World War I
130-588: Charles Emmanuel Marie Mangin (6 July 1866 – 12 May 1925) was a French general during World War I . Charles Mangin was born on 6 July 1866 in Sarrebourg . After initially failing to gain entrance to Saint-Cyr , he joined the 77th Infantry Regiment in 1885. He reapplied and was accepted in Saint-Cyr in 1886 attaining the rank of sub-lieutenant in 1888. He joined the 1st Marine Infantry Regiment based in Cherbourg . He
260-511: A Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand , heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Austria-Hungary held Serbia responsible, and declared war on 28 July. After Russia mobilised in Serbia's defence, Germany declared war on Russia and France , who had an alliance . The United Kingdom entered after Germany invaded Belgium , whose neutrality it guaranteed, and
390-630: A blue-water navy was vital for global power projection; Tirpitz had his books translated into German, while Wilhelm made them required reading for his advisors and senior military personnel. However, it was also an emotional decision, driven by Wilhelm's simultaneous admiration for the Royal Navy and desire to surpass it. Bismarck thought that the British would not interfere in Europe, as long as its maritime supremacy remained secure, but his dismissal in 1890 led to
520-583: A grenade at the Archduke's car and injured two of his aides. The other assassins were also unsuccessful. An hour later, as Ferdinand was returning from visiting the injured officers in hospital, his car took a wrong turn into a street where Gavrilo Princip was standing. He fired two pistol shots, fatally wounding Ferdinand and his wife Sophie . According to historian Zbyněk Zeman , in Vienna "the event almost failed to make any impression whatsoever. On 28 and 29 June,
650-536: A guerrilla warfare campaign and only surrendered two weeks after the armistice took effect in Europe. Before the war, Germany had attempted to use Indian nationalism and pan-Islamism to its advantage, a policy continued post-1914 by instigating uprisings in India , while the Niedermayer–Hentig Expedition urged Afghanistan to join the war on the side of Central Powers. However, contrary to British fears of
780-625: A German lawyer who had fought in World War I, declared a separate Rhineland Republic on 1 June 1919, but he had little support and it quickly failed. He was equally unsuccessful later in the year when he tried to make the Rhineland a separate state within Germany. Lack of popular support also brought a quick end to an unrelated attempt in 1923 to set up a separatist government under the French garrison. One reason for
910-486: A banker. They became engaged just 10 days later and were married in May 1900. However, a year later, his wife died while giving birth to a stillborn child. He was very badly affected, and during the next three years would not respond to anything other than the letters of Madeleine's mother. In January 1905, Mangin requested an introduction to discuss Tonkin with the nationalist activist and former minister, Godefroy Cavaignac . This
1040-408: A change in policy and an Anglo-German naval arms race began. Despite the vast sums spent by Tirpitz, the launch of HMS Dreadnought in 1906 gave the British a technological advantage. Ultimately, the race diverted huge resources into creating a German navy large enough to antagonise Britain, but not defeat it; in 1911, Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg acknowledged defeat, leading to
1170-592: A direct threat. The 1908–1909 Bosnian Crisis began when Austria annexed the former Ottoman territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina , which it had occupied since 1878. Timed to coincide with the Bulgarian Declaration of Independence from the Ottoman Empire, this unilateral action was denounced by the European powers, but accepted as there was no consensus on how to resolve the situation. Some historians see this as
1300-467: A gap between the German armies as they closed on Paris. The French army, reinforced by the British expeditionary corps, seized this opportunity to counter-attack and pushed the German army 40 to 80 km back. Both armies were then so exhausted that no decisive move could be implemented, so they settled in trenches, with the vain hope of breaking through as soon as they could build local superiority. In 1911,
1430-522: A lot of men"). In the closing months of the war, he served as part of General Castelnau 's Army Group East, advancing towards Metz . The recruitment of African troops in the French Army, which had many opponents, was chiefly the result of Mangin's advocacy. His conception of a "plus grande France", based on political autonomy and military obligation for all parts of the French Empire, is put forward in
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#17328553042141560-479: A metaphor for Germany's post-war "subjection" by the victorious Allies. The propaganda, which peaked in 1920–1921, roused enough internal and international criticism for the German government to reduce its support and rein in the most racist elements. By the time of the Ruhr occupation in early 1923, this particular part of the propaganda campaign had been significantly scaled back. The British occupation zone around Cologne
1690-518: A number of separatist movements – some supported by the French – attempted to create an independent Rhineland allied to France, but none of them had significant popular support. Relations between the occupying forces and the German residents were often strained, although more so in the French and Belgian zones than in the American and British. Both the French and the Germans engaged in major propaganda campaigns,
1820-540: A possibility. This was accentuated by British and Russian support for France against Germany during the 1911 Agadir Crisis . German economic and industrial strength continued to expand rapidly post-1871. Backed by Wilhelm II, Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz sought to use this growth to build an Imperial German Navy , that could compete with the British Royal Navy . This policy was based on the work of US naval author Alfred Thayer Mahan , who argued that possession of
1950-513: A result of German default on its reparations obligations; for that part of the occupation, see §The Ruhr , below. The Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission (IARHC), which had its headquarters in Koblenz, was led by Paul Tirard , the French high commissioner. It was conceived as a civil authority independent of the governments supporting it. Because the United States Senate did not ratify
2080-799: A revolt in India, the outbreak of the war saw a reduction in nationalist activity. Leaders from the Indian National Congress and other groups believed support for the British war effort would hasten Indian Home Rule , a promise allegedly made explicit in 1917 by Edwin Montagu , the Secretary of State for India . In 1914, the British Indian Army was larger than the British Army itself, and between 1914 and 1918 an estimated 1.3 million Indian soldiers and labourers served in Europe, Africa, and
2210-635: A second attempt to settle the issue of German reparations, the Allies agreed to evacuate the Rhineland by 30 June 1930, five years before the date set in the Treaty of Versailles. The occupation zone that included Koblenz was evacuated in November 1929, and the last of the occupying troops withdrew from the Mainz zone on 30 June 1930. The evacuation was followed by bloody German settlements with separatists who had cooperated with
