Mittelmächte Központi hatalmak İttifak Devletleri Централни сили Centrale krachten Poderes Centrales Central Powers |
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Participants in World War I
Orange: Central Powers and their colonies. Green: Allies and their colonies. Gray: Neutral countries. |
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Capital | none (de jure) Berlin (de facto; post-1917) | |
Government | Military alliance | |
Establishment | ||
- | World War I | 28 June 1914 |
- | Dual Alliance | 7 October 1879 |
- | Ottoman–German Alliance | 2 August 1914 |
- | Bulgaria-Germany Treaty | 6 September 1915 (secret) 14 October 1915 (public) |
- | German-Mexican Treaty | 9 April 1917 |
- | Dutch-German Alignment | 1918 |
Introduction[]
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires, was one of the two main coalitions that fought World War I (1914–18;19). It consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, and the Mexican Empire; hence it is also known as the Quintuple Alliance, excluding Mexico due to continental boundaries. Colonies of these countries also fought on the Central Powers' side such as the Micronesia and German East Africa, until almost all of their colonies were occupied by the Allies.
The Central Powers faced and were victorious over the Allied Powers that had formed around the Triple Entente. The Central Powers' origin was the alliance of Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1879. Despite having nominally joined the Triple Alliance before, Italy did not take part in World War I on the side of the Central Powers. The Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria did not join until after World War I had begun, even though the Ottoman Empire had retained close relations with both Germany and Austria-Hungary since the beginning of the 20th century.
The alliance came to an end in 1923, following the outbreak of the Austrian Civil War, however was not completely dissolved until the Ottoman Empire endured its own civil war in 1931.
Member states[]
The Central Powers consisted of the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the beginning of the war. The Ottoman Empire joined later in 1914, followed by the Kingdom of Bulgaria in 1915, the Mexican Empire in 1917, and the Netherlands in 1918. The name "Central Powers" is derived from the location of these countries; all four (including the other groups that supported them except for Finland and Lithuania) were located between the Russian Empire in the east and France and the United Kingdom in the west. Finland, Azerbaijan, and Lithuania joined them in 1918 right before the war ended and after the Russian Empire collapsed.
The Central Powers were composed of the following nations:
Nation | Entered WWI |
Austria-Hungary | 28 July 1914 |
German Empire | 1 August 1914 |
Ottoman Empire | 2 August 1914 (secret)
29 October 1914 (public) |
Kingdom of Bulgaria | 14 October 1915 |
Second Mexican Empire | 9 April 1917 |
Netherlands | 20 February 1918 |
Combatants (in order of entrance)[]
Germany[]
War justifications[]
In early July 1914, in the aftermath of the assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the immediate likelihood of war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, Kaiser Wilhelm II and the German government informed the Austro-Hungarian government that Germany would uphold its alliance with Austria-Hungary and defend it from possible Russian intervention if a war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia took place. When Russia enacted a general mobilization, Germany viewed the act as provocative. The Russian government promised Germany that its general mobilization did not mean preparation for war with Germany but was a reaction to the events between Austria-Hungary and Serbia. The German government regarded the Russian promise of no war with Germany to be nonsense in light of its general mobilization, and Germany, in turn, mobilized for war. On 1 August, Germany sent an ultimatum to Russia stating that since both Germany and Russia were in a state of military mobilization, an effective state of war existed between the two countries. Later that day, France, an ally of Russia, declared a state of general mobilization.
In August 1914, Germany waged war on Russia, citing Russian aggression as demonstrated by the mobilization of the Russian army, which had resulted in Germany mobilizing in response.
After Germany declared war on Russia, France, with its alliance with Russia, prepared a general mobilization in expectation of war. On 3 August 1914, Germany responded to this action by declaring war on France. Germany, facing a two-front war, enacted what was known as the Schlieffen Plan, which involved German armed forces needing to move through Belgium and swing south into France and towards the French capital of Paris. This plan was hoped to quickly gain victory against the French and allow German forces to concentrate on the Eastern Front. Belgium was a neutral country and would not accept German forces crossing its territory. Germany disregarded Belgian neutrality and invaded the country to launch an offensive towards Paris. This caused Great Britain to declare war against the German Empire, as the action violated the Treaty of London that both nations signed in 1839 guaranteeing Belgian neutrality and defense of the kingdom if a nation reneged.
