Second Global War (French Trafalgar, British Waterloo)

The Second Global War, also known as the Great War, and usually abreviated as GWII, was a world spanning military conflict that engulfed almost every nation in the world centered around two alliances: the French and United States led and the  headed by,  and the. Nearly 90 million military personal were called up to fight, with nearly 50 million casualties suffered by all sides.

The war ended with victory for the Grand Alliance, and the defeat of the United Coalition, insured in harsh peace treaties that followed, which resulted in the dismemberment of the Ottoman, German, and Austro-Hungarian Empire's, which were replaced by numerous smaller states. As well, the mighty British Empire had much of its land stripped away and delivered to France and other victors.

Causes and Outbreak
It is generally accepted that the spark for the war was the assassination of Turkish Prime Minister Ahmed Riza in Belgrade on July 12, 1911, and the series of diplomatic maneuvers, misunderstandings and delays eventually lead to the declaration of war on Austria-Hungary by Turkey on August 6, with the rest of Europe soon coming to support its friends in the complex series of alliances that had been created in the decades leading up to the war. However, other causes have been proposed and debated to what lead to the war, and it is generally accepted that many minor crisis and other events have lead to the eventual outbreak of war.

The Alliance System
Since the end of the, the nations of Europe had been engaging in trying to maintain a semblance of balance of power, and had resulted in two major alliances having been formed: the and the , and many separate treaties and alliances that had been created between the different nations. This system, while stable in the short term, would eventually have been over turned as some nation's power increased and other's decreased and allegiances switched. A prime example of this would be that of France and Britain, which, in the aftermath of the German interference in the, sought to normalize relations. However, this feeling of good will between the two was later nearly destroyed over the clash for colonies, especially the crisis in Burma, and later which resulted in a cooling of their affairs and eventually Britain realigning with Germany.

The Arms Race
As the threat of war grew, the various nations of Europe and the America's sought to arm themselves with the newest equipment available. The Krupp Works in Germany, the Armstrong complex in England and the massive Imperial Armaments factories in France were constantly developing newer, more devistating weapons, usually in response to an announcement of a new defensive product from another major power. A prime example of this was the British Dreadnought battleship, which, when launched in 1904, was the ultimate naval weapon: the first "all big gun" armaments (in this case, 12 inch guns), and utilizing the brand new Parson's steam turbine technology. The construction of the Dreadnought instantly made all previous battleships obsolete: long range gunnery that could out shoot many other ships and run fast enough to escape from any contest that she might not win gave the United Kingdom a decisive advantage over the rest of the Great Powers.

France almost instantly started work on her own Dreadnought, the first of the Napoleon I class. Germany, Russia, the United States, the Confederacy and Japan also started to develop their own ships, while powers like Italy, Austria, Ottoman Turkey and Persia commissioned similar ships from the bigger powers. As well, nations like Russia and the CSA, normally land based powers, sought ways to battle the sea based powers without having to invest enormous sums of money in lots of battleships which could easily be rendered obsolete with new technology. Therefore, the first submarines were built in Charleston in 1904 and in St. Petersburg in 1905, and soon advances in technology gave smaller naval powers the weapons needed to attack the larger navies of their enemies, as the larger powers (especially Britain) believed that submarines were a fad, and couldn't actually sink a battleship, especially one of the new Dreadnoughts.

Not only on the seas, but the land based forces of the world were getting new and deadly weapons. Machine guns, airplanes, new artillery and the first semi-automatic rifles were all developed in this period, while the number of men under arms continued to grow at an exponential rate. Universal conscription was defended as a defensive measure, and an entire generation of European boys and men were divided based on the year of their conscription and training, and constituted a huge reserve that could be called upon if needed. As the largest industrial powers had in their means the ability to feed, clothe, and arm an enormous percentage of their population, this guaranteed the next war will be one of the bloodiest unless a quick victory is achieved. These efforts and a "decisive" victory against an opponent, to be able to defeat an enemy before they can mobilize to defeat you, dictated the strategies that would be developed right up to the declaration of war.

