1911 An accidental explosion in the city of Wuchang reveals a cache of weapons and a list of military officers who belonged to a secret revolutionary group. To defend themselves following this exposure, young officers revolt. Enlisted men under them obey their commands. Government forces sent against them join the rebellion. Within two months most of China's provinces have proclaimed independence from the Manchu monarchy.
1911 Francisco Madero arrives in Mexico City and meets with other rebel leaders who recognize him as the provisional president of Mexico.
1911 The French rescue the sultan of Morocco from rebels. Germany protests French involvement. Germans want a strong showing against France, and Germany sends a warship to Agadir, Morocco (July 1). This angers the French and embarrasses France's prime minister, Joseph Caillaux, who has favored a rapprochement with Germany. Caillaux is driven from office, replaced by a hardliner against Germany, Raymond Poincaré. The British are disturbed by Germany's belligerence and signs a military agreement with France. An arms race between France and Germany begins.
1911 During the Agadir crisis, Oswald Spengler decides to write Decline of the West. He thinks the West is entering two centuries of wars for world power.
1911 In Britain the House of Lords makes it possible for the House of Commons to pass legislation without the approval of the House of Lords, revolutionizing British politics.
1911 France's Commander-in-Chief advocates defensive warfare against a possible German invasion. He is replaced. Belief in an offensive strategy prevails. The new military leadership is opposed to discontinuing the use of the army's red trousers and blue jackets, colors they think match the army's élan and glory -- needed, they believe, for victory.
1911 Italy responds to France's move in Morocco by making war against the Ottoman Empire for possession of Tripoli and Cyrenaica -- today, Libya.
1911 (Nov 4) The first ship powered by diesel is launched. The ship, Selandia, was built for the Danish trading firm East Asiatic Company for service between Scandinavia, Genoa, Italy and Bangkok.
1912 Italy wins against Ottoman Turkey. Turkey appears weak to the Bulgarians, Serbs and Greeks, and they go to war for the remaining territory held by the Turks in the Balkans.
1912 China has its first parliament. Sun Yat-sen, a revolutionary since 1895, is selected as China's provisional president. He is replaced by Yuan Shikai, a Chinese (rather than Manchu) general with an army, who has been ruling in the populous northeast. Sun describes Yuan Shikai as "the right man."
1912 Mongol princes, supported by Russia, declare Mongolia's independence from China.
1912 Tribal warriors create a Wahhabi "Brotherhood," the Ikhwan. It is allied with the Saud family and is to help the Sauds extend their power in Arabia against the influence of the Ottoman Empire and its more tolerant and easygoing Islam.
1912-13 Vitamins A and B1 have been identified.
1913 Sun Yat-sen's political party, the Guomindang, emerges victorious in parliamentary elections. A leading Guomindang politician attacks President Yuan Shikai's policies and is assassinated. A military advisor to Yuan is implicated. Newspapers supporting the Guomingdang begin attacking Yuan. With money from foreign banks, Yuan buys the loyalty of provincial governors and their armies.
1913 Encouraged by the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, General Victoriano Huerta overthrows Madero, proclaims himself Provisional President of Mexico and has Madero murdered.
1913 In war to carve up the remaining Ottoman territory in the Balkans, Serbia emerges victorious. Austria-Hungary fears Serbia's enhanced prestige. It increases oppressions in Bosnia-Herzegovina and moves toward war against Serbia, with Russia committed to protecting the Serbs. War is averted by Serbia withdrawing from a port on the Adriatic coast and Wilhelm of Germany not supporting Austria-Hungary because his military alliance with Austria-Hungary is for defense.
1914 (Jan 5) Henry Fords increases the minimum wage of his workers to $5 an hour, a move designed to boost worker morale and production efficiency. It is an improvement in the division of wealth that will help the economy, and it will help increase Ford's profits. His fellow manufacturers denounce him. The Wall Street Journal describes Ford's move as blatant immorality and a misapplication of "Biblical principle."
