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Franz Ferdinand's assassination
Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the Austrian throne. Many people didn't like him. One day he was traveling through the city of Sarajevo. This is were a young Serbian shot him to death. This would be the spark that started World War I. -
Period: to
WWI
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German invasion
Germany needed passage through Belgium before they could attack France. This way they could have a better position on them. Belgium was neutral so they didn't help either side. Germany gave them a choice to let them through or be taken be force. Belgium fought starting on August fourth in 1914. They lost and Germany invaded. -
Battle of Marne
Germany was hoping to defeat France before fighting Russia. On September sixth they attacked starting the battle of Marne. They had started to win at first but they didn't have men to keep it going. Britain and France made a counter attack to defeat them. -
Gas Weapons
This was the first chemical attack used in battle. No one really thought it would work. They were wrong. A German scientist came up with the idea of using chlorine gas cylinders on the front lines. There were used on a four mile stretch of road and it became a very deadly weapon. -
Battle of Verdun
The battle of Verdun was the longest battle of the first world war. It also was very intense. It was almost a year long fight. It was back and fourth a lot. Through careful management France managed to regain ground and pull through for the victory before the years end. There were about 980,000 casualties (430,000 for the Germans and 550,000 for the French). -
Jutland
The battle of Jutland was the first and only major sea surface battle of World War I. It involved around 250 Naval ships and over 100,000 men. The fight was between German and British ships. At night fall Britain was able to land several good hits on the Germans. They soon retreated. Both sides claimed victory but Britain retained the water territory. -
Tanks
The first tanks were used in WWI by the British. These weren't the highly lethal tanks used now a days. Many of them broke down often. But the ones that didn't were used for running down barbed wire and not really for shoot projectiles. But the were still very usefull -
US gets in on the Action.
Right up to the moment the US Declared war we tried to stay neutral and not get involved. WE got pulled into it due to Ties with Britain. Also many ships were sank by German U-boats. One of the biggest reasons was when we intercepted a message from the Germans to Mexico trying to get them to revolt against us. -
Fourteen Points
President Woodrow Wilson got together with some foreign policy experts.Together they came up with fourteen points of peace. Many of them dealt with territories. Then others talked about freedom of the seas. They then presented it to congress. When peace talks started Wilson said they should use the fourteen points as a basis for the armistice. -
Armistice
The Armistice was signed on the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the Eleventh month in 1918. It was signed in a rail car near Compiégne France. This ended the war that caused nine million deaths and over 21 million wounded. This is one of the most important peace treaties of all time.
