Greece during World War I

At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the Kingdom of Greece remained neutral. Nonetheless, in October 1914, Greek forces once more occupied Northern Epirus, from where they had retreated after the end of the Balkan Wars. The disagreement between King Constantine, who favoured neutrality, and the pro-Allied Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos led to the National Schism, the division of the state between two rival governments. Finally, Greece united and joined the Allies in the summer of 1917.

Greek war poster

Hellenic Army at Strymon river, 1917

Prime Minister Venizelos in Paris during the war (1917)

Venizelos inspects units at the Macedonian front, 1918

The Macedonian front stayed mostly stable throughout the war. In May 1918, Greek forces attacked Bulgarian forces and defeated them at the Battle of Skra-di-Legen on 30 May 1918. Later in 1918, the Allied forces drove their offensive from Greece into occupied Serbia. In September of that year, Allied forces (French, Greek, Serb, Italian, and British troops), under the command of French general Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, broke through the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Bulgarian lines along the Macedonian front. Bulgaria later signed the Armistice of Salonica with the Allies in Thessaloniki on 29 September 1918. By October, the Allies-including the Greeks under French general Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, had re-taken all of Serbia and were ready to invade Hungary when Hungarian authorities offered surrender.

The Greek military suffered an estimated 5,000 deaths from their nine divisions that participated in the war.^[96]

After the war[edit]

As Greece emerged victorious from World War I, it was rewarded with territorial acquisitions, specifically Western Thrace (Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine) and Eastern Thrace and the Smyrna area (Treaty of Sèvres). Greek gains were largely undone by the subsequent Greco-Turkish War of 1919 to 1922.^[97]

Diplomatic history of World War I § Greece

Megali Idea

The Chanak Crisis

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Greece and the Allies 1914–1922

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A Concise History of Greece

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Eleftherios Venizelos: The Trials of Statesmanship

Επίτομη ιστορία της συμμετοχής του Ελληνικού Στρατού στον Πρώτο Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο 1914–1918 [Concise History of the Hellenic Army's Participation in the First World War 1914–1918] (in Greek). Athens: Hellenic Army History Directorate. 1993.

Kaloudis, George. "Greece and the Road to World War I: To What End?." International Journal on World Peace 31.4 (2014): 9+.

Leon, George B. Greece and the First World War: from neutrality to intervention, 1917–1918 (East European Monographs, 1990)

Leontaritis, Georgios; Oikonomou, Nikolaos & Despotopoulos, Alexandros (1978). "Ἡ Ἑλλάς καὶ ὁ Α′ Παγκόσμιος Πόλεμος" [Greece and World War I]. In Christopoulos, Georgios A. & Bastias, Ioannis K. (eds.). Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους, Τόμος ΙΕ΄: Νεώτερος Ελληνισμός από το 1913 έως το 1941 [History of the Greek Nation, Volume XV: Modern Hellenism from 1913 to 1941] (in Greek). Athens: Ekdotiki Athinon. pp. 15–73. 978-960-213-111-4.

ISBN

Leontaritis, Georgios (1978). "Οἰκονομία καὶ κοινωνία ἀπὸ τὸ 1914 ὥς τὸ 1918" [Economy and Society from 1914 to 1918]. In Christopoulos, Georgios A. & Bastias, Ioannis K. (eds.). Ιστορία του Ελληνικού Έθνους, Τόμος ΙΕ΄: Νεώτερος Ελληνισμός από το 1913 έως το 1941 [History of the Greek Nation, Volume XV: Modern Hellenism from 1913 to 1941] (in Greek). Athens: Ekdotiki Athinon. pp. 74–85. 978-960-213-111-4.