Part Dieux
Part Two: The Great War
1916
History and Politics
-Hsuan T’ung is formally reinstated as the Manchu Emperor of China. However, the deposed Sun Yat-sen manages to win significant governmental reforms, instituting a constitutional monarchy on the lines of Great Britain. The bureaucracy is streamlined, dozens of useless offices, agencies, and departments are shut down. In April, elections are held; ex-army colonel Lao Shen Wu is elected China’s first Prime Minister. The new government is recognized by Britain, the US, Austria-Hungary, Germany, and France in May.
-February: The so-called ‘Newsmans War’: After a remark in a New York newspaper is misinterpreted by the German press, a battle of words flares between reporters on both sides of the Atlantic, serving to increase US-German antagonism.
-March 2: Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria dies; succeeded by Franz Ferdinand.
-US purchases Danish West Indies (Virgin Islands) for $25 million.
-Law establishing eight-hour work day for railroad workers prevents nation-wide strike (US).
-US plans to help settle internal strife in the Dominican Republic are put on hold indefinitely by President Bonaparte in the face of increasing tensions with Germany and Mexico.
-Olympic Games (Vienna, Austria) cancelled after one week of proceedings.
-The resurgent Black Hand organization orchestrates the killings of more than two dozen Austrian government officials (Jun.12). Ferdinand finally caves in to calls for pogroms against the Serbs (Jun.27); Germany gives her full backing (Jun.28); France and Britain issue warnings for Austria to stop what is rapidly turning into a Serbian genocide (Jul.14); the warnings are ignored.
-The US joins France and Britain in protesting Austria’s actions. (Jul.20)
-France issues an ultimatum: Austria must stop its slaughter of Serbs, and Germany must declare herself neutral in the incident. (Jul.23)
-After a week of posturing and threats, France and Great Britain declare war on the Central Powers on July 30th, 1916. The US maintains neutrality but continues to supply the Entente with arms and materiel.
-August 8th: Russia declares war on the Central Powers, honoring her alliance with France.
-September 14th: The first aerial battle, between German and French fighter planes, takes place in the skies over Nancy and Metz.
-Thomas R. Marshall (D-IN) wins US Presidential election.
-Lloyd George becomes British Prime Minister.
-By September, the Low Countries are in German hands, and the French cities of Amiens, Reims, and Nancy have fallen.
-Despite initial successes in northern France, the German advance soon bogs down and stagnates, resulting in more than two years of deadly trench warfare.
-September 3rd: Russia invades Hungary.
-September-October: Italy and the Ottoman Empire enter the War on the side of the Central Powers; the various Balkan states join, mainly on the side of the Entente.
-Prohibition loses ground as beer and alcohol companies lobby Congress as the United Alcohol Manufacturers Coalition (UAMC).
Learning and the Arts
-Jazz begins to become immensely popular in the US.
-Frank Lloyd Wright designs the Rotunda, future headquarters of all branches of the US military.
-G. Lowes Dickinson: “The European Storm”.
-Films: “The Crusades” (Ger.), “Morning in Montana” (D.W. Griffith – US), “The Price of Grooming” (Charlie Chaplin – US)
Science and Technology
-Blood for transfusion first refrigerated.
-Paul Langevin (Fr.) constructs an underwater ultrasonic source for submarine detection.
1917
History and Politics
-Feb.2: Germany begins unrestricted submarine warfare on US shipping after President Marshall refuses to stop lend-lease to France and Britain.
-Feb.10: US declares war on the Central Powers.
-Feb.19: Mexico, honoring its alliance with Germany, declares war on the US and launches a surprise invasion of New Mexico and Arizona. The US and the Entente declare war on Mexico. Though a limited series of rearmaments had begun under Roosevelt, they were suspended after Bonaparte became President; unprepared, the US lost ground in huge chunks the first year of her involvement in the War. Although the Mexican advance into Texas was halted in most places at the Rio Grande, Corpus Christi fell to a combined Mexican-German force on March 5th.
-March-June: Mexican forces control most of the US Southwest, including the key cities of El Paso, Albuquerque, Phoenix, and San Diego.
March 7-9: The First Battle of New Orleans: A German naval group bombards New Orleans and is decisively defeated by the US Navy in Chandeleur Sound, just south of Biloxi, Mississippi.
-Thirty-five year old Franklin D. Roosevelt, disillusioned by what he feels is a war that the US should never have been involved in, leaves politics and uses his familial connections to establish Roosevelt Motors, an automobile manufacturer, in New York City.
-April: Belgrade falls to the Austrians.
-May 4: V.I. Lenin and L. Trotsky executed by Russian police after leading a failed coup attempt in late April.
-German airplane squadrons use hand-dropped bombs on French trenches for the first time.
-Clemenceau becomes French Premier.
-General John Pershing appointed overall commander of US forces.
-July 25th: Los Angeles falls to Mexican forces under General Francisco Villa. Most of the city is burned to the ground at the express order of Villa after dozens of Mexican officers are picked off by civilian snipers.
