W.W.1 (3)

Turkey joins with the central empires.
Italy joins England, Russia, and France.
The diplomats of both sides made all haste
to put pressure upon the governments of the countries which were not
engaged in the struggle, in order to win them over. Germany and
Austria worked hard with Italy, with Turkey, and with Bulgaria. The
Turks were the first to plunge in. The party headed by Enver Bey (the
young minister of war) saw that a victory for Russia and her allies
meant the final expulsion of the Turks from Europe. Only in the
victory of Germany and Austria did this faction see any hope for
Turkey. It was the latter part of October (1914) when Turkish
warships, without any provocation, sailed into some Russian ports on
the Black Sea and blazed away with their big guns.

Some of the older Turkish statesmen were terrified, and did their best
to get the government at Constantinople to disclaim all responsibility
for this act of their naval commanders. The "Young Turks," however,
were all for war on the side of Germany. What is more, Russia, always
anxious for an excuse to seize Constantinople, would not allow the
Turks to apologize for their act and keep out of trouble. She declared
war on Turkey, and was quickly followed by France and England.


Both sides now set to work on Italy. It was plain that all the
sympathies of the Italian people were with France and England. The six
grandsons of Garibaldi formed an Italian regiment and volunteered for
fighting on the French lines. Two of them were killed, and at their
funerals in Rome, nearly all the inhabitants of the city turned out
and showed plainly that they too would like to be fighting on the side
of France.

Italy wanted very much to gain the provinces of
Trentino and Istria, with the cities of Trent, Trieste
es'te), Pola , and Fiume , all inhabited by
Italian people. The possession of these counties and cities by Austria
had been the greatest source of trouble between the two nations. Italy
now came out boldly, and demanded, as the price of her keeping out of
the war, that Austria give to her this land inhabited by Italians.
Germany urged Austria to do this, and sent as her special ambassador,
to keep Italy from joining her enemies, Prince von Bulow, whose wife
was an Italian lady, and who was very popular with the Italian
statesmen.

For months, von Bulow argued and pleaded, first trying to induce Italy
to accept a small part of the disputed territory and then, when he
found this impossible, doing his best to induce Austria to give it
all. Austria was stubborn. She did not take kindly to the plan of
giving away her cities. She offered to cede some territory if Italy
should wait until the end of the war.

This did not satisfy Italy. She was by no means certain that Austria
and Germany were going to win the war and was even less sure that
Austria would be willing, in case of her victory, to give up a foot of
territory. It seemed to the Italian statesmen that it was "now or
never" if Italy wished to get within her kingdom all of her own
people. In the month of May 1915 Italy threw herself into the struggle
by declaring war on Austria and entering an alliance with Russia,
France, and England.