1914 Yuan Shikai shuts down parliament. China's socialist party is banned. A new constitution is created, with Yuan Shikai's presidency having dictatorial powers. Yuan fortifies press censorship and his agents search for dissenters. Sun Yat-sen flees to Japan and tries to sell the Japanese on arming and assisting the Guomindang forces against Yuan.
1914 In Mexico civil war continues to rage. The Huerta regime makes prisoners of some unarmed U.S. sailors at the port of Tampico. President Wilson sends the U.S. Navy and Marines are landed at Veracruz. The attack on Veracruz arouses Mexican patriotism and elevates Huerta, who is perceived as fighting the invaders. Mobs in Mexico City assault American businesses.
1914 Archduke Ferdinand journeys to Bosnia without the usual protection against assassins. He remarks that all is in the hands of God. In Sarajevo he is assassinated. Austria-Hungary secretly moves to start its war against Serbia. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany agrees that the assassins and regicide should be punished. He believes that his cousin, the Tsar of Russia, will agree. He goes on a sailing vacation off the coast of Norway.
1914 Austria-Hungary launches its war against Serbia believing it has the support of Germany. Russia chooses to go to war to defend the Serbs from the Austro-Hungarians. Russia believes it is necessary to mobilize against Germany as well as Austria-Hungary, in case Germany goes to war alongside Austria-Hungary. For the Germans this mobilization is a declaration of war. Military considerations have trumped diplomatic considerations, and the German nation approves of what it sees as a war of self-defense. Germany declares war on Russia.
1914 Kaiser Wilhelm is back from his vacation, believing that the war against Russia is self-defense and hoping that France will stay out of the war. But France sides with Russia and invades Germany. Germany launches an offensive against France, which goes through Belgium. The British stand by their military agreement with France and are opposed to Germany marching through Belgium, and they join the war against Germany.
1914 The Germans defeat the Russian offensive and drive the French invaders back to France, but their offensive is reduced to stalemate on French territory. There the Germans appear to some of the world as the aggressors, coupled with stories of German atrocities.
1914 British requested help from their ally, Japan, and Japan declares war on Germany. The Japanese use the world's first aerial bombardment against the Germans in Shandong province, and Germans there surrender to the Japanese.
1914 From their African colonies, British, French and Belgian forces -- largely African men -- launch assaults against Germany's colonies.
1914 Canada, New Zealand and Australia enter the war on the side of Britain. New Zealand takes possession of what had been German Samoa. Australia takes control of German colonial holdings in the Bismarck Archipelago, and Japan takes over Germany's colonial holdings in the Caroline and Marshall Islands.
1914 Germans were expecting a quick victory. At the end of the year there is Christmas spirit among the troops in the trenches but little on the home front. In Germany and Britain people want meaning for those who have already fallen and are opposed to a compromise, negotiated settlement. For Germans their war of self-defense has become a drive for military victory against hated enemies. The French just want the Germans out of their country. Many believe that rather than a misunderstanding, the Great War is a Satanic conspiracy. The 20th century is on its way to many times the combat deaths that have so far occurred.
1915 Venustiano Carranza is a moderate with an army and an alliance builder. He has won broad support across Mexico and declares himself president. "Pancho" Villa and Emiliano Zapata refuse to lay down their arms and are losing against Carranza.
1915 Turkey's offensive northward against the Russians fails. Patriotic Turks blame the failure on treason by Armenians. A massacre of Armenians follows.
1915 Japan presents China with Twenty-one Demands -- economic privileges, the power to "advise," and joint administration of police departments. Yuan signs an agreement with Japan. Indignation sweeps through China. Yuan seeks support from his fellow Chinese by appealing to tradition. He makes himself an emperor.
1915 Some Italians see opportunity in joining the war. They have more to lose warring against Britain and France, so they war against Austria-Hungary, with whom they have had territorial conflicts.
