his review is to summarize briefly the main military
phases of the first year and a half of the Great War. To do this it
is perhaps simplest to accept the unity supplied by the three major
campaigns of the Central Powers, that of Germany against France,
that of Austria and Germany against Russia, and that of Germany,
Austria, and Bulgaria against Serbia.

There is no intention of discussing here any ethical or political
considerations. Certain historical details are, however, of real
interest and value. Thus it is worth while to recall that the
present conflict differs little, if at all, from the earlier
coalition wars of Europe, in which one nation, numerically weaker,
has sought to impose its will upon a group of nations collectively
larger, richer, and potentially capable of employing greater numbers
of men. In a word, the present war is a pretty accurate repetition
of the wars of Louis XIV and Napoleon I, with Germany playing the
French role.

Now in such struggles it had always been true, and German writers,
notably Bernhardi, insisted it would be true of any future war, that
the single chance for a decisive victory for the smaller nation lay
in crushing the several foes before they were able to get their
collective strength in the field, while the superior preparedness,
training, general military efficiency of the smaller nation still
enabled it to put the superior numbers at the decisive point at the
crucial moment.

This whole conception is made perfectly clear by a glance at the
familiar and classic parallel of the Napoleonic wars. In 1805
Napoleon, facing a European coalition, which included Russia, Great
Britain, and Austria, and was bound to enlist Prussia ultimately,
quite as the present anti-German group enlisted Italy, had to solve
the same military problem.

Consider what he did. Breaking his camp at Boulogne, which he left
in September, 1805, he sent his Grand Army into southern Germany and
against Ulm. On October 20 he captured Mack's army at Ulm. On
December 2 he routed the Austrian and Russian armies at Austerlitz,
and on December 26 there was signed the Treaty of Pressburg, which
eliminated Austria from the war. Prussia now intervening, he
destroyed the Prussian armies at Jena and Auerstaedt on October 14,
1806. In June, 1807, he completed his task by defeating the Russians
at Friedland. The Peace of Tilsit, which followed immediately,
removed Russia and Prussia from the fighting line, as Aust