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The spark that started World War I was the assassination of Austria's Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie.
On 28 June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were shot dead in Sarajevo, by Gavrilo Princip, one of a group of six assassins (five Serbs and one Bosnian Muslim), coordinated by Danilo Ilić. The political objective of the assassination was to break off Austria-Hungary's south-Slav provinces so they could be combined into a Greater Serbia or a Yugoslavia. The assassins' motives were consistent wit -
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WW1 Timespan
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Germany declares war on Russia
Germany had the Schlieffen Plan, the aims of which were to win the war in six weeks, with the idea that they would be fighting on both fronts, ie with Russia and France. First of all the Germans would go through Belgium and attack and defeat France whilst Russia was mobilising her troops. Then, after defeating France, the Germans would go to Russia and defeat them. -
Germany declares war on France.
On the afternoon of this day in 1914, two days after declaring war on Russia, Germany declares war on France, moving ahead with a long-held strategy, conceived by the former chief of staff of the German army, Alfred von Schlieffen, for a two-front war against France and Russia. Hours later, France makes its own declaration of war against Germany, readying its troops to move into the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, which it had forfeited to Germany in the settlement that ended the Franco-Prussi -
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announces the U.S. will remain neutral.
In early August 1914, the nations of Europe took up arms against one another in a war that came to be known as World War I. While tensions in Europe had been growing for many years, the armed conflict was triggered by a single event that occurred in a distant corner of the Austro-Hungarian empire. On June 28, 1914, Serbian-backed terrorists assassinated the crown prince of Austria in the provincial town of Sarajevo. -
- The Battle of Tannenberg begins.
The Battle of Tannenberg was an engagement between the Russian and the German Empires in the first days of World War I. It was fought by the Russian Second Army against the German Eighth Army between 26 August and 30 August 1914.[8] The battle resulted in the almost complete destruction of the Russian Second Army, as well as the death of its commander Alexander Samsonov. A series of follow-up battles (the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes) destroyed the majority of the First Army as well -
- Battle of Ypres begins.
The Battle of Ypres (and the numerous battles that surrounded this Flanders town) has become linked forever with World War One. Along with the Battle of the Somme, the battles at Ypres and Passchendaele have gone down in history The town had been the centre of battles before due to its strategic position, but the sheer devastation of the town and the surrounding countryside seems to perfectly summarise the futility of battles fought in World War One. -
The unofficial Christmas truce is declared.
During World War I, on and around Christmas Day 1914, the sounds of rifles firing and shells exploding faded in a number of places along the Western Front in favor of holiday celebrations in the trenches and gestures of goodwill between enemies. -
The Dardanelles Campaign begins
In March 1915, during World War I (1914-18), British and French forces launched an ill-fated naval attack on Turkish forces in the Dardanelles in northwestern Turkey, hoping to take control of the strategically vital strait separating Europe from Asia. -
The Second Battle of Ypres begins. It is during this battle that the Germans first use poison gas.
In the first week of April 1915, the Canadian troops were moved from their quiet sector to a bulge in the Allied line in front of the City of Ypres. This was the famed—or notorious—Ypres Salient, where the British and Allied line pushed into the German line in a concave bend. The Germans held the higher ground and were able to fire into the Allied trenches from the north, the south and the east. On the Canadian right were two British divisions, and on their left a French division, the 45th (Alge -
The Battle of Gallipoli begins.
Australias reason for going to Gallipoli was In the hope of bringing down Germany through the downfall of her allies.Australias role in this campaign was to bring down the turks. The nature of the warfare was mostly in muddy trenches. The result of this campaign was Australia winning.The effect of this war was very hramful to all Australian families because they had lost loved ones.Australia would never be the same again. As every year on the 25th of april we honour our ANZACS -
The Battle of Jutland, the major naval battle of the war, begins.
The Battle of Jutland is considered to be the only major naval battle of World War One. Jutland witnessed the British Navy losing more men and ships but the verdict of the Battle of Jutland was that the German Navy lost and was never in a position again to put to sea during the war. Admiral John Jellicoe's tactics were criticised by some, but after the battle the British Navy remained a powerful fighting force whereas the German High Seas fleet was not. -
Tsar Nicholas II takes personal control over Russia's armies.
He declared war upon countries with better equiped and trained armies.
He made one military blunder after the next until the Russian people no longer supported the war or the ruling classes.
Nicholas failed to take care of the internal administration of Russia.
The Russian people at home begin to starve. -
The Battle of Verdun begins. The Battle of Verdun was the longest battle of World War I and was one of the bloodiest.
The Battle of Verdun in 1916 was the longest single battle of World War One. The casualties from Verdun and the impact the battle had on the French Army was a primary reason for the British starting the Battle of the Somme in July 1916 in an effort to take German pressure off of the French at Verdun. The Battle of Verdun started on February 21st 1916 and ended on December 16th in 1916. It was to make General Philippe Pétain a hero in France. -
The Battle of the Somme begins. During the Battle of the Somme, tanks are first introduced into battle.
The Battle of the Somme started in July 1st 1916. It lasted until November 1916. For many people, the Battle of the Somme was the battle that symbolised the horrors of warfare in World War One; this one battle had a marked effect on overall casualty figures and seemed to epitomise the futility of trench warfare. -
The United States declares war on Germany.
At 8:30 on the evening of April 2, 1917, President Wilson appeared before a joint session of Congress and asked for a declaration of war against Germany in order to "make the world safe for democracy." On April 4, Congress granted Wilson's request. -
The Bolsheviks successfully overthrow the Russian government during the 1917 Russian Revolution.
The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917 was initiated by millions of people who would change the history of the world as we know it. When Czar Nicholas II dragged 11 million peasants into World War I, the Russian people became discouraged with their injuries and the loss of life they sustained. The country of Russia was in ruins, ripe for revolution -
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson issues his Fourteen Points to peace.
Fourteen Points were first outlined in a speech Wilson gave to the American Congress in January 1918. Wilson's Fourteen Points became the basis for a peace programme and it was on the back of the Fourteen Points that Germany and her allies agreed to an armistice in November 1918. -
Germany signs the armistice at Compiegne, France. Fighting ends on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month (i.e. 11 a.m. on November 11).
The final Allied push towards the German border began on October 17, 1918. As the British, French and American armies advanced, the alliance between the Central Powers began to collapse. Turkey signed an armistice at the end of October, Austria-Hungary followed on November 3. -
The Treaty of Versailles officially ends WWI.
The Treaty of Versailles was the peace settlement signed after World War One had ended in 1918 and in 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. The three most important politicians there were David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson.
