Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I
Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I consisted of various military engagements that took place on the Asian continent and on Pacific islands. They include naval battles, the Allied conquest of German colonial possessions in the Pacific Ocean and China, an anti-Russian rebellion in Russian Turkestan and an Ottoman-supported rebellion in British Malaya. The most significant military action was the careful and well-executed Siege of Qingdao in China, but smaller actions were also fought at Bita Paka and Toma in German New Guinea.
All other German and Austro-Hungarian possessions in Asia and the Pacific fell without bloodshed. Naval warfare was common; all of the colonial powers had naval squadrons stationed in the Indian or Pacific Oceans. These fleets operated by supporting the invasions of German-held territories and by destroying the East Asia Squadron of the Imperial German Navy.
Siam[edit]
On 22 July 1917, Siam declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. Twelve German vessels docked in Siamese ports were immediately seized. The crews and other Central Power nationals were detained and sent to India to join their fellow citizens in British India's existing civilian internment camps. Being the only Southeast Asian country to maintain independence throughout the colonial period, Siam was the only state in the region to enter the conflict entirely of its own free will, as an equal of the European powers rather than as part of their imperial contingents. The Siamese and the Vietnamese were also the only two Southeast Asian nations to fight in the war.[8] Siam sent troops to mainland Europe, and participate in the Paris Peace Conference to become a founding member of the League of Nations. Overall increasing its international standing and modernizing both their army and its understanding of war in the modern age.[9]
The German fleet off Chile in November 1914 after the Battle of Coronel
Madras oil tanks on fire after being bombarded by SMS Emden
Australian troops after digging up a German land mine along Bita Paka Road during the New Guinea Campaign
The German auxiliary cruiser SMS Seeadler
Machine gunners and soldiers of the first Australian Expeditionary Force, on board the troopship Berrima, 1914
Troops landing at Herbertshöhe, New Guinea, 1914, by F. S. Burnell
Colonel Holmes (Brigadier), Colonel Watson (O.C. Infantry), and Colonel Paton, with Captain Goodsall scanning the hills for wireless station at Bita Paka, 1914, F. S. Burnell