First Moves
The events of Belgrade in July of 1911 quickly escalated out of control, as the Ottoman Empire concluded after a brief investigation that Austria-Hungary had influenced and paid the Yugoslav Union, whose member Gavrilo Princip was responsible for the attack. An ultimatum to Emperor Franz Joseph was sent on July 27, demanding that the Dual Monarchy cease all support for groups operating in Ottoman control Europe. Although originally prepared to accept, military advisers to the Emperor encouraged him to reject it due to the demands, which could be interpreted as a loss of face. Therefore the ultimatum was rejected, and the army was mobilized.

Russia was concerned if Austria would cave of not, but when they did not, Nicholas II sent a message to his counterpart in Vienna, and pledged that Russia would support their secret ally on July 29, due to the terms of the Treaty of Salzburg in 1901. Then Russia announced the mobilization of their army.

Italy stepped up at this point, and President Giovanni Giolitti proposed a peace conference in Rome on August 1 to try to settle the issues before they spiraled out of control. However, the mobilization of Germany and Spain, and the French demanding the nations on their border stand down being refused forced Italy to abandon the idea on the third, and began mobilizing the next day, and called on Austria to stand down.

Britain was in a precarious position. Their "alliance" with France created after a falling out with Germany at the end of the First Global War was in a very delicate position, primarily due to colonial issues, especially over Burma. However, they wished to protect their lines of communication with India via the Suez Canal, which could only be done by a quick siezing of the canal, or alliance with Turkey. The German ambassador to London offered to forgive the past misgivings and grant enormous concessions to the UK in regard to naval and colonial issues. France tried to speak with the British, but their talks came to naught over the issue of, of all things, the hypothetical use of the Suez Canal by the French after they were to seize it. Therefore, on August 5, Britain announced they supported Turkey, and the Royal Navy was prepared for war.

The European War
The Second Global War involved the vast majority of Europe, divided into two competing, and almost equal alliances. Britain, with the strongest navy, was allied with Germany, the strongest army, and Turkey and Italy, although by themselves considered little more than "honorary Great Powers" had an immense effect of tying down the French, Austria-Hungarians and Russians from focusing on Germany alone. And since continued division of attention was the most effective way to drag out the war, the British and Germans did their best to support their allies in the Mediterranean.

On the other hand France, with perhaps the strongest economy, Russia with vast reserves and the most recent battle experience (against Japan in the where the two major powers, while Austria-Hungary, still in the midst of trying to reform itself in the face of Nationalism and Industrialization, was the linchpin of Russian and French strategies; if the Hapsburg empire collapsed, then Germany and Turkey could focus on France and Turkey could focus their power on France and Russia, respectively, not counting the Austrian, Hungarian and other nationalities that could supply men to the ever escalating conflict.

French Front (1911-1916)
After the initial attack, success and faltering of the German Schlieffen Plan, the French front soon devolved into a static trench warfare. Efforts by the French to reclaim lost territory, and German and British efforts to force the French to give up, and later to bleed them white, resulted in casualty lists that went from thousands, to tens of thousands, to hundreds of thousands in the space of a few short years. New weapons, including poison gas, the tank, fighter airplanes, and strategic bombers all made their debut on the French front. Colonials from the French and British Empire's fought here, most notably North African cavalry, Indian irregulars and Australasian "shock troopers." Eventually, the battles here became a test of wills, but neither side began to falter until the end if 1914 and early 1915, when the French army seethed with discontent and near mutiny, while the pressures of German resources being diverted to three fronts, tensions between the German and British commanders, and increasing difficulty with overseas supply due to the Imperial French Navy counter blockade to the British. In the end, the collapse of the German armies on all fronts in late September more than anything led to victory for the bloodied, weakened France.

