into the world, Cristino Ribera, my Great-Grandfather’s brother, left it. He died on October 26, 1918 C.E. at age 76-77 having been born in 1841 C.E. Cristino was buried in Old Saint Anthonys Church Cemetery at Pecos, San Miguel County, New Mexico, U.S.A.

Soon after the Armistice came, the great debate as to whether the United States should remain an isolated nation or become an active Great Power had resumed and quickly dominated political affairs throughout 1919 C.E. and 1920 C.E.

Americans in 1919 C.E. saw a wave of post-war unionization and major strikes. American labor militancy of the 1919 C.E. strike wave had come just two years after a successful communist revolution in Russia. The labor unions which had grown strong during the war would fight to maintain their hard won power. That year was to be one of the most militant in United States labor history. During those twelve months, 3,630 strikes were called. The strikes would involve 4,160,000 workers, which was an increase of 2,933,000 over the number of workers involved in strikes in 1917 C.E. The year was characterized by many as an epidemic of strikes.

There were a series of strikes in the U.S. industrial system breaking out in one place as it subsided in another. There were major strikes in the coal and meatpacking. , and steel industries which made many take notice. One of the largest included the Seattle General Strike, a general strike of all workers in Seattle. A second strike of the entire American steel industry affected hundreds of thousands of workers and consumers. These two occurrences proved to be deeply unsettling for most Americans. The radical, heated rhetoric used by some labor leaders raise the prospect of full-fledged class warfare. The politics of a changing America was on everyone’s minds.

María Eluteria Roybal of the de Ribera Clan died in January 1919 C.E. at Pecos, New Mexico. She was buried at Pecos, New Mexico. Her husband was Jesús Manuel Roybal. His parents were Rafael Roybal and María Manuela Madrid. They were married on May 1, 1848 C.E. at San Miguel del Bado, New Mexico. María Eluteria parents were María Marcelina Ribera and Bartoloméo Vigil. María Marcelina’s parents were my Great-Great-Grandfather and Great-Great-Grandmother, José Luís Ribera and María Isabel Martínez. María Isabel was born on October 1834 C.E. at Santa Fé, Nuevo Méjico

By January 16, 1919 C.E., the National Prohibition Act also known informally as the Volstead Act was enacted. It was to carry out the intent of the 18th Amendment which had been ratified by 36 of the 48 states, making it law. It was the Amendment which had established prohibition. On October 28, 1919 C.E., the U.S. Congress passed enabling legislation, known as the Volstead Act, to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment when it went into effect at midnight on January 17, 1920 C.E. It would later be voided by the Twenty-first amendment.

The Seattle General Strike marked the climax of post-First World War working class struggle in the United States. For five days, from February 6th through February 11, 1919 C.E., one hundred thousand workers attempted to shut down the city.

The 15th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army to which Rómulo Rivera was attached, served occupation duty after the war until June of 1919 C.E. when it returned to the United States.

In 1919 C.E., there were a wave of race riots, most notably in East St. Louis and Chicago. The Chicago race riot of 1919 was a major racial conflict of violence committed by ethnic White Americans against Black Americans. They began in Chicago, Illinois, on July 27, 1919 C.E., and ended on August 3rd. During the riot, thirty-eight people died, 23 Black and 15 White, and over five hundred were injured. It is considered the worst of the approximately 25 riots during what was called “the Red Summer,” so named because of the violence and fatalities across the nation. The combination of prolonged arson, looting, and murder made it the worst race riot in the history of Illinois.

The sociopolitical atmosphere of Chicago was one of ethnic tension caused by competition among many new groups. With the Great Migration, thousands of African Americans from the South had settled next to neighborhoods of European immigrants on Chicago's South Side, near jobs in the stockyards and meatpacking plants. 

The transition back to peacetime economy after WWI was anything but simple. It was in fact a very difficult period of adjustment. New Mexico, World War I records from 1917 C.E.-1919 C.E. show that Rómulo Rivera was mustered out of the 15th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army on August 21, 1919 C.E. and returned to his home at 1515 S. 2nd in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

That same year, United States Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer coordinated crackdowns on radical labor and socialist groups in what was known as the Palmer Raids of the first "Red Scare." In South Manchester, Connecticut, Federal agents targeted a nest of suspected radicals. The site was a small automotive garage where Russian immigrants met on a regular basis. Authorities believed that these immigrants were learning how to construct homemade bombs.

