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AD Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne who was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist who was part of a group known as "The Black Hand". This event is what set off WWI. -
They had given Serbia an ultimatum to find and punish the man who did this, but after no activity, they got upset and officially started WWI. -
Germany and Russia are both bound by treaty to enter into the war with both of the countries. Russia with Serbia, and Germany with Austria-Hungary. France followed suit short after because of their own treaty with Russia. -
The Germans had planned to attack France, their bordering country, first. To do this, they needed to get through Belgium. After invading Belgium, however, Britain honored their moral obligation with France and declared war on Germany. -
Japan honored a treaty with Britain, and joined the war on the Allies side. They also planned to take this as an opportunity to seize German outposts in China. -
Germany, getting desperate for a victory after years of fighting, began to use unrestricted submarine warfare again. This led to them sinking the British liner known as the Lusitania, which angered the people of America. -
After the unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmerman note telegram sent to Mexico, the United States joins the Allies side and declares war on Germany, preparing their country to head overseas and fight. -
After a new revolution began in Russia, they decided to pull out from the war. They met up with the Central Powers in modern-day Belarus to sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ended their involvement entirely. -
German troops were long exhausted, and even though they had been fighting for such a long time, with the new and refreshed U.S. troops now on the frontlines, and the never-ending battles of Trench Warfare, Germany decided there was no way they could win, and signed an armistice with the Allied powers, stopping fighting on the Western Front. -
After all of that fighting, Germany met with the Allied powers at the Hall of Mirrors, and had no other choice than to sign the Treaty of Versailles, causing them to take full blame and inflicted heavy punishments... but officially ended World War I.