Leaders in 1914
L to R. Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germany, Enver Pasha Ottoman Empire (Turkey), Emperor Franz
Joseph, Austro Hungarian Empire (Austria/Hungary).
Kaiser Wilhelm
“I look upon the People and the Nation as handed on to me as an responsibility conferred upon me by God, and I believe,
as it is written in the Bible, that it is my duty to increase
this heritage for which one day I shall be called upon to give an account. Whoever tries to interfere with my task I shall
crush.” German Kaiser Wilhelm II, 1913
Over 51 million people lived in the 675,000 square kilometres of the empire. The two largest ethnic groups were Germans
(10 million) and Hungarians (9 million). There were also Poles,
Croats, Bosnians, Serbians, Italians, Czechs, Ruthenes,
Slovenes, Slovaks and Romanians. Overall, fifteen different languages were
spoken in the Austro-Hungarian empire.
Enver Pasha under Sultan Mehmet V
Enver Pasha, eventually emerged as the new leader of the country
after 1908.
In 1914 the Ottoman Empire contained an estimated 25 million
people. Although there were 14 million Turks, there was also large
Arab, Assyrians, Armenian, Kurdish, Greek and Circassion
minorities within the Empire. As a result, there existed nationalist, separatist movements in several areas of the territory under the
control of the Turks.
George V of Britain
George VCousin to Nicholas II and Kaiser Wilhelm
Rule by Prime Minister Asquith and parliament
Huge empire
President Poincare of France
Raymond Poincaré, a determined
nationalist and advocate of military preparedness who quickly secured passage of an
expansion of the standing army.
Tsar Nicholas II
Nicholas felt it was his duty to rule Russia as well as reign. This meant that he
would have to make all the decisions for the country
with brief input in the form of reports from the
ministers that served him. He would not meet with
them all at once, but only on an individual basis.
This hampered effectiveness greatly. He
had an impeccable memory and a great mind for detail. His office was meticulous and did not like anyone
touching his papers. Thus Nicholas did not have a
secretary to assist him with the enormous load of
paperwork that came across his desk daily.
King Peter I of Serbia
Serbia's first constitutional monarch - elected by parliament
- in the aftermath of the 1903 military coup. He returned from exile
to take his place as King.
Peter had served with the French during the
unsuccessful Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 and, in 1875, joined the
Bosnian insurrection against the Ottomans.The first years of King
Peter's reign saw reforms to the constitution, the army and the school system, as
well as improvements to the system of agriculture.