Fifty years of Europe, 1870-1919 . ture, the living embodiment of Frenchhistory, whose every stone spoke of long lines ofkings—and of Joan of Arc. The year 1917, therefore, closed in gloom. The col-lapse of Russia, the disaster in Italy, were more alarm-ing in their possible, if not probable, consequencesthan the scattered and costly gains of the Allies on thewestern front and the entrance of America into thewar, perhaps too late to be of any material value,were reassuring. In western Asia, it is true, the yearbrought some encouragement to the Allies, but howdurable or significant the successe
Fifty years of Europe, 1870-1919 . ture, the living embodiment of Frenchhistory, whose every stone spoke of long lines ofkings—and of Joan of Arc. The year 1917, therefore, closed in gloom. The col-lapse of Russia, the disaster in Italy, were more alarm-ing in their possible, if not probable, consequencesthan the scattered and costly gains of the Allies on thewestern front and the entrance of America into thewar, perhaps too late to be of any material value,were reassuring. In western Asia, it is true, the yearbrought some encouragement to the Allies, but howdurable or significant the successes there would proveto be it was quite impossible to forecast. As the Ger-mans had loudly proclaimed their intention to linkBerlin with Bagdad, and erect a Middle Europe, and toextend it through Turkey and the great valleys of theEuphrates and the Tigris, and as this meant nothingless than a pointed threat at the British Empire inIndia and Egypt, it was natural and inevitable thatEngland should accept the German challenge in that. , Territory of the Central Empires and Turkey I Territory invaded by Central PowersI Railroad to the East and to Africa Scale of Miles200 40O The Middle iiuROFE ^icheme THE WORLD WAR 389 part of the world as she had accepted it in westernEurope and on the high seas. Consequently as earlyas 1915 an expedition had been sent out from India,under General Townshend, to prevent the consumma-tion of the German plans. But the expedition faileddisastrously. After having advanced two hundredmiles up the Tigris and after having seized the cityof Kut-el-Amara, General Townshend found himselfbesieged in that place by the Turks and after a fewmonths, no relief having reached him, he was forcedto surrender with his entire army, about ten thou-sand men, on April 28, 1916, after a siege of a hun-dred and forty-three days. Not only was this a se-rious reverse in itself, but it gravely injured GreatBritains prestige in the East. There was nothingfor her to do but endea
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectworldwar19141918