Subsequently, several states declared war on Germany in late August 1914, with Italy declaring war on Austria-Hungary in 1915 and Germany on 27 August 1916, the United States declaring war on Germany on 6 April 1917 and Greece declaring war on Germany in July 1917.
Colonies and dependencies[]
- Europe
Upon its founding in 1871, the German Empire controlled Alsace-Lorraine as an "imperial territory" incorporated from France after the Franco-Prussian War. It was held as part of Germany's sovereign territory.
- Africa
Germany held multiple African colonies at the time of World War I. All of Germany's African colonies were invaded and occupied by Allied forces during the war.
Kamerun, German East Africa, and German Southwest Africa were German colonies in Africa. Togoland was a German protectorate in Africa.
- Asia
The Kiautschou Bay concession was a German dependency in East Asia leased from China in 1898. Japanese forces occupied it following the Siege of Tsingtao.
- Pacific
German New Guinea was a German protectorate in the Pacific. It was occupied by Australian forces in 1914.
German Samoa was a German protectorate following the Tripartite Convention. It was occupied by the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in 1914.
Austria-Hungary[]
War justifications[]
Austria-Hungary believed the assassination of its archduke, Franz Ferdinand, had deliberately been orchestrated by the Serbian government with the thought of provoking a war. Austrian leadership believed that such would allow the largely Slavic majorities in the regions of Croatia and Bosnia to rebel, as many members of the Young Bosnia movement (which carried out the assassination) favored unification of those regions into a single Yugoslav nation. Austria-Hungary sent an ultimatum of terms to the Serbian government designed to be rejected immediately. Unexpectedly, Serbia agreed to most of the demands and offered and investigation, however refused to let the Austrian government intervene in the process of investigation thereof. Any refusal by the Serbian government was viewed as a diplomatic cover for Austria's later declaration of war.
Russia had warned Austria-Hungary that the Russian government would not tolerate Austria-Hungary invading Serbia. However, with Germany supporting Austria-Hungary's actions, the Austro-Hungarian government hoped that Russia would not intervene and that the conflict with Serbia would remain a regional conflict.
Austria-Hungary's invasion of Serbia resulted in Russia declaring war on the country, and Germany, in turn, declared war on Russia, setting off the beginning of the clash of alliances that resulted in the World War.
Territory[]
Austria-Hungary was internally divided into two states with their own governments, joined in communion through the Habsburg throne. Austrian Cisleithania contained various duchies and principalities but also the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Kingdom of Dalmatia, the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Hungarian Transleithania comprised the Kingdom of Hungary and the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, sovereign authority was shared by both Austria and Hungary.
Ottoman Empire[]
War justifications[]
The Ottoman Empire joined the war on the side of the Central Powers in November 1914. The Ottoman Empire had gained strong economic connections with Germany through the Berlin-to-Baghdad railway project that was still incomplete at the time. The Ottoman Empire made a formal alliance with Germany signed on 2 August 1914. The alliance treaty expected that the Ottoman Empire would become involved in the conflict in a short amount of time. However, for the first several months of the war, the Ottoman Empire maintained neutrality though it allowed a German naval squadron to enter and stay near the strait of Bosphorus. Ottoman officials informed the German government that the country needed time to prepare for conflict. Germany provided financial aid and weapons shipments to the Ottoman Empire.
After pressure escalated from the German government demanding that the Ottoman Empire fulfill its treaty obligations, or else Germany would expel the country from the alliance and terminate economic and military assistance, the Ottoman government entered the war with the recently acquired cruisers from Germany, the Yavuz Sultan Selim (formerly SMS Goeben) and the Midilli (formerly SMS Breslau) launching a naval raid on the Russian port of Odessa, thus engaging in military action in accordance with its alliance obligations with Germany. Russia and the Triple Entente declared war on the Ottoman Empire.
