During the Middle Ages the kingdom of Poland was a vibrant state, a bastion of power and Catholic enlightenment. The dynasty reached its zenith in 1683 when the Polish King Jan III Sobieski led the army that defeated the Ottomans in the Battle for Vienna, which proved to be the high water mark of Ottoman incursion into Central Europe. The subsequent decline of the Polish state paralleled the rise of the Prussian state to the north, and beginning in 1764, Polish territory was nibbled away by Prussia, Russia and Austria, until in 1795 the entire nation had disappeared into the ‘partitions’, the largest of which was Russian and included Warsaw.
Kansas WW1
Commemorating the First World War Centennial in Kansas
In case you aren’t watching the Royal Wedding and all the fanfare that goes with it, there is one WWI program on Saturday morning, May 19th, on C-SPAN3. That is a repeat from last weekend of American Artifacts: World War I Soldiers and Art in the Trenches. It airs at 9:00 a.m. Central.
The time is fast upon us to observe the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day and the end of fighting in World War I. We hope shortly to have more information about plans from the National Centennial Commission . We hope that some people out there have some ideas how they may mark the observance in their communities, and we also hope that you will share the ideas here.
The fighting and dying didn’t stop on November 11th, 1918. As the list below shows, it continued on somewhere for at least four more years.
| Dates | Between | Winner | Losses | Result | |||
| 1917-18 | Finnish Soviet War I | Finland- Russia | Finland | 38,000 | Independence | ||
| 1917-20 | Kazakhstan War | Kazakhs-Russia | Russia | 10,000 | Annexed by USSR | ||
| 1917-21 | Ukrainian Soviet War | Ukraine-Russia | Russia | 100,000 | Annexed by USSR | ||
| 1918-22 | Finnish Border Wars | Finland-Russia | Draw | 3,000 | Treaty of Tartu | ||
| 1918-19 | Lith. Soviet War | Lithuania-Russia | Lithuania | unknown | Treaty 1920 | ||
| 1918-19 | Polish Ukrainian War | Poland-Ukraine | Poland | 25,000 | Treaty of Warsaw | ||
| 1918-20 | Latvian Soviet War | Latvia-Russia | Latvia | 10,000 | Treaty of Riga | ||
| 1918-20 | Estonian Soviet War | Estonia-Russia | Estonia | 4,000 | Treaty of Tartu | ||
| 1918-20 | Armenian Azeri War | Armenia-Azeris | Indecisive | 10,000 | |||
| 1919 | Hung. Romanian War | Hungary-Romania | Romania | 8,500 | |||
| 1919-20 | Polish Lith. War | Poland-Lithuania | Poland | unknown | Suvalki Treaty | ||
| No dip. rel. til 1938 | |||||||
| 1919-21 | Polish Soviet War | Poland-Russia | Poland | 107,000 | Treaty of Liepaja | ||
| 1919-23 | Greco Turkish War | Greece-Turkey | Turkey | 33,500 | Treaty of Lausanne | ||
| 1919-20 | Armenian Turk. War | Armenia-Turkey | Turkey | 100,000 | Tr. of Alexandropol | ||
| 1920 | Armenian Soviet War | Armenia-Russia | Russia | unknown | Annexed by USSR | ||
| 1920 | Azerbaijan War | Azeris-Russia | Russia | unknown | Annexed by USSR | ||
| 1918 | Georg. Armen. War I | Georgia-Russia | Indecisive | 2,000 | |||
| 1918 | Georgian Turkish War | Georgia-Turkey | Compromise | unknown | |||
| 1918-19 | Sochi War | Georgia-Russia | Russia | unknown | |||
| 1918-19 | Hungarian Czech War | Hungary-CzS | CzS | 2,000 | |||
| 1920 | Georg. Armen. War II | Georgia-Armenia | Georgia | 5,000 | |||
| 1921 | Georg.-Soviet War | Georgia-Russia | Russia | 8,700 | Annexed by USSR | ||
| 1918-20 | Constantinople War | Allies-Turkey | Turkey | 1,000 | Allied withdrawals | ||
| (UK, France, Italy, Greece) | |||||||
| 1918-20 | N Russian Intervention | Allies-Russia | Russia | 2,700 | Allied withdrawals | ||
| (UK, US, France, Canada) | |||||||
| 1918-22 | Siberian Intervention | Allies-Russia | USSR | 14,000 | Allied withdrawals | ||
| (Japan, US, CzS, Italy, UK, Canada, China, France, Poland, Mongolia) | |||||||
| 1920 | Vlora War | Italy-Albania | Albania | 6,000 | Italian withdrawal | ||
|
Azeris = Azerbaijan |
|||||||
| CzS = Czechoslovakia | |||||||
| Doesn’t include civil wars or insurrections | |||||||
| In many instances third parties assisted one or both combatants | |||||||
| German forces were involved in several of these wars | |||||||
100 years ago in Kansas, May 23 – June 2, 1918.
May 23, 1918.
-Manhattan school children won a $100 prize offered by the Kansas Fraternal Aid Assn. for the best garden.
May 30, 1918.
-Kansas had raised $2,5888,577 for the Red Cross; the quota was $1,000,000.
-Three carloads of surplus flour were found in Franklin county. Names of the hoarders were sent to the State Food Administrator.
After the frenetic activity of the first six months of the First World War, the Allies saw the Germans building very strong fortifications in their lines. These featured extensive use of concrete and the construction of Stellung, or strong points, that could repel any frontal assault. In due time, the idea was born that the way to break through these defenses might be to employ a swarm of moving mini-forts to lead the attack, impervious to opposing machine gun and rifle fire.
We’re a little slow with this monthly post, but given there appears to be only one World War I-related film on Turner Classic Movies this month–and it’s next week–there didn’t seem to be much of a hurry to do so!
The one film of the month is Mata Hari from 1932. The title role is played by the one and only Greta Garbo, with co-stars Ramon Novarro and Lionel Barrymore. It will air at 5:15 p.m. on Friday afternoon, May 18.
Two World War I programs air this weekend on C-SPAN3. As usual, all times posted here are Central, and we can’t be held responsible for schedule changes.
–World War I Naval Warfare airs twice on Saturday, May 12, first at 9:15 a.m. and again at 3:00 a.m which is technically Sunday morning. The talk is given by Professor Stanley Carpenter of the Naval War College.
Lewis Hine’s photos from 1918 are featured this month in the Atlantic Monthly.
On August 4th, 1914 Britain reluctantly declared war on Germany. The War Ministry created The British Expeditionary Force (BEF), under the command of Gen. Sir John French, to go to the aid of Belgium. Within the home islands there were enough units to form six infantry divisions, a cavalry division and a cavalry brigade. It was decided to hold back an infantry division against the unlikely possibility that Germany would try to invade the islands, and on August 9th the BEF began to arrive in France.
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