2340-504: A significant escalation, ending any chance of Austria cooperating with Russia in the Balkans, while also damaging diplomatic relations between Serbia and Italy. Tensions increased after the 1911–1912 Italo-Turkish War demonstrated Ottoman weakness and led to the formation of the Balkan League , an alliance of Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro , and Greece . The League quickly overran most of
2470-712: A special department within the Ministry of the Interior to handle matters relating to the occupied territories. In August 1923, the department became the cabinet-level Reich Ministry for the Occupied Territories . It was tasked with safeguarding German interests in dealing with he occupying powers, including the IARHC, and with representing the interests of the occupied territories in the Berlin government. Separatist agitation took place in
2600-434: A struggle for national liberation with the goal of achieving an early withdrawal of the occupation forces. The campaign was aimed in part at winning over world opinion. In hundreds of publications it used images such as those of starving German children to rouse anger against France. The language was sometimes quite exaggerated, as for example the following from the time of the Ruhr occupation: Are we still willing to tolerate
2730-471: A war on two fronts; the Schlieffen Plan envisaged using 80% of the army to defeat France, then switching to Russia. Since this required them to move quickly, mobilization orders were issued that afternoon. Once the German ultimatum to Russia expired on the morning of 1 August, the two countries were at war. At a meeting on 29 July, the British cabinet had narrowly decided its obligations to Belgium under
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#17328553042142860-402: A weak Ottoman government, rather than an ambitious Slav power like Bulgaria . Russia had ambitions in northeastern Anatolia while its clients had overlapping claims in the Balkans. These competing interests divided Russian policy-makers and added to regional instability. Austrian statesmen viewed the Balkans as essential for the continued existence of their Empire and saw Serbian expansion as
2990-451: A whole, the Somme offensive led to an estimated 420,000 British casualties, along with 200,000 French and 500,000 Germans. The diseases that emerged in the trenches were a major killer on both sides. The living conditions led to disease and infection, such as trench foot , lice , typhus , trench fever , and the ' Spanish flu '. At the start of the war, German cruisers were scattered across
3120-503: Is known, however, that from 1908 to 1913, military spending by the six major European powers increased by over 50% in real terms. The years before 1914 were marked by a series of crises in the Balkans, as other powers sought to benefit from the Ottoman decline. While Pan-Slavic and Orthodox Russia considered itself the protector of Serbia and other Slav states, they preferred the strategically vital Bosporus straits to be controlled by
3250-558: The Schutzkorps was established, and carried out the persecution of Serbs. The assassination initiated the July Crisis, a month of diplomatic manoeuvring between Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, France and Britain. Believing that Serbian intelligence helped organise Franz Ferdinand's murder, Austrian officials wanted to use the opportunity to end their interference in Bosnia and saw war as
3380-626: The World War . In August 1914, the magazine The Independent wrote "This is the Great War. It names itself". In October 1914, the Canadian magazine Maclean's similarly wrote, "Some wars name themselves. This is the Great War." Contemporary Europeans also referred to it as " the war to end war " and it was also described as "the war to end all wars" due to their perception of its unparalleled scale, devastation, and loss of life. The first recorded use of
3510-723: The Armistice of 11 November 1918 , the Treaty of Versailles and the parallel agreement on the Rhineland occupation signed at the same time as the Versailles Treaty. The Rhineland was demilitarised, as was an area stretching fifty kilometres east of the Rhine, and put under the control of the Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission , which was led by a French commissioner and had one member each from Belgium, Great Britain and
3640-665: The Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force landed on the island of New Britain , then part of German New Guinea . On 28 October, the German cruiser SMS Emden sank the Russian cruiser Zhemchug in the Battle of Penang . Japan declared war on Germany before seizing territories in the Pacific, which later became the South Seas Mandate , as well as German Treaty ports on
3770-666: The Black Horror on the Rhine followed. Supposedly, "every German 'knew' that he ordered German mayors to provide brothels for his soldiers, and when the mayors protested at 'providing German women for Senegalese', Mangin was alleged to have replied, 'German women are none too good for my Senegalese'". Mangin became a member of the Supreme War Council and inspector general of French colonial troops. He fell seriously ill at his Paris home on 9 May 1925. Suffering from pain, he became incoherent and partly paralysed. The following day he
3900-788: The Central Powers . Fighting took place mainly in Europe and the Middle East , as well as in parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific , and in Europe was characterised by trench warfare ; the widespread use of artillery , machine guns, and chemical weapons (gas); and the introductions of tanks and aircraft . World War I was one of the deadliest conflicts in history , resulting in an estimated 10 million military dead and more than 20 million wounded , plus some 10 million civilian dead from causes including genocide . The movement of large numbers of people
4030-705: The First World War Mangin rose from divisional command to that of the Tenth Army for the Second Battle of the Marne , commanding both French and American troops. Nicknamed "the Butcher" for his espousal of la guerre à outrance (all-out war) and his faith in the suitability of North African Tirailleur for the attack, there was no doubt in the French Army that Mangin was fearless. Unlike many French generals who did not visit
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4160-706: The Rüstungswende or 'armaments turning point', when he switched expenditure from the navy to the army. This decision was not driven by a reduction in political tensions but by German concern over Russia's quick recovery from its defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and subsequent 1905 Russian Revolution . Economic reforms led to a significant post-1908 expansion of railways and transportation infrastructure, particularly in its western border regions. Since Germany and Austria-Hungary relied on faster mobilisation to compensate for their numerical inferiority compared to Russia,
4290-784: The United States entered the war on the Allied side following Germany's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare against Atlantic shipping. Later that year, the Bolsheviks seized power in the Russian October Revolution , and Soviet Russia signed an armistice with the Central Powers in December, followed by a separate peace in March 1918. That month, Germany launched an offensive in