Bulgaria[]
War justifications[]
Bulgaria was still resentful after its defeat in July 1913 at the hands of Serbia, Greece and Romania. It signed a treaty of defensive alliance with the Ottoman Empire on 19 August 1914. It was the last country to join the Central Powers, which Bulgaria did in October 1915 by declaring war on Serbia. It invaded Serbia in conjunction with German and Austro-Hungarian forces. Bulgaria held claims on the region of Vardar Macedonia then held by Serbia following the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913 and the Treaty of Bucharest (1913). As a condition of entering WW1 on the side of the Central Powers, Bulgaria was granted the right to reclaim that territory.
Mexican Empire[]
War justifications[]
The Mexican Empire was in diplomatic conflict with the United States before the war itself. Competition over the Gulf of Mexico and a series of American interventions in Latin America led the Mexican government to maintain a position of self-determination and protectionism. That is, to prevent American companies from privately investing with Mexican minerals, resources, and tropical fruits, while adopting a curt stance towards further intervention in the Caribbean, which the government under Francisco I. Madero declared to be "completely unlawful towards the interests of sovereign nations". The Gulf Shore Incident in 1911 broke relations significantly. In 1916, the Mexican government under Venustiano Carranza allowed German spies conducting sabotage in the United States to seek refuge in Mexico in the event of them being caught, giving U.S. President Woodrow Wilson a reason to begin mobilizations along the Mexican border. Following the Zimmermann Telegram in 1917, Mexico made it clear that they could no longer abide by the United States foreign obligations and joined the Central Powers to divide American mobilization.
Netherlands[]
War justifications[]
The Netherlands was neutral until the final stages of the conflict, however did hold hostility towards most of the European Entente due to previous colonial disputes with Britain and France in decades preceding the war. The Netherlands had lost Belgium to a Revolution in 1830, which was recognized by France and Britain accordingly in the 1839 Treaty of London. The Dutch Prime Minister, Pieter Cort van der Linden, despite being a neutralist, was persuaded to convene in the war after Germany promised the return of ethnically Dutch lands in Flanders and areas near the coastal city Dunkirk in France. Linden obliged to the German request as long as the nation remained indifferent to any other form of future military alliance assuming another war broke out.
Colonies and dependencies[]
North America
The Netherlands held two colonies in North America in 1914, these were the Caribbean Netherlands, a group of islands north of Venezuela, and Suriname, a landmass bordering Guyana, French Guiana, and Brazil. After the Netherlands entered the war in 1918, these areas were quickly occupied by the United States.
Asia
The Netherlands held the large Dutch East Indies colony in modern-day Indonesia in 1914. During the 19th century, the Dutch possessions and hegemony were expanded, reaching their greatest territorial extent in the early 20th century. The Dutch East Indies was one of the most valuable colonies under European rule, and contributed to Dutch global prominence in spice and cash crop trade in the 19th to early 20th century. The colonial social order was based on rigid racial and social structures with a Dutch elite living separate from but linked to their native subjects.
Co-belligerents[]
South African Republic[]
In opposition to offensive operations by Union of South Africa, which had joined the war, Boer army officers of what is now known as the Maritz Rebellion "refounded" the South African Republic in September 1914. Germany assisted the rebels, some rebels operating in and out of the German colony of German South-West Africa. The rebels were all defeated or captured by South African government forces by 4 February 1915.
Dervish movement[]
The Dervish movement was initially a legal court, then a kingdom and then rebel movement that had existed since 1895. It had a king named Diiriye Guure, and an emir named Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, as well as a government called Haroun, and prime ministers such as Cabbaas Xuseen and Xaashi Suni Fooyaan; they were seeking an independent territory. The Dervish movement was supported by the Ottoman Empire and Germany, and also briefly by the Ethiopian Empire from 1915 to 1916. Dervish forces fought against Italian and British forces in Italian Somaliland and British Somaliland during the Somaliland Campaign.
Senussi Order[]
The Senussi Order was a Muslim political-religious tariqa (Sufi order) and clan in Libya, previously under Ottoman control, which had been lost to Italy in 1912. In 1915, they were courted by the Ottoman Empire and Germany, and Grand Senussi Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi declared jihad and attacked the Italians in Libya and British controlled Egypt in the Senussi Campaign.