On November 7, 1919 C.E., the first day of the notorious Palmer Raids began a nationwide sweep of thousands of workers, many of them immigrants, designed to rid the country of all dangerous “Reds.” These raids were launched in Bridgeport, Waterbury, Hartford, New Britain, and New Haven simultaneously. The goal was to dismantle what was thought to be a nationwide plot for a revolution. The concern was about the recent revolution in Russia and fear of growing labor unrest. The new Espionage Act and strict immigration laws gave the government power to criminalize free speech. Demands for wage increases and workplace safety became labeled un-American. Criticism of capitalism’s excesses was evidence of “Bolshevik” tendencies. Leaders of IWW Union, Socialist Party, and other organizations were arrested in this series of "Palmer raids."

Wartime export disruptions for Latino América were only temporary. The decade of the 1920s C.E. was generally a period of solid economic growth and renewed optimism. All countries continued to pursue an outward-directed import-export trade growth strategy. Post-WWI period conditions in the world market were unfavorable for Latino América’s terms of trade. Demand for most of the primary commodities that the region specialized in was not keeping pace with the growth of production.

Export disruptions gave way to a frenzied boom in the immediate post-WWI period as Latino Américano exporters cashed in on pent-up demand in the former warring powers. One example was the case in Cuba, where the price of sugar reached a peak of 23 cents per pound in 1920 C.E., only to tumble down to 3.5 cents within a few months as European production of beet sugar returned to normal. Similar postwar export booms and busts demonstrating the hazards of increasing dependence on the world economy occurred elsewhere Latino América.

Those export disruption hazards were underscored again by Brasil’s costly program undertaken to support the price of coffee by buying up surplus production and keeping it off the market. It was first tried in 1906 C.E. and was briefly repeated during WWI. Called “valorization” the policy was reinstated during the 1920s C.E. in the face of persistent weakness of the world coffee price. One reason for the weakness of the world coffee price was the expansion of cultivation in other Latino Américano countries, above all Colombia. By the end of World War I, she emerged as the second leading producer of coffee due to among other things, the Brasileño price support efforts.

After the global economy as a whole fell sharply a more severe recession hit the United States from 1920 C.E. through 1921 C.E. That same year, in the United States, the Los Ángeles Pacific Electric system was the largest electric railroad in the world. Women in America were given right to vote in all elections under 19th Amendment. The first commercial radio station began broadcasting in Pittsburgh, and Warren Harding a Republican was elected president in a landslide over James M. Cox the Democrat. This symbolized an end of "progressive era" and return to "normalcy."

Americans in the 1920s C.E. were anxious to put WWI and European involvement behind them. As young Americans gradually emerged from the darkness of WWI, they rejected the continuation of Victorian mores. These young people embraced everything new and modern. Scores left rural America for city life. Government leadership leaned toward a foreign policy of isolationism. The American public embraced Americanism. In order to avoid future wars, many Americans opposed the country's membership in the League of Nations. The majority of Americans believing it would obligate the United States to police the world.

In the 1920s C.E., the upper classes and the middleclass were enjoying increased affluence. The working class was not having the same experience. With latent working class militancy and hostility the formation of radical labor organizations began. Americans were working many more hours a day than the 8 for which they had fought hard in the late-19th-Century C.E. On average, Americans labored 54 to 63 three hours per-week under dangerous working conditions. By 1920 C.E., half of all Americans lived in growing urban neighborhoods, and for many of them chronic unemployment, poverty, and deep social divides had become a regular part of life. Workers had little political power or standing in either the Democratic or Republican parties. This left them outside the system. 

As the first two decades of the 20th-Century C.E. ended, America saw increased immigration from both Europe and Asia. As a result of labor activities, economic issues, and problems a mistrust of working class laborers fear was fostered. This applied particularly to foreign immigrants who might be anarchists, socialists, and communists. Immigrants became increasingly viewed as a threat to democracy and American values. Nativism, that belief in the superiority and rights of native-born peoples was leading the public to support for government limits on immigration.

