Global Conflict 1914–1918

The First World War was fought across the world. Fighting took place in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the Middle East, while naval operations extended the conflict across the world’s oceans. The war also transformed economies, politics and societies far beyond the battlefields.

Global First World War: Australian troops' camp beneath the pyramids in Egypt — Australian troops encamped beneath the pyramids at Giza, Egypt, during the First World War. SLSA.

The First World War is often remembered through the trenches of the Western Front, but the war was never confined to Europe. From the opening weeks of the conflict, fighting took place in Africa, Asia and the Pacific as well as Europe. Naval warfare extended the conflict across the world’s oceans, while the movement of armies, shipping, resources and information connected distant theatres of war.

The global nature of the conflict was not simply a consequence of soldiers travelling to Europe. German and Allied forces fought in Africa and the Pacific, Japan attacked German territory in China, Australian and New Zealand forces fought in the Pacific, and naval forces from several countries fought across the Atlantic, Indian Ocean and Pacific. The Middle East became another major theatre after the Ottoman Empire entered the war.

Global Conflict looks at the First World War as an international event in which military operations were connected with politics, economics, imperial power, logistics, communications and societies across the world. The Battles and Campaigns of the First World War section provides routes into individual military operations.

Fighting Across the World

The geographical spread of the war was apparent from its opening days. The first military action by British land forces took place in Africa, where the Gold Coast Regiment fought German forces in Togoland. Alhaji Grunshi fired the first shot on 12 August 1914, before the major British armies had begun fighting in France. Fighting then spread across German colonies in Africa, including Cameroon, German East Africa and German South-West Africa.

In the Pacific, Australian and New Zealand forces moved against German possessions soon after the outbreak of war. New Zealand forces occupied German Samoa without fighting, while Australian forces encountered German and local forces at Bita Paka in German New Guinea in September 1914. Bita Paka was the first Australian action of the First World War.

In East Asia, Japan entered the war against Germany and attacked the German-held port of Qingdao in China. Japanese and British forces took part in the siege, while Chinese territory became the setting for one of the war’s early major operations far from Europe.

German naval forces also posed a direct threat to communications and shipping in the Pacific and waters around Australia. The Australian Navy subsequently fought the German raider Emden in the Indian Ocean, demonstrating how the naval war connected Australia with the wider global conflict.

The war also reached the waters around South America. German and British naval forces fought the Battle of Coronel off the coast of Chile in November 1914, followed by the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December. These actions formed part of the wider struggle for control of shipping routes and naval communications.

Africa, Asia and the Pacific

The fighting outside Europe was not simply a collection of minor colonial operations. These theatres involved the control of territory, communications, wireless stations, ports and naval bases, as well as the wider strategic interests of the belligerent powers.

Australian forces fought German forces in New Guinea, while New Zealand forces occupied German Samoa. Japan attacked the German concession at Qingdao, and German naval forces attempted to operate across the Pacific and Indian Ocean. The struggle for German overseas possessions therefore became part of the wider war almost immediately after the European conflict began.

These operations also demonstrated the importance of communications. German wireless stations and naval bases could support the movement of ships across enormous distances, making their capture or destruction an early objective for Allied forces.

The Middle East and Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire entered the war alongside the Central Powers, creating major new theatres in the eastern Mediterranean, Middle East and Caucasus. Fighting took place in the Dardanelles, Mesopotamia, Palestine, Arabia and elsewhere.

The strategic importance of the region extended beyond individual campaigns. Ottoman territory contained important routes between Europe and Asia, while the Suez Canal was vital to British imperial communications. Military operations were therefore closely connected with imperial defence, communications and access to resources.

The Gallipoli Campaign and Battle of Kut provide routes into two of the major campaigns in this wider theatre.

The Bombardment of Smyrna provides another example of the conflict in the eastern Mediterranean.

Naval War and the World’s Oceans

A global war depended upon control of the seas. Armies and supplies had to be transported between continents, while food, fuel, raw materials and manufactured goods moved through international shipping networks.

Naval warfare therefore extended far beyond the major fleet actions in European waters. German commerce raiders attacked Allied shipping across the world’s oceans, while Allied naval forces attempted to protect trade routes and restrict the movement of enemy ships.

The Battle of Jutland was the largest fleet action of the war, but actions involving German and Allied ships also took place in the Pacific, Indian Ocean and South Atlantic.

