Warfare on Polish soil in 1914-15 caused huge material losses, as well as the impoverishment and deprivation of the local population. The war also led to mass displacement, much of it involuntary, involving people living in the territories of the Kingdom of Poland, a constituent part of the Russian Empire, and in Galicia, belonging to Austria-Hungary. As a general order of magnitude, it is reasonable to agree with Walentyna Najdus who concludes that the Russian Empire was home to around one million refugees from the Polish lands during the First World War. In the case of refugees from Polish lands, the criteria used by Polish relief organisations also proved to be important. Despite the efforts to conduct an orderly repatriation of the refugees, many of them attempted to return without waiting for the approval or assistance of any re-emigration or relief organisation.

The German invasion of Belgium in the First World War, from August to October 1914, led to the flight of more or less 1.5 million Belgian civilians. In each of the host countries, the arrival of Belgian refugees led to unprecedented humanitarian action. The relief effort for the refugees showed remarkable solidarity but demonstrated also all the characteristics of charity at that time. In the Netherlands, apart from certain industrial centres around Rotterdam or in Limburg, unemployment was high among Belgian refugees. The absorption of the Belgians into the workforce caused fewer problems in France than in Britain. In Great Britain and to a lesser extent in France, the search for jobs forced many refugees to settle in heavily populated working-class areas. The end of the war gave rise to great expectations among refugees. The vast majority were impatient to return to their families after years of absence.

This chapter explores what conditions were like in the Cypriot Mule Corps, the health and working conditions of the muleteers and mules, and how the muleteers treated their mules. It argues that conditions were harsh: the climate, terrain and nature of the work challenged the men and impacted on their welfare and that of their mules. Initially mule procurement was just as important as muleteer recruitment and perhaps even seen as more significant because the name of the operation at Famagusta was the Mule Purchasing Commission. The work of muleteers differed in Salonica compared to Constantinople and depended on which unit they served. Some muleteers also had health problems, especially venereal disease. Many men, particularly those enlisting early, contracted venereal disease at Famagusta, cutting short their service and having to cover treatment costs.

Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria wrested large territories from the Ottomans and expelled hundreds of thousands of Muslims from those lands. This chapter discusses the consequences of the atrocities, in order to address the overarching question of how Muslim refugees during the Balkan Wars experienced their flight and arrival in the Ottoman Empire. It examines the expulsion of Ottoman Muslims in the Balkans and their ordeal in the rump Ottoman state. The violence of the two Balkan Wars, the ensuing population exchanges and expulsions, the First World War, the Armenian Genocide, the Greco-Turkish War, and the 1923 great population exchange occurred within one decade. The violence resulted in unprecedented refugee streams, especially of Muslims to the Ottoman Empire. The chapter also discusses how their experiences as refugees influenced them, how they were received by the host population, and which social problems they faced as refugees.

Bulgaria stands out as a specific case in relation to population displacement during the First World War for several reasons. This chapter focuses on the circumstances of displacement, the reception and settlement of refugees, and the state's attempts to address the political, economic and social shock of accepting thousands of refugees from the lost territories. It outlines the centrality of the refugee issue to the development of the modern Bulgarian state, particularly after the Balkan Wars when it occupied a central role both internally and externally. The chapter also focuses on three main episodes: before 1912, when a quarter of a million refugees had already fled to Bulgaria, whose population was around 4.5 million in 1912; between 1913 and 1918, when 120,000 refugees settled in the country; and in the years 1919-25 during which time Bulgaria witnessed the influx of an additional 180,000 refugees.