1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page

Political Events

The German high command resumes unrestricted U-boat attacks, despite the probability that such attacks will bring the United States into the European war. The strength of the Hindenburg Line on the Western Front and the collapse of Russian opposition on the eastern front bolsters German confidence as revolution begins in Russia.

Admiral George Dewey of Spanish-American War fame dies at Washington, D.C., January 16 at age 79.

British intelligence intercepts a wireless message January 17 from the German foreign secretary Arthur von Zimmermann to the German ambassador Count Johann von Bernstorff at Washington. Decoded, the Zimmermann note says, "We intend to begin unrestricted submarine warfare. We shall endeavor to keep the United States neutral. In the event of this not succeeding we make Mexico a proposal of alliance on the following basis: Make war together, make peace together, generous financial support, and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to recover the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona."

Berlin notifies Washington January 31 that unrestricted submarine warfare will begin the next day, the United States severs relations with Germany February 3, Latin American nations, including Brazil and Peru follow suit. The passenger liner S.S. Laconia is torpedoed without warning by a U-boat in the North Atlantic February 25 (she has carried 76 passengers, including six Americans), and the sinking of the Laconia increases popular support for U.S. entry into the war.

Sen. Robert M. La Follette (R. Wis.) launches a filibuster March 3 to block a House-approved bill that would finance arming of U.S. merchant vessels against U-boat attacks. He speaks for 3 hours, defending the right to free speech in time of war, 10 colleagues join him in speaking around the clock, the Senate chamber verges on violence the next morning, and President Wilson denounces the senators March 4 saying, "A little group of willful men, reflecting no opinion but their own, have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible." The Senate adopts Rule 22 March 8 providing for "cloture," but it takes a two-thirds majority to stop a filibuster and cloture will rarely be invoked (see 1949). The Senate launches an investigation of what some call La Follette's treasonable conduct.

Russian troops mutiny March 10 following 2 days of strikes and riots at Petrograd, Czar Nicholas II en route home by private train March 15 has the train pulled into a siding and abdicates in favor of his brother Michael, Michael abdicates March 16 in favor of a provisional government headed by Prince Georgi Evgenievich Lvov, 55, and the Romanov dynasty founded in 1613 comes to an abrupt end. Menshevik leader Nikolai Semyonovich Chkheidze, 52, becomes chairman of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies but is unable to reconcile competing moderate and radical elements. V. I. Lenin and other Bolshevik leaders arrive at Petrograd in April; the German high command has sent them by sealed railroad carriage from Switzerland across Germany in a calculated move to undermine the pro-Ally provisional government (see Lenin, 1916).

The new Austro-Hungarian emperor Karl I dismisses Gen. Franz Conrad, Graf von Hötzendorf, in March as he increases his control of the military. He replaces the somewhat inept Conrad with Arz von Straussenberg.

The United States declares war on Germany April 6—4 days after President Wilson has sent a war message to the Senate, using terms taken directly from communications that he has received over the past 3 years from Ambassador Walter Hines Page (the French ambassador Jean-Jules Jusserand has also played a role in obtaining U.S. entry into the Great War). Congresswoman Rankin's is the lone dissenting voice; Rankin will lose her bid for the Republican Senate nomination next year, and she will not be reelected to Congress until 1940. Sen. Robert M. La Follette (R. Wis.) also votes against U.S. entry into the war (so do five other senators), and when a newspaper questions his patriotism he draws censure from the Wisconsin state legislature and there is talk of removing him from office.

Canadian troops under the command of British general Sir Julian Byng take Vimy Ridge north of Arras in the Battle of Arras that lasts from April 9 to May 16, but while the British 3rd Army under Gen. Edmund Allenby, 56, and the 1st Army under Gen. Henry Horne have 5,000 guns (four times as many as the Germans) and advance four miles they are unable to effect a breakthrough against Gen. Erich Ludendorff, who loses about 27,000 men (British casualties total about 20,000). A British force led by Field Marshal Herbert (Charles Onslow) Plumer, 59, takes Messines Ridge. British air ace Albert Ball dies May 7 at age 21 when a German machine gunner in a church clock tower at Annoeuillin shoots him down; Ball has downed 44 German planes since enlisting in 1914. Both sides in the conflict lionize their air heroes to distract attention form the carnage in the trenches.