4420-480: The hydrophone and depth charges were introduced, destroyers could potentially successfully attack a submerged submarine. Convoys slowed the flow of supplies since ships had to wait as convoys were assembled; the solution was an extensive program of building new freighters. Troopships were too fast for the submarines and did not travel the North Atlantic in convoys. The U-boats sunk more than 5,000 Allied ships, at
4550-543: The hyperinflation that all but wrecked the German economy. During the course of the Ruhr occupation, 132 Germans were killed and approximately 188,000 evicted from their homes. France's economy also suffered during the Ruhr occupation. It turned to Britain and the United States for assistance, and together they developed the Dawes Plan . It lowered and restructured Germany's reparations payments, and France agreed to vacate
4680-691: The tank . After the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914, Allied and German forces unsuccessfully tried to outflank each other, a series of manoeuvres later known as the " Race to the Sea ". By the end of 1914, the opposing forces confronted each other along an uninterrupted line of entrenched positions from the Channel to the Swiss border. Since the Germans were normally able to choose where to stand, they generally held
4810-588: The 1839 Treaty of London did not require it to oppose a German invasion with military force; however, Prime Minister Asquith and his senior Cabinet ministers were already committed to supporting France, the Royal Navy had been mobilised, and public opinion was strongly in favour of intervention. On 31 July, Britain sent notes to Germany and France, asking them to respect Belgian neutrality; France pledged to do so, but Germany did not reply. Aware of German plans to attack through Belgium, French Commander-in-Chief Joseph Joffre asked his government for permission to cross
4940-548: The 1879 Dual Alliance , which became the Triple Alliance when Italy joined in 1882. For Bismarck, the purpose of these agreements was to isolate France by ensuring the three Empires resolve any disputes between themselves. In 1887, Bismarck set up the Reinsurance Treaty , a secret agreement between Germany and Russia to remain neutral if either were attacked by France or Austria-Hungary. For Bismarck, peace with Russia
5070-441: The 1913 Treaty of London , which had created an independent Albania while enlarging the territories of Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro and Greece. However, disputes between the victors sparked the 33-day Second Balkan War , when Bulgaria attacked Serbia and Greece on 16 June 1913; it was defeated, losing most of Macedonia to Serbia and Greece, and Southern Dobruja to Romania. The result was that even countries which benefited from
5200-650: The Allied forces in 1922. On 9 January 1923, under the Warren G. Harding administration, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution withdrawing American forces from Germany. General Allen received the telegram on 10 January. After more than four years of occupation, the last Americans left their headquarters in Koblenz in January 1923. The flag was lowered at Ehrenbreitstein Fortress, the American headquarters, on 24 January. On 27 January American General Allen officially handed over control to
5330-555: The Americans had handed over to the French in 1923, was evacuated in November 1929. After a "final" agreement on reparations was reached in the 1929 Young Plan , the occupation of the Rhineland ended on 30 June 1930, five years earlier than originally set down in the Treaty of Versailles. At the peace negotiations that began in Versailles in January 1919, French prime minister Georges Clemenceau sought to fix France's border with Germany at
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5460-556: The Austrians and Serbs clashed at the battles of the Cer and Kolubara ; over the next two weeks, Austrian attacks were repulsed with heavy losses. As a result, Austria had to keep sizeable forces on the Serbian front, weakening their efforts against Russia. Serbia's victory against Austria-Hungary in the 1914 invasion has been called one of the major upset victories of the twentieth century. In 1915,
5590-593: The Austrians briefly occupied the Serbian capital, Belgrade . A Serbian counter-attack in the Battle of Kolubara succeeded in driving them from the country by the end of 1914. For the first 10 months of 1915, Austria-Hungary used most of its military reserves to fight Italy. German and Austro-Hungarian diplomats scored a coup by persuading Bulgaria to join the attack on Serbia. The Austro-Hungarian provinces of Slovenia , Croatia and Bosnia provided troops for Austria-Hungary. Montenegro allied itself with Serbia. Bulgaria declared war on Serbia on 14 October 1915 and joined in
5720-493: The Balkan Wars, such as Serbia and Greece, felt cheated of their "rightful gains", while for Austria it demonstrated the apparent indifference with which other powers viewed their concerns, including Germany. This complex mix of resentment, nationalism and insecurity helps explain why the pre-1914 Balkans became known as the " powder keg of Europe ". On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria , heir presumptive to Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria , visited Sarajevo ,
5850-404: The Central Powers. However, the pro-German King Constantine I dismissed the pro-Allied government of Eleftherios Venizelos before the Allied expeditionary force arrived. The Macedonian front was at first mostly static. French and Serbian forces retook limited areas of Macedonia by recapturing Bitola on 19 November 1916 following the costly Monastir offensive , which brought stabilisation of
5980-410: The Chinese Shandong peninsula at Tsingtao . After Vienna refused to withdraw its cruiser SMS Kaiserin Elisabeth from Tsingtao, Japan declared war on Austria-Hungary, and the ship was sunk in November 1914. Within a few months, Allied forces had seized all German territories in the Pacific, leaving only isolated commerce raiders and a few holdouts in New Guinea. Some of the first clashes of
6110-441: The French and Belgian invaders [...] slaughter our citizens? Are we still willing to bring upon ourselves the bloody French and Belgian courts that condemn innocent Germans to bestial death sentences, inhuman prison terms and extortionate fines? The most notable of the propaganda campaigns was the Germans' " Black Horror on the Rhine " ( Schwarze Schmach ), a racist appeal against the African colonial soldiers who made up part of
6240-405: The French and Belgian thieves and murderers? Are we still willing to put up with the brutality, the acts of thievery and murder, the vilification, the desecrations, the expulsions and bestial harassment perpetrated everywhere by the French and Belgian intruders? And do we have to allow ourselves to be treated like dogs in our homeland by the debauchees who have broken in? Are we still willing to watch
6370-405: The French forces involved in the occupation. The Eighth Army was commanded by General Augustin Gérard and occupied the Palatinate . The Tenth Army was commanded by General Charles Mangin and was responsible for the rest of the French zone from its headquarters in Mainz . On 21 October 1919, they were combined to form the French Army of the Rhine. In 1919, the Italian "Alpi" Brigade was used by
6500-439: The French military came to the aid of the separatists. At least 10 people were killed and 150 wounded. French military courts later sentenced a number of Düsseldorf police officers to long prison terms. The separatist movements had ended by early 1924. On 11 January 1923, French and Belgian troops occupied the industrial Ruhr district east of the Rhine after Germany fell behind in the reparations payments required of it under
