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Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
The Balkan states of Bosnia and Herzegovina, had been annexed from Turkey and taken into the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This was strongly resented by many Serbs and Croats and a nationalist group, The Black Hand, was formed.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, and his wife, had decided to inspect Austro-Hungarian troops in Bosnia. The date chosen for the inspection was a national day in Bosnia. The Black Hand supplied a group of students with weapons for an assassination attempt to mark the occas -
Austria declares war on Serbia
The Austrian government blamed the Serbian government for the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife and declared war on Serbia.
Although Russia was allied with Serbia, Germany did not believe that she would mobilise and offered to support Austria if necessary. -
First Battle of the Marne
The war of movement seen since August 1914 had gone and the trench warfare associated with World War One had come into being. -
Beginning of Trench Warfare
The memories of soldiers who fought in the trenches in World War One are a fascinating source about life in the war. Primary source memories from World War One have given historians a vast resource to use. -
First Battle of the Dardanelles
the War Council gave its agreement and British troops in Egypt were put on alert. Fighting against such he armies as the Russian and French armies put a great deal of strain on the German military. Into the major battles had been small when compared to the German army’s input. -
Second Battle of the Dardanelles
Despite the loss of several ships to mines, the British successfully landed a number of marines in the Gallipoli region of the Dardenelles. Unfortunately the success was not followed up and the mission was a failure. -
Sinking of the Lusitania
This had a lot of impact upon America and WWI. Yet, America did not join the war for a whole another two years. There outraged protests from the United States at the German U-boat campaign, when the Lusitania, which had many American passengers aboard, was sank. The Germans moderated their U-boat campaign. -
Battle of Verdun
The Germans mounted an attack on the French at Verdun designed to 'bleed the French dry'. Although the fighting continued for nine months, the battle was inconclusive. Casualties were enormous on both sides with the Germans losing 430,000 men and the French 540,000. -
Battle of the Somme
The battle was preceded by a week long artillery bombardment of the German line which was supposed to destroy the barbed wire defences placed along the German line but only actually succeeded in making no mans land a mess of mud and craters. The five month long battle saw the deaths of 420,000 British soldiers (60,000 on the first day), 200,000 French soldiers and 500,000 German soldiers all for a total land gain of just 25 miles. -
Germany begins unrestricted warfare
Had many reasons why America jonied the war. Bethmann Hollweg had major reasons for fear and why it would provoked the Americans. -
US declares war on Germany
A issuse that concered Woodrow Wilson to ask congress to declare war on Germany. Then a couple of days later, America jonied WWI with Allies. -
Treaty of Versailles signed
A peace letter signed after WWI ened. n the shadow of the Russian Revolution and other events in Russia. The treaty was signed at the vast Versailles Palace near Paris - hence its title - between Germany and the Allies. -
World War I ends
World War I came to an end following the signing of an armistice between the Allies and Germany that called for a ceasefire effective at 11 a.m.– it was on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. -
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Following the successful revolution by the Bolsheviks, the Russians signed an Armistice with Germany at Brest-Litovsk. The terms of the treaty were harsh: Russia had to surrender Poland, the Ukraine and other regions. They had to stop all Socialist propaganda directed at Germany and pay 300 million roubles for the repatriation of Russian prisoners.
