e of Belgium in case of a conflict in which Great Britain, France, and Germany were involved, to observe their guarantee. Great Britain, one of the witnesses, on August 4, sent an ultimatum to Germany demanding that Belgian justice be respected. When Germany refused, Britain declared war on it the same day. Italy remained uninvolved until May 23, 1915, when, to satisfy its claims against Austria, it broke with the Triple Alliance and declared war on Austria - Hungary. In September 1914, Allied unity was made stronger by the Pact of London, signed by France, Great Britain, and Russia. As the war progressed, other countries, including Turkey, Japan, the U.S., and other nations of the western hemisphere, were drawn into the conflict. Japan, which had made an alliance with the Great Britain in 1902, declared war on Germany on August 23, 1914. The United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917. (Microsoft Encarta, 1996)The outbreak of war in 1914 set in motion forces more gigantic than any previous war had seen. Two million Germans were on the march, the greater part of them against France, and there were another 3,000,000 trained men to back them up. France had nearly 4,000,000 trained men at call, although they relied on only 1,000,000 active troops in the first clash. Russia had more millions to draw upon than any, but their mobilization process was slow, a large part of their forces were in Asia and even their great potential strength was to a large extent canceled out by lack of munitions. (Captain Sir Basil Liddell Hart, 1984)The growth of these tremendous forces had been due primarily to a military gospel of mass. Known by Clausewitz, the Prussian military philosopher, who drew his inspiration from Napoleon's example, the spread of this gospel had been stimulated by the victories of the Prussian conscript armies in 1866 against Austria and in 1870 against France. It had been assisted also by the development of railways, which ...