Polish Front (1911-1916)
After initial successes against the German puppet states of the Ukraine and the Baltic Confederacy, Russia and her ally Poland was able to focus its attention on Germany. The next five years would see a running battle, were the massive war machine of Russia tried to break through the tenacious German defenses, while German (and some British forces) would mount naval assaults behind the Russian lines in the area that was the annexed Baltic Confederacy. Russia, with her vast manpower and reformed army (but still developing industry) was originally seen as a "steam roller" who, with possible Austria-Hungarian help, might be able to march into Berlin the day that German soldiers would (hypothetically) march into Paris. However, German defenses and Austrian indecision halted this effort cold. Although the Russian Front was more fluid than the static French Front and the glacial Bohemian Front, enormous casualties on both sides had weakened Russia and Germany. However, the Russian "human wave" tactics, while high in casualties, did weaken the German armies will to resist, and led to their collapse in September 1916.

Bohemian Front (1911-1916)
Considered the "quiet front", the long border between Germany and Austria-Hungary was mutually left alone, with Austrian demands against Italy and Turkey, and German difficulties with Russia and France meaning little could be spared to this fight. Austria held the luxury of the high ground and the most defensible position, anchored in the Sudetenland Mountains. However, the Hapsburg Empire was a mixture of nationalities, with Austro-Germans, Hungarians, Croats, Slavs, Czechs, Slovaks and many more all needing to be balanced. Pan-Germanism was strong in Vienna, and only barely outweighed by support to the aging Emperor Franz-Joseph II. Vague promises of national determination and economic liberation where issued from the government, which convinced the minorities to fight in the war, but they were delayed again and again during and after the war, much to the detriment of the Empire. Only after Turkey and Italy (the two enemies that most of the nationalities could untie against) were defeated, could attention be paid to the Bohemian front, but by then the German Army was in no shape to continued the fight, and the massive "Ferdinand Offensive" (named after the new Emperor, who succeed the throne in 1915 after the death of Franz Joseph) was considered the straw that broke the camels back.

Alpine Front (1911-1915)
In 1911, Italy was divided between Socialists and Nationalists, and King Francis II was pushed by his pro-German leanings and ministers to ally with Germany, and declare war on France and Austria-Hungary. Italy began their fight with a gusto, attempting to invade and occupy Trentio and Trieste, as well as try to recapture Genoa from France. However, the prepared Austrian defenders managed to halt the attacks, and launched a series of offensives to destroy the Italian army, and France pulled some forces from the Western front to counter the Italians. With this two front war, Italy decided to divert attention back to Austria, and both sides launched savage offensives, killing thousands of young men for little gain. By 1914 the Italian army had already gone through all their forces and reserves, and was unable to withstand the joint Franco-Austrian invasion in May 1915, and Italy was forced to seek an armistice in June, the first of the United Coalition to do so. This earned the Italians, on top of the Third Global War Italian debacles, the modern "Italians can't fight" jokes, though the stoic and resolute Italian armies did hold their ground, and it was more a failure of command and strategy that lost the war.

Balkan Front (1911-1916)
The main cause of the war was when a Serbian Nationalist assassinated the Turkish Prime Minister, which was tied to Austria. Therefore, Turkey had to attack Austria first as a way to save face, and prove they could stand among the Great Powers. However, Turkey choose perhaps one of the worst areas in Europe to wage an aggressive war: the mountainous peninsula and large sections of the Danube and Sava Rivers that defined the border of the two Empires, the lack of infrastructure and the political and religious tensions all made the Balkans a very dangerous place for armies, both friendly and hostile. Austria and Russia supported Independence movements in the region, which attacked Turkish supply lines that traveled on the few roads and railways that snaked through the area. This in turn lead to Turkish reprisals by frazzled commanders, and thousands are expected to have been killed, though no true numbers are known. In the end, the Austria-Hungarian and Russians that marched into Wallachia, Moldova, Serbia and Bosnia were greeted as liberators against a tyrannical Ottoman state that tightened its grip on power in the region as it began loosing in 1913 and 1914. Greece, an ally of France, also declared war against Turkey, and in a series of operations from 1912 to 1914, occupied Thessaly, Epirus and Macedonia, and retained them at the end of the war, which ended for Turkey in January 1916 in the face of riots, mutiny's and uprisings, which then devolved into the.

