**the Archive of World War 1 Photographs and Texts**
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Aftermath of World War 1

As a direct consequence of World War 1, old Empires vanished, new nations were born, and Dynasties ended.

The End of World War 1: Large German Crowds Show Up In Front of the Government Chancellery Building to Denounce the Humiliating Allied Peace Terms

The Ottoman Empire

Long referred to as The Sick Man of Europe, the Ottoman Empire had been in decline for many decades prior to the start of the war. It lagged behind the Great Powers in industrial capacity and had an inadequate rail system and few industries. In the years prior to the war, the Ottoman Empire had suffered many indiginities, including the loss of Lybia to the Italians, Egypt to the British, and most of the Balkans in the Balkan Wars which took place just prior to World War 1.

Turkish Prisoners arrive at Basra under escort by British Troops

Collapse of the Ottoman Empire: Turkish Prisoners of War

Even so, the Ottoman Empire remained a formidable giant at the beginning of the war. It covered all of present day Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, and the coast of Saudi Arabia. Four years later, the Ottoman Empire was no more and even its core territory in Turkey had been dismembered and allocated to the victorious powers including Greece, France, Italy, England.

Only a nationalist uprising led by Atta Turk, the Turkish General who had won the battle of Gallipolli, saved what is now Turkey from foreign domination. However, the First World War swept away completely the old Ottoman Empire, and its thousand year heritage.

The Russian Empire

The Russian Empire had been humiliated in its war with Japan in 1905. When the Great War started, Russia had not yet fully recovered. However it was still a formidable power, spanning a huge territorial expanse (from Siberia to present day Poland and Finland).

Russian defeats helped spark the Russian Revolution, and led to the collapse of Czarist Russia. In this picture barricades have been set up in Moscow by warring factions at the start of the Revolution.

As a result of crushing defeats at the hands of the Germans and AustroHungarian Empire, the Russian war effort collapsed and the Russian royal dynasty was swept away by revolution. The revolution eventually led to the Communist takeover and the birth of the Soviet Union.

As a result of the collapse of the Russian Empire, several new countries came into existence. Poland and Finland became independent. The Ukraine was also independent briefly, but its revolt was put down.

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