-August 5th: Grand Canyon in Mexican possession.
-September 17th – 28th: The Battle of Bakersfield: The Mexicans under Villa are defeated by combined US-Canadian forces under Pershing. Commonly regarded as the turning point of the War in North America; marks the furthest northern advance of Mexican troops.
-September 10th: First tank battle takes place at Chaumont, France.
-German breakthroughs in France are balanced by Russian victories in the east.
-German saboteurs blow up munitions arsenal on Black Tom Island, New Jersey: $22 million loss.
-September 11th: Battle of Point Arguello: major naval battle between US and Mexican fleets off the California coast ends in American victory.
-Corporal Alphonse Capone stationed to US Army division in Bakersfield, under Major George Patton.
-Mexico nationalizes her oilfields.
-Trans-Siberian Railroad completed (begun 1891).
-‘Blue Laws’ in many US states repealed after UAMC and Congressional pressure is brought to bear over the previous year.
-In the US, the 18th Amendment (Women’s Suffrage) is ratified on December 6th.
-Radio Corporation of America founded.
Learning and the Arts
-C.G. Jung: “Psychology of the Unconscious”.
-Upton Sinclair: “Repeat and Repeat”.
-Charlie Chaplin’s yearly salary reaches one million dollars; he donates a third of it to war relief funds in Britain and the US.
-Chicago becomes the world’s jazz center.
-George M. Cohan writes American war song “Down South”.
-The fall of Los Angeles causes the fledgling US film community to flee; most studios relocate in the east, mainly in New York and Boston.
Science and Technology
-Term “battle-shock” coined by British doctor Ethan Turner.
-Robert Goddard receives funding from US Army to perfect man-portable and tactical rockets.
1918
History and Politics
-Beginning in February, American forces begin to steadily push the Mexicans south. By July, US troops have recaptured San Diego, Phoenix, and Albuquerque.
-March 4th: First US troops arrive in France.
-April 6th: Mexican General Villa killed by American sniper while retreating from Escondido, California. Mexican morale is severely affected by the fall of one of their greatest leaders; many units mutiny and surrender to US forces.
-German air attacks on Dover, Brighton, London.
-Germans driven out of Poland by Russian and Polish forces.
-Kingdom of Poland proclaimed; Wladyslaw Kasnowski, a distant descendent of Stanislas II, becomes King Wladyslaw V. Jozef Pilsudski named Prime Minister (June 4th). Although many in the West would have liked to have seen a Polish Republic, Russia’s influence gains Kasnowski recognition in late July.
-September 5th: Italy’s King Victor Emmanuel III withdraws from the War and declares his nation neutral.
-October 19th: Growing civil unrest in Russia forces Czar Nicholas II to conclude a separate peace with the Central Powers or face widespread revolution at home. This results in the Treaty of Lublin. Thousands of Russian troops are rotated back to Russia and to Finland, where communist agitators threaten to overthrow Russian rule.
-Henry Ford (R-IL) becomes a US Senator.
-November 2nd: Sergeant Alphonse Capone leads the famous ‘Tijuana Charge’ against heavily fortified Mexican positions just north of Tijuana, routing the Mexicans and forcing the beginnings of a complete withdrawal from California. Capone receives the Congressional Medal of Honor.
-November 12th: Ottoman Empire collapses in civil war as British and American forces advance into central Anatolia.
-German Communist Worker’s Party (KPD) founded in Berlin by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg.
-Women’s Suffrage in Britain.
-Regular airmail service established between New York City and Washington; first airmail postage.
-Daylight saving time introduced in America.
-By October, US forces have penetrated deep into Baja California and central Mexico.
-October 20th: Durango Offensive – the last major Mexican offensive of the War, temporarily halting Pershing’s 1st Army in central Zacatecas.
-November: food rationing instituted in many parts of Germany.
Learning and the Arts
-United Lutheran Church est. (US)
-Jerome Kern: “Hello, My Love”.
-New York Philharmonic Society bans compositions by living German composers.
-Irving Berlin: “Carousel”.
-Stars and Stripes, US Army newspaper, starts publication.
Science and Technology
-The ‘thumper’, a man-portable rocket launcher (MPR), perfected by Robert Goddard. US Army starts production in late August.
-Ludwig Prandtl (Ger.) develops wing theory (flow over airplane wings of finite span).
-US Army introduces its first tank, the Stonewall AAV (Armored Assault Vehicle).
1919
History and Politics
-Prohibition Amendment to US Constitution fails ratification.
-Lady Astor, first Brit. Woman MP elected.
-Nationalist factions in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula declare their support of the US and begin guerilla attacks on Mexican forces.
-Louis Botha, Prime Minister of South Africa, dies and is succeeded by Jan Smuts.
-Race riots in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia.
-Benito Mussolini founds Fasci del Combattimento (Italy).
-Meat and butter rationing in London.
