Five legacies of World War I

Iraq. Poland. Finland. Yugoslavia. These and dozens of other nations didn’t exist before World War I. The war hastened the collapse of three empires, which created the boundaries of many modern states as well as new political dynamics, some of which roil to this day. In the Middle East, in particular, the breakup of the Ottoman Empire led to a redrawing of the region’s map into British and French zones of influence. Those often arbitrary boundaries gave birth to ethnic, tribal, and religious rivalries that seethe across the region now – from Damascus to Baghdad. At the same time, many new states were carved out of the German, Russian, and Austro-Hungarian empires, changing the face of central and eastern Europe.