6630-533: The French occupation troops. Their numbers averaged around 25,000; most were from the French colonies in North Africa. The German propaganda push took shape after the failed Kapp Putsch of March 1920 and was supported by the government in Berlin and widely across the political spectrum, with the exception of the far left Independent Social Democrats and the Communist Party of Germany . The propaganda used graphic depictions of African "barbarians" allegedly raping German women and girls. The supposed crimes were made into
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#17328553042146760-442: The French to try to win the Rhinelanders over to their side and the Germans to rouse national and international feelings against the occupation. The German propaganda war included racist attacks against black French colonial troops. Following the signing of the Locarno Treaties that settled Germany's western border in late 1925, the northern occupation zone around Cologne was evacuated in January 1926. The Koblenz region, which
6890-403: The French. In accordance with the Treaty of Versailles – and also the Locarno Treaties, in which Germany had voluntarily agreed to the demilitarisation of its territory west of a line drawn 50 kilometres east of the Rhine in 1925 – the area remained a demilitarised zone until Adolf Hitler had it occupied by the Wehrmacht in breach of the treaties on 7 March 1936. The United States occupied
7020-500: The French. On 3 February, the United States withdrew General Allen as its observer from the Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission. Two weeks later the Americans physically left the Rhineland. Belgium maintained an army of occupation ( Armée d'occupation , AO) in the Rhineland from 1918 to 1929. It consisted of 20,000 soldiers in five divisions with its headquarters at Aachen and its troops stationed in Krefeld . They were commanded by Armand Huyghé . Belgium also participated in
7150-548: The German High Seas Fleet was confined to port. German U-boats attempted to cut the supply lines between North America and Britain. The nature of submarine warfare meant that attacks often came without warning, giving the crews of the merchant ships little hope of survival. The United States launched a protest, and Germany changed its rules of engagement. After the sinking of the passenger ship RMS Lusitania in 1915, Germany promised not to target passenger liners, while Britain armed its merchant ships, placing them beyond
7280-465: The German Army increased in size from 1908 to 1914, he changed the allocation of forces between the two wings to 70:30. He also considered Dutch neutrality essential for German trade and cancelled the incursion into the Netherlands, which meant any delays in Belgium threatened the viability of the plan. Historian Richard Holmes argues that these changes meant the right wing was not strong enough to achieve decisive success. The initial German advance in
7410-413: The German Rhinelanders and the French population that annexing the region to France would benefit both sides. A press agency was set up in Koblenz, and in Mainz a bilingual magazine was published with the aim of reviving the "spiritual connection" between Germany and France. Courses in the French language were also offered in the occupied region. Tirard's propaganda efforts overall had little effect in either
7540-462: The German right wing would sweep through the Netherlands and Belgium , then swing south, encircling Paris and trapping the French army against the Swiss border. The plan's creator, Alfred von Schlieffen , head of the German General Staff from 1891 to 1906, estimated that this would take six weeks, after which the German army would transfer to the East and defeat the Russians. The plan was substantially modified by his successor, Helmuth von Moltke
7670-426: The Germans bled heavily as well, with anywhere from 700,000 to 975,000 casualties between the two combatants. Verdun became a symbol of French determination and self-sacrifice. The Battle of the Somme was an Anglo-French offensive from July to November 1916. The opening day on 1 July 1916 was the bloodiest single day in the history of the British Army , which suffered 57,500 casualties, including 19,200 dead. As
7800-430: The Koblenz zone (American) after ten years, and the remainder after fifteen years. On 28 June 1919, the day on which the Treaty of Versailles was signed, France, Belgium, the Great Britain, the United States and Germany signed a separate agreement "with regard to the military occupation of the territories of the Rhine" as provided for in Article 432 of the Treaty. The thirteen articles of the Rhineland Agreement included
7930-565: The Middle East. In all, 140,000 soldiers served on the Western Front and nearly 700,000 in the Middle East, with 47,746 killed and 65,126 wounded. The suffering engendered by the war, as well as the failure of the British government to grant self-government to India afterward, bred disillusionment, resulting in the campaign for full independence led by Mahatma Gandhi . Pre-war military tactics that had emphasised open warfare and individual riflemen proved obsolete when confronted with conditions prevailing in 1914. Technological advances allowed
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#17328553042148060-418: The Occupation of the Ruhr in 1923. Eleven Belgian soldiers were killed in an attack on a railway bridge near Hochfeld (today part of Duisburg ) on 30 June 1923. The Belgian Army of Occupation maintained a dedicated security service known as the Military Security Service in Occupied Germany ( Sûrété militaire en Allemagne occupée , SMAO) which provided some support to Rhenish separatists. After an officer of
8190-433: The Occupied Rhine Territories. The first Prussian state commissioner was Karl von Starck ; he was succeeded in 1921 by Hermann von Hatzfeldt-Wildenburg [ de ] . Bavaria also had a state commissioner, since a small part of its territory was also occupied. The legislative powers of the Commission, which had been granted to it in order to protect the occupying troops, were not precisely defined. The Commission
8320-545: The Ottomans joined the Central Powers in November. Germany's strategy in 1914 was to quickly defeat France, then to transfer its forces to the east, but its advance was halted in September , and by the end of the year the Western Front consisted of a continuous line of trenches stretching from the English Channel to Switzerland. The Eastern Front was more dynamic, but neither side gained a decisive advantage, despite costly offensives. Italy , Bulgaria , Romania , Greece and others joined in from 1915 onward. In April 1917,
8450-449: The Ottomans' territory in the Balkans during the 1912–1913 First Balkan War , much to the surprise of outside observers. The Serbian capture of ports on the Adriatic resulted in partial Austrian mobilisation, starting on 21 November 1912, including units along the Russian border in Galicia . The Russian government decided not to mobilise in response, unprepared to precipitate a war. The Great Powers sought to re-assert control through
8580-492: The Rhine's east bank. In July 1919, the Third Army was disbanded and replaced by the American Forces in Germany (AFG) under the command of Major General Henry Tureman Allen . After a steady troop withdrawal, the AFG comprised some 20,000 men in a reduced territory by late 1919. Compared to the situation in the French occupation zone, the Americans' relations with the German population were much better. General Allen took part in saving Ehrenbreitstein Fortress from destruction by