The period also saw increased activism by African Americans, American Indians, and others who demanded equal opportunities and the end of discriminatory laws and customs. WWI was the watershed for these movements. Both African Americans and American Indians had enlisted in the army fought and died with equal vigor and expected the same rights and respect that other returning veterans received. In urban areas, competition between whites and African-Americans for jobs and housing fueled acts of racism. The Ku Klux Klan and other Racist organizations saw a sharp increase in membership.

The 1920s C.E. became a period in Western society and Western culture with very telling points of change. It had sustained economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge in the United States and Western Europe. Major cities demonstrated this edginess more than others, such as Berlin, Chicago, London, Los Ángeles, New York City, Paris, and Sydney. In the French Third Republic, known as the "années folles" or Crazy Years, the decade emphasized the era's social, artistic, and cultural dynamism. Art Deco peaked, flappers redefined the look for modern American and British women of the day, and Jazz came into its own.

Nations saw rapid industrialization, economic growth, accelerated consumer demand, and significant changes in lifestyle. The traditional values of rural America were being challenged by the Jazz Age which was symbolized by women drinking, smoking, and wearing short skirts.

There was large-scale development in transportation with the greater use of automobiles and aviation becoming a business during the era. Electric appliances, motion pictures, radio, telephones, and other modern devices were begining to become commonplace. The media focused on celebrities, especially movie stars and sports heroes. Fans filled new palatial cinemas and gigantic sports stadiums where cities rooted for their home teams. Women won the right to vote in the majority of democratic states.

During the period, American businesses made huge financial gains of 65 percent, through mechanization of manufacturing processes. In those same years, the average worker’s wages only increased 8 percent. An imbalance between the rich and the poor continued. The top 0.1 percent of American society earned the same as the total income as 42 percent of the population. The average American could now purchase automobiles and household appliances, with appliances being bought on credit. Many were going for the gold by speculating in the stock market. Unfortunately, the increased production of goods and rising personal debt could not be sustained. The era would end in an economic disaster.

In the 1920s C.E., New Mexico was among the poorest states in the Union. New Mexico’s mining industry began its downward slide in the 1920’s C.E. and would continue its slide. Many mines became the property of larger companies when conditions forced many of the smaller companies out of business. This meant fewer jobs and paychecks. Elsewhere in America, economic prosperity of the 1920s C.E. or the economic boom of the “Roaring Twenties” was on.

The intergovernmental organization, the League of Nations, was founded on January 10, 1920 C.E. as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. The diplomatic philosophy behind the League represented a fundamental shift in thought from the preceding century. The old philosophy of "concert of nations," grew out of the Congress of Vienna (1815 C.E.).The concert of nations approach saw Europe as a shifting map of alliances among nation-states and attempted to create a balance of power through maintaining strong armies and establishing secret agreements. Unfortunately, the League lacked an armed force of its own. As a result, it depended on members to enforce its resolutions, uphold economic sanctions that the League ordered, or provide an army when needed for the League’s use. The League had numerous notable successes and some early failures in the 1920s C.E. The annexation or transferred of lands through League of Nations’ action to neighboring countries was accomplished via treaty or later via plebiscite.

The League's enforcement of its methods left a great deal to be desired. These methods included disarmament, preventing war through collective security, the settling of disputes between countries through negotiation diplomacy, and improving global welfare. Under the new philosophy, the League was a government of governments, with the role of settling disputes between individual nations in an open and legalist forum. The United States never joined, which lessened the power and credibility of the League—the addition of a burgeoning industrial and military world power might have added more force behind the League's demands and requests.

Promo Rivera another member of the de Ribera Clan was born in Santa Fé County, Santa Fé, New Mexico, on February 18, 1920 C.E. He would enlist later on August 15, 1940 C.E., and serve in the U.S. Regular Army as a Private in the Field Artillery during World War II.

Albert C Rivera of the de Ribera Clan was born at Santa Fé, New Mexico, on April 8, 1921 C.E. He too would later serve in the U.S. Army as a PFC during World War II.

