BLOOD, FIRE AND STEEL ;EVENTS IN EASTERN EUROPE AND THE COLLAPSE OF GERMANY IN 1918

Events in Eastern Europe 1918 

At about this time major developments were also taking place in Eastern Europe as a result of the war. While the war lasted, the nationalist aspirations of the Slav speaking people of the Austro – Hungarian empire began to ferment and the Czechs, the south Slavs known as Yugoslavia and the Poles began to agitate and press for freedom and independence as nation- states especially as both Austro – Hungary and Russia were tottering in the face of the conflict.

With the territories of the future Czechoslovakia still embedded in the provinces of the Habsburg ruled Austro – Hungarian empire alongside Yugoslavia; and Poland’s territories locked-in between Germany, Austria and Russia, the turn of the conflict lent a dim but brightening possibility of these nations breaking forth at the end of the war. The leading statesmen of these groups formed committees and met Allied representatives in London and America.

 The Wilsonan peace proposals in fact ultimately came to embody the demands of these three groups as conditions for ending the conflict. The defeat of Russia in 1917 and the favorable sentiments displayed by the communist government in Moscow towards Polish independence helped to strengthen the demand for an independent Poland especially as Germany became the only stumbling block.

For this purpose a Czech statesman Tomas Masaryk and a fellow émigré, Edward Benes formed a Czechoslovak national council with offices in London and Paris. For the south Slavs pressing for the independent state of Yugoslavia, a Yugoslavia committee was set up in 1915 with offices in London and Paris. On July 20 1917, this committee and the Serbian government in exile made the joint Corfu declaration calling for a South Slav state comprising Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

For the Poles whose territories were occupied by three major powers; Russia, Germany and Austria, a careful threadwork had to be followed in extricating the dream nation from the web of Russia and the Central powers. The Polish leaders initial instinct was to array its forces alongside the Central Powers against Russia as the Polish foreign legion came to be known in its fight alongside the Austrian army.

When it became obvious that Germany was not ready to surrender its territorial acquisitions in Poland, and Russia was getting more sympathetic to its cause, the Polish leaders decided to raise a Polish Army in France, Ukraine and Belorussia to fight against the Central Powers. The Polish cause therefore received strengthened sympathy from the Allies and President Wilson, and the demand for an independent Poland became a major plank of the Wilsonian peace points.

The Russian capitulation and subsequent treaty of Brest – Litvosk gave Germany a free hand to deal with Russian territorial gains in Eastern Europe. Germany thus floated the idea of an independent Poland minus the German held territories. Lithuania was to be independent as a vassal of Germany while Latvia and Estonia were to be incorporated into the hereditary grand Duchy of Baltikum under German rule.

Finland was also given support by a German force of 12,000 men under General Grad Pudgier von de Goltz sent to assist Finish General C.G.E Mannerheim’s nationalistic forces against the Communist Red guards who were receiving the backing of the Bolshevik government of Russia despite its recognition of Finnish independence.

In Ukraine the nationalistic government there, which was under threat from communist forces before its separate peace with the Central powers in Brest – Litvosk was displaced by a new regime after the advance of German and Austro – Hungarian forces into its territories.

The treaty of Brest –Litvosk also affected the Romanian armistice of December 1917, which was revised into the treaty of Bucharest on May 7^th 1918 under which southern Dobruja was ceded to Bulgaria, northern Dobruja was placed under the control of the Central powers which granted it control over Romanian’s oil and communications. Bessarabia however was indifferent to Romania’s support for it, in its fight against the Bolsheviks and voted to remain in a conditional union with Romania in March 1918.

The pro–German euphoria also got to Transcaucasia whose three individual states of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan voted to end the federation and promptly signed treaties of friendship with Germany and Turkey giving Turkish troops the room to enter and occupy Baku on September 15^th 1918.

The Allies meanwhile sought to shore up their support base in the east by supporting the anti – Bolshevik forces (white) that were springing up in Russia by landing an Anglo- French force in Murmansk on March 9^th 1918.

This force occupied the Murmansk railway in the far north all the way down south to Belomorsk, while a further landing at Arkhangelsk in the summer brought the Allied forces to a total of 48,000 (including 20,000 white Russians).A Japanese cum Allied landing in Vladivostok brought in a further 85,000 soldiers made up of Japanese, British, French and American units.