8710-417: The Rhine. All the territories on the west bank of the river were to be detached from Germany and form one or more sovereign states aligned with France. He saw the idea, which had originated with General Ferdinand Foch , as the only way to remain secure against Germany, noting that it had invaded France four times in 100 years (1814, 1815, 1870 and 1914). Clemenceau was unable to convince his allies to accept
8840-508: The Rhineland even while peace negotiations were ongoing. Separatism was generally supported by the French government as part of their program of cultural propaganda. High Commissioner Tirard initially favoured an independent Rhenish state. Most French and Belgian authorities either agreed with him or wanted at least to have the Rhineland separated from the state of Prussia, whereas the British and Americans were hesitant to accept such proposals, if not opposed to them outright. Hans Adam Dorten ,
8970-537: The Rhineland or France, although the German press picked up on them as an emotionally laden topic to use against the French. The German propaganda campaign was poorly coordinated until the cabinet-level Ministry for the Occupied Territories was established in August 1923 and the Rheinische Volkspflege (Rhineland People's Welfare) was placed under its control. The Rheinische Volkspflege had been set up in 1920 as an unofficial cover organisation to finance and coordinate anti-French propaganda. It saw itself as part of
9100-597: The Ruhr. The evacuation was completed on 25 August 1925. Relations between the German population and the occupying forces were the most difficult early on. The French especially used harsh measures such as martial law, curfews, restrictions on communication with the rest of Germany and requirements that German officials salute French officers. Billeting caused shortages of housing and food, and some cities, such as Aachen , became so crowded that they began to feel like garrisons to their inhabitants. There were frequent outbreaks of minor violence. Expulsion of "undesirables", which
9230-549: The Russian Stavka agreed with the French to attack Germany within fifteen days of mobilisation, ten days before the Germans had anticipated, although it meant the two Russian armies that entered East Prussia on 17 August did so without many of their support elements. By the end of 1914, German troops held strong defensive positions inside France, controlled the bulk of France's domestic coalfields, and inflicted 230,000 more casualties than it lost itself. However, communications problems and questionable command decisions cost Germany
9360-559: The SMOA shot dead a German officer of the Schutzpolizei in March 1921, German police mistakenly killed another Belgian lieutenant named Graff. The British Army entered German territory on 3 December 1918. The British Army of the Rhine was established as the occupying force in March 1919. Based at Cologne , they published The Cologne Post . They were withdrawn in January 1926. The French Eighth and Tenth Armies originally constituted
9490-529: The Serbian retreat toward the Adriatic coast in the Battle of Mojkovac on 6–7 January 1916, but ultimately the Austrians also conquered Montenegro. The surviving Serbian soldiers were evacuated to Greece. After the conquest, Serbia was divided between Austro-Hungary and Bulgaria. In late 1915, a Franco-British force landed at Salonica in Greece to offer assistance and to pressure its government to declare war against
9620-525: The Treaty of Versailles stipulated that the west bank of the Rhine and "the right bank to the west of a line drawn 50 kilometres to the East of the Rhine" be demilitarised. The provisions that related specifically to the occupation of the Rhineland were laid out in articles 428 through 432. The key article (428) states: As a guarantee for the execution of the present Treaty by Germany, the German territory situated to
9750-500: The Treaty of Versailles, the American representative, General Henry Tureman Allen , was only an unofficial observer on the Commission, although either he or a deputy attended all Commission meetings, and when Allen attended he expressed his opinions freely. At the request of the state of Prussia , to which the majority of the occupied territory belonged, German interests were represented by the newly created Reich Commissioner's Office for
9880-506: The Treaty of Versailles. Military law was imposed, local governments were placed under French control, and the Inter-allied Control Mission for Factories and Mines (MICUM) took over administration of the steel works and mines. Germany responded with a policy of passive resistance. Work in the factories and mines stopped, and the German government supported the region's idled workers through printing additional money, which led to
10010-405: The United States (the latter in an observer role only). The purpose of the occupation was to give France and Belgium security against any future German attack and serve as a guarantee for Germany's reparations obligations . After Germany fell behind on its payments in 1922, the occupation was expanded to include the industrial Ruhr valley from 1923 to 1925. In the early years of the occupation,
10140-629: The West was very successful. By the end of August, the Allied left, which included the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), was in full retreat , and the French offensive in Alsace-Lorraine was a disastrous failure, with casualties exceeding 260,000. German planning provided broad strategic instructions while allowing army commanders considerable freedom in carrying them out at the front, but von Kluck used this freedom to disobey orders, opening
10270-480: The Younger . Under Schlieffen, 85% of German forces in the west were assigned to the right wing, with the remainder holding along the frontier. By keeping his left-wing deliberately weak, he hoped to lure the French into an offensive into the "lost provinces" of Alsace-Lorraine , which was the strategy envisaged by their Plan XVII . However, Moltke grew concerned that the French might push too hard on his left flank and as
10400-496: The aggressor, German Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg delayed the commencement of war preparations until 31 July. That afternoon, the Russian government were handed a note requiring them to "cease all war measures against Germany and Austria-Hungary" within 12 hours. A further German demand for neutrality was refused by the French who ordered general mobilization but delayed declaring war. The German General Staff had long assumed they faced
10530-466: The attack by the Austro-Hungarian army under Mackensen's army of 250,000 that was already underway. Serbia was conquered in a little more than a month, as the Central Powers, now including Bulgaria, sent in 600,000 troops in total. The Serbian army, fighting on two fronts and facing certain defeat, retreated into northern Albania . The Serbs suffered defeat in the Battle of Kosovo . Montenegro covered
10660-535: The best way of achieving this. However, the Foreign Ministry had no solid proof of Serbian involvement. On 23 July, Austria delivered an ultimatum to Serbia, listing ten demands made intentionally unacceptable to provide an excuse for starting hostilities. Serbia ordered general mobilization on 25 July, but accepted all the terms, except for those empowering Austrian representatives to suppress "subversive elements" inside Serbia, and take part in