The "Red Baron" Manfred von Richthofen shoots down 21 Allied planes in April as aerial combat escalates in the skies over France (see 1916). His Jasta 11 unit scores a total of 89 victories in what will become known as "Bloody April." Troops in the trenches on both sides of the conflict witness the aerial dogfights. The Jasta 11 joins with three other units June 24 to create the first Jagdgeschwader, it quickly becomes known as "Richthofen's Flying Circus" because its planes are painted in bright colors for easy identification, Richthofen's is a bright red, and his autobiography The Red Battle Flyer (Der rote Kampfflieger) adds to his reputation as a fearless, cold-blooded air ace (see 1918).

The Women's Army Auxiliary Air Force organized in France by London botany professor and fungi expert Helen Charlotte Isabella Gwynne-Vaughan (née Fraser), 38, works to keep Britain's de Havillands, Farmans, and Sopworth Camels in the air against the Fokker fighter planes flown by Baron von Richthofen's "Flying Circus."

French troops mutiny after sustaining cruel losses in April and hearing of mutiny among Russian troops on the Eastern Front. French minister of war Paul Painlevé relieves Gen. Robert Georges Nivelle, 61, of his command but exonerates him of blame for the failure of his plans and replaces him with Gen. Pétain, who tries to restore order as the mutiny sweeps through 16 corps, the government executes 23 socialist and pacifist agitators, but the brunt of the Allied war effort falls on the British Tommy as the French poilu loses heart for continuing the war.

More than half the 875,000 tons of Allied shipping lost in April is British; Prime Minister Lloyd George prevails on the Admiralty to adopt a proposal by Admiral Sims and employ a convoy system for merchant vessels. Convoys begin May 10 to safeguard shipments of U.S. foodstuffs, war matériel, and troops bound for Britain and Europe.

The Selective Service Act adopted by Congress May 18 authorizes the first draft since the Civil War, makes the office of the Provost Marshal General responsible for the process of selecting men for induction into military service, and gives the governors of the 48 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories of Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico responsibility for managing the process, but the law applies only to men aged 21 to 31. Registration for the draft begins June 5. Gen. "Blackjack" Pershing is named to head an American Expeditionary Force as the French and British sustain enormous losses on the Western Front. Gen. Frederick Funston has died of a heart attack at San Antonio, Texas, February 19 at age 51, and Pershing, now 56, has been recalled from his pursuit of Pancho Villa.

Greece's pro-German Constantine I abdicates June 12 under pressure from the Allies and former prime minister Eleuthérios Venizélos, now 53, heads a provisional government. The king is a brother-in-law of the German kaiser and has insisted on Greek neutrality; he does not renounce his titular right to the throne, but his 24-year-old second son will reign until 1920 as Alexander. Black Hand Society (Crna Ruka) terrorist Dragutin Dimitrijevic is sentenced to death with six other officers in June and executed at Thessalonika June 27 at age 40. He is believed to have played a key role in the assassination of the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo in 1914.

British authorities in Ireland release Countess Markievicz June 18 on orders from Prime Minister Lloyd George, who wants to reassure the Allies that London is trying to solve its Irish Home Rule problem (see 1916). Irish Republican Brotherhood leader Thomas Ashe dies September 25 at Mountjoy Prison while on a hunger strike following an attempt by prison authorities to feed him forcibly (he has led a campaign for prisoner-of-war status and, when this was refused, began the hunger strike with 29 others) (see 1918).

German radicals who include Wilhelm Pieck, 41, and Clara Zetkin found the Independent Social Democratic Party (Spartacus League) (see 1919).

The Espionage Act adopted by Congress June 15 with overwhelming public support and signed into law by President Wilson prescribes fines of up to $10,000 and prison sentences of up to 20 years for vaguely defined antiwar activities that are listed in the measure, the first such legislation in America since the Sedition Act of 1798. More than 1,500 people are arrested for expressing views against government policies; Emma Goldman is arrested at New York along with Alexander Berkman, their journal Mother Earth is suppressed, and they are sentenced to 2 years' imprisonment for leading opposition to U.S. military conscription (see 1906; 1919). Polish-born New York socialist Rose (Harriet) Pastor Stokes (née Wieslander), 37, worked in a cigar factory and as a journalist before marrying millionaire James Graham Phelps Stokes 11 years ago, and although both withdraw from the Socialist Party July 9 after it adopts the St. Louis platform condemning U.S. participation in the war, she rejoins the party in the fall and is arrested on charges of violating the Espionage Act (see Sedition Act, 1918).

An embargo proclamation issued by President Wilson July 9 places exports of U.S. foodstuffs, fuel, iron, steel, and war matériel under government control. Wilson sends U.S. destroyers to help blockade German ports and convoy merchant ships bound for Britain.

