Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/836

 622 General History of Europe 1917. The British also forced back the Turkish army in Pal- estine and succeeded in capturing the holy city of Jerusalem, in December, 1917. An attempt of the English and French in 1915 to take Con- stantinople proved, however, a terrible failure. In April of that year their forces, greatly strengthened by contingents from Aus- tralia and New Zealand, who had come to the Mediterranean by way of the Red Sea, tried to force their way up the Dardanelles. The Turks, well supplied with German commanders and equip- ment, defended themselves with such success that the Allies, in spite of the sacrifice of a hundred thousand men, killed and wounded, were unable to hold their positions on the peninsula of Gallipoli, where they had secured a footing. After some months the English government was obliged to recognize that it had made a tragic mistake, and the attempt was given up. 1125. Italy joins the Allies. In May, 1915, Italy finally decided that she could no longer remain out of the war. Her people be- lieved in the principles for which the Allies were fighting and had no love for Austria. Then, too, it seemed that the opportunity had come to win "Italia Irredenta," those portions of the Italian people still unredeemed from Austrian rule who live around Trent, in Istria and the great seaport of Trieste, and along the Dalmatian coast. So this added another " front" which the Cen- tral Powers had to defend. 1126. The Belligerents at the Opening of the Second Year of the War. The line-up at the opening of the second year of the war consisted of the Central Powers Germany, Austria- Hungary, and Turkey opposed to Russia, France, Italy, Great Britain (including Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, and East Indian troops, all ready to shed their blood in the cause of the British Empire), Belgium, Serbia, Japan, and the tiny countries of Montenegro and San Marino, twelve bellig- erents in all, scattered over the whole globe. But the war was not destined to stop at this point. Hundreds of millions of people who were at that time still neutral later took up arms against German Kultur.