10790-483: The border and pre-empt such a move. To avoid violating Belgian neutrality, he was told any advance could come only after a German invasion. Instead, the French cabinet ordered its Army to withdraw 10 km behind the German frontier, to avoid provoking war. On 2 August, Germany occupied Luxembourg and exchanged fire with French units when German patrols entered French territory; on 3 August, they declared war on France and demanded free passage across Belgium, which
10920-536: The campaign saw the first use of anti-aircraft warfare after an Austrian plane was shot down with ground-to-air fire, as well as the first medical evacuation by the Serbian army. Upon mobilisation, in accordance with the Schlieffen Plan , 80% of the German Army was located on the Western Front, with the remainder acting as a screening force in the East. Rather than a direct attack across their shared frontier,
11050-636: The capital of the recently annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina . Cvjetko Popović , Gavrilo Princip , Nedeljko Čabrinović , Trifko Grabež , Vaso Čubrilović ( Bosnian Serbs ) and Muhamed Mehmedbašić (from the Bosniaks community), from the movement known as Young Bosnia , took up positions along the Archduke's motorcade route, to assassinate him. Supplied with arms by extremists within the Serbian Black Hand intelligence organisation, they hoped his death would free Bosnia from Austrian rule. Čabrinović threw
11180-654: The central area of the Rhineland along the Mosel river and the Koblenz bridgehead. General John J. Pershing , commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.), created the Third Army for the purpose, which in early 1919 comprised some 250,000 men. Command was given to Major General Joseph T. Dickman . The Americans opened their headquarters in a Prussian government building by the Rhine in Koblenz. The U.S. flag flew over Koblenz's Ehrenbreitstein Fortress on
11310-466: The chance of a decisive outcome, while it had failed to achieve the primary objective of avoiding a long, two-front war. As was apparent to several German leaders, this amounted to a strategic defeat; shortly after the First Battle of the Marne , Crown Prince Wilhelm told an American reporter "We have lost the war. It will go on for a long time but lost it is already." On 30 August 1914, New Zealand occupied German Samoa (now Samoa ). On 11 September,
11440-631: The colonies. In June 1905, Mangin proposed and the couple were married on July 31, 1905. They had eight children together including Stanislas Mangin , a resistance fighter during the Second World War . World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War , was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies (or Entente) and
11570-531: The concluding chapters of his book Comment finit la Guerre . After the Allied victory, Mangin's 10th Army was sent to occupy the Rhineland . There, he became the focus of controversy due to his attempts to foster the establishment of a pro-French Rhenish Republic with the aim of separating it from Germany and thus denying Germany the West bank of the Rhine . Mangin's 10th Army included Senegalese Tirailleurs sent specifically at his request. A moral panic known as
11700-511: The cost of 199 submarines. World War I also saw the first use of aircraft carriers in combat, with HMS Furious launching Sopwith Camels in a successful raid against the Zeppelin hangars at Tondern in July 1918, as well as blimps for antisubmarine patrol. Faced with Russia in the east, Austria-Hungary could spare only one-third of its army to attack Serbia. After suffering heavy losses,
11830-410: The course of the occupation. Because German Francophile and separatist feelings were not as strong as the French had thought, their early attempts to tap into them failed. Paul Tirard, in a campaign conducted largely independently of the French government, tried to win the Germans over through a policy of "peaceful penetration" that included cultural events and special benefits. He wanted to convince both
11960-513: The creation of new independent states, including Poland , Finland , the Baltic states , Czechoslovakia , and Yugoslavia . The League of Nations was established to maintain world peace, but its failure to manage instability during the interwar period contributed to the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Before World War II , the events of 1914–1918 were generally known as the Great War or simply
12090-449: The creation of strong defensive systems largely impervious to massed infantry advances, such as barbed wire , machine guns and above all far more powerful artillery , which dominated the battlefield and made crossing open ground extremely difficult. Both sides struggled to develop tactics for breaching entrenched positions without heavy casualties. In time, technology enabled the production of new offensive weapons, such as gas warfare and
12220-946: The crowds listened to music and drank wine, as if nothing had happened." Nevertheless, the impact of the murder of the heir to the throne was significant, and has been described by historian Christopher Clark as a "9/11 effect, a terrorist event charged with historic meaning, transforming the political chemistry in Vienna". Austro-Hungarian authorities encouraged subsequent anti-Serb riots in Sarajevo . Violent actions against ethnic Serbs were also organised outside Sarajevo, in other cities in Austro-Hungarian-controlled Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia. Austro-Hungarian authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina imprisoned approximately 5,500 prominent Serbs, 700 to 2,200 of whom died in prison. A further 460 Serbs were sentenced to death. A predominantly Bosniak special militia known as
12350-671: The expansion of the French colonial empire . In 1873, Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors , which included Austria-Hungary , Russia and Germany. After the 1877–1878 Russo-Turkish War , the League was dissolved due to Austrian concerns over the expansion of Russian influence in the Balkans , an area they considered to be of vital strategic interest. Germany and Austria-Hungary then formed
12480-476: The fact that Mangin was one of the few high-ranking French officials who supported Nivelle's strategy. Mangin's Sixth Army bore the brunt of the main attack during the Second Battle of the Aisne , the main component of Robert Nivelle 's costly assault. After the failed operation was abandoned, Mangin and Nivelle were sacked. After Ferdinand Foch was promoted to Allied Supreme Commander (over Philippe Pétain ), Mangin
12610-554: The failures was that the Catholic Centre Party had considerable influence in the region and did not support the separatist movements. The most serious event connected to separatism came to be known as the Düsseldorf Bloody Sunday. On 30 September 1923, thousands of separatists held a march through the city in support of a Rhenish republic under a French protectorate. After shots were fired from an unknown source,
12740-400: The first time on the Western Front. Several types of gas soon became widely used by both sides and though it never proved a decisive, battle-winning weapon, it became one of the most feared and best-remembered horrors of the war. In February 1916, the Germans attacked French defensive positions at the Battle of Verdun , lasting until December 1916. Casualties were greater for the French, but
