April 6, 1917 - World War Expands to US, Mexico, and Sweden

As the Great War rolled into its second year, it became obvious that Germany was caught in an unwinnable two-front war.  Hoping to distract the Russians by deepening the revolution breaking out in early 1917, the German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmerman arranged for a group of Communists including the infamous Vladimir Lenin to travel through German territory in a closed railroad car, eventually taking them back to Petrograd.  To weaken the Western Front, Germany announced its resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, crippling the supply line coming in from America.

America balked, with leaders such as former president Theodore Roosevelt shouting, "Piracy!"  President Wilson attempted to maintain a virtual peace by arming ships to destroy U-boats.  Despite the Americans' merchant marines, the submarine attack proved overwhelmingly successful.  It was only a matter of time before America would come into the war.

Seeing that the war might spread, German leadership began to investigate ways to make such an expansion work in their favor.  Zimmerman sent a telegram to the ambassador to Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt, instructing him to suggest an alliance.  Germany would contribute munitions and funding while Mexico created a new front for America.  By the time of Germany's victory, it would give Mexico back Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, land lost in the Mexican-American War seventy years before.  Mexico itself was in a very difficult position, still facing revolutionaries after decades of lawless fighting in the desert northwest.  The US had already performed patrols into Mexico, chasing warlords such as Pancho Villa who raided American towns.  Mexico adopted a new constitution on February 5, 1917, which was the first in the world to guarantee social rights.  There was still much discontent in the country, and at last the Mexican government determined that solidarity could be established if the nation faced a single enemy.  On April 6, 1917, the US Congress declared war on Germany and its allies, which suddenly included Mexico.

On the same day, the war spilled northward into the Baltic region.  Despite its earlier prominence as one of the greatest nations of Europe, Sweden had long maintained its neutrality.  Wars with Russia had weakened the country in the eighteenth century and resulted in the loss of Finland in 1809.  In the Napoleonic Era, Norway was handed over to Sweden from Denmark, though the Norwegians fought for independence.  In 1905, Norway won its independence, and Sweden became a fraction of what it had been.  After much encouragement and seeing the weakness of the Russians, the Swedes finally determined to win back their glory by retaking Finland.  On April 6, a Swedish force invaded from the north, backed by a flotilla, and was joined by hopeful Finns.  "White" Finns who had enjoyed Russian protection in the Grand Duchy interrupted the Swedish advance, adding to the chaos.

Despite the entrance of the United States, 1917 proved a difficult year for the Allies.  US troops were immediately dispatched to Mexico, which was quickly overrun thanks to armored vehicle advances made by effective military minds such as Captain George S. Patton.  While the battles were one-sided, America became bogged down with long supply-trains and a difficult occupation.  Revolutionaries who had long practiced guerrilla warfare continued their resistance, causing Americans to pour more and more troops into Mexico rather than the trenches in France.

Issues also broke out between the United States and Japan, who had been among the Allies since the first days of the War.  Almost immediately after their declaration of war against Germany, Britain and Japan followed their treaty of 1902 to use Japanese ships to capture German colonies in the Pacific and destroy the Kriegsmarine stationed there.  With Russia collapsing, the Japanese began to push further into Asia, bringing the question of expansion into China.  The US had disapproved of the Twenty-One Demands issued by Japan to China, which Secretary of State William J. Bryan saw as a rejection of the previous Open Door Policy defending Chinese autonomy while supporting all foreign interests.  Britain attempted to keep both sides happy and helped to clarify spheres of influence while hosting Japanese Foreign Minister Ishii Kikujiro and American Secretary of State Robert Lansing, promoting Japan while the US held the Philippines.

Russia dropped out of the war October 26, 1917, with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, forming a separate peace with Germany.  While much of the Central Powers celebrated, the Russian Civil War proved to destabilize the conquered regions.  As Socialist "Reds" expanded their powers in Russia following the November revolution, they crossed the border into Finland, creating a new front for the Swedes occupying there.  The Swedish invasion turned into a multisided Finnish Civil War.  After a Soviet victory in the Russian Civil War, the Swedes were chased out of Finland, which again fell under Russian dominance.

