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Triple Alliance Formed
The Triple Alliance was the formation of Austria Hungary, Germany, and Italy coming together to defend one another in the case of one of them being attacked. This started in 1882 and ended in 1914. They became allies for World War 1. Anytime that a country would try and attack one of those 3, the other 2 allies will get involved to protect the nation being attacked. -
Germany and Russia become allies.
Germany and Russia became allies in 1887. Germany wanted to get as many nations on their side as possible so that they have more nations to defend them if Germany is in any need of help at any time. The Allies were the group of nations against the Triple Entente which included France, Britain, and Russia(after it was on Germany's side). -
Bismark is forced to resign.
This event is when the foreign policy is changed by Kaiser Wilhelm II which forced Bismark to resign. This happened after Wilhelm had died and Bismark was not the best leader. He was not able to handle all of the power that he had, and eventually lead to him being 'kicked out'. -
Alliance with Russia Expires.
Wilhelm II decided that he would allow Russia to side with whichever nation they wanted too. After a couple of years of siding with Germany, Russia decides that they will move to side with France. This means that they joined the Triple Entente. Germany would only have Austria Hungary and Italy on their side from now on, until Italy also joined the Triple Entente. -
Russia forms defensive military alliance with France.
Russia is now sided with France and will defend them rather than defending Germany, their ex allies. This made Germany less powerful because now they have less people in their military alliance. However, this was good for France because Russia had the most people in their military than any other nation, and France would be able to train them well. -
Britain formed alliance with France.
Wilhelm was trying to get Germany more powerful than they already are, with the loss of one of their allies, Russia. Britain formed an alliance with France now so that they could protect one another from Germany if ever needed, since they knew that Germany was super powerful. -
Britain formed another entente with France and Russia which led to The Triple Entente.
Britain is now in the Triple Entente with France and Russia. Together they will defend and protect themselves against the powerful Germany. Britain just promised to never fight against them, but not nessacerily always fight with them. Now most of Europe is divided into 2 powers; The Triple Entente (Britain, France, and Russia) and The Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria Hungary, and Italy). Most of Europe will be in battle if war ever breaks out between these opposing alliances. -
Allies launch the Gallipoli Campaign.
The launch of this campaign was not very successful because now Bulgaria wanted to become a part of the Central Powers. Eventually they marked their word and joined the Central Powers. This was not good for the Entente because now they have another nation that is wanting to defeat them. -
Ferdinand and Sophie are assassinated.
They were the heirs of the Austrian Hungary throne and they were assassinated by Gaverilo Princip, who was 19 at the time. This really upset Austria Hungary, and they decided to declare war to Serbia. The reason for the assassination was because Bosnia did not want to be ruled and controlled by Austria Hungary any more. -
Austria presented Serbia with the Ultimatum.
Austria was very aggravated about their heirs being assassinated. They did not let Serbia get away with this very easily. Serbia was given a ultimatum that included many commands. Serbia agreed to do all but one. Austria was not okay with this and declared war after the refusal of that one command. -
Austria declares war on Bosnia.
Bosnia and Austria are now at war. Russia is an ally of Bosnia which means that they must defend Bosnia. Russia gathered their troops and started heading towards the border of Austria to begin the war. -
Germany declares war on Russia.
Germany declares war on Russia quickly, which leaves Russia very little time to gather their allies to help them fight. This war started due to the fact that Russia had sent their army to Germany while they were mainly fighting with Austria Hungary. This upset the Germans and they wanted to get revenge by declaring war on Russia. -
Germany declares war on France.
Once Russia was in the war with Germany, they relied on France to come help them fight. Germany had thought ahead and already knew that Russia was going to ask France for help, so Germany decided to declare war on France before they could get back to help Russia. Now, 2 nations from the Triple Entente are at war with only one allie left to possibly help. Britain was the only nation in the Triple Entente that was not in war, so as a good allie, they declared war on Germany in return. -
Britain delclares war on Germany.
Britain declared war on Germany so that Germany would have to fight not only against Britain, but also France and Russia. Together, they thought that they could eventually defeat Germany if they all worked together in order to protect the nations of the Triple Entente. -
The Four Day Battle Occurs.
Germany beat Russia in this battle which gave them more hope of becoming overall most powerful. The attack on Russia occured in Tannenberg and took place on the Eastern Front. The battle overall lasted for 4 days. -
1st Battle of Marne
All of the allies, come up with a plan to go and randomly attack Germany without them knowing. This is achieved in the hope of preventing Germany's attack in France. -
Ottoman Empire joins Central Powers.
The Ottoman Empire is now a part of the Central Powers. They chose to join them because of Germany. At this point in time, Germany had won almost every battle that they were in and were conquering many different areas and nations. The Ottoman Empire felt obligated (but they also wanted to) to join the Central Powers because of this. -
Battle of Limanowa
The Austrians pair up with the Germans to attack the Russians and stop them from going into Austria Hungary as an easier way to get to Germany. Now the Russians are not able to achieve this task in order to start another battle against Germans. This then turned into a battle. -
Italy joins the Entente.
Italy until 1915 was part of the Triple Alliance along with Germany and Austria Hungary. In April of 1915, Italy decided that they would switch sides and change to the Triple Entente, supporting France, Great Britain, and Russia. Now Italy was ready to fight for the next war in the hopes of defeating the Triple Alliance. -
Germany sinks the U.S.S Lusitania.
Germany had chosen to sink the U.S.S Lusitania because they thought that the ship was carrying materials used for war to the Triple Entente. However, they did not realize that this ship was holding American passengers. When they sunk the ship, some Americans died which infuriated the USA. America now decided that they would join the war to get back at Germany. -
The Battle of Somme.
This battle started in February of 1916 and ended in November 1916. This is when the Germans attacked the allies at Verdun. The process of trench warfare was used during this battle thinking that it would be a quicker and easier way to end war, when in fact, it was the opposite. This battle was between Germany and France, but at the end, they both lost in some way because they lost thousands of men that were in the army defending their nations. -
Unrestricted Submarine Warfare policy is announced.
The Germans announced their new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. This is when the Germans can send U-Boats to sink any ships of their enemies without notice. The Germans would just randomly attack without letting the other nations know, so that they are not prepared to fight back so quickly. -
U.S.A Recieves the Zimmerman Note.
The U.S had now recieved the Zimmerman Note from the Germans. This note stated that Germany would now ally with Mexico. Mexico was asked to help the Germans and in return, the Germans would try to regain their lost territory from the US. Obviously America was not happy with this, so they joined the Triple Entente in war. -
Wilson asks congress to declare war on Germany
At this time, the United States was still debating weather or not to go to war. Congress accepts Wilson's command to declare war on Germany, and then the U.S officially joins the war. Germany is now afraid that they will loose the war because the Triple Entente has more people now. -
Russia is no longer involved in WWI
The only good thing about Russia's military was the amount of people. They outnumbered every other military, but lacked the weapons, food, and supplies that they actually needed to fight in the war. Vladimir Lenin decided to take Russia out of the war because of this reason. -
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is signed.
Russia and Germany signed the treay of Brest-Litovsk to basically say that there will still be peace between Russia and Germany, now that Russia is out of the war.
