ABSTRACT
Austria-Hungary and Russia were rivals for predominant influence in the Balkans. Germany felt that she could not afford to see Russia attack Austria-Hungary. France was bound to come to the aid of Russia in case Germany intervened in an Austro-Russian war. The route to Turkey was becoming as important for the Germans as the route to India had long been for the British. The Germans had made up their minds that any effort to undermine Austria-Hungary would have to be checked, even if it meant war. Montenegro entered the lists in defense of Serbia, and Turkey intervened on the side of the central powers. In 1915 Italy joined the entente powers and Bulgaria the central powers. In 1916 Portugal and Rumania declared war on the central powers, and in 1917 the intervention of the United States, Greece, China, Siam, Liberia, and most of the Latin-American republics made the combination against the central empires, Turkey, and Bulgaria virtually a world coalition.
