Page 80 - NS-2 Textbook

WORLD WAR I 73

of the Wat~ Britain was able to transport a quarter of a into coaling stations and colonies. Thus, when war broke
million troops across the channel into France because of out in 1914, half a dozen German cruisers were operating
her control of the English Channel. These troops were a in the Pacific under Vice Admiral Graf von Spee. Japan
key factor in helping to stop the first German offensive had been resentful of the German presence in the region
across Belgium toward Paris in September 1914. There- ever since Germany had been instrumental in forcing
after both sides consolidated their positions and con- Japan out of Port Arthur at the end of the Sino-Japanese
structed miles of soggy, rat-infested trenches, from which War. Japan had signed an alliance with Britain in 1902.
the two sides faced each other across an empty no-man's- Hence, when war was declared in 1914, Japan cited the
land stretching 350 miles across Europe. Periodically alliance and demanded the withdrawal of German
each side tested the other's lines by charging against warships from China and Japan and the surrender of
them, only to be cut down by machine guns, a newly de- Tsingtao.
veloped weapon. This condition of stalemate lasted for W1,en war broke out von Spee was at Ponape in the
months, and the loss of life on both sides was appalling. Caroline Islands with four of his cruisers. Von Spee rea-
In the North Sea, meanwhile, the British and German soned that if he lingered in the western Pacific he would
navies fought several times, with the British victorious eventually be hunted down, so he decided to proceed to
every time. After January 1915 the German surface forces the west coast of South America, where he could get
mostly retired to port behind protective mine fields, support from friendly Chile. On the way he picked up
where they stayed for most of the rest of the war. two more cruisers at Easter Island. He arrived off Chile
in October 1914.
The British had a force of cruisers operating off the
THE PACIFIC THEATER
coast of Brazil, home-ported at the British colony of Port
In 1898 Germany had acquired a naval base at Tsingtao, Stanley in the Falkland Islands. Several of these sailed
China, and had purchased many other Pacific islands around the cape and engaged the Germans off Coronel,
from Spain in the years following. These were developed Chile} in November but were driven off with two cruis-

so UrN

AMERICA

PACIFIC ATLANTIC

OCEAN OCEAN

German admiral von Spee's route of attack on the Falkland Istands, December 1914.