Sadly, after 20 years of continuous active service, Rómulo Rivera’s old 15th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army was deactivated on October 18, 1921 C.E. as part of the massive cutbacks in the Regular Army following the "war to end all wars." That same year, my mother’s brother, Melisendro Rivera, was born in July 1908 C.E. at Santa Fé County, New Mexico, U.S.A. He died on October 24, 1921 C.E. in Santa Fé, Santa Fé County, New Mexico. Melisendro was buried in the Rosario Cemetery at Santa Fé, Santa Fé County, New Mexico, U.S.A. He was the son of Cedro (Ysidro Rivera) and Amalia Cavillas (Ceballos) Rivera. Fortunately, he would not live to see another war with Germany.

During the Méjicano Revolution in the early years of 1918 C.E. through 1922 C.E., Communism attempted to establish a foothold in Méjico. Their attempts were met with great difficulty and complications. The fundamental problem was that the Méjicano Communist Party was founded principally by foreigners. These did not have the necessary knowledge of Méjicano society and politics. Other problems included the relative isolation of the foreign Communist International or Comintern agents sent to foment revolution in Méjico, as well as the early party's lack of resources. The experience of the Méjicano Revolution and the achievement of the Constitution of 1917 C.E. gave Méjicano workers an investment in the new revolutionary state with which the Communists could not compete in the early years.

As was discussed in the previous chapter, the Right-leaning Germany was far better prepared and financed to gain a foothold in Méjicano society and governmental structure and to keep it. Their continued relations with the Méjicano elite, business community, and military leadership would remain problematic for American interests.

The Bolshevik international revolutionary project and the Comintern had a limited understanding of Méjico and thus failed to grasp the powerful impact of the country's revolution. The research which has been conducted for the period from 1917 C.E.-1927 C.E. on Méjicano Communism via copies of documents from the Library of Congress, the U.S. Military Intelligence Division, and the U.S. Bureau of Investigation, the Russian archives, and various Méjicano archives, and Communists in Méjico provides differing interpretations of the Bolsheviks, the Comintern, and the Méjicano revolution. One thing is certain, these groups intended to overthrown every non-Communist government they could!

In the early Communist Party in Méjico years, the foreign founders the American Charles Francis Phillips, the Indian M.N. Roy, the Russian Mikhail Borodin, and then of the Communist International's agents in Méjico Louis Fraina and Sen Katayama established themselves in the economic, social, and political areas of Méjico. But the Bolshevik's early projection of world revolution as a uniform prescription for countries around the world was disoriented. The Comintern agents Fraina and Katayama, proved incapable of grasping the complexity of the agrarian movements and the labor movement before the International ended that phase of its attempt to establish a Communist party in Méjico.

All of the early attempts to found a Communist Party bore little fruit, and only after Joseph Stalin came to power in the Soviet Union and in the Comintern was a Communist Party successfully installed in Méjico, though that was an altogether different thing than what had been envisioned by the Communists of the early twenties.

José M Rivera another member of the de Ribera Clan was born at Santa Fé, New Mexico, on July 22, 1922 C.E.  He would also later serve as a Private in the U.S. Army during World War II.

Frank M Rivera of the de Ribera Clan of Santa Fé, New Mexico was born on June 30, 1923 C.E. He would later serve in the U.S. Navy as an S1 during World War II.

In Méjico, south of New Mexico, U.S., on July 20, 1923 C.E. the Méjicano bandit, Pancho Villa, was assassinated. His death put an end to an ugly chapter in American history. 

María Ribera (Piño) the daughter of my Great-Grandfather Anastacio Ribera, and the brother of my Grandfather Ysidro Ribera, died on June 17, 1924 C.E. She was buried in Old Saint Anthonys Church Cemetery at Pecos, in San Miguel County, New Mexico. María was born at Pecos, New Mexico, in 1856 C.E.

Rivera, Frank D. Sr., another of the de Ribera Clan, was born on July 31, 1924 C.E. at Santa Fé, New Mexico. He would also serve later as a PFC in the U.S. Army during World War II.