This enabled a White provisional government to be set up at Omsk under the command of Admiral A. V Kolchak. In Russia proper, the White resistance came under the command of General A. I Deniker in April of 1918.

THE GERMAN COLLAPSE

Michaelis had in November 1917 been replaced by George Von Hertling as Germany’s Chancellor and the new Chancellor too had proved ineffectual in restraining Hindenburg and Ludendorff as far as war policy was concerned and he chose to resign on September 29 1918 on the day Bulgaria signed an armistice with the Allies and the British launched their latest offensive.

While awaiting the appointment of a new Chancellor, Ludendorff and Hindenburg persuaded the Emperor about the need to begin the process of securing peace with the Allies as the military situation was no longer encouraging. The duo also intimated a meeting of German political leaders about the deteriorating military situation; which drew the domestic audience’s attention to the reality of Germany’s situation.

This move began a series of events that led to the new Chancellor Maximillian Baden demanding an orderly request for armistice and cessation of hostilities without Germany losing face in the process.

 The military chiefs however demanded an immediate armistice, so as to stop the Allied forces from advancing on to German soil. As a result, the Germans sent to President Woodrow Wilson on the night of October3 – 4 a note demanding an armistice and negotiations for peace based on Wilson’s 14 peace points.

The Americans replied on October 8 requiring Germany’s preliminary assent to negotiations on the issue of how Wilson’s principles could be put into practice and to the withdrawal of German forces from Allied soil. The German government accepted the suggestion and postulated the idea of a mixed commission to implement the proposal.

The Americans however sent another note requesting that because of Germany’s cruel and inhuman methods of warfare, the Americans insisted that the withdrawal of German forces from Allied soil be supervised by American and Allied military advisers excluding Germans; and that its subsequent negotiations be with freely designated representatives of the German people.

However as events unfolded, the German High Command became more optimistic as it saw that the Allied piercing of the Hindenburg line was not accompanied with a major breakthrough as the Allied military machine did in fact slowdown and almost came to a halt because of its overstretched supply lines.

Ludendorff’s plan thus changed into one of negotiations with a view to buying time, to give his troops rest and enable them to construct a new and shorter defensive line. However his plan was overturned by the turn of public opinion which by this time in Germany and on the basis of the previous revelation had undermined the morale of the people to the point of demanding an immediate armistice.

Once the Germans came to believe that the war was lost militarily, the mood at home swung in favor of ending the war. In the light of this, the Chancellor Prince Max Baden demanded the immediate retirement of Ludendorff on October 26 followed by Germany’s accession and acknowledgement of the US demand.

At this point President Wilson began to persuade the Allies to accept peace on the basis of his negotiations. The Allies accepted Wilson’s mediations on the conditions that the freedom of the seas clause would not be adhered to, and that Germany must make reparations for damage done to the civilian population and property.

Wilson then sent another note on November 5^th informing the Germans of these reservations and that General Ferdinand Foch, the Allied supreme commander would appraise Germany’s duly appointed representative of the terms of the Allied peace offer. On November 8 a German delegation led by Mathias Erzberger arrived at Rethondes in the Forrest of Compiegne where the Germans met face to face with the Allied team led by Foch.

Meanwhile Germany was going through a period of revolutionary upheaval involving the mutiny of its sailors in defiance of an order for the high seas fleet to put to sea in the North sea; disturbances in German cities like Hamburg and Bremen, the setting up of socialists council of soldiers and workers and a socialist insurrection in Bavaria on the 7^th – 8^th November.

To cap it all, the social Democrats in the Reichstag withdrew support from Max Baden’s government forcing him to announce the abdication of the Emperor who was still brooding on his political future at his holiday resort at the Spa.

After the forced abdication of Emperor Wilhelm as German Emperor, Prince Max Baden resigned his position as chancellor, handing over his powers to Friedrich Elbert, a majority social Democrat who formed a provisional government. Philip Schliemann a member of the government proclaimed Germany a Republic forcing the flight of the Emperor to the Netherlands where he signed the abdication of his sovereign rights on November 28.

The Armistice

Meanwhile the Allied peace terms presented to the German delegation were stiff. The Germans were required to evacuate Belgium, Northern France and Alsace – Lorraine, in fact all territories acquired since the war began.