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The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
Ferdinand was assasinated as a terrorist act, while visiting in Sarajevo. Austria decided they would use this assasination to control Serbia or otherwise declare war. Urged on by Keiser Whelm they gave Serbia a huge list of demands to be met. -
War is Declared and Russia Helps Serbia
On July 28 Austria declared war on Serbia. They said that they would not compromise with Serbia and so the war began. Once Russia, Serbia's ally, heard of Austria's war with Serbia they sent troops to the Austrian boarder that same day -
The Schlieffen Plan Starts
In August, Germany began to come up with their plan of action for the war and named it the Schlieffen Plan. This plan was that Germany would head to France as fast as possible and defeat them first and then head to Russia who would have a harder time moving thier troops around becasue of lack of railroad. -
Development on the Eastern Front starts
As Russia began to invade Germany, they realized the need for troops over on the eastern side of the country. Germany sent thousands of soldiers from Paris over to the eastern side to deal with Russia. -
The First Battle of the Marne
The Germans as part of there war plan were approaching Paris. On September 5th the Allies attacked the Germans. The fighting lasted four days until eventuall the Germans were forced to retreat. -
Battle for Gallipolli
In this Battle the Allies wanted control of the Dardanelles Strait and eventually Constantiople. THe British launched a naval attack up the strait. The Allies lost about 214,000 men total and the Turks lost about 300,000. -
Attack Near Verdun
In February of 1916 the Germnas attacked the French at Verdun on the Western Front. THe attack was huge and both sides lost at least 300,000. -
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The Battle of The Somme
This three monthe battle resulted in heavy casualties for both sides and very small gain from the total number of loses. Each side had more than half a milliion casualties and the British only gained 5 miles. -
Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
The Germans came up with a new strateygy for their naval troops.They decided that they would notify everyone that they would sink any ships in the British waters no matter who they were. THis plan was called unrestricted submarine warfare. -
The U.S. Declares War
President WIlson asked Congress to declare on April 2nd. They agreed and the U.S. entered the war on April 2nd 1917. The U.S. formed an alliance with the Allied Powers. -
Russia Has a New Leader
A new leader took powere in Russia named Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Lenin decided he did not want Russia to be involved in the war any longer and wanted to offer Germany a truce. -
War Between Russia and Germany Ends
In March of 1918 Germnay and Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. This ended the war between them but made Russai give up a large amount of land, which later became countries such as FInland and Poland. -
Second Battle of the Marne.
In July, the Allies and the Germans fought the Second Battle of the Marne. The allies had aroung 350 tanks that crushed the German troops and brought the allies closer to Germany. WIth the additional 2 million American troops the Allied Powers were much stronger than the Central Powers. -
The War Ends.
On November 11. 1918 a peace treaty was signed in Paris and The Great War was finally over. -
The Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was signed between The Allied Powers and Germany. Even though the war had enede before this, it took a while for all the terms of the treaty to be agreeed upon.