Importance of the Central Powers in World War I

Alsina González
Specialist journalist and researcher

The denomination of Central Powers (or, alternatively, Central Powers) corresponds to the side made up of Germany and Austro-Hungary in the framework of the First World War, to which later in the course of the conflict they would be added he ottoman empire and Bulgarian.

Its name comes both from its geographical centrality in the European continent, forming an axis from north to south, and from its cloistered location between the two parts of the Entente (name given to the group of states that fought against these empires), since they were in the middle of the Russian Empire on the one hand, and France and Great Britain on the other.

The origin of this union must be sought in the training of the German Empire in 1871, which had a clear enemy: France. The latter sought a rapprochement with Russia, the other traditional enemy of Germany, so the latter country He went looking for an Austria with which the embers of the Austro-Prussian War had already been extinguished.

For its part, an Austria both internally weakened and externally threatened, also needed the assistance of another power that could provide stability, and the most willing was Germany.

After all, the German unity project could have been led by Austria, but by losing this before Prussia, he preferred to turn his back on the German world -politically speaking- and turn to the construction of a multi-ethnic empire in the Balkans and in Eastern Europe.

Despite this, culturally, the Austrians were closer to Germany than to the rest of the territories that made up the Empire.

Both states, together with Italy, formed the Triple Alliance in 1882, a direct precedent of what would later be the Central Powers.

However, at the beginning of the War, Italy left the treaty dead and would not get involved until 1915… but on the side of the Entente.

In October 1914 (three months after the war began) the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, thus complying with a secret protocol signed with Germany.

The Ottomans were interested in having an ally to fight against the Russian Empire, and although within the country there were politicians and military who were betting on allying with the Entente, the militancy of their perennial Russian enemy in said alliance was an obstacle insurmountable.

For strategic reasons, basically to undermine British pre-eminence in the Middle East region, Germany pressured the government Ottoman to get them to align with the Central Powers.

The Kingdom of Bulgaria joined the Central Powers club a year after the Ottoman Empire, in October 1915.

In this case, the motive was to make up for her defeat and the consequent territorial losses of the Second War of the Balkans, in which he had faced Serbia, Romania, Greece, Montenegro, and the Empire itself Ottoman.

The end of the war, with the defeat of the Central Powers, was a blow to all these states.

The Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires fell apart, giving rise to different countries, while Germany lost important territories and was forced to pay large reparations of war. Bulgaria also lost territories in favor of its neighbors, and was also forced to pay reparations.

Out of bitterness over the harshness of the punishment imposed, almost all of these countries (except Turkey, heir to of the Ottoman Empire) would share a side again - even temporarily - in World War II World.

Fotolia art: Mikhail Markovskiy