1915 Germans sink the British liner Lusitania, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans. In the U.S., Theodore Roosevelt and others want war with Germany. Some see Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany as the Satan who is responsible for the war. President Wilson announces that he is "too proud to fight." He favors neutrality. Kaiser Wilhelm, in effect, suspends submarine warfare.
1915 The German army pushes the Russians out of Warsaw.
1916 Francisco "Pancho" Villa had bought faulty ammunition in Columbus, New Mexico. He and his soldiers seek revenge and raid the town. The U.S. launches a punitive expedition into Mexico, an army on horseback chasing Villa. This is against President Carranza's wishes. The U.S. expedition angers much of Mexico and accomplishes nothing.
1916 Yuan Shikai dies. China's military governors (warlords) are now more free of central authority. Sun returns from Japan and sets up a base for his Guomingdang Party at Guangzhou (Canton), in southern China.
1916 In Ireland a few who have had German support try to overthrow British authority. They lack support from other Irish. The rebellion fails, but British overreaction has created more hostility toward the British and sympathy for the rebels.
1916 The British and French secretly agree (the Sykes-Picot Agreement) to carve up the Ottoman Empire to their advantage. France is to control southeastern Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and northern Mesopotamia (Iraq). Britain is to control the rest of Mesopotamia, Jordan and an area around Haifa in Palestine.
1916 After more than two years of fighting and millions of deaths, Europe is exhausted. Britain's naval blockade of Germany is creating starvation. Germans are working fourteen hours per day. Across Europe prices are skyrocketing. Russia has little left and transportation fails to deliver food to major cities.
1917 Mexico establishes a liberal constitution. Venustiano Carranza is elected president. Germany's offer of New Mexico, Arizona and Texas should the U.S. enter the war and Mexico join on the side of Germany has been ignored.
1917 Kaiser Wilhelm gives in to the wishes of his admirals and unleashes his submarines, which they believe will win the war. It brings the United States into the war.
1917 In the United States, Congress passes an 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors.
1917 A popular revolution ends the Romanov dynasty. Councils (Soviets) are created, attended by whomever wishes. Two governments emerge: the Soviets and the Duma's "provisional" government. Britain, France and the United States want Russia to stay in the war. Duma conservatives want the benefits of victory, namely Constantinople. The peace issue, with Lenin's Bolsheviks in the lead, gives the Bolsheviks popular support in the Soviets. In an almost bloodless coup, the Bolsheviks, with their slogan of all-power to the Soviets, overthrow the Duma government. Conservatives and other anti-Marxists are appalled.
1917 Britain seeks to make trouble for Germany by appealing to Germany's Jewish population. It creates the Balfour Declaration, promising Jews a homeland in Palestine. The British are advancing northward toward Turkey, through Turkey's empire. They capture Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Jerusalem.
1918 To her mother-in-law, Eleanor Roosevelt writes that she had to go to a party attended mostly by Jews, a party to honor the financier Bernarch Baruch, at which she would "rather be hung than seen at." It was January 14. (Human Smoke, p. 4.)
1918 Germany's submarine warfare has failed. Those in Germany who want victory rather than a negotiated settlement support General Ludendorff's gamble on a great offensive. That offensive fails, further weakening Germany. U.S. forces help drive the Germans back toward their border. Kaiser Wilhelm goes into exile. Germany has a new democratic government headed by Social Democrats. The U.S. chooses not to wage war against Germany's new democratic government. The fighting that Wilson has claimed is "to make the world safe for democracy" ends.
1918 In the United States the Republicans have won both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
1918 In the United States, Britain and Australia the first mass-marketed laundry detergent, Rinso, is selling well.
1919 The Turks have stopped fighting. British occupy Constantinople. The Italians and French land forces in southern Turkey. They are supported by Armenians who seek revenge against the Turks.
