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Triple Alliance
The Triple Alliance was the alliance amongst Austria-Hungary, Germany, and Italy. Later, Germany also made a treaty with Russia, because it's main goal was to prevent France from attacking them in revenge for losing the Franco-Prussian war; Russia may've been a valuable ally to France - which they will be - and so they try to be friendly with Russia first. It was significant because it was one of the two alliance webs - the other being the Triple Entente - that got all tangled up and started the -
Triple Alliance (continued)
started the war in the first place. Without the Triple Alliance, the war would've started much later or have been prevented altogether. If Germany hadn't been allied with Austria-Hungary, then the Great War would've just been a war amongst Serbia, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. But since Germany was allied with them, they fought with Russsia which kicked off the rest of the war. If the Triple Alliance had never existed, quite possibly neither would've WWI. -
Kaiser Wilhelm II
In 1890, Wilhelm II forced Bismarck to resign as ruler. Wilhelm became the leader of Germany, who took great pride in his army, what he thought was the best part about Germany. He broke off the treaty with Russia, which prompted Russia to ally with France, the exact opposite of what Bismarck wanted. This was important to the war because if he had kept up his treaty with Russia, the war could have been prevented because the eastern European powers couldn't have attacked each other. and -
Alliance of France and Russia
After Germany breaks off their treaty with Russia, Russia decides to instead ally with France. This is bad for Germany because now Germany is surrounded on both sides and has to fight off attacks in the east and west should war break out. If France and Russia hadn't allied, then when Germany attacked Russia for attacking Austria-Hungary, then France wouldn't have gotten involved, and since Germany wouldn't have a reason to attack France, western Europe probably wouldn't have gotten involved. -
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Rise of European Militarism & Nationalism
European nations believed that to be truly great, they needed a great military, so beginning as early as the 1890s, the countries started building up armies. By 1914, every nation except Great Britain had large armies. They glorified war and stressed mobilization of troops a lot, so they developed intricate plans for mobilization in the future. There was a great sense of nationalism in all of Europe, of people taking overzealous pride in their country. -
The Triple Entente
Worried about Germany's building of shipyards and strengthening of their navy, Great Britain decides to make a pact with France and Russia. However, this didn't necessarily guarantee that Britain would fight with France and Russia, just that it wouldn't fight against them. This is important to the war simply because it was one of the two sides: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance. Without all the alliances being made, perhaps WWI would have never happened. -
Annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina
In 1908, Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, which angered the Slavic nationalists in Serbia who were planning to rule these provinces and reuinte the Slavs in them. This led to many future tensions between Serbia and Austria-Hungary, which led to Ferdinand's assassination. If Austria-Hungary had never annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, then the war could've been prevented for longer. It woud probably happen in the end, but this exact war would have been totally prevented. -
Archduke's Asssassination
On June 28, 1914, the heir to the throne, Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, Sophie, were killed while riding in an open car around the Bosnian city of Sarjevo. The killer was Gavrilo Princip, part of a Serbian nationalist group called "the Black Hand". In retaliation, Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia. They agreed to most things and wanted to negotiate others, but Austria was in no mood for negoations; they declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914. -
Archduke's Assassination (continued)
This is the event that started World War I and shaped the world as we know it today. Without that fateful sandwich and the Ferdinands' bad sense of direction, the war would never have started, and the world would have remained peaceful - that is, until the war started anyway about something else. Which it probably would. -
First Day of War
On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary rejected Serbia's requests to negotiate and declared war on them. Russia, with a largely Slavic population, supported Serbia and mobilized troops to Austria-Hungary. Other European powers tried to make them negotiate, but it was already too late. This event was important because it as the beginning of WWI, the war that changed the world's perspective of war and, to a certain extent, society forever. -
Germany Enacts Schlieffen Plan
