The Importance of "Minor" Nations in World War I

There were a lot more nations than just Germany, Britain, England, Russia and the United States that fought in World War I- for example, Roumania, Ireland, Albania, Turkey, to name a few. Each of these countries probably supplied a number of troops to their respective sides, however, I believe that the biggest support that each of the minor nations supplied to their respective sides was an additional front to fight on. For example, had the "Big" nations alone been fighting the Central Powers, the only point of attack on Austria-Hungary would be fighting through Russia. However, with Italy, Serbia and Roumania as additional fronts, Austria-Hungary had to fight on three sides of its borders, dividing their troops out over a much larger area. Likewise, the fact that Bulgaria was allied with the Central powers prevented Serbia and Roumania from allocating all of their troops to the Austria-Hungarian front. Were it not for these smaller countries, allocation of troops would have been easier, especially for the Central Powers, and that could have given them the edge in the war.

Britain's Indirect Role in Acquiring the United States as an Ally

I wanted to comment on how the United States got involved in the war, and why. The United States got involved in the war mainly because of German's unrestricted submarine based blockade of Germany, which ended up destroying many United States ships heading towards Great Britain. Ironically, Great Britain had been doing the same thing with Germany, albeit slightly differently- since the beginning of the war, neutral ships that were Germany-bound, including the United States, were redirected to Great Britain. Because of this, United States trade benefitted the allies almost entirely exclusively. Germany's naval blockade was mainly an attempt to match Britain's own control of the seas. Additionally, because so little trade had reached Germany's shores, they assumed that any United States ships in the area were Britain bound, and were destroyed. So, indirectly, Britain's blockade and regulation of United States trade with Germany brought the United States to the side of the Allies.