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The First World War, began in the Autumn of 1914 when the German army invaded first Belgium and then France. The pushed on to the River Marne, only a short distance from the French capital and probably victory. The French army halted the German advance was halted by the French army at the First Battle of the Marne. The entire might of the French army was required to beat back the German advance.<ref> Keegan, John, <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375700455/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0375700455&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=470177a17ab6122f91a150f49c828e30 The First World War]</i> (MacMillan, London, 1998), p. 134 </ref> The Allied counterattack also came to a halt , and by the winter of 1914, the war on the western front had become a bloody stalemate. The situation on the eastern front was somewhat similar. In the autumn of 1914, the Russian army had invaded Prussia from the Baltic States. Two huge armies poured into the east of Prussia.

The German army under Ludendorff and Von Hindenburg defeated these two Russian armies at the Battles of Tannenberg and the Masurian Lake. The Germans pushed the Russians back , but they could not deliver a decisive blow.<ref> Keegan, p. 143</ref> The result was that by 1915, the eastern front was a mirror of the western front, when huge armies fought a war of attrition, with huge casualty figures. The Ottoman Empire was the dominant power in the Middle East, but it had been virtually pushed out of the Balkans and was widely seen as a power in irreversible decline.  The Ottoman government had allowed German ships to pass through the strategic Dardanelles and into the Black Sea. This move was seen as an act of war , and the Allies declared war on the Ottoman Empire. In response, the Ottoman Sultan declared said a Jihad or a Holy War against the western allies and Russia. A Russian invasion of the eastern provinces of Turkey was defeated , but the Turks could not press home their success.<ref> Keegan, p. 153</ref> They also managed to limit the British advances in the Persian Gulf. However, the Ottoman Empire 's conflict with the allies had reached a stalemate by early 1915.