Greece during World War I
Encyclopedia
At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the Kingdom of Greece
remained a neutral nation. Despite being neutral, in October 1914, Greek forces moved in and occupied the areas of southern Albania that it claimed (Northern Epirus
) at a time when the new Principality of Albania
was in turmoil. At the same time, the Kingdom of Italy
occupied Saseno and later that December the port of Valona
. By the end of 1915, Greek troops abandoned their holdings in Albania without a fight to the expanding Italian forces.
in 1913 obliging Greece to come to Serbia's aid if attacked from the Kingdom of Bulgaria
. When Bulgaria began mobilization
against Serbia, Eleftherios Venizelos
, Prime Minister of Greece believed that based on the treaty, he could get Greece to join the war on the Allied side
if the Allies landed 150,000 troops in Salonika. Venizelos failed to bring Greece into the war on the Allied side because King Constantine I of Greece
was the brother-in-law of Wilhelm II, German Emperor, then ruler of the German Empire
. Constantine was married to Sophia of Prussia
, one of Wilhelm's sisters and had also undergone military training in Germany. Thus, the King and the anti-Venizelists (opponents of the Prime Minister) were opposed to joining the Allied side and argued that the Serbo-Greek Treaty was void if a great power
fought alongside Bulgaria. Venizelos was removed from office by the King on 5 October 1915, only to return to the political scene in October 1916.
Greece, as a neutral without the means to resist, was obliged to acquiesce in the arrival of a Franco-British (and later also Russian) expeditionary force, formed in part by withdrawals from Gallipoli
, transforming Salonika into an Allied military base. (Keegan 253) These Allied forces began to arrive on 3 October 1915. In the early summer of 1917, the Greeks handed over Fort Rupel to the Bulgarians, believing it a neutral act, though claimed as a betrayal by the Allies. Nonetheless, the Allies still tried to swing the Greeks to their side. From their positions in Greece, Allied forces (British
, French
, and Russian
, Italian, and Serb troops) fought the war from Greek territory engaging Bulgarian forces when they invaded Greece in August 1918.
officials staged the coup, prompting Venizelos to leave Athens
. He returned in October 1916 and set up a rival government in Salonika. Allied efforts to persuade the royal government in Athens to abandon its neutrality and join them failed, and relations irreparably broke down during the Noemvriana
, when French and Greek troops clashed in the streets of the Greek capital. The Greek Army, mostly loyal to the royal government, was largely disarmed and obliged to retreat to the Peloponnese
, while the warships of the Greek navy were impounded and manned by French crews. Still, King Constantine, who as a fellow royal and relative enjoyed the protection of the Russian Tsar, could not be removed until after the February Revolution
removed the Russian monarchy from the picture. In June 1917, King Constantine abdicated from the throne, and his second son, Alexander
, took the throne as King. Venizelos assumed control of the entire country, while royalists and other political opponents of Venizelos were exiled to France and Italy. Greece officially declared of war against the Central Powers on 2 July 1917, and would eventually raise ten divisions for the allied effort, alongside the Royal Hellenic Navy.
stayed mostly stable throughout the war. Bulgaria had occupied Thrace
in northern Greece from Allied forces before Greece's entry into the war. In May 1918, Greek forces under French General Adolphe Guillaumat
attacked the Bulgarian forces and defeated them at the Battle of Skra-di-Legen on 30 May 1918. This was the first major involvement of Greek forces in the war. Later in 1918, the Allied forces upped up their offensive from Greece into occupied Serbolia. In September of that year, Allied forces (French, Greek, Serb, and British troops), under the command of French General Franchet d'Esperey, broke through German, Austro-Hungarian, and Bulgarian forces along the Macedonian front. The offensive into Bulgaria was stopped when on 18–19 September 1918, the British and Greek armies were decisively defeated by the Bulgarians at the Battle of Doiran
. The outcome of this battle saved Bulgaria from being occupied. Bulgaria later signed the Armistice of Thessalonica with the Allies in Thessaloniki on 29 September 1918. By October, the Allies including the Greeks under General Louis Franchet d'Espérey had taken back all of Serbia and were ready to invade Hungary until the Hungarian authorities offered surrender
.
in the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine, Eastern Thrace and the Smyrna
area in the Treaty of Sèvres
. The Greek military suffered an estimated 5,000 dead (Gilbert 541) from their nine divisions that participated in the war.