The exhausted Central Powers eventually collapsed in 1919, ending the fighting in Europe while it continued for years elsewhere.  The American occupation of Mexico finally ceased in 1920, though it would forever mingle America in the affairs of Latin America.  The ABC Nations (Argentina, Brazil, and Chile) worked to counter America’s Monroe Doctrine, causing division and a number of bush wars, such as the fierce fighting in America’s occupation of Hispaniola and expansion into the Caribbean.

When Germany went to war against Western Europe again in 1939, the United States refused to join another World War as occupations in the south were so difficult.  The war did expand to Asia, however, when the Japanese allies of Germany performed a sneak-attack on Vladivostok in 1941.  Soon both hemispheres were once again embroiled in war.

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In reality, Mexico and Sweden maintained their neutrality in World War I.  US intervention shifted more abroad, gradually away from a paternalistic stance of the Monroe Doctrine and toward the Truman Doctrine’s global Cold War.

January 9, 1916 - Gallipoli Campaign Ends with Occupation of Istanbul

After nine grueling months of combat, ANZAC troops led the charge into the capital of the Ottoman Empire and brought about its surrender. It was a campaign that was conceived initially by First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill and solved many of the Allies' problems after the opening of the World War had come to stalemate. Trench warfare in France had come to a standstill, and the Allies needed a new front to break into the territory of the Central Powers. First Sea Lord John Fisher suggested an amphibious landing in Germany itself to break the Kaiser's strength at home, but Churchill suggested taking the Dardanelles, which would break up the Ottoman Empire while also making use of outdated naval ships unfit for combat against the German fleet as well as establishing supply lines to Russia, which was effectively cut off from the rest of the Allies by the Central fronts, German ships, and ice.

Churchill won the debate, and an Allied fleet made its first attack on February 19, 1915. Initial bombardment weakened the fortresses along the Dardanelles, so Admiral Carden cabled Churchill that victory would be assured by a major push in early March. Fisher and others in the Navy noted that losses would be severe, and Fisher repeatedly threatened to resign over the matter. Churchill initially dismissed the notion, saying that war was war, but he finally conceded and asked Fisher to outline a battle plan with minimal loss. Instead of the direct attack planned, the navy would give support while covert agents swept for mines and destroyed mobile artillery that could attack from anywhere along the shore.

Rather than the direct attack, the British and French fleets moved slowly and methodically, eliminating any possible mines while the Ottomans continued to patrol and strike whenever possible. The latter struggled constantly with low ammunition, and the Allies gradually made their way upward to the forts guarding the narrow-most corridor of the Dardanelles. Under naval artillery support, troops were landed at Cape Helles, most notably the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, who had been training in Egypt for battle in France and suddenly reassigned. Also among them were elite troops in the British Gurkhas, the Jewish Legion, and many English and Irish. The Ottomans fought back fiercely, such as the stand of the 57th Infantry Regiment under the command Lieutenant-Colonel Mustafa Kemal, who said, “I do not expect you to attack, I order you to die. In the time which passes until we die, other troops and commanders can come forward and take our places.”

Over the course of the next months, battle after battle would press the Allies forward. Both armies would suffer from intense heat in the summer, mosquitoes and vermin, storms, flooding, and frostbite during the winter. That spring, the navy would break through the strait and gain open water in the Sea of Marmara, setting up a new stage for the campaign in besieging and assaulting Istanbul. Joined by the Russian fleet from across the Black Sea, the city would be cut off from the rest of the empire, which would shatter over the course of 1916. The Armenians, who had been executed en masse for their volunteer forces in Russia, rebelled openly and were promised their own nation-state. The Young Turk movement, which had been suppressed and even turned to fight against the invasion of the Allies, now declared the caliphate abolished, establishing a new republic. Other territories of the Ottomans were broken apart, though diplomats were busy solidifying the entrances of Romania and Greece into the war and left the divisions to the Arab Bureau of the Foreign Office, working primarily with archeologist / Intelligence Officer T.E. Lawrence and General Archibald Murray of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. The new national lines followed the division of people groups, notoriously spawning wars in the Middle East throughout the twentieth century, though rarely violent internal matters.

