-
King Fredinand's Assasination
The Triple Alliance was of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy were destroyed when Austria-Hungary began arguing with Serbia over control of territory. Serbia threatened to take the Balkans after Austria took over Herzegovina and Bosnia. During all this distrust, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie decided to visit Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia on June 28th 1914. They were assassinated by 19-year-old Serbian Gavrilo Princip. He was a member a secret society, Black Hand. -
The Alliances are formed
As a result of Austria declaring war, the European countries split into two groups. Germany and Austria-Hungary started the Central Powers. It was called the Central Powers because of their location in Europe. The other group was the Allies. The Allies were composed of Great Britain, France, and Russia. After Austria declared war, Italy left the alliance with Austria-Hungary and Germany and joined the Allies. Italy joined the Allies because they thought Austria started the war unjustly. -
Battle of Tannenberg
This battle started not at the battlefield, but when Germany started to develop new war tactics. The Schlieffen Plan was developed by Count Alfred von Schlieffen. This idea was a plan to go through Belgium and then attack France from the north, heading south towards Paris. Another set of German troops then went into battle against the Russian army of 350,000. This was called the Battle of Tannenberg. Over one-third of Russian soldiers were either killed or captured and the rest ran off. -
The Battle of The Marne
The Battle of the Marne began long before the actual battle. Germany began planning with the Schlieffen Plan mentioned in the previous event, Battle of Tannenberg. When the German troops started to descend into France, they were already physically tired and famished, so they stopped 25 miles before Paris. The French knew how vulnerable the Germans were, so they ordered General Joffre to stand along the Marne with French troops. Over 2 million participated in battle, and Germany was defeated. -
Total War
In April of 1915, Germany opened up cylinders of gas onto the French and Canadian troops. The gas was a chlorine gas, and the troops were not prepared. Anyone who couldn’t escape the cloud had their lungs burned and died a very painful death. This war escalated into undeniably a total war when a London kindergarten class was massacred with zeppelins. When the children were killed, a chord was struck within the hearts of many people, and they began to show no mercy when it came to war tactics. -
The Germans declared a Submarine War on the Russia
When Germany declared an unrestricted submarine war, they sank a U-Ship in Lusitania. This ship carried 1,198 passengers who were all civilians, all of which died. Of these passengers, 128 of them were American citizens. Although the submarine had been carrying munition, the United States was angered by the fact that American citizens had been killed. Because of this, the United States entered the war and they aligned themselves with the Allies financially at this time. -
The British attempt at using gas
On September 15th, 1915, the British decided to launch an attack of yellow chlorine gas, green gas, mustard gas, and napalm near Loos. This was a very poisonous concoction that would kill several enemy soldiers. However, they did not check the wind patterns and the results were devastating. The gas moved in the opposite direction and it killed thousands of British soldiers. In the end, this single event caused 60,000 British casualties that could have been easily avoided. -
Battle of Verdun
The Battle of Verdun was the longest fought battle in the war. It started with an attack from the Germans on France. The French were very unprepared: they did not have any food, medics, officers, or plans. Most soldiers had recently joined the army and were not as experienced. Also, the Germans had greatly advanced their guns and other weaponry since the United States had funded weapons for the Allies. There were also no ordinary trenches in Verdun and it gave France a great disadvantage. -
Period: to
The Battle of Verdun
-
The Selective Service
The Selective Service Act was an act that enabled the U. S. to raise an army to enter into the war. This allowed the U. S. to become more involved in the war. The U.S. troops arrived in France on July 3rd, 1917. They were reluctant to fight under French and British control in the trenches, but they eventually agreed. Unfortunately, the Americans decided to fight using techniques of open movement across battlefields, in which they had been trained, proved to be devastating when thousands died. -
The Influenza
Beginning in early 1918 and lasting until 1919, two waves of a deadly virus swept across the world. It originated from Spain, which gave it the name Spanish Influenza. The Spanish flu was a virus that killed more people than all the people who had died in World War I. Overall, the death toll came out to over 600,000 Americans and thousands of other people from other countries. It was very contagious in army camps mostly. Because of lack of modern medicine, this virus was almost always deadly.