Rear Admiral Stephen B. Luce, U.S. Navy (ret)., dies at Newport, Rhode Island, July 28 at age 90, having served as the Naval War College's first president. Rear Admiral William S. (Sowden) Sims, 58, has headed the War College but wins promotion to vice admiral and is given command of the U.S. fleet that will operate with the Royal Navy in European waters. Sims served in the U.S. Asiatic fleet from 1901 to 1902, learned from a British officer about the new gunnery techniques of continuous-aim firing (see Fiske, 1915), and has been influential in improving ship design, fleet tactics, and naval gunnery.

German troops begin using mustard gas in July (see chlorine, 1915). The oily, volatile liquid CH₂ClCH₂S smells like ground mustard and has an extremely irritating effect on the skin, blistering skin and disabling men. The end of the war next year will abort deployment of the far more powerful vesicant and lung irritant Lewisite that U.S. chemist W. (Winford) Lee Lewis, now 37, will soon develop at Catholic University, combining acetylene and arsenic trichloride on the basis of an unpublished 1904 paper by Belgian-born chemist Julius A. (Arthur) Nieuwland, now 39 (see Geneva Protocol, 1925).

"Lafayette, we are here," says Col. Charles E. Stanton July 4 at the tomb of Lafayette in Paris, but U.S. troops do not go into action until October 27.

A new Russian provisional government headed by Minister of War Aleksandr Feodorovich Kerenski, 36, succeeds the Lvov government July 7 as Russian troops pull back on all fronts. Supported by Admiral Aleksandr Vailyevich Kolchak, 43, who has won distinction in the Gulf of Riga and commanded the Black Sea fleet, Kerenski has launched an offensive July 1 (June 18 Old Style), attacking Austro-German forces with an army that includes a women's battalion of 300 young working-class women, some only 17 years old, who have had combat experience serving as front-line nurses. Admiral Kolchak resigns in June, and Kerenski sends him to study in the United States with a view to invading the Bosphorus; Kolchak stops off in Britain, where he offers his services to the Royal Navy. But although the Russian Army pushes toward Lvov under the command of Gen. Aleksei A. Brusilov, its soldiers soon refuse to fight, the offensive collapses within a few days, the Austrians and Germans mount a counter-offensive July 6, and encounter little resistance as they advance through Galicia and into Ukraine. Kerenski appoints Gen. Lavr Georgyvich Kornilov, 47, commander in chief, and Kornilov insists that discipline be restored.

Former British first sea lord Louis Alexander Battenberg, now 63, relinquishes his German titles at the request of George V, changes his surname to Mountbatten, and is created 1st marquis of Milford Haven July 17 (see 1914).

The German Reichstag adopts a resolution July 19 proposing a negotiated peace with no territorial gains, but the resolution has no effect.

Former French premier Georges Clemenceau charges Minister of the Interior Louis-Jean Malvy, 41, with laxity in dealing with defeatists and pacifists July 22. Malvy resigns August 31, Premier Alexandre Ribot resigns September 9, and a new cabinet takes over September 12 headed by Paul Painlevé, now 53. A former Sorbonne mathematics professor who has been minister of war, Painlevé appoints Ribot to that position; royalist Léon Daudet charges Malvy with high treason in October (see 1918).

The Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres) from July 31 to November 6 costs the British 324,000 men (80,000 killed and missing, 230,000 wounded, 14,000 taken prisoner). Gen. Sir Herbert Plumer commands the British 2nd Army, Gen. Sir Hubert Gough, the 5th, Gen. Sixt von Arnim the German 4th Army, Gen. Otto von Below the 6th. The French lose 50,000 dead and wounded, the Germans 50,000 killed and missing, 113,000 wounded, 37,000 captured. Fought in a sea of mud so deep that tanks sink up to their roofs and men simply vanish (years of shellfire have destroyed the area's drainage system), the battle ends with the capture of Passchendaele Ridge and a village, but it leaves the British completely demoralized. English-born New Zealand territorial army Brig. Gen. Bernard C. (Cyril) Freyberg, 28, is awarded the Victoria Cross in December, having been promoted at age 27 (the youngest brigadier general in the British Army) and distinguished himself in some of the fiercest fighting.

Royal Navy squadron commander E. H. Dunning lands his Sopworth Pup August 2 on the converted deck of the light battlecruiser H.M.S. Furious, the first successful deck landing (see 1912), but when Dunning tries to repeat the feat August 4 a tire bursts, his plane goes over the side, and he is drowned (see 1918).

German U-boats continue their depredations despite convoys, sinking 8 million tons by October 10, but the German submarine campaign has lost force, permitting an increase in U.S. troop shipments.