Kingdom of Greece
The Kingdom of Greece was a state established in 1832 in the Convention of London by the Great Powers...
remained a neutral nation. Despite being neutral, in October 1914, Greek forces moved in and occupied the areas of southern Albania that it claimed (Northern Epirus
Northern Epirus
Northern Epirus is a term used to refer to those parts of the historical region of Epirus, in the western Balkans, that are part of the modern Albania. The term is used mostly by Greeks and is associated with the existence of a substantial ethnic Greek population in the region...
) at a time when the new Principality of Albania
Principality of Albania
The Principality of Albania refers to the short-lived monarchy in Albania, headed by William, Prince of Albania and to the state after the First World War, until the abolition of the monarchy in 1925, when Albania was declared a republic.-Principality:The Principality was established on February...
was in turmoil. At the same time, the Kingdom of Italy
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
occupied Saseno and later that December the port of Valona
Vlorë
Vlorë is one of the biggest towns and the second largest port city of Albania, after Durrës, with a population of about 94,000 . It is the city where the Albanian Declaration of Independence was proclaimed on November 28, 1912...
. By the end of 1915, Greek troops abandoned their holdings in Albania without a fight to the expanding Italian forces.
Road to War
Greece had signed a defense treaty with the Kingdom of SerbiaKingdom of Serbia
The Kingdom of Serbia was created when Prince Milan Obrenović, ruler of the Principality of Serbia, was crowned King in 1882. The Principality of Serbia was ruled by the Karađorđevic dynasty from 1817 onwards . The Principality, suzerain to the Porte, had expelled all Ottoman troops by 1867, de...
in 1913 obliging Greece to come to Serbia's aid if attacked from the Kingdom of Bulgaria
Kingdom of Bulgaria
The Kingdom of Bulgaria was established as an independent state when the Principality of Bulgaria, an Ottoman vassal, officially proclaimed itself independent on October 5, 1908 . This move also formalised the annexation of the Ottoman province of Eastern Rumelia, which had been under the control...
. When Bulgaria began mobilization
Mobilization
Mobilization is the act of assembling and making both troops and supplies ready for war. The word mobilization was first used, in a military context, in order to describe the preparation of the Prussian army during the 1850s and 1860s. Mobilization theories and techniques have continuously changed...
against Serbia, Eleftherios Venizelos
Eleftherios Venizelos
Eleftherios Venizelos was an eminent Greek revolutionary, a prominent and illustrious statesman as well as a charismatic leader in the early 20th century. Elected several times as Prime Minister of Greece and served from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1932...
, Prime Minister of Greece believed that based on the treaty, he could get Greece to join the war on the Allied side
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
if the Allies landed 150,000 troops in Salonika. Venizelos failed to bring Greece into the war on the Allied side because King Constantine I of Greece
Constantine I of Greece
Constantine I was King of Greece from 1913 to 1917 and from 1920 to 1922. He was commander-in-chief of the Hellenic Army during the unsuccessful Greco-Turkish War of 1897 and led the Greek forces during the successful Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, in which Greece won Thessaloniki and doubled in...
was the brother-in-law of Wilhelm II, German Emperor, then ruler of the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
. Constantine was married to Sophia of Prussia
Sophia of Prussia
Princess Sophie of Prussia was Queen of the Hellenes as the wife of King Constantine I.-Princess of Prussia:...
, one of Wilhelm's sisters and had also undergone military training in Germany. Thus, the King and the anti-Venizelists (opponents of the Prime Minister) were opposed to joining the Allied side and argued that the Serbo-Greek Treaty was void if a great power
Great power
A great power is a nation or state that has the ability to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength and diplomatic and cultural influence which may cause small powers to consider the opinions of great powers before taking actions...
fought alongside Bulgaria. Venizelos was removed from office by the King on 5 October 1915, only to return to the political scene in October 1916.
Greece, as a neutral without the means to resist, was obliged to acquiesce in the arrival of a Franco-British (and later also Russian) expeditionary force, formed in part by withdrawals from Gallipoli
Gallipoli
The Gallipoli peninsula is located in Turkish Thrace , the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles straits to the east. Gallipoli derives its name from the Greek "Καλλίπολις" , meaning "Beautiful City"...
, transforming Salonika into an Allied military base. (Keegan 253) These Allied forces began to arrive on 3 October 1915. In the early summer of 1917, the Greeks handed over Fort Rupel to the Bulgarians, believing it a neutral act, though claimed as a betrayal by the Allies. Nonetheless, the Allies still tried to swing the Greeks to their side. From their positions in Greece, Allied forces (British
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
, French
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France...
, and Russian
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, Italian, and Serb troops) fought the war from Greek territory engaging Bulgarian forces when they invaded Greece in August 1918.
