The Long War

Abstract

WW I changed the shape of Europe in more ways than one. To the astonishment of many, it turned out to be a lengthy and devastating experience, which virtually ruined the continent. Officially it ended in Europe on 11 November 1918, but in Russia the civil war after the Bolshevik Revolution continued until 1922. The newly constituted Poland, aiming at securing its position amid two mighty and dangerous neighbours — Germany and a weakened Russia — and dreaming of re-establishing the Polish–Lithuanian kingdom as an ‘intermare’ (literally ‘between the seas’) federation between the Baltic and the Black Sea, grasped the opportunity to further expand through the military annexation of large parts of Ukraine and Belarus — the remaining parts incorporated into the USSR — as well as Lithuania. The Turkish War of Independence, which included a bloody conflict between Greeks and Turks, lasted until 1923. In the west, the UK faced the Irish War of Independence until 1921–1922. The occupation of the Ruhr by Belgian and French troops in 1922–1925 can be seen as an extension of the Great War itself. The war had exhausted the European economies, and in the meantime ‘Uncle Sam’ manifested itself as the new superpower which eclipsed all others.