1919 In Germany, the Social Democrat government defeats a copycat attempt at Communist revolution.
1919 (Apr 13) In India, a mob murders five Europeans. A British senior officer overreacts, firing into a crowd, killing 379 and wounding 1,208 in less than ten minutes -- the Jallianvala Bach (Amritsar) massacre. Many who had been for gradual steps toward self-rule now want complete independence. Jawaharlal Nehru joins the activist group to which Mohandas Gandhi belongs, the Congress Party.
1919 (May 7) In Russia the Red Army is fighting a civil war. A Red Army directive is signed for formation of units of 35,000 Central Asian Muslims -- former subjects of tsarist colonialism. Many of the conscripts will rebel, fleeing with their weapons to the anti-Russian Basmachi fighters.
1919 (Jun 28) At the Peace conference in Paris a League of Nations is created, to prevent war through collective security and the settling of disputes through diplomacy. The conference is impacted by public passions that force Germany to accept a punitive peace. Ten percent of Germany's population is put outside Germany's new borders. Germans are to pay reparations, all of which will weaken Germany's democratic government.
1919 Pope Benedict XV is disappointed with the Paris Treaty (signed at Versailles just outside Paris). He has been opposed to a dictated peace and describes the treaty as a "consecration of hatred" and a "perpetuation of war."
1919 Disclosed at the Peace Conference is the promise made to Japan for control of what had been Germany's holdings in China. Students learn that the Japanese have paid a Chinese warlord in Beijing to accept the move. Students invade the warlord's home and beat him senseless. Student protests give birth to the May 4th Movement, whose slogans are "struggle for sovereignty" and "throw out the warlord traitors." A boycott of Japanese goods begins.
1919 Koreans who have been inspired by the promises in Wilson's Fourteen Points feel betrayed by the Paris Peace conference. The Japanese fire upon a demonstration by Koreans yearning for freedom from Japanese rule. The Japanese kill 6,670, wound 14,611 and arrest 52,770. Japanese authorities claim that the trouble in Korea stems from their having been too lenient.
1919 Arabic speaking peoples feel betrayed by the Peace Treaty. They have been looking forward to the independence called for in Wilson's Fourteen Points.
1919 A flu pandemic has killed from 50 to 100 million people across the globe. It's called the Spanish flu because during its outbreak in 1918 Spain was not in war, lacked wartime press censorship and reported it. In the United States those dying from the flu are counted as more than 600,000.
1919 In the United States, prices are twice what they had been in 1916. Unemployment has risen. Strikes erupt. The U.S. Communist Party is formed. Anarchists plant bombs. The government cracks down on radicals -- the Palmer Raids. Race riots erupt in East St. Louis and Chicago. President Wilson suffers a stroke. Congress fails to ratify the peace signed at Versailles, leaving the U.S. outside the League of Nations. Congress passes a 19th Amendment to the Constitution, making it illegal to deny women their right to vote.
1920 In the United States, people long for the "good old days" before the war. They elect Warren Harding as their president, who has campaigned against ratification of the peace treaty and for a return to "normalcy."
1920 In Britain's House of Commons, Winston Churchill makes a long, detailed and effective speech against the Amritsar massacre in India. Some will consider it his greatest speech.
1920 French forces invade Syria to impose their League of Nations mandate.
1920 In the Treaty of Sèvres (August 10) the Allies limit Turkey to a military force of 50,000. The treaty gives Britain, France and Italy control over Turkey's financial affairs. It gives France and Italy zones of control and influence, and it grants autonomy to the Kurds. Turks refuse to recognize the treaty. A Greek army is advancing into Turkey from Smyrna.
1920 Russia is suffering from civil war and starvation. The Red Army, holding center ground, defeats various anti-Bolshevik forces coming from different directions. A Polish army drives into the Ukraine trying to recreate what had been a Polish empire. The Bolsheviks counterattack, pushing the Poles back to Warsaw. The Bolsheviks sign a peace agreement with Latvia, Estonia and Finland and an armistice with Poland. Lenin's hope for widespread revolution outside Russia had faded.
Copyright © 2005-2011 by Frank E. Smitha. All All rights reserved.