Dutch-born dancer Mata Hari (Gertrud Margarette [or Margaretha Geertruida] Zelle), 41, is convicted of having spied for the Germans and shot by a firing squad October 15 at St. Lazare. At 19 she married an army officer with whom she traveled to the Java, learned the rudiments of Balinese temple dancing, returned to Europe, left her husband, went to Paris, and later entertained audiences under the name Mata Hari (Malay for "the sun" or "eye of the dawn"), doing semi-nude "Indian" dances until the novelty wore off and she turned to prostitution. It is doubtful that she sold the Germans anything more than her body.

Caporetto in the Julian Alps near Italy's Austrian border comes under German and Austrian artillery bombardment in late October. Troops commanded by Gen. Otto von Below move in beginning October 24 under cover of heavy fog in an effort to reach the Tagliamento River, von Below's original force of 15 divisions is increased to 35 as the fighting goes on, Gen. Luigi Capello's 2nd Army initially has only five divisions and later has 41, but while 45,000 Italians are killed or wounded, and about 250,000 taken prisoner, and more than 300,000 desert in the 2-month Caporetto campaign (the 12th Battle of the Isonzo), the Germans and Austrians make little real progress. They capture 2,500 Italian guns but suffer about 20,000 casualties. Gen. Luigi Cadorna is removed as chief of staff and replaced by Gen. Armando Diaz, 55 (see 1918).

Former British viceroy in Egypt Evelyn Baring, 1st earl of Cromer, dies at London January 29 at age 75.

Anglo-Indian troops under the command of Sir Frederick Stanley Maude occupy Baghdad without resistance March 11, take 9,000 Turkish prisoners, and receive a loud welcome from the city's 140,000 inhabitants (see 1916). Lt. Gen. Maude issues a proclamation (written by diplomat Sir Mark Sykes) March 19 saying, "Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators" (but Britain will control Mesopotamia for the next 41 years; see 1919; Iraq, 1920).

Aqaba in Arabia falls July 6 to Arab forces led by Col. T. E. Lawrence, who has responded to the Allies' need of the port to bring in supplies via the Red Sea, has seen that Turkish fortifications on the heights controlling the city have made it impregnable from the sea, and has led armed horsemen across the desert to take Aqaba from the rear (see 1916). Lawrence has survived bouts of dysentery, malaria, and ulcerated saddle sores. He forces the surrender of the Turkish garrison without firing a shot and breaks the Turkish communications link by disrupting the 9-year-old Hejaz Railway that came under attack from Bedouins even before the war because it weakened their control of the route taken by pilgrims to Muslim holy places. George V offers to confer knighthood and the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) on Lawrence; he declines both in a gesture of protest against what he considers a betrayal of promises he made to the Arabs that their help would gain them independence. Gen. Erich von Falkenhayn takes command of Central Powers forces in Palestine July 9, but his troops (mainly Turkish) are no match for the British. Gen. Maude dies of cholera November 18 at age 53, having consumed contaminated milk; he is succeeded as commander in chief of Mesopotamian forces by Sir William (Raine) Marshall, 52 (see 1918).

The Balfour Declaration issued November 2 by Foreign Secretary Arthur J. Balfour, now 69, says the British government favors "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of that object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine" (see Herzl, 1897). British troops have invaded Palestine under the command of Gen. Allenby and take it from the Ottoman Turks, who have held it since 1516. Prompted by Zionist leaders Chaim Weizmann and Nahum Sokolow, Lord Balfour's declaration takes the form of a letter to zoologist, former MP, and Zionist sympathizer Lionel Walter Rothschild, 49, 2nd Baron Rothschild, who heads the British branch of the banking family. The Russian-born Weizmann has turned 43 at London November 2, received a doctorate in chemistry at the University of Freiburg in 1900, and has been lecturing at the University of Manchester. Gen. Otto Liman von Sanders succeeds Gen. von Falkenhayn as commander of Central Powers forces in Palestine, but Jerusalem falls to the British December 9 (see 1922; Weizmann-Faisal Agreement, 1919; mandate, 1920; Passfield Paper, 1930).

German colonial troops gain a victory in mid-October at Mahiwa and invade Portuguese East Africa.

A Bolshevik revolution begins at Petrograd the night of November 6 (October 24 by the Julian calendar still used in Russia). Acting on orders from V. I. Lenin, Commissar Aleksandr B. Belyshev, 24, fires a blank shot from the foredeck gun of the cruiser Aurora anchored in the Neva River. Housewives waiting in endless bread-shop queues have been demonstrating in protest; they are joined by soldiers from the Petrograd garrison, sailors from Kronstadt, and the factory workers' Red Guards, who seize government offices and storm the Winter Palace of the Romanovs, which the Battalion of Women helps to defend.