In September 1924 C.E., flying Cadet Elwood Richard Quesada, CB, CBE (April 13, 1904 C.E.-February 9, 1993 C.E.), nicknamed "Pete," enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He would later become a United States Air Force Lieutenant-General, FAA administrator, and, a club owner in Major League Baseball. Elwood Richard Quesada was born in Washington, D.C. in 1904 C.E. to an Irish-American mother and a Spanish (Hispanic) father. He attended Wyoming Seminary in Kingston, Pa., University of Maryland, College Park, and Georgetown University.

Information from the Rosario Cemetery Santa Fé County, New Mexico, tells us that Anastácio Rivera, was born on April 27, 1856 C.E. and died on September 3, 1924 C.E. As stated on his headstone, he was married to Juliánita Garcia born February 16, 1871 C.E. and died July 1, 1957 C.E. This is probably the Anastacio Rivera found in the 1910 Census at age 16 and was born 1894 C.E. at Doña Ana, New Mexico.

Porfirio Estrada Rivera was also of the de Ribera Clan of Santa Fé, New Mexico. He was born on September 15, 1925 C.E. He would later serve in the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy as a CPL and AD3 during World War II and Korea.

In Latino Américano, by 1926 C.E., there had been three years of instability in Nicaragua. As the U.S. had been unable to find a government satisfactory to her interests, the U.S. Marines were landed in Nicaragua. The Marines occupied the Coast cities of Bluefields, Puerto Cabezas, Prinzapolka and Río Grande from 1926 C.E. to 1931 C.E. This military presence would last almost uninterrupted for twenty-one years.

That following year of 1927 C.E., would find the United States’ landing 5,670 troops ashore in China and had 44 naval vessels in its waters.

By 1928 C.E., the growing importance of foreign capital in the Post-WWI Period provoked a nationalist backlash in Latino América and reinforced the already strong cultural nationalism. This form of nationalism was already strong among many groups of intellectuals. Américano intervention around the Caribe and in Méjico also provoked the already existing the anti-imperialist sentiment in the region held by Hispanic conservatives who cherished the Ibero heritage. They saw it as a shield against corrupting Anglo-Saxon influences and the leading Hispanic anti-imperialist spokesmen who tended to be leftist.

The Latino Américano Left-wing parties and labor unions were in the forefront of economic nationalism. While they had many reasons for their views, foreign-owned firms provided a more popular target than local business enterprises. For example, British nitrate investors in Chile faced serious labor unrest. The Boston-based United Fruit Company in the Colombiano banana zone was hit by a violent strike in late-1928 C.E. In Méjico, Petroleum investors faced serious labor unrest, in addition to ongoing conflicts with the government over the control of subsoil resources. The new constitution of 1917 C.E., had already declared these subsoil resources to be the exclusive property of the nation.

It had only been eleven years since the end of WWI, by 1929 C.E. the mass deportation of Méjicanos and Mexican Americans from the United States began. Estimates of how many were repatriated to Méjico range from 400,000 to 2,000,000. An estimated sixty percent of those deported were birthright citizens of the United States. The Mexican Repatriation or mass deportation of Méjicanos and Mexican Americans from the United States between 1929 C.E. and 1936 C.E. was a sobering experience for Hispanics. This difficult to accept reality only ended five years before the start of WWII.

Here, the reader must be reminded that Hispanics gave their honor, blood, and in some cases, their lives in the service of America earlier in WWI. This they had done gladly, only to see Hispanics being mistreated and abused only eleven years later. This ugly, painful memory was still fresh in the minds of Hispanic American five years after the degradation had ended, just as WWII began. Yet, they would once again serve their nation proudly and honorably on the battlefields of Europe and Asia. What was it they fought for? I believe it was for an ideal. That ideal was America. Francis Scott Key the author of these famous words said it best, “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” He wrote those words in 1814 C.E., one hundred years before WWI had begun. The following years would see even more crisis for the Hispanics with the beginning of America’s Great Depression on October 24, 1929 C.E.

Robert Ribera of the de Ribera Clan was born on May 11, 1929 C.E., in Ribera, New Mexico. Later, during World War II, Robert would later serve in the U.S. Army, in the Pacific Theater.