-J.W. Alcock and M. Offrey make first nonstop flight across the Atlantic from Newfoundland to Ireland in 16 hours 58 minutes.
-February: First use of thumpers in European theater.
-Thompson submachine gun sees widespread use by US military, and by domestic police forces in the US, Britain, and France.
-April: Massive German offensive in the West (last of the War). More than 1300 German planes (largest air battle of the War); Paris bombed – Eiffel Tower destroyed; Allied counter-offensive in late May.
-Manfred von Richtofen scores 91st (and last) kill of war; shot down by French anti-aircraft guns outside of Paris. Captured by French forces, von Richtofen serves out the remainder of the war as a POW. In a POW camp outside of Orleans, he is befriended by fellow German soldiers who are adherents of communism.
-World-wide influenza epidemic; by 1922 nearly 38 million are dead.
-May: Communist revolts in Finland crushed by the Czar’s armies. Former monk Grigori Rasputin is named military governor of Finland and given honorary army rank of colonel by Nicholas II.
-June 14th: US forces capture Mexico City.
-June 20th: Mexican President Huerta declares the surrender of Mexico on national radio. Most Mexican armed forces surrender within the month, but significant hold-outs in the Sierra Madre Mountains result in continued sporadic fighting in northwest Mexico.
-September: Allied offensives, combined with mass influenza casualties, food and ammunition shortages, and loss of morale cause Germany and Austria to seek an armistice. The two nations agree to US President Marshall’s demand that they retreat to their own territory before the armistice is signed.
September 2nd: German communist leader Rosa Luxemberg killed by nationalist Freikorps officers.
-October: German fleet mutinies at Kiel.
-November 13th: Armistice signed between Allies and Austria-Hungary.
-December 1st: Armistice signed between Allies and Germany.
Learning and the Arts
-Jean Tournalt: “On Compassion”.
-Upton Sinclair: “Through the Killing Field”.
-H.G. Wells: “The Quiet Century” (about the possible outcomes of a French victory in the Franco-Prussian War; acknowledged as the first modern work of alternate history)
-Neil Amblyn: “The Red Factory”.
-Films: Charlie Chaplin in “Solidarity” (US – filmed in New York), “The Quiet Houses” (Russ.), “Child’s Heart” (Dan.)
Science and Technology
-F.W. Aston (Brit.) builds mass-spectrograph and establishes phenomena of isotopy.
-Jakob Bjerknes discovers how cyclones originate.
-Robert Goddard: “A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes”.
1920
History and Politics
-Conference at Versailles agrees on peace terms for Germany and the Central Powers.
-The Mexican states of Sonora, Chihuahau, and north and south Baja become US military protectorates, to be governed by General Pershing. The states of Yucatan, Campeche, Quintana Roo, and Tabasco become the Republic of Yucatan.
-Raul Heredia is installed as the US-backed Mexican President.
-Sergeant Alphonse Capone mustered out of US Army; settles near Los Angeles, California.
-Indian independence movements, temporarily quieted by the Great War, become active again. Without Gandhi’s moderating influence, the demonstrations begin to grow more and more violent. The Passive Resistance Movement retains only a handful of followers.
-An Austrian named Adolf Hitler dies in a Hamburg military hospital of respiratory damage suffered in a French gas attack in 1919.
-April 4th: The Great War officially ends with the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty.
-Clemenceau resigns as French Premier; succeeded by Millerand.
-Armenia, Constantinople and European Turkey, northern Syria become American mandates.
-Habsburg dynasty exiled from Austria.
-German fleet scuttled at Scapa Flow.
-Olympic Games held in Antwerp, Belgium. The proceedings are begun with three minutes of silence to honor the dead of the Great War, a tradition which has continued to the present day.
-Earthquake in China claims 85,000 victims.
-Danzig declared a free city.
-Manfred von Richtofen, the so-called ‘Red Baron’, renounces his lands and titles and joins the German Communist Party.
-Lao Shen Wu re-elected as China’s Prime Minister.
-Thomas Marshall re-elected US President, defeating Eugene Debs (socialist) and Warren Harding (republican).
-December 15th: The Rotunda, new headquarters of the US military, opens in Washington, DC. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the building is circular, nearly a mile in diameter, with an open center which is landscaped and planted with several gardens.
Learning and the Arts
-Agatha Christie: “The Affair of Four Pence”.
-Joan of Arc (1412-1431) canonized by Pope Benedict XV.
-Bertrand Russell: “The Practice and Theory of Communism”.
-Films: “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” (US – filmed in Boston), “Pollyanna” (Mary Pickford), “The Lowly Boys” (Brit.), “Three Deaths” (Fr.)
Science and Technology
-Austrian meteorologist Heinrich von Ficker recognizes importance of the stratosphere in meteorological phenomena.
-Swiss psychiatrist Herman Rorschach devises the ‘inkblot’ test.
-John T. Thompson patents his submachine gun (Tommy gun). The weapon became standard issue for the US Army in November of 1919.
