History of the World War | Page 7

were under arms when the
conflict ended. Of these, more than two million were upon the fields of
France and Italy. These were thoroughly trained in the military art.
They had proved their right to be considered among the most
formidable soldiers the world has known. Against the brown rock of
that host in khaki, the flower of German savagery and courage had
broken at Chateau-Thierry. There the high tide of Prussian militarism,
after what had seemed to be an irresistible dash for the destruction of
France, spent itself in the bloody froth and spume of bitter defeat.
There the Prussian Guard encountered the Marines, the Iron Division
and the other heroic organizations of America's new army. There
German soldiers who had been hardened and trained under German
conscription before the war, and who had learned new arts in their
bloody trade, through their service in the World War, met their masters
in young Americans taken from the shop, the field, and the forge,
youths who had been sent into battle with a scant six months' intensive
training in the art of war. Not only did these American soldiers hold the
German onslaught where it was but, in a sudden, fierce, resistless
counter-thrust they drove back in defeat and confusion the Prussian
Guard, the Pommeranian Reserves, and smashed the morale of that
German division beyond hope of resurrection.
The news of that exploit sped from the Alps to the North Sea Coast,
through all the camps of the Allies, with incredible rapidity. "The
Americans have held the Germans. They can fight," ran the message.
New life came into the war-weary ranks of heroic poilus and into the

steel-hard armies of Great Britain. "The Americans are as good as the
best. There are millions of them, and millions more are coming," was
heard on every side. The transfusion of American blood came as magic
tonic, and from that glorious day there was never a doubt as to the
speedy defeat of Germany. From that day the German retreat dated.
The armistice signed on November 11, 1918, was merely the period
finishing the death sentence of German militarism, the first word of
which was uttered at Chateau-Thierry.
Germany's defiance to the world, her determination to force her will
and her "kultur" upon the democracies of earth, produced the conflict.
She called to her aid three sister autocracies: Turkey, a land ruled by
the whims of a long line of moody misanthropic monarchs; Bulgaria,
the traitor nation cast by its Teutonic king into a war in which its
people had no choice and little sympathy; Austria-Hungary, a congeries
of races in which a Teutonic minority ruled with an iron scepter.
Against this phalanx of autocracy, twenty-four nations arrayed
themselves. Populations of these twenty-eight warring nations far
exceeded the total population of all the remainder of humanity. The
conflagration of war literally belted the earth. It consumed the most
civilized of capitals. It raged in the swamps and forests of Africa. To its
call came alien peoples speaking words that none but themselves could
translate, wearing garments of exotic cut and hue amid the smart garbs
and sober hues of modern civilization. A twentieth century Babel came
to the fields of France for freedom's sake, and there was born an
internationalism making for the future understanding and peace of the
world. The list of the twenty-eight nations entering the World War and
their populations follow:
Countries. Population. Countries. Population. United States
110,000,000 Italy 37,000,000 Austria-Hungary 50,000,000 Japan
54,000,000 Belgium 8,000,000 Liberia 2,000,000 Bulgaria 5,000,000
Montenegro 500,000 Brazil 23,000,000 Nicaragua 700,000 China
420,000,000 Panama 400,000 Costa Rica 425,000 Portugal*
15,000,000 Cuba 2,500,000 Roumania 7,500,000 France 90,000,000
Russia 180,000,000 Gautemala 2,000,000 San Marino 10,000 Germany

67,000,000 Serbia 4,500,000 Great Britain 440,000,000 Siam
6,000,000 Greece 5,000,000 Turkey 42,000,000 Haiti 2,000,000
----------------- Honduras 600,000 Total 1,575,135,000 * Including
colonies
The following nations, with their populations, took no part in the World
War:
Countries. Population. Countries. Population. Abyssinia 8,000,000
Argentina 8,000,000 Afghanistan 6,000,000 Bhutan 250,000 Andorra
6,000 Chile 5,000,000 Colombia 5,000,000 Paraguay 800,000
Denmark 3,000,000 Persia 9,000,000 Ecuador 1,500,000 Salvador
1,250,000 Mexico 15,000,000 Spain 20,000,000 Monaco 20,000
Switzerland 3,750,000 Nepal 4,000,000 Venezuela 2,800,000 Holland*
40,000,000 ----------------- Norway 2,500,000 Total 135,876,000 *
Including colonies.
Never before in the history of the world were so many races and
peoples mingled in a military effort as those that came together under
the command of Marshal Foch. If we divide the human races into white,
yellow, red and black, all four were largely represented. Among the
white races there were Frenchmen, Italians, Portuguese, English,
Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Canadians, Australians, South Africans (of both
British and Dutch descent) New Zealanders; in the American army,
probably every other European nation was represented, with additional
contingents from those already named, so that every branch of the
white race