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire seemed a great boon for the Allies, but the fall of Russia later that year would bring the war to another standstill until won after the entrance of the United States and devastating Spanish Flu pandemic. The signing of the Treaty of Versailles would be the first great note of Sir Winston Churchill's career as Prime Minister.


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In reality, the Gallipoli Campaign would be one of the bloodiest failures of the Allies in World War I, ending with an evacuation of troops on January 9, 1916. Churchill and Fisher would argue to the point of Fisher's resignation, though the two retained mutual respect. Churchill received much of the blame for the failures at Gallipoli and was demoted, eventually taking a short retirement from politics and commanding an infantry battalion on the Western Front. The genocide against the Armenians, which would total over one million deaths, is believed to have been intensified because of the desperation of war in Gallipoli.

December 25, 1915 – Second Christmas Truce Takes Hold

The words of Chief of Staff Hulmuth von Moltke from 1914 rang in the Kaiser's ears, “Your Majesty, this war cannot be won.”

Wilhelm II had initially rejected the view of Moltke and fired him, but as 1915 dragged on, it became possible that the German fate was sealed. There were new developments such as air warfare and poison gas, leading to whole new aspects of battle. A further innovation was mass-propaganda, and the Kaiser decided this may be the method to come out ahead in an unwinnable war.

In 1914, the soldiers in the field began what was to be known as the Christmas Truce. On Christmas Eve, the German troops decorated their trenches and sang carols. The English troops, who recognized many of the tunes from their own carols, joined in singing. The artillery bombardments on both sides ended for the night, allowing soldiers to collect their dead, and joint services were held honoring the fallen on both sides. Once-enemies approached each other across the “No Man's Land”, exchanging gifts, sharing food, and engaging in games of football. Commanders on both ends reacted with disgust at the fraternization, but the unofficial truce lasted until after New Years' Eve in many places along the lines.

The cases of fraternization had continued despite the horrors of war by attrition. A German unit attempted a truce over Easter, but were warned away by their British opponents. Later that November, units from Saxony and Liverpool successfully fraternized. The soldiers in the trenches obviously did not care for the war; the Kaiser merely had to convince them to take a stand against it. While the Allied command issued orders against fraternization that upcoming Christmas, German orders encouraged the possibility and handed out gifts to exchange (including reasons for the war to be ended). Despite the orders, the soldiers in the trenches met and joined again in their small feasts and games of football. The Allied commanders erupted at the news and began court martial proceedings for hundreds, possibly thousands. Rebellion broke out among the ranks. Wilhelm was urged to attack while the Allies were weak, but he intended to win the war rather than a few battles before the Allies had propaganda material to regroup.

Seizing the diplomatic initiative and ensuring that word of the Christmas Truce spread past censorship, Wilhelm capitalized on the friendly spirits among the common soldiers. He demanded an armistice in the West, which the Allies agreed only along with an armistice in the East. Talks began, and the politicians finally conceded under pressure from the soldiers and their families. Lists of demands were drawn up, and, for each point, games of football and other athletic events would decide the victor. While troops remained in station during an armistice, Germany hosted the 1916 Olympics in Berlin that summer as it had planned to do before the war. Fighting for honor as well as diplomatic success, athletes built value with gold, silver, and bronze medals to be used in agreements during what would be a precursor to the League of Nations.

The notion was considered ludicrous by many, but war weariness kept naysayers from the majority opinion. Germany did not fair as well as the Allied nations, and most of the world expected the Kaiser to turn against his own idea and restart the war. To their surprise, he did not and ordered the removal of troops from France and Belgium as part of the agreement, though he kept Alsace-Lorraine. Reparations were traded, and war was formally outlawed in 1918.