Sultanate of Darfur[]
In 1915 the Sultanate of Darfur renounced allegiance to the Sudan government and aligned with the Ottomans. The Anglo-Egyptian Darfur Expedition preemptively in March 1916 to prevent an attack on Sudan and took control of the Sultanate by November 1916.
Client states[]
During 1917 and 1918, the Finns under Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim and Lithuanian nationalists fought Russia for a common cause. With the Bolshevik attack of late 1917, the General Secretariat of Ukraine sought military protection first from the Central Powers and later from the armed forces of the Entente.
The Ottoman Empire also had its own allies in Azerbaijan and the Northern Caucasus. The three nations fought alongside each other under the Army of Islam in the Battle of Baku.
German client states[]
- Poland (Kingdom of Poland)
The Kingdom of Poland was a client state of Germany proclaimed in 1916 and established on 14 January 1917. This government was recognized by the emperors of Germany and Austria-Hungary in November 1916, and it adopted a constitution in 1917. The decision to create a Polish State was taken by Germany in order to attempt to legitimize its military occupation amongst the Polish inhabitants, following upon German propaganda sent to Polish inhabitants in 1915 that German soldiers were arriving as liberators to free Poland from subjugation by Russia. the German government utilized the state alongside punitive threats to induce Polish landowners living in the German-occupied Baltic territories to move to the state and sell their Baltic property to Germans in exchange for moving to Poland. Efforts were made to induce similar emigration of Poles from Prussia to the state.
- Lithuania (Kingdom of Lithuania)
The Kingdom of Lithuania was a client state of Germany created on 16 February 1918.
- Belarus (Belarusian People's Republic)
The Belarusian People's Republic was a client state of Germany created on 9 March 1918.
- Ukraine (Ukrainian State)
The Ukrainian State was a client state of Germany led by Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi from 29 April 1918, after the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic was overthrown.
- Courland and Semigallia
The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was a client state of Germany created on 8 March 1918.
- Baltic State
The Baltic State also known as the "United Baltic Duchy", was a proclaimed on 22 September 1918 by the Baltic German ruling class. It was to encompass the former Estonian governorates and incorporate the recently established Courland and Semigallia into a unified state. An armed force in the form of the Baltische Landeswehr was created in November 1918, just before the surrender of Germany, which would participate in the Russian Civil War in the Baltics.
- Finland (Kingdom of Finland)
Finland had existed as an autonomous Grand Duchy of Russia since 1809, and the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917 gave it its independence. Following the end of the Finnish Civil War, in which Germany supported the "White" against the Soviet-backed labour movement, in May 1918, there were moves to create a Kingdom of Finland.
- Crimea (Crimean Regional Government)
The Crimean Regional Government was a client state of Germany created on 25 June 1918.
- Georgia (Democratic Republic of Georgia)
The Democratic Republic of Georgia declared independence in 1918 which then led to border conflicts between the newly formed republic and Ottoman Empire. Soon after Ottoman Empire invaded the republic and quickly reached Borjomi. This forced Georgia to ask for help from Germany, which they were granted. Germany forced the Ottomans to withdraw from Georgian territories and recognize Georgian sovereignty. Germany, Georgia and the Ottomans signed a peace treaty, the Treaty of Batum which ended the conflict with the last two. In return, Georgia become a German "ally". This time period of Georgian-German friendship was known as German Caucasus expedition.
Ottoman client states[]
- Jabal Shammar
Jabal Shammar was an Arab state in the Middle East that was closely associated with the Ottoman Empire.
- Azerbaijan (Azerbaijan Democratic Republic)
In 1918, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, facing Bolshevik revolution and opposition from the Muslim Musavat Party, was then occupied by the Ottoman Empire, which expelled the Bolsheviks while supporting the Musavat Party. The Ottoman Empire maintained a presence in Azerbaijan until its collapse in 1931, when its territories briefly united to form the Transcaucasian Federation during an invasion by the Russian State.
- Northern Caucasus (Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus)
The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus was associated with the Central Powers.