The Great War (Chinese Meiji)

A complex web of alliances, colonial competition, and ethnic and nationalistic rivalries are all contributing causes to the Great War. When the global conflict erupted in August 1914, it pitted the Central Powers against the Oriental Alliance, Entente Powers and the United States. Paris fell in a matter of weeks and France surrendered to Germany. Italy, though originally a member of the Triple Alliance, remained neutral until Germany’s spectacular victory over France convinced it to join the Entente Powers.

After France’s defeat, the European theater shifted to Africa, where the Germans and the British poured in armies to fight over the colonies, and where the Free French forces of the exiled French government rallied troops in defiance of Metropolitan France’s surrender to continue fighting the Germans.

Russia, the Oriental Alliance, Britain and the USA continued to fight on. In February 1918, Germany signed a separate peace with Britain and the United States, which the Chinese viewed as peace.

In January 1921, the hawkish government in China fell, and the replacement National Republican government, which adopted a more conciliatory tone to its enemies, agreed to an armistice and a peace based on Wilson’s Sixteen Points. In the negotiations at London, diplomats from Europe and the United States redrew the world.