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Archduke and wife were assassinated by a gunman. This upset a delicate balance among the powers of Europe. Weeks later, there was war.
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Two major alliances divided Europe in 1914. Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Germany formed the Triple Alliance. Russia, France, and Great Britain formed the Triple Entente. These alliances were meant to keep peace by creating balance so no one country could rule over the other.
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Gavrilo Princip, a member of a Serbian nationalist group, plotted Franz Ferdinand's murder. Princip fired the shots that killed the archduke and his wife but Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for the assassination. With Germany's support, Serbia was given a list of commands, which Serbia refused. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914
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The Germans marched into France once the Germans at last overcame the Belgians. The British and the French met with the Germans at the Marne River. The battle of the Marne was fought on Sept. 14, 1914 and it stopped the German's advance.
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Deadly weapons were introduced during the war which caused large numbers of death and injury. Better rifles enabled soldiers to hit their targets accurately. The number of dead and wounded grew, but still each side fought and looked for ways to gain control over the other. The Germans used poisoned gas against allied troops in April 1915.
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The Germans could not match the British blockade, but they did have the U-boat. To stop American aid to Britain, Germany said the U-boat would sink any vessels that entered or left British ports in February 1915. On May 7, 1915, a German U-boat torpedoed the British passenger liner called the Lusitania near the coast of Ireland.
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In spite of the Sussex Pledge, Congress was alarmed. In the summer of 1916, the size of the army doubled and provided funding for the construction of new warships.
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To break the standstill, both sides launched major offensives in 1916. The Germans launched the Battle of Verdun in northeastern France in February. Verdun was one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the war. The end of the war was in December 1916. More than 750,000 French and German soldiers were dead, other were wounded.
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January 1917, Germany again changed course in its use of submarine warfare. It announced it would sink all merchant vessels sailing to Allied ports, regardless of whether or not they were armed.
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March 1917, the Germans attacked and sank four American merchant ships. Thirty-six people died in these attacks.
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In March 1918, Lenin signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany, and peace had come to the Eastern Front. In the treaty, Russia lost a large amount of territory to the Germans. Russia's withdrawal allowed the Germans to move thousands of troops from the Eastern Front to the Western Front- the line separating the warring armies near the French-German border.
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The British 3rd and 4th Armies took 8,000 German prisoners while advancing toward Cambrai and LeCateau.
