History of the World War | Page 7

in a sudden, fierce, resistless counter-thrust they drove back in defeat and confusion the Prussian Guard, the Pommeranian Reserves, and smashed the morale of that German division beyond hope of resurrection.
The news of that exploit sped from the Alps to the North Sea Coast, through all the camps of the Allies, with incredible rapidity. "The Americans have held the Germans. They can fight," ran the message. New life came into the war-weary ranks of heroic poilus and into the steel-hard armies of Great Britain. "The Americans are as good as the best. There are millions of them, and millions more are coming," was heard on every side. The transfusion of American blood came as magic tonic, and from that glorious day there was never a doubt as to the speedy defeat of Germany. From that day the German retreat dated. The armistice signed on November 11, 1918, was merely the period finishing the death sentence of German militarism, the first word of which was uttered at Chateau-Thierry.
Germany's defiance to the world, her determination to force her will and her "kultur" upon the democracies of earth, produced the conflict. She called to her aid three sister autocracies: Turkey, a land ruled by the whims of a long line of moody misanthropic monarchs; Bulgaria, the traitor nation cast by its Teutonic king into a war in which its people had no choice and little sympathy; Austria-Hungary, a congeries of races in which a Teutonic minority ruled with an iron scepter.
Against this phalanx of autocracy, twenty-four nations arrayed themselves. Populations of these twenty-eight warring nations far exceeded the total population of all the remainder of humanity. The conflagration of war literally belted the earth. It consumed the most civilized of capitals. It raged in the swamps and forests of Africa. To its call came alien peoples speaking words that none but themselves could translate, wearing garments of exotic cut and hue amid the smart garbs and sober hues of modern civilization. A twentieth century Babel came to the fields of France for freedom's sake, and there was born an internationalism making for the future understanding and peace of the world. The list of the twenty-eight nations entering the World War and their populations follow:
Countries. Population. Countries. Population. United States 110,000,000 Italy 37,000,000 Austria-Hungary 50,000,000 Japan 54,000,000 Belgium 8,000,000 Liberia 2,000,000 Bulgaria 5,000,000 Montenegro 500,000 Brazil 23,000,000 Nicaragua 700,000 China 420,000,000 Panama 400,000 Costa Rica 425,000 Portugal* 15,000,000 Cuba 2,500,000 Roumania 7,500,000 France 90,000,000 Russia 180,000,000 Gautemala 2,000,000 San Marino 10,000 Germany 67,000,000 Serbia 4,500,000 Great Britain 440,000,000 Siam 6,000,000 Greece 5,000,000 Turkey 42,000,000 Haiti 2,000,000 ----------------- Honduras 600,000 Total 1,575,135,000 * Including colonies
The following nations, with their populations, took no part in the World War:
Countries. Population. Countries. Population. Abyssinia 8,000,000 Argentina 8,000,000 Afghanistan 6,000,000 Bhutan 250,000 Andorra 6,000 Chile 5,000,000 Colombia 5,000,000 Paraguay 800,000 Denmark 3,000,000 Persia 9,000,000 Ecuador 1,500,000 Salvador 1,250,000 Mexico 15,000,000 Spain 20,000,000 Monaco 20,000 Switzerland 3,750,000 Nepal 4,000,000 Venezuela 2,800,000 Holland* 40,000,000 ----------------- Norway 2,500,000 Total 135,876,000 * Including colonies.
Never before in the history of the world were so many races and peoples mingled in a military effort as those that came together under the command of Marshal Foch. If we divide the human races into white, yellow, red and black, all four were largely represented. Among the white races there were Frenchmen, Italians, Portuguese, English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Canadians, Australians, South Africans (of both British and Dutch descent) New Zealanders; in the American army, probably every other European nation was represented, with additional contingents from those already named, so that every branch of the white race figured in the ethnological total.
There were representatives of many Asiatic races, including not only the volunteers from the native states of India, but elements from the French colony in Cochin China, with Annam, Cambodia, Tonkin, Laos, and Kwang Chau Wan. England and France both contributed many African tribes, including Arabs from Algeria and Tunis, Senegalese, Saharans, and many of the South African races. The red races of North America were represented in the armies of both Canada and the United States, while the Maoris, Samoans, and other Polynesian races were likewise represented. And as, in the American Army, there were men of German, Austrian, and Hungarian descent, and, in all probability, contingents also of Bulgarian and Turkish blood, it may be said that Foch commanded an army representing the whole human race, united in defense of the ideals of the Allies.
It will be seen that more than ten times the number of neutral persons were engulfed in the maelstrom of war. Millions of these suffered from it during the entire period of the conflict, four years three months and fifteen days, a total of 1,567 days. For almost four years Germany rolled up a record of victories on land and of piracies