Events leading up to WWI

By gordenjs

  • Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serbian activist.

  • Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.

  • Period: to

    Events leading up to WWI

  • Russia, Serbia's ally, orders the mobilization of troops.

  • Germany, an ally of Austria-Hungary, declares war on Russia and demands the neutrality of Russia's ally France; France refuses and mobilizes.

  • Germany declares war on France.

  • Germany invades neutral Belgium, as per the Schlieffen Plan to knock-put France; Britain responds by declaring war on Germany.

  • Austrian invasion of Russian Poland.

  • Russia invades East Prussia.

  • The USA declares itself neutral.

  • Russia invades Eastern Galicia

  • Hindenburg and Ludendorff given command of the German Eastern Front.

  • Battle of Mons

  • Battle of Tannenberg

  • First Battle of the Marne

  • First Battle of the Masurian Lakes

  • The Great Retreat

    German troops retreat back to Aisne river

  • First Battle of Aisne

  • Joint German/Austro-Hungarian invasion of Russia.

  • First Canadian Troops arrive in Britain.

  • First Battle of Ypres

  • Russia declares war on Turkey.

  • Turkey joins the Central Powers

  • Battles of Limanowa

  • First German air raid on Britain.

  • Troops share an unofficial Christmas Truce in the Western Front trenches.

  • Germany forms a southern army to support the faltering Austrians.

  • First German Zeppelin raid on British mainland.

  • The first use of poison gas in WW1, by Germany at Bolimow in Poland.

  • Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes

  • Britain bans all 'neutral' parties from trading with Germany.

  • Battle of Neuve-Chapelle.

  • Second Battle of Ypres

  • The Allied ground assault begins in Gallipoli.

  • The Treaty of London is signed

  • Battle of Gorlice-Tarnow

  • First Battle of Isonzo

  • The German 'Triple Offensive' begins

  • 'The Great Retreat' is ordered

  • Tsar Nicholas II makes himself Russian Commander-in-Chief

  • Battles of Champagne

  • Allies withdraw from Gallipoli

  • Douglas Haig appointed British Commander-in-Chief

  • Battle of Verdun

  • Alexi Brusilov given command of Russia's southern front

  • Germany makes the Sussex Pledge to the US

  • Austrian Trentino Offensive against Italy

  • Battle of Jutland

  • The Brusilov Offensive

  • British Minister for War and face of the 'Your Country Needs You' posters is killed at sea.

  • British troops suffer 60,000 casualties

    On the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the attacking British troops suffer 60,000 casualties, mostly in the first hour

  • Battle of the Somm

  • Romania declares war on the Central Powers

  • Falkenhyn dismissed from German command

  • United army of Germans, Turks and Bulgarians invades Romania

    led by Mackensen, undermining any Romanian hopes of success; Mackensen eventually captures Bucharest.

  • Germany switches tactics from offense to defense in depth along the Western Front.

  • Tanks are used for the first time

  • Germany begins constructing the Hindenburg Line

  • David Lloyd George named Prime Minister of Britain

  • The Central Powers defeat Romania

  • Robert Nivelle replaces Joffre as French commander and chief

  • US President Wilson sends his Peace Note to the belligerents.

  • Germany, in reply to Wilson's Note, suggests a peace conference.

  • The Entente refuse to discuss peace without a German commitment to reparations.

  • Turkey declares independence from European suzerainty

  • Entente powers respond to Wilson's peace note, giving their objectives.

  • Germany resumes USW.

  • US severs diplomatic ties with Germany.

  • Operation Alberich

  • The UK releases The Zimmermann Telegram to the US

  • The February Revolution convulses Russia

  • Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates.

  • Wilson's war address to the US Congress

  • The US declares war on Germany.

  • Battles of Arras and Vimy Ridge

  • The Nivelle Offensive

  • Lenin arrives back in Russia

  • Pershing placed in command of US troops

  • Nivelle is replaced by Petain as C-in-C

  • First US troops arrive in France.

  • The Kerensky Offensive

  • Pershing requests a million men.

  • Pershing revises his estimate: requests 3 million men.

  • Third Battle of Ypres

  • Capture of Riga by the Germans

  • First Battle of Passchendaele

  • Austro-German Caporetto offensive pushes Italian front

  • Second Battle of Passchendaele.

  • The Bolsheviks seize power in Russia

  • Clemenceau becomes French Prime Minister

  • Battle of Cambrai.

  • The British capture Jerusalem

  • Russia and Germany sign an armistice at Brest-Litovsk.

  • Wilson presents his 'Fourteen Points'.

  • Wilson presents his 'Four Principles'.

  • Germany and Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

  • The Kaiserschlact offensive pushes the British back 40 miles

  • The Battle of Lys

  • The Third Battle of the Aisne

  • US forces make their first offensive

  • German USW completely fails to stop US soldiers being moved across the Atlantic.

  • Second Battle of the Marne

  • 'the Black Day of the German Army'

  • US forces make first attack under independent command

  • Massive Allied attack breaks through the Hindenburg line.

  • Ludendorff and Hindenburg recommend an armistice.

  • Yugoslavia declares independence from Austria-Hungary.

  • Poland declares independence.

  • Ludendorff resigns.

  • German sailors and fleet mutiny at Kiel

  • Turkey agrees an armistice with the allies.

  • Hungary declares independence from Austria.

  • Austria and Hungary agree an armistice with the allies.

  • Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates.

  • Armistice Day.

    At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, Germany signs an armistice with the Allies. The war is officially over.

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