This is John Battser continuing my conversation with Professor Nick Lloyd, the Eastern Front, his new book, A History of the Great War, 1914, 1918.

Romania today is a shell of what it was in 1914.

In 1916, it got into the war on the side, on the losing side

and was rolled over very quickly.

The tragedy continues in the Balkans, a confused time that doesn't get any better a century later.

The Balkans today are ripped with contradictions, bad influences, bad actors,

and Russian interference.

This is Romania in 1914,

1916 before it got into the war and was crushed.

These sides here don't matter at the scale of the loss. The Balkans, Eastern Europe, Central

Europe, they were completely devastated, the loss of manpower. The Second War reflected that loss in the regrets, the revenge,

and also who wasn't there what might have been without the losses of the first war. Here's Nick Lloyd to describe

the Balkans, the confused Balkans, 1914, 1916, and will get worse for the next century. More of this later.

Romania comes into the war in August of 1916, so this is obviously about a year later,

where the Romanians come in, and that's the sort of last real entry into the war.

The Romanians have been bargaining and haggling for both sides for a while and they come in and they get rolled over in a lightning campaign by the end of

1916. But yeah it's an indication of how unstable the Balkans really are.

And all the states and the Balkans are, you know, looking at each other

and trying to decide when the moment is right, and when they can get most of it, what they want

territorially.

And so yeah, it is pretty unsavory what happens in the Balkans at this point and the allies

are really struggling to have any influence in this theatre at all.

...