On 2 August, 1914, the German government put the Schlieffen plan into action. The plan relied heavily on the slowness of troop response in Russia and Britain so they could steamroll through Belgium and Luxembourg to Paris. However, they were held up by the Belgian army, allowing the British army to come help, and the Russians responded much quicker to their eastern defenses than expected, killing their smaller amount of troops. -
Germany Enacts the Schlieffen Plan (continued)
This was important because, once France and Germany met in northern France, they were met with a stalemate, so they dug trenches and stayed there for the next four years. The Schlieffen Plan was the basis for the whole Western Front of the war, which meant a whole new, brutal part of the war was created that couldn't end very easily since the sides were so equally matched. -
Great Britain Declares War on Germany (continued)
In addition to Great Britain fighting Germany, their colonies - Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India - sent financial and military aid. As part of an agreement with Britain to protect them, Japan declared war on Germany on August 23. A couple of days later, Austria-Hungary declared war on Japan. -
Great Britain Declares War on Germany
Shortly after Russia mobilizes troops to the German border - two days after, to be exact - and Germany declares war on Russia, they also declare war on France. When Germany attacked Belgium in order to get to France, Britain attacked Germany because they had an agreement with Belgium to maintain their neutrality. Now, the entirety of the Triple Entente and Triple Alliance have declared war, and the real Great War is beginning. -
Battle Lines are Drawn
By mid-August of 1914, the battle lines were drawn: it was the Central Powers vs the Allies. The Central Powers consisted of Germany Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottomans - Italy believed they had unjustly started the war, so they joined the Allies. The Allies consisted of Great Britain, Japan, France, Russia, Italy, and Japan. This was important because it established the war as something that was there to stay and wasn't going away anytime soon. -
Armenian Genocide
The first genocide of the twentieth century in which there were mass deportations of Armenians from Turkey and were forced on death marches across the Syrian desert. Though not a cause but a result of the war, I felt it was important because since this is about WWI, one of the most important things about it was the first genocide of the twentieth century: the Armenian Genocide, in which approximately 1.5 million people were killed. -
Italy Joins the Allies
For a while, Italy was able to avoid joining the war becuse of a clause that said they would only fight with Germany and Austria-Hungary in a defensive war. They maintained neutrality until May of 1915, when they switched to the Allies. This was important because that's one less nation fighting with the Central Powers; it seems like a lot of Europe is now against them, and they may lose as a result. -
America joins the war (continued)
This was important to the war because around this time, Russia was caught up in it's revolution, so it was forced to pull out and deal with internal issues. This meant that the Allies were getting a bit low on manpower, which is something that the US was able to provide. Without the US, the Allies probably would have still won the war, but it would've been a bit harder or longer. -
America joins the war
Despite maintining it's neutrality and isolation from the rest of the world for a long time, America became involved in the war for two reasons: a passenger ship with many Americans was sunk by German U-Boats; and a German transmission was intercepted by Britain and given to the US. It was a message to Mexico, stating that they would give them parts of U.S. land in return for declaring war on the US. Now that it was on US soil, America joined the fray. -
Russia pulls out of the war
In 1917, the communist revolution in Russia was beginning, so they now had their own internal problems in addition to the war. As a result, they negotiated their way out of the war with the Allies and signed the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty with Germany. It's an important event because it represents the war coming to a close with big powers like Russia not fighting anymore. That same year that Russia pulled out of the war, it ended with the Treaty of Versailles. -
Signing of the Treaty of Versailles
On June 28, 1919, after about 6 months of the three big Ally powers (France, Britain, US) negotiating, the Treaty of Versailles was signed. It dealt out blame and restrictions to the losing side, and most of the blame was heaped on Germany: they had many financial and military restrictions put on them in addition to being forced to pay all the costs of the war damages (which were a lot). This angered Germany, but their only other option was an Ally invasion. -
Signing of the Treaty of Versailles (continued)
This was very, very important to WW1 because it was the end of fighting. The war was over, and for a brief twenty years, Europe was, for the most part, at peace - at least, there were no gigantic, destructive wars. But this Treaty only hurt Europe in the long run: the oppression of the German people led to the rise of the nationalist Nazi party and, once Germany had regained it's strength, the beginning of WW2. If it had been made with more Germany-friendly terms, maybe WW2 would be prevented.