Caucasus Front (1911-1916)
Turkey, when it entered the war, also launched an attack on Russia via the Caucasus, hoping to catch the Russians off guard. However, this resulted in another mountain campaign which inadequate infrastructure and long supply lines, which bogged down almost a hundred miles from Tbilisi, the objective of the attack. Russian counterattacks sliced through the unprepared Turkish army, but they were unable to follow up on this due to the demands of other fronts. By 1914, after a quick naval landing at Trebizond by Russia, the initiative passed to Russia, and Russian forces were deep in Turkey itself when the Ottoman Empire surrendered. This was not before the Turkish genocide of Armenians in the region, which Russia supported in getting their own state both before and after the war.

The North American War
The war in the America's were dominated by the United States and the Confederacy. While the US never gave up the goal of re-annexing the South, the US desperately wanted to expand into the lightly populated but British controlled Oregon Territory. The majority of the American fight was directed against the Confederacy, but Canada distracted the US enough to prevent any major operations on any front. Assiniboia and Canada were locked in a struggle over the vast, empty North-Western Ontario region, as well as the land west of Winnipeg taken in the Third American War in the 1880s.

Alyseka provided reinforcements to both Assiniboia and the US, and provided the bulk of the Army that marched through Western Oregon and into the Pacific Republic, which was on the Confederacy's side. Mexico, on the US's team, attacked both the CSA and the Pacific Republic, hoping to reclaim the Arizona Territory that was taken from them in the previous American War. In the end, American industry won the war, with the Confederacy, Canada and the Pacific Republic being out built and out lasted, though the cost for the was not insignificant.

Appalachian Front (1911-1916)
Perhaps the bloodiest part of what could be called the "Forth American War" was the Appalachian Front, which in turn is divided into "East" and "West" by the Appalachian Mountains, with most of the fighting taking place in the East, in Virginia, Maryland and up into Pennsylvania. The "West," in this case, is West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, and the United States had the greater advantage here throughout most of the war, although Confederate Generals fought a brilliant defensive campaign here, though it was clear the main effort would be in the "East."

The battle started with the Confederate attack north to try to capture Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, the de facto and de jure capitals of the US respectively. However, after the US stopped the CS attack at the Susquehanna River, at which point the long, grueling slog south to the Confederacy began. The United States had the greater industrial output (though the populations were also in favor of the US, but only by a small margin, about 54 million to 41 million), and was able to shift to a war footing much sooner, allowing more men to be freed to the front. In the end, the United States was able to adapt quicker than the Confederacy to the war effort, and was able to out gun, out build and out man the Confederacy by late 1914. A series of desperate battles in Central Virginia and Tennessee finally forced the CSA to surrender.

Oregon Front (1911-1916)
Perhaps the most unique of all the fronts of the war: the long distances made Cavalry the best answer, the war was fluid to the point of disbelief, and the front after 1912 was mostly fought by proxy, with the Pacific Republic helping the British and Confederates, and Alysekian and some Assiniboian troops fighting for the United States. American settlers, both legal and illegal, aided the Triple A Alliance, while the Native Americans were actually torn between their sponsor the United Kingdom, and the Metis/Native republic of Assiniboia. In the end, the Oregon Front became a sideshow to the actual war, and the fighting only ended in late October 1916, a couple weeks after the armistice in the East was signed.

Arizona Front (1914-1916)
Mexico fought its war with the Confederacy and the Pacific Republic over the territory of Arizona in 1914 after three years of indeccision: desiring to reclaim the territory, Mexico launched several offensives on the few United Coalition units in the area, and overwhlemed the weakening enimies. In the end, at the cost of "only" 12,000 casualties, it resulted in only a minor shifting of borders, leading to resentment that lead to the in 1919.

Ontario Front (1911-1916)
Canada posed a large problem to both the US and Assiniboia: as a place that can target the Industrial heartland of the US, as well Winnipeg, the former capital of Assiniboia (after the loss of land in the Third American War, Assiniboia shifted its capital west to Wasacna), Canada became a threat blown way out of proportion. Assiniboia directed most of its forces on an invasion of North-West Ontario, although the actual front was very porous due to the rugged, forested terrain, so sometimes army units could find themselves surrounded by the enemy without their knowing. However, Assiniboia pushed forward, capturing Fort William in a daring Christmas Eve assault in 1913 after a bloody, stubborn two year campaign through the innumerable lakes and wetlands between Winnipeg and the port on Lake Superior which saw canoes, bayonets and hand to hand fighting as the primary weapons of war. The Assiniboian advance continued to Sudbury, at which time the US was on the outskirts of Montreal and Halifax, forcing the Canadian surrender.