12870-405: The following points: The occupied Rhineland made up 6.5% of Germany's total area and had a population of about seven million. While the negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles were in progress, the region was under a state of siege and the number of occupation troops stood at approximately 240,000 (220,000 French and 20,000 Belgian). By February 1920, a year after the Treaty had gone into effect,
13000-414: The front, Mangin was shot in the chest while exhorting his men for further attacks during the Second Battle of Champagne , though he returned to duty ten days later. During that war, Mangin had notable victories at the Battle of Charleroi in 1914 and then at the Battle of Verdun in 1916 but his reputation suffered following the disastrous Nivelle Offensive (16 April – 9 May 1917). This was due partly to
13130-586: The front. Serbian and French troops finally made a breakthrough in September 1918 in the Vardar offensive , after most German and Austro-Hungarian troops had been withdrawn. The Bulgarians were defeated at the Battle of Dobro Pole , and by 25 September British and French troops had crossed the border into Bulgaria proper as the Bulgarian army collapsed. Bulgaria capitulated four days later, on 29 September 1918. The German high command responded by despatching troops to hold
13260-526: The globe, some of which were subsequently used to attack Allied merchant shipping . These were systematically hunted down by the Royal Navy, though not before causing considerable damage. One of the most successful was the SMS ; Emden , part of the German East Asia Squadron stationed at Qingdao , which seized or sank 15 merchantmen, a Russian cruiser and a French destroyer. Most of the squadron
13390-479: The high ground, while their trenches tended to be better built; those constructed by the French and English were initially considered "temporary", only needed until an offensive would destroy the German defences. Both sides tried to break the stalemate using scientific and technological advances. On 22 April 1915, at the Second Battle of Ypres , the Germans (violating the Hague Convention ) used chlorine gas for
13520-467: The investigation and trial of Serbians linked to the assassination. Claiming this amounted to rejection, Austria broke off diplomatic relations and ordered partial mobilisation the next day; on 28 July, they declared war on Serbia and began shelling Belgrade . Russia ordered general mobilization in support of Serbia on 30 July. Anxious to ensure backing from the SPD political opposition by presenting Russia as
13650-468: The line, but these forces were too weak to re-establish a front. Occupation of the Rhineland The Occupation of the Rhineland placed the region of Germany west of the Rhine river and four bridgeheads to its east under the control of the victorious Allies of World War I from 1 December 1918 until 30 June 1930. The occupation was imposed and regulated by articles in
13780-603: The number had dropped to 94,000 French and 16,000 Belgian troops. In March and April 1920, a violent workers' uprising in the Ruhr district was suppressed by the German Reichswehr with assistance from units of the paramilitary Freikorps . As a reaction to the incursion of German troops into the demilitarised zone east of the Rhine, French troops temporarily occupied Frankfurt am Main , Darmstadt and several other smaller cities beginning on 6 April 1920. A much more substantial Ruhr occupation took place from 1923 to 1925 as
13910-460: The ocean, even to neutral ships. Since there was limited response to this tactic, Germany expected a similar response to its unrestricted submarine warfare. The Battle of Jutland in May/June 1916 was the only full-scale clash of battleships during the war, and one of the largest in history. The clash was indecisive, though the Germans inflicted more damage than they received; thereafter the bulk of
14040-419: The proposal. U.S. president Woodrow Wilson advocated the right of peoples to self-determination, which he said should not be denied the Germans. British prime minister David Lloyd George did not want the settlement to "leave a legacy of injustice which would rankle as Alsace–Lorraine had rankled". As a compromise, the Americans and British agreed that if Germany should attack France again, they would enter
14170-681: The protection of the " cruiser rules ", which demanded warning and movement of crews to "a place of safety" (a standard that lifeboats did not meet). Finally, in early 1917, Germany adopted a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare , realising the Americans would eventually enter the war. Germany sought to strangle Allied sea lanes before the United States could transport a large army overseas, but, after initial successes, eventually failed to do so. The U-boat threat lessened in 1917, when merchant ships began travelling in convoys , escorted by destroyers . This tactic made it difficult for U-boats to find targets, which significantly lessened losses; after
14300-499: The rank of Officer of the Legion d'honneur. He was given the command of a battalion in Tonkin from 1901 to 1904. He was then promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1905 and served during the French occupation of Senegal from 1906 to 1908 under General Audéoud . In 1910 he published La force noire , where he called for the use of French Colonial Forces in the event of a European war. During
14430-450: The statue, being a reminder of Mangin's machinations in the Rhineland, was one of two he ordered destroyed. The other was of Edith Cavell . A German demolition squad dynamited his statue and most of the bronze was later melted down. In 1957 a new statue was erected on the nearby Avenue de Breteuil. When Mangin returned from the Merchant mission, he met Madeleine Jagerschmidt, the daughter of
14560-464: The term First World War was in September 1914 by German biologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel who stated, "There is no doubt that the course and character of the feared 'European War' ... will become the first world war in the full sense of the word." For much of the 19th century, the major European powers maintained a tenuous balance of power , known as the Concert of Europe . After 1848, this
14690-682: The threat posed by the closing of this gap was more important than competing with the Royal Navy. After Germany expanded its standing army by 170,000 troops in 1913, France extended compulsory military service from two to three years; similar measures were taken by the Balkan powers and Italy, which led to increased expenditure by the Ottomans and Austria-Hungary. Absolute figures are difficult to calculate due to differences in categorising expenditure since they often omit civilian infrastructure projects like railways which had logistical importance and military use. It
14820-429: The war ended with the Armistice of 11 November 1918 . The Paris Peace Conference of 1919–1920 imposed settlements on the defeated powers, most notably the Treaty of Versailles , by which Germany lost significant territories, was disarmed, and was required to pay large war reparations to the Allies. The dissolution of the Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman Empires redrew national boundaries and resulted in
14950-581: The war involved British, French, and German colonial forces in Africa. On 6–7 August, French and British troops invaded the German protectorates of Togoland and Kamerun . On 10 August, German forces in South-West Africa attacked South Africa; sporadic and fierce fighting continued for the rest of the war. The German colonial forces in German East Africa , led by Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck , fought
