Central Powers

The Central Powers was one of the two sides that participated in World War I. They fought against the Allies, and consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. The name Central Powers is derived from the location of these countries; all four were located between the Russian Empire in the east and France and the United Kingdom in the west.

After four years of fighting, the various Central Powers surrendered throughout the fall of 1918. Their defeat served as the foundation for domestic conflict, particularly in Germany, which eventually begat the Nazi Party and World War II.

Central Powers in Southern Victory
The Central Powers also called the Quadruple Alliance was, along with the Entente, one of two major alliance systems vying for world dominance in the early twentieth century.

Founding Members
The following countries were among the founding members of the Central Powers and remained its major members throughout the early twentieth century.


 * [[Image:Austria-Hungary.jpg|20px]]Austria-Hungary
 * [[Image:Germany_1870.png|20px]]Germany
 * [[Image:34Stars.jpg|20px]]United States

Italy
Italy, which like Germany was unified in the mid-late nineteenth century, was courted by Otto von Bismarck in his attempt to build an anti-French coalition, and it became a founding member of the Central Powers but remained neutral in the Great War. Nonetheless, Italy extended recognition to the Republics of Quebec and Ireland and the Kingdom of Poland during the war, before most other neutral and Entente countries did the same.

Italy also remained neutral in the Second Great War.

Joined Before the Great War

 * [[Image:Haiti.jpg|20px]]Haiti
 * [[Image:Liberia.jpg|20px]]Liberia
 * [[Image:Turkey.jpg|20px]]Ottoman Empire

Joined During the Great War

 * YO MAMMA!!!!!
 * [[Image:Brazil.jpg|20px]]Brazil
 * [[Image:Bulgaria.jpg|20px]]Bulgaria
 * [[Image:Chile.jpg|20px]]Chile
 * [[Image:Ireland.jpg|20px]]Ireland
 * [[Image:Paraguay.jpg|20px]]Paraguay
 * [[Image:Poland.jpg|20px]]Poland
 * [[Image:Quebec.jpg|20px]]Quebec

Joined During the Second Great War

 * [[Image:Finnland.jpg|20px]]Finland
 * [[Image:Netherlandsflag.jpg|20px]]The Netherlands
 * [[Image:Norway.jpg|20px]]Norway
 * [[Image:Ukraine.jpg|20px]]Ukraine

Governments Created by the Central Powers or Their Members

 * [[Image:Finnland.jpg|20px]]Finland
 * [[Image:Ireland.jpg|20px]]Ireland
 * [[Image:Liberia.jpg|20px]]Liberia
 * [[Image:Poland.jpg|20px]]Poland
 * [[Image:Quebec.jpg|20px]]Quebec
 * [[Image:Texas.jpg|20px]]Texas
 * [[Image:Ukraine.jpg|20px]]Ukraine

Nations Which Belonged at One Time but Later Withdrew

 * [[Image:Brazil.jpg|20px]]Brazil
 * [[Image:Italy.jpg|20px]]Italy
 * [[Image:Quebec.jpg|20px]]Quebec

Origins
When Otto von Bismarck unified Germany in 1870, one of his main foreign policy goals was the isolation of France. To that end he approached the recently unified Italy, a French rival, as well as Austria-Hungary, a one-time rival to Germany's ruling Hohenzollern dynasty, which was a rival of France's ally Russia. After the Second Mexican War, he instructed Ambassador Kurd von Schlozer to approach United States President James G. Blaine to appeal to his country's desire for revenge against French-ally the Confederate States, at whose hands it had been recently defeated. The US allied itself with Germany, and by extension with the other two members. The alliance was greatly beneficial to the United States as German advisors gave recomendations on social, military, and economic reforms to gear the nation toward winning a major war. These reforms became hallmarks of the emerging revanchist, nationalist ideology of Remembrance. The alliance expanded as both Germany and the US entered into defensive alliances with other countries.

Great War
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated by Serbian nationalists in Sarajevo in 1914. Austria-Hungary threatened war with Serbia if a number of ultimata were not met. Serbia, emboldened by Russia's promise to support it, refused to meet these ultimata, and war between Austria-Hungary and Russia broke out. The United States and Germany supported Austria-Hungary. Russia's Entente allies supported it, and the Great War began.

Central Powers forces battled the Entente on the continents of Europe, North America, South America, and Africa and in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Germany introduced poison gas and the United States introduced barrels. Central Powers diplomats continued to recruit new members, scoring a major victory when they convinced the Empire of Brazil to join the alliance in 1917. This allowed an American-led fleet with Brazilian and Chilean elements to cut supply lines between Britain and Argentina, forcing Britain to surrender. The Central Powers also supported the Red Rebellion in the CS, the Rising in Ireland and the Russian Revolution in Russia, which forced Russia to withdraw from the war. The Central Powers created the Kingdom of Poland and the Republics of Ireland and Quebec, with the support of Pope Benedict XV of the Catholic Church.

The Central Powers won the war in 1917 when all four major Entente nations were forced to withdraw from combat and ask for terms.

Interwar Years
After the war, the victorious Central Powers imposed harsh peaces on their defeated enemies but soon lost the will to continue enforcing them. At the same time, relations between the United States and Germany cooled. In the United States, the Socialist Party ended a period of dominance by the Democratic Party, and maintaining a strong military was a much lower priority for the Socialists. In Germany, political turmoil as Kaiser Wilhelm II aged and ailed had a similar effect. During this time, several members of the alliance withdrew. The United States supported an anti-Hapsburg rebellion in the Mexican Civil War, and Germany supported a Monarchist government in the Spanish Civil War. Both were defeated.

Second Great War
In 1941, upon the death of the Kaiser, the Entente launched a coordinated assault on Germany and the United States, beginning the Second Great War. Both Central Powers countries fell back early on before (mostly) stabilizing their fronts, then reversing their fortunes in 1943. Repeating their successes with the three Catholic countries in the Great War, the Central Powers created allied governments in Finland and Ukraine by supporting anti-Russian rebels in those areas. They also supported rebels against Entente governments whenever and wherever possible.

In the Great War there was a great amount of cooperation between the two major allies, but in the latter war this is not the case--at most they occasionally cooperate on minor naval operations in the Atlantic. Nonetheless, the Central Powers prevailed in the Second Great War, as Germany destroyed the capital cities of Russia, France, and Britain with superbombs, and the United States brought its superior military resources to full use, completely overwhelming the Confederate States.