Quebec Front (1911-1916)
Due to the position of Canada, the US pressed into Quebec early in the war while simultaneously attacking Oregon, the Confederacy and supported their allies in North America. It was only this divided attention that prevented Canada being crushed in the early part of the war, and trench warfare here, as on the French Front, became synonymous with the war itself. It took until late 1912 for the US to even reach the St. Lawrence River, a goal that was expected to have only took a few days at the beginning of the war. At this point, the war bogged down until the 1914 Canadian "Montreal" offensive, where the army stationed in the city launched an attack and pushed the Americans back almost 15 miles at the furthest point from the city. However, this used the remainder of the Canadian reserves, and it became a long, slow battle backwards until 1916, when, after the naval Battle of Sable Island US Marines landed at Halifax and occupied the city. With the last major port suitable of receiving large amounts of supplies and reinforcements from Britain, Canada gave up.

The Latin American War
With the conflicting nations and alliances of South America, it was only a few weeks after the start of the European and North American war that the Southern Continent burst into war as well. As has been the case in previous Latin-American wars, often times simultaneous with other wars, it was relegated to the back pages of Europe and North America, considered a side show to all but those actually involved. The war, however, was perhaps even deadlier than other fronts: incompetent leadership, political and military, on all sides; poor infrastructure and medical services in dense jungle, steep mountains and inhospitable terrain; and shifting alliances made the Latin American War devastating to all those involved.

Rio Grande Front (1911-1916)
The longest, most violent and costliest front in South America during the war, the Rio Grande Front was fought between Argentina and Brazil, the two premier powers in the region. Argentina, victorious in the last war, was assumed to be the more powerful nation. However, Brazilian preparations and generally superior General Stuff almost turned the tide of the battle early on, compared to the outdated tactics exercised by Argentinean generals. By 1913, both nations had settled into trench warfare, most of which was on the Brazilian side of the Rio Grande. Battles between Brazilian and Argentinean river warships, designed to interfere or protect the supply lines to the Argentinean forces, and, after the 1915 offensive, Brazilian forces on the South side of the Rio Grande. The 1915 Offensive was a major push by Brazil to push the exhausted, tired Argentinean forces out Of Brazil, and liberated Uruguay.

Andean Front (1911-1916)
Very similar to the Alpine front between Italy and Austria-Hungary, the Andean front was fought in mountainous terrain between Chile and Argentina. Having been defeated and lost almost half its land in the First Global War, Chile was yearning for revenge against Argentina, to reclaim lost land. However, due to their much smaller population, Chile was barely able to raise enough forces to push into Argentina, while the larger nation was more concerned with Brazil and later Bolivia than tiny Chile. The Entrance of Bolivia in 1913 on the side of Chile and Brazil changed the tide of the front, with Bolivian troops re-enforcing Chilean forces in driving Argentina out of the Andes. The Andean front was perhaps the most quiet area of the entire war, with neither side investing much effort: Chile because of population and financial constraints, and Argentina due to other fronts.

Pacific Front (1911-1916)
This front comprised of both the front between Colombia and Peru, and starting in 1913, Bolivia and Peru. At the start of the war, Peruvian forces launched a drive into Colombia, but were caught up in the dense jungle and swamps of the region, and Colombian forces were able to hold the line, but where politically divided between focusing on the drive against Venezuela while defending their land from Peru. When Bolivia entered the war with Brazilian and Colombian pressure and promises, their army was divided to reinforce Chile in the Andes, as well as fighting Peru and Argentina. By 1915, the exhaustion of Peru lead to the nation to collapse internally, and eventually surrendered in early January 1916.

Other Fronts
The war was not simply focused on Europe and the Americas: the war was indeed a global one, most notably the battle for the seas and Japan's intervention into China and Asia.