2 square miles. The area
of the Austrian Empire was 115,831.9, and of the kingdom of Hungary
was 125,641.2. In addition to these, the area of Bosnia and
Herzegovina was 19,767.9, making the total area of the territories
of the Central Powers the sum of 470,093.2 square miles.

The nations known as the "Allies" in popular speech, consisted, at
the opening of the war, of the British Empire, the French Republic,
and the Russian Empire. Using the same basis of comparison, the area
of the British Isles was 121,633 square miles; the area of the
Republic of France was 207,129 square miles; and the area of
European Russia, including Finland and Poland, and excluding
territory within the Arctic circle, was approximately 2,500,000
square miles. Serbia had an area of 34,000 square miles. Belgium,
although in no way responsible for the outbreak of the war--no
matter from what point of view it may be considered--became the
nation to suffer most at first and in the very earliest days of the
war was on the side of the Allies. Her area, exclusive of oversea
possessions, was 11,373 square miles. This makes a total of
2,874,135 square miles for the Allies, a preponderance of territory
which seems extraordinarily disproportionate until it is realized
that the British Isles, France, Belgium, and Serbia together were
far smaller than the combined territories of the Central Powers, and
that only a small proportion of European Russia was liable to become
a part of the actual field of conflict.

Passing on to larger figures, that is to say to the total area of
all the possessions of the nations involved, it will be seen that
the preponderance on the part of the Allies is even greater. Thus
the German Empire, inclusive of colonial possessions in Africa, in
Asia, and in the Pacific, contained 1,236,600 square miles. The
Austro-Hungarian Empire, as previously stated, was 261,239 square
miles, there being no oversea colonies. This makes a total of
1,497,839 square miles as the total territory of the Central Powers.

Balanced against this come the enormous figures of the three great
allied empires. The area of the British Empire was approximately
13,158,712 square miles, the Republic of France and her colonies
4,983,086 square miles, and the Russian Empire 8,394,018 square
miles. The three empires combined thus made a total of 26,535,816
square miles, or but very little less than one-half of the total
land area of the earth. These figures are c