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There were a lot of things that led up to increase tensions between countries, but what really got the ball rolling was when Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. He was murdered on June 28, 1914 along with his pregnant wife, Sofie. They were visiting the capital of Bosnia, which is Sarajevo. A lot of people were against him because they didn’t accept his Austrian views, and didn’t want to practice them. So on June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip shot Archduke Franz and his wife Sophie, dead.
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:Because the assassination was committed by Serbs, Austria declares war on Serbia.
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Germany declares war on the Russians, who are compelled to defend Serbia.
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The Germans declared war on France and implemented their invasion of Belgium, part of their Scheifflen Plan. The Plan was intended to bring about a swift victory for Germany in the event of a two-front war. It concentrated on exploiting the differences in the amount of time neighboring countries would need to prepare for war.
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Britain joins its French and Russian allies
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The Battle of the Marne was fought during September of 1914. Casualties were high on both sides. The French lost about 250,000 soldiers, as did the Germans.
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THe RMS Lusitania was an ocean liner owned by Cunard Lines. She was attacked by a German U-boat and sank in eighteen minutes. 1,198 of the nearly 2,000 passengers aboard died.
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The official peace settlement known as the Treaty of Versailles was signed near a palace at Versailles, in Paris. The treaty forced Germany to accept full responsibility for the the war and pay reparations, give up territories and reduce the army size to a meager 100,000