Greece joins the war
In August 1916, VenizelistVenizelism
Venizelism was one of the major political movements in Greece from the 1900s until the mid 1970s.- Ideology :Named after Eleftherios Venizelos, the key characteristics of Venizelism were:*Opposition to Monarchy...
officials staged the coup, prompting Venizelos to leave Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
. He returned in October 1916 and set up a rival government in Salonika. Allied efforts to persuade the royal government in Athens to abandon its neutrality and join them failed, and relations irreparably broke down during the Noemvriana
Noemvriana
The Noemvriana of November–December 1916 was a political dispute, which led to an armed confrontation in Athens between the royalist government of Greece and the Allies forces over the issue of Greece's neutrality during World War I....
, when French and Greek troops clashed in the streets of the Greek capital. The Greek Army, mostly loyal to the royal government, was largely disarmed and obliged to retreat to the Peloponnese
Peloponnese
The Peloponnese, Peloponnesos or Peloponnesus , is a large peninsula , located in a region of southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth...
, while the warships of the Greek navy were impounded and manned by French crews. Still, King Constantine, who as a fellow royal and relative enjoyed the protection of the Russian Tsar, could not be removed until after the February Revolution
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
removed the Russian monarchy from the picture. In June 1917, King Constantine abdicated from the throne, and his second son, Alexander
Alexander of Greece
Alexander reigned as King of Greece from 1917 to 1920 until his unusual death as the result of sepsis contracted by being bitten by two monkeys.-Early life:...
, took the throne as King. Venizelos assumed control of the entire country, while royalists and other political opponents of Venizelos were exiled to France and Italy. Greece officially declared of war against the Central Powers on 2 July 1917, and would eventually raise ten divisions for the allied effort, alongside the Royal Hellenic Navy.
Participation in the war
The Macedonian frontMacedonian front (World War I)
The Macedonian Front resulted from an attempt by the Allied Powers to aid Serbia, in the autumn of 1915, against the combined attack of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria. The expedition came too late and in insufficient force to prevent the fall of Serbia, and was complicated by the internal...
stayed mostly stable throughout the war. Bulgaria had occupied Thrace
Thrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
in northern Greece from Allied forces before Greece's entry into the war. In May 1918, Greek forces under French General Adolphe Guillaumat
Adolphe Guillaumat
Marie Louis Adolphe Guillaumat was a French Army general during World War I.-Early years:Adolphe Guillaumat graduated first from his class of 1884 at the Saint-Cyr military academy....
attacked the Bulgarian forces and defeated them at the Battle of Skra-di-Legen on 30 May 1918. This was the first major involvement of Greek forces in the war. Later in 1918, the Allied forces upped up their offensive from Greece into occupied Serbolia. In September of that year, Allied forces (French, Greek, Serb, and British troops), under the command of French General Franchet d'Esperey, broke through German, Austro-Hungarian, and Bulgarian forces along the Macedonian front. The offensive into Bulgaria was stopped when on 18–19 September 1918, the British and Greek armies were decisively defeated by the Bulgarians at the Battle of Doiran
Battle of Doiran
The third Battle of Doiran was fought from 18 September to 19 September 1918, with the Greeks and the British assaulting the positions of the Bulgarian First Army near Dojran Lake. The battle was part of World War I and took place in the Balkan Theatre...
. The outcome of this battle saved Bulgaria from being occupied. Bulgaria later signed the Armistice of Thessalonica with the Allies in Thessaloniki on 29 September 1918. By October, the Allies including the Greeks under General Louis Franchet d'Espérey had taken back all of Serbia and were ready to invade Hungary until the Hungarian authorities offered surrender
Surrender (military)
Surrender is when soldiers, nations or other combatants stop fighting and eventually become prisoners of war, either as individuals or when ordered to by their officers. A white flag is a common symbol of surrender, as is the gesture of raising one's hands empty and open above one's head.When the...
.
After the war
Being on the winning side, Greece acquired the remaining Bulgarian territory on the Aegean SeaAegean Sea
The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...
in the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine, Eastern Thrace and the Smyrna
Smyrna
Smyrna was an ancient city located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Thanks to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence. The ancient city is located at two sites within modern İzmir, Turkey...
area in the Treaty of Sèvres
Treaty of Sèvres
The Treaty of Sèvres was the peace treaty between the Ottoman Empire and Allies at the end of World War I. The Treaty of Versailles was signed with Germany before this treaty to annul the German concessions including the economic rights and enterprises. Also, France, Great Britain and Italy...
. The Greek military suffered an estimated 5,000 dead (Gilbert 541) from their nine divisions that participated in the war.