The long-standing issues regarding Nuevo Méjicano Spanish and Méjicano land claims would reach another milestone of failure. The New Mexico State Surveyor-General's Office was abolished on August 14, 1929 C.E.

On Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929 C.E., America’s financial reckoning came. The once magical golden goose, the American stock market crashed. It’s failure triggering the Great Depression. In the history of the modern industrial world, this was the worst economic collapse ever experienced. It would spread like a cancer across the United States and then to the rest of the world, lasting from the end of 1929 C.E. until the early 1940s C.E. Banks began failing, businesses closures soon followed, and unemployment became critical. This would have huge implications for the nations of Latino América.

By the late-1920s, the United States was the world’s leading exporter of petroleum, though not producer. Its industry was controlled by U.S., British, and Dutch interests. Capital also flowed through Wall Street bankers as loans made to Latino Américano governments. Foreign investment had resumed on a massive scale in the Post-WWI Period. Investment now, however, came chiefly from the United States. Its stake grew from $1.6 billion in 1914 C.E.to $5.4 billion in 1929 C.E. New capital flowed into productive activities such as that of the Venezolano petroleum industry.

Unfortunately, worldwide in 1929 C.E., a further escalation of economic nationalism would soon come with the arrival of the global economic depression. Economic nationalism would result more from a defensive reaction than as a conscious policy. For Latino América, the depression put an abrupt end to the inflow of foreign capital and at the same time brought a drastic decline in the price of the region’s exports. This in turn reduced the capacity to import and the regional governments’ revenues from customs duties. At one point, a pound of Cubano sugar was selling for less than the U.S. tariff on the sugar. In response to the crisis, Latino Américano countries raised their own tariffs and imposed other restrictions on foreign trade.

At home, many American railroads began suffering financial difficulties which led to some railroad bankruptcies. 

By the 1930s C.E., the League of Nations ultimately proved incapable of preventing aggression by the Axis powers. The reliance upon unanimous decisions, the lack of an armed force, and the continued self-interest of its leading members meant that this failure was inevitable. It failure to resolve the underlying issues which had brought about WWI, would come to haunt the world at the end of the decade.

Also by the 1930s C.E., in Latino América the purpose of conserving scarce foreign exchange had become of paramount importance. Each country had a theoretical goal of increasing economic independence which resulted in an emphasis on domestic manufacturing. In those years, Colombia’s textile production increased at a faster rate than England had during the Industrial Revolution and yet, its government continued to see protection of the coffee industry as its primary economic mission. In almost all of the larger Latino Américano nations the development of an industrial base and manufacturing had already made important gains before the depression had begun. Unfortunately, with the exception of Méjico’s well-established iron and steel industry, manufacturing consisted almost entirely of consumer goods production, goods which people could no longer afford.

As the Depression progressed, numerous Latino Américano countries adopted measures to save available jobs for native inhabitants. This required that a given percentage of a company’s employees had to be citizens. In Brasil, tight restrictions were imposed on the flow of immigrants. Brasil had actually pioneered large-scale state intervention in the economy with its coffee “valorization” program, which was finally abandoned during the depression as too expensive.

Between 1930 C.E. and 1945 C.E., the Brasileño national government under Presidente Getúlio Vargas, for the first time actively sponsored social legislation. It encouraged labor unions while tying them closely to the state and began construction of a major iron and steel complex under state auspices. Presidente Vargas was an authoritarian ruler but a constructive one. He wasn’t the only military or civilian strongman who moved to expand the functions of the state. Social legislation had become a norm with which to take the edge off worker discontent and, if possible, to strengthen the national economy against new emergencies.

Uruguay, of all the other Latino Américano countries, outstripped them in both political democratization and as a pioneer welfare state. It had passed minimum-wage legislation, implemented an advanced social security system, and much else, even before 1930 C.E.

Elsewhere in Latino América the record was mixed. Costa Rica came close to approximating the pattern of the Southern Cone, and in Colombia the Liberal Party, after its return to power in 1930 C.E., went partway toward incorporating labor as an actor on the national scene.

Meanwhile, in New Mexico, U.S.A., the de Riberas remained a strong and growing clan.  Here, I’ve provided a Santa Fé Co, NM - 1930 Federal Census Index