Empires and Global Mobilisation

The world’s empires were fundamental to the way the war was fought. Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the Ottoman Empire controlled territories and populations extending far beyond Europe. Their imperial possessions provided soldiers, labour, food, raw materials, bases, shipping and other resources.

The British Empire provides a particularly clear example. Troops and labourers came from India, Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean, while food, raw materials and other supplies moved through imperial networks. These connections supported military operations in Europe and other theatres, but they also made the war an international experience for societies far from the main European battlefields.

The global mobilisation of people went beyond combat troops. Chinese labourers served with the Allied war effort in Europe, while African and Asian populations supplied large numbers of carriers, labourers and other support personnel.

The First World War therefore cannot be understood simply as a European conflict to which colonial troops were added. Imperial populations, territories and resources formed part of the wider system through which the war was fought.

Explore the wider history of the British Empire for the imperial context behind these connections.

Resources, Logistics and Global Supply

Industrial warfare required enormous quantities of food, fuel, ammunition, weapons, clothing and other supplies. The ability to obtain and transport these resources was as important to the conduct of the war as the ability to fight battles.

Oil from the Middle East, food from Australia and New Zealand, agricultural products from across the Empire and raw materials from many parts of the world entered international systems of wartime supply. Ports, railways, roads, ships and communications networks connected distant sources of supply with armies and civilian populations.

People from many parts of the world were involved in this logistical system. The Chinese Labour Corps, for example, demonstrates that the global war effort depended upon people who were not serving as combat troops.

Chinese Labour Corps as part of the global First World War effort in France — British soldier and a Chinese worker checking ribbons with writing during a roll call at the Chinese Labor Corps Camp at Samer, 26 May 1918.

Global supply also depended upon shipping. Disruption to trade could affect armies and civilian populations thousands of miles from the fighting, making the protection of international supply routes a central part of wartime strategy.

Russia, Revolution and the Wider War

The First World War also transformed the political geography of Europe and Asia. Military defeats, economic disruption and political instability contributed to the collapse of the Russian Empire and the revolutions of 1917.

Russia’s withdrawal from the war allowed Germany to move forces from the Eastern Front to the Western Front, changing the military balance in Europe. The consequences extended beyond the Russian withdrawal itself. Revolution, civil war and foreign intervention created new conflicts across the former Russian Empire, while the collapse of the Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires transformed international politics.

The First World War therefore affected territories far beyond the immediate battlefields. Political change in one part of the world could alter military and diplomatic circumstances elsewhere.

The United States and a Divided Neutrality

The United States remained officially neutral until 1917, but the war was already affecting American politics, trade and society. Submarine warfare, the British blockade and attacks on shipping created tensions with the European belligerents, while American trade increasingly became connected with the Allied war effort.

American society was also shaped by migration from Europe. Large German-American communities, alongside other groups with European origins, contributed to arguments over neutrality, national identity and the United States’ relationship with the war.

The American experience demonstrates that a country did not have to be a belligerent to be deeply affected by the global conflict. Political divisions over neutrality developed alongside growing economic and diplomatic involvement before the United States entered the war in April 1917.

War, Society and Human Movement

The global war affected civilian populations as well as armies. Millions of people moved through military service, labour, migration, evacuation and displacement. Governments redirected economies towards war production, while shortages, inflation and disruption to trade affected civilian life far from the battlefields.

The movement of soldiers and civilians also connected distant populations in new ways. Medical services had to respond to casualties and disease across multiple theatres, while wartime movement and disruption formed part of the conditions in which infectious diseases spread.

The medical experience of the First World War provides one route into this aspect of the conflict. The global spread of influenza in 1918 illustrates the wider consequences of wartime movement and disruption.

The First Case of Spanish Influenza

The Global Consequences of War

The First World War changed the political and economic structure of the world. Four major empires collapsed or were fundamentally transformed, new states emerged, revolutionary movements gained strength and the balance of power between established and emerging powers changed.

The consequences were also economic and social. International trade had been disrupted, governments had accumulated enormous debts and populations had experienced unprecedented levels of mobilisation, loss and displacement.

The war therefore changed far more than the map of Europe. Its consequences were felt across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, the Americas, the Pacific and Europe, helping to shape international politics throughout the twentieth century.

Explore the First World War

Explore the wider conflict through the First World War hub, or follow the military course of individual battles and campaigns through Battles and Campaigns.

Global Conflict 1914-1918