Aleksandr Kerenski has been forced to accept Bolshevik support to resist alleged efforts by Gen. Kornilov to make himself dictator, and the Bolsheviks have secured a majority in the Petrograd Soviet under the leadership of Leon Trotsky, now 40, who was expelled from France last year and has returned from exile in the United States and England to support Lenin.

London withdraws diplomatic representation from the new Bolshevik capital at Moscow but leaves an unofficial M16 mission whose members include Odessa-born British spy Sidney (George) Reilly (originally Sigmund Georgevich Rosenblum), 43; it will fund anti-Bolshevik groups and encourage their efforts at sabotage and subversion (see 1918).

Russia's Kerenski government falls, Kerenski himself goes into hiding (he will later take sanctuary abroad), and a new government headed by V. I. Lenin takes office November 7 under the name Council of People's Commissars. Menshevik leader Nikolai S. Chkheidze returns to his native Georgia. Leon Trotsky is commissar for foreign affairs and Georgian Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili, 39, who calls himself Josef Stalin is commissar for national minorities. Peace talks with Germany begin in December at Brest-Litovsk, and the Royal Navy sends Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak to direct anti-Bolshevik forces in Siberia, where he is appointed minister of war and navy in the socialist government established at Omsk (see 1918). Russian peasants seize their landlords' fields as the Bolsheviks initiate plans to make Moscow the nation's capital. The Extraordinary Commission to Combat Counter-Revolution (Cheka) is founded December 10 by Russian revolutionist Feliks Dzerzhinsky, 40, whose secret police organization is designed to protect the Council of People's Commissars and crush opposition. The Cheka will become the GPU and, later, the KGB.

Finnish patriot Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, 55, becomes prime minister of Finland November 27, having returned from exile in March. Finland gains independence December 6 after centuries of domination by Russia and Sweden, but Bolsheviks gain control of the country's Social Democratic Party (see civil war, 1918).

French premier Paul Painlevé resigns November 13 after 14 months in office; Georges Clemenceau, now 76, will serve until 1920 as premier and minister of war, revitalizing France's war effort and cementing relations with Britain.

The Battle of Cambrai that begins November 20 gives the British some initial success; 300 British tanks launch a surprise raid in the first great armored attack of the war. Gen. Byng commands the 3rd Army with 19 divisions plus 476 tanks of the Tank Corps; Gen. Georg von der Marwitz initially has only six divisions but is soon reinforced with 14 more, the Germans counterattack November 30 and recover most of the territory that they have lost. British casualties total about 44,000, German about 53,000.

The Rajah of Sarawak Sir Charles A. J. Brooke dies at Cirencester, Gloucestershire, May 17 at age 87 after a 49-year reign in which he has employed the indigenous Iban men in his military, encouraged immigration of Chinese agriculturists on a limited basis, and insulated his subjects from the hardships (but also the benefits) of Western-style development. Sir Charles is succeeded by his son Charles Vynder de Windt Brooke, 42, who will oversee a gradual modernization of the country as demand for oil and rubber brings an economic boom but will terminate his family's rule in 1946.

China severs relations with Germany March 14. Chinese warlord Duan Qirui (Tuan Ch'i-jui), 52, tries to force the National Assembly to enter the war on the side of the Allies in May but is dismissed by President Li Yuan-Hong (Li Yüan-Hung). Duan makes his own declaration of war against Germany August 14 and receives support from the Japanese, who provide him with financial and military aid, help him create a military establishment (the Anfu Clique), and raise fears that Duan is opening the country to domination by imperialist powers (see 1919).

Puerto Ricans become U.S. citizens under terms of the Jones Act signed into law by President Wilson March 2 (see 1900). The late Luis Muñoz Rivera campaigned for passage of the measure, which gives islanders a large measure of self-government; only those who sign a statement rejecting citizenship are excluded, but if they do sign it they are considered aliens and stand to lose civil rights that include the right to hold office. The law makes voting compulsory and, at the request of the San Juan government, it applies the Selective Service Act to Puerto Rico, which drafts 18,000 men into the U.S. Army.

The Danish West Indies become a U.S. territory March 31 upon Senate ratification of a treaty giving Denmark $25 million for 132 square miles of land that include the Virgin Islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John, with 26,000 inhabitants.

Lawyer and onetime U.S. ambassador to Britain Joseph H. Choate dies at New York May 14 at age 85; former Canadian prime minister Sir Mackenzie Bowell at Belleville, Ontario, December 10 at age 93.