15080-421: The war on its side. Clemenceau then accepted a maximum fifteen-year time limit for the occupation. As a prerequisite for withdrawal, Germany would be required to fulfil the requirements of the peace treaty and meet its reparations obligations on time. The function of the occupation was thus changed from an instrument for weakening Germany to a bargaining chip for Germany's reparations obligations. Article 42 of
15210-418: The west , which despite initial successes left the German Army exhausted and demoralised. A successful Allied counter-offensive from August 1918 caused a collapse of the German front line. By early November, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary had each signed armistices with the Allies, leaving Germany isolated. Facing a revolution at home , Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated on 9 November, and
15340-501: The west of the Rhine, together with the bridgeheads [at Cologne , Koblenz , Mainz and Kehl , per Article 429], will be occupied by Allied and Associated troops for a period of fifteen years from the coming into force of the present Treaty. Article 429 added that if Germany fulfilled its obligations under the treaty, the Cologne region (under the British) would be evacuated after five years,
15470-432: Was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic. The causes of World War I included the rise of Germany and decline of the Ottoman Empire , which disturbed the long-standing balance of power in Europe, as well as economic competition between nations triggered by industrialisation and imperialism . Growing tensions between the great powers and in the Balkans reached a breaking point on 28 June 1914, when
15600-476: Was arranged through Marie Georges Humbert , a professor of mathematics at the École Polytechnique the husband of his deceased wife's sister, Marie Jagerschmidt. She gave private lessons to Cavaignac's daughter Antoinette. Following the interview, Cavaignac regularly invited Mangin to dine at his house where his 25-year-old daughter Antoinette was living. Whilst Mangin was impressed by Antoinette's intelligence, he in turn impressed her with accounts of his exploits in
15730-427: Was authorised to both approve and amend national laws affecting the Rhineland and decrees issued by Rhineland officials, making it de facto the supreme public authority in the occupied Rhineland. The Commission supervised German administration in the occupied territory through a system of district delegates who were placed at the side of the respective local German administrative officers. In March 1921, Germany created
15860-403: Was challenged by Britain's withdrawal into so-called splendid isolation , the decline of the Ottoman Empire , New Imperialism , and the rise of Prussia under Otto von Bismarck . Victory in the 1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War allowed Bismarck to consolidate a German Empire . Post-1871, the primary aim of French policy was to avenge this defeat, but by the early 1890s, this had switched to
15990-641: Was diagnosed as suffering from appendicitis and as having suffered a stroke , though it was rumoured he may have been poisoned. He died two days later, on 12 May. His remains were interred in Les Invalides in 1932, and a bronze statue by Maxime Real del Sarte erected in his honour in 1928 in the Place Denys-Cochin, Paris. Mangin's monument was destroyed on 16 June 1940, two days after German troops occupied Paris during World War Two . During his tour of Paris, Adolf Hitler visited Napoleon's tomb , and
16120-634: Was permissible under terms of the treaty, led to 40,000 heads of household and 110,000 family members being forced to leave the French occupied territory (numbers do not include the Ruhr occupation). The Belgians were the most restrictive against fraternisation, while the French permitted "mixed" marriages on a case-by-case basis. They nevertheless denied almost all accusations of sexual violence, even in cases where punishments were meted out internally by their military. Germans who fraternised could face stigmatisation or physical violence within their own communities. Both sides used propaganda extensively during
16250-632: Was recalled upon the orders of Prime Minister Clemenceau and given command initially of the 11th Army Corps and then of the French Tenth Army on the Western Front . Mangin's Tenth Army was responsible for the crucial Allied counter-attack at the Second Battle of the Marne. It was this that did much to enhance his military reputation. He also became known for the observation: "Quoi qu'on fasse, on perd beaucoup de monde" ("Whatever you do, you lose
16380-654: Was refused. Early on the morning of 4 August, the Germans invaded, and Albert I of Belgium called for assistance under the Treaty of London . Britain sent Germany an ultimatum demanding they withdraw from Belgium; when this expired at midnight, without a response, the two empires were at war. Germany promised to support Austria-Hungary's invasion of Serbia, but interpretations of what this meant differed. Previously tested deployment plans had been replaced early in 1914, but those had never been tested in exercises. Austro-Hungarian leaders believed Germany would cover its northern flank against Russia. Beginning on 12 August,
16510-659: Was returning to Germany when it sank two British armoured cruisers at the Battle of Coronel in November 1914, before being virtually destroyed at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December. The SMS Dresden escaped with a few auxiliaries, but after the Battle of Más a Tierra , these too were either destroyed or interned. Soon after the outbreak of hostilities, Britain began a naval blockade of Germany . This proved effective in cutting off vital supplies, though it violated accepted international law. Britain also mined international waters which closed off entire sections of
16640-508: Was sent to Sudan , serving under Jean-Baptiste Marchand and gained further experience in Mali , French North Africa . During this period he learnt Bambara , the lingua-franca of Mali. He was wounded three times and returned to France in 1892. In 1893 he was made a Knight of the Legion d'honneur . In 1898, Mangin joined Marchand on his expedition to Fashoda with children in tow. In 1900 he attained
16770-759: Was the foundation of German foreign policy but in 1890, he was forced to retire by Wilhelm II . The latter was persuaded not to renew the Reinsurance Treaty by his new Chancellor , Leo von Caprivi . This gave France an opening to agree the Franco-Russian Alliance in 1894, which was then followed by the 1904 Entente Cordiale with Britain. The Triple Entente was completed by the 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention . While not formal alliances, by settling long-standing colonial disputes in Asia and Africa, British support for France or Russia in any future conflict became
16900-514: Was to have been vacated in January 1925, but it was delayed by the French due to disagreements about the German army's compliance with the armaments reduction requirements imposed on it in the Treaty of Versailles. As a result of the agreements reached in the Locarno Treaties , British troops withdrew from their zone in January 1926. After Germany accepted the Young Plan , which was negotiated in
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