Disclaimer

1. I do not know everything about the first world war. What is up here represents a reasonable chunk of what I do know. If you have a specific question about anything, please email me. If I don't know, I may be able to find out or suggest where you could find out. If you have a question like "why did the first world war start?" then there are many sites better equipped to answer that than me. I don't mind answering questions, I do object to doing people's homework for them.

2. The images shown here were found at sites listed in the "Sources" section below. If you own the copyright for any image and wish me to remove it, please let me know. It is not my intention to break copyright law. Text is all my own, except for any passages acknowledged in situ.

3. I have been known to be wrong about things. I cannot be held responsible for the possible effects of using the information in these pages. If you flunk your test, don't blame me.

Sources Books

The original idea for this site, and much of the information, came from a book I loaned from Lancashire County Library a few years ago and completely forgot to write down the title and author of. If I ever find out what it was, I will acknowledge it here.

"The World War One Source Book", by Philip J Haythornthwaite
(London 1992, Arms & Armour Press)

"The First World War", by AJP Taylor
(publication information not to hand)

"The Fossil Monarchies", by Edmond Taylor
(London 1963, Penguin)

Websites

www.fotw.net - Flags of the World
Source for the flag images on the national pages.

http://www.ukans.edu/~kansite/ww_one/photos/greatwar.htm - Photos of the Great War
Source of photographs on the site.

www.firstworldwar.com
A useful resource for anything to do with the Great War. This site also featured the original incarnation of the site as a guest article - this can be found at /features/minorpowers.htm

FAQs 1. How did you decide who to include?
Not all of the nations listed were nation-states at the time of the Great War. Poland and Czechoslovakia, for example, were both created as a result of the post-war treaties. However, not all significant sub-national groupings have been given their own page. The Croatian, Slovenian and Bosnian peoples are dealt with under their Austrian masters.
Choosing who to give a page to is largely based on how much information is available. The exploits of the Czech Legion and the Polish Legions are reasonably well-known, whereas the Croatian troops in the Austrian army were simply regarded as "Hungarians" and therefore are not so well-documented.

2. What's with the flags?
The flags on the national pages are, as best as can be reckoned, the national flag at the time of the war. There are a couple of exceptions to this. The British Colonies had the British Union Flag as their official flag. However, local flags did exist and I have used these wherever possible. The present-day Australian flag, for example, was designed in the late 19th Century, but didn't become official until 1953. In between, it was widely displayed, but never officially: Australian troops fought in the trenches under the Union Jack.
The Indian flag displayed is that of the main separatist movement. The little Union Flag in the corner had no white on it in the original. Again, Indian troops who saw action did so under the British flag. Also note that British India included modern-day Pakistan and Bangladesh.

3. Stuff keeps moving!
Like I say, I'm in the middle of a revamp. As well as adding more information, I'm also tinkering with the layout and design to make the site user-friendly. So if the page looks different when you arrive to what it did last time, that's why.

4. There's broken links everywhere!
See above. If it says "Under Construction" against it, there's nothing there yet. There will be, be patient. Once a segment goes up, I'll take away the Under Construction sign.