Europe celebrated the War to End All Wars, though the name was hardly apt. Wars went underground, constantly fed by international espionage, support for uprisings (such as the Russian Civil War that would eventually stomp out notions of communism), and sabotage of other nations' teams. Tempers flared over each scandal, but war did not come back to the world stage until Ireland's fight for independence in 1928 was found to be supported overtly by the Germans. The Irish Revolt exploded outside of British borders with a Royal Navy blockade of Germany to cease supplies. The Germans countered with an invasion of Belgium to secure new ports, and Europe was swallowed up in the Second World War.


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In reality, the Christmas Truces were suppressed. Following the 1914 truce, orders were followed for the most part opposing informal truces in 1915. A few examples were seen in 1916, but continual artillery fire ended most chances for fraternization. World War I would drag on until Armistice Day, November 11, 1918, after the deaths of some ten million and twenty million more wounded.

September 13, 1914 – Germany Agrees to Aid Irish Independence

In a secret meeting in Washington, D.C., Sir Roger Casement, an Irishman and former British diplomat, met with Franz von Papen, a German military attaché, to discuss the possibility of aid in an Irish rebellion against British rule. Casement had worked as a clerk and consul among British diplomacy in Africa, witnessing the Boer War and performing investigations on human rights in the Belgian Congo and Peru. The horrors he saw of imperialism changed him forever, causing him to work against the notion of empire. In 1911, he was knighted for his international work, and he subsequently resigned for “health reasons.” Two years later, he helped found Irish National Volunteers, aimed at drumming up support for Irish independence.

Casement sought support for the Germans to free Irish prisoners of war and to form up an Irish Brigade to fight against the British. Papen, however, had been thinking. The initial push of the Germans toward France had ended, and a series of attempts at flanking were beginning. If neither army flanked the other, ultimately running to the sea, battle lines would be drawn up and the Western Front could be nothing more than a stalemate. If Germany were to win this war quickly and with minimal loss, they would have to fight in places other than France.

While sending troops to Ireland directly was questionable, Papen vowed to send armaments and officers to train a growing Irish Revolutionary army. In November, Berlin announced, “Should the fortunes of this great war, that was not of Germany’s seeking, ever bring in its course German troops to the shores of Ireland, they would land there, not as an army of invaders to pillage and destroy, but as the forces of a government that is inspired by good-will towards a country and a people for whom Germany desires only national prosperity and national freedom.” Casement returned to Ireland and worked diligently toward the Irish plan of an uprising during Easter of 1916.

At Papen's suggestion, the German Chief of Staff von Falkenhayn elected to invest armaments and soldiers into campaigns to interrupt British and French empires. In February of 1915, India erupted in rebellion, though many of the early ringleaders were caught and executed. Singapore, Afghanistan, and numerous French colonies followed. On April 24, 1916, Dublin declared independence, and Irish soldiers armed with German rifles and trained by German officers, began the Irish Civil War. London was petrified, extremely short on men to cover all of the revolts and watching its empire crumble. In 1917, Russia collapsed and dropped from the war; many in Parliament suggested Britain do the same before they lost everything.

However, also in 1917, the Germans had pushed too far with diplomatic warfare. The Zimmerman Telegram to Mexico offering aid if it were to go to war with the United States, should the US enter the war, roused the neutral Americans into action. They offered up thousands of fresh troops, and 1918 would prove a miserable year of defeat for Germany on the battlefield. In November, an armistice was called. The subsequent Treaty of Versailles attempted to sort out the convoluted state of the world.

Germany was reduced and punished for its actions, stripped of colonies and made to pay enormous reparations. Austria and the Ottoman Empires were split up by their people groups into “Balkanized” countries. Despite being the winners on paper, both Britain and France found that they could not quell their uprisings. Many cried for the freed-up armies to move to the colonies, but as war-weariness and dogged economies dragged through the 1920s, the last of the European empires called quits. Britain and France formed commonwealths with their few loyal colonies and gave independence to the others. Civil wars erupted and continued for years throughout South America, Africa, and Asia as well as in Ireland, which was diplomatically separated between North and South in 1928.

The United States, seemingly the only “winner” of the World War, returned to neutrality and economic abundance as it gave resources for Europe to rebuild over the 1930s. Fascism, strong government tied to renewed Nationalism, grew in the wake of the shattering of empire. New bids for domination from Japan, Germany, and Russia would launch another World War in 1946 with the invasion of Scandinavia after Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland had already been dominated.


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In reality, Papen could not be convinced to aid Ireland more directly than a promise of liberation should the war bring Germany to the Emerald Isle. Roger Casement was captured just days before the Easter Uprising and executed for treason some months later. The battles during the week of Easter 1916 in Ireland would be bloody, and the rebellion would be ultimately crushed as 16,000 British troops arrived in Dublin. Some 20,000 German rifles and 10 machine guns were given to the Irish by the Germans, but they were scant in comparison with Irish needs and no German officers came to offer training for the newly developed weapons.

September 9, 1914 – Battle of Paris Begins

The opening battles of the World War had been sweeping victories for the German offensive. As they pressed past the Marne in early September, the British Expeditionary Force and the French Army fell back in covered retreats. Several of the German army commanders began to swerve to the southeast in pursuit of the Allies, but Chief of Staff Hulmuth von Moltke pushed them to aim directly for the war's goal: Paris.

Keeping lines tight, the Germans held the Eastern Flank and pressed west. The Allies launched a massive counter-attack on September 6 directly for General von Kluck's First Army. For two days, the Germans held and slaughtered oncoming Allied troops. On the 9th, the tide of battle turned, and von Kluck led fresh reinforcements in the press into Paris.

The week-long battle of Paris would cost hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides with bloody and unpredictable urban warfare. The French government would flee along with many of the civilians to Orléans, protected by French soldiers ferried by the famous Parisian taxicabs as they had been since the days of the Marne. Once Paris was taken on the 17th, the Germans assumed the French would call for armistice as they had in the Franco-Prussian War. However, seeing German troops in Paris only caused French nationalism to soar and thousands new soldiers to surge to the battlefield.

As the German advance ended, a Race to the Sea began with battles and trenches moving northward through France until reaching Amiens and then following the Somme to the English Channel. By winter, the Germans had secured Belgium and both sides sat down for a stalemate. While the Allies calculated their moves in the spring, the Kaiser pondered the fact that the French had not surrendered as he had anticipated. Battles had been extremely costly on both sides, and he did not want to see Germany weakened by years of fruitless warfare. When consulting Moltke, the Chief of Staff told Wilhelm, “Your Majesty, this war cannot be won.”

Wilhelm flew into a rage and fired Moltke for his lack of faith in Germany. He charged his replacement, von Falkenhayn, with determining a way to win the war. Falkenhayn battled with Generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff, eventually concocting a plan for a war of attrition. Recalling Moltke's warnings, Wilhelm rejected the plan.

The new German plan called for a defense in the West, using the new notions of trench warfare to keep the French and British at bay as well as combating numerous amphibious assaults on Belgian beaches. Falkenhayn conceded to the idea of pushing east, and the majority of the offense would be against Russia in 1915. Suffering terrible casualties, Russia would erupt into revolution and drop out of the war in 1916. Now turning back to focus on the Western Front, the Germans worked to break the British blockade, but their actions would only result in attacks upon American citizens, drawing the United States into the war.

In a massive Allied landing, Belgian liberation began and many of the German lines found themselves surrounded. The war turned against the Germans quickly, and American and British troops marched onto German soil while the French held much of their army in the trenches. Reeling, the German empire collapsed. At the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, the Allies would break up Germany into small states like they broke up the Austrian and Ottoman Empires.


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In reality, the First and Second Armies of Germany did swing southeast, allowing the Allies to launch a successful push in the Battle of the Marne. Von Kluck moved the First army in a swinging defense, but the action formed a massive gap that the British Expeditionary Force and the French exploited. Moltke saw the disaster and broke down, retiring from the army and dying of ill health just two years later. Wilhelm believed the war was still winnable (even declaring victory in 1916), and his commander Falkenhayn began the battle plans for a war of attrition that would ultimately end with the surrender of Germany.