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Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand
The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife is the main cause of World War 1. In the city of Sarajevo for an inspection of their troops, a bomb was thrown at their car by Serbian terrorists which they escaped. However, they drove into Gavrillo Princip who shot and killed Ferdinand and his wife. An enraged Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia with Germany's support. -
WW1 Begins
The Serbian government readied the Serbian army to deploy them. Serbia also asked Russia for help, in which they obliged. In less than a week, Serbia, Belgium, France, Great Britain, and Russia were ready to go up against Austria-Hungary and Germany. The peace between the European nations had quickly crumbled. -
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Battle of Gallipoli
This battle was an attempt for the Allied Powers to dominate the sea route between Europe and Russia. However, this attempt proved to be unsuccessful due to failed naval attacks and invasions. The objective of the naval attack was to capture the Dardanelles Straits to ally with Russia and eliminate Turkey out of the war. Since the naval attack didn't work, a land invasion was crudely prepared. -
Lusitania Sinks
Lusitania, a British ocean liner, was torpedoed by a German submarine without a chance of escape on the afternoon of May 7, 1915. 1,198 people of the 1,959 people drowned due to the torpedoing of the Lusitania, 128 of the 1,198 were Americans. The death of the 128 Americans aggravated the United States, but Germany defended their actions by saying that they would sink any ship that entered the war zone. The United States would stay neutral for now. -
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Battle of Verdun
In this battle, France repelled a lethal attack by Germany. This battle was one of the bloodiest and longest battles that took place during the war. Out of the 750,000 casualties, 400,00 of them were French and 350,000 were German. Germany's decision to attack the fortress of Verdun was due to the fortress threatening the main communication line. In the end, the landscape around Verdun was completely and permanently destroyed. -
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Battle of Somme
This was also one of the largest battles that took place during WW1. On only the first day, Britain had been hit with the news that more than 57,000 casualties. By the end of the battle, the combined number of lives lost was more than 1.5 million men. Due to the Battle of Somme taking so many lives, Britain began to improve their tactics and strategies. -
Zimmermann Note
This was a famous message that Arthur Zimmermann created to give special instructions to Heinrich von Eckardt. The instructions instructed von Eckardt to go to Mexico's president in order to form an alliance only if the United States joined the Allies. However, Britain code breakers intercepted the message and decoded it. The decoded message was then given to the United States. -
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Russian Revolution
This revolution was the end of the Romanov dynasty. During this time period, Bolsheviks, who was led by Vladimir Lenin, took over control and ceased the tradition of csarist rule. Slaves were also given freedom after serfdom was stopped. Major political change took place that benefited some people and was a drawback to others. -
United States Enters The War
German began to threatened Britain, one of the United State's most important trading allies, by trying to take control of the British Isles. The U.S. began to view Germany as an enemy and their neutral statue began to change. In addition to trying to take control of the British Isles, a few of the U.S.'s ships were sunk or damaged due to German mines. Over the course of a few months, Germany began to sink many more of the U.S.'s ships, this eventually led up to the United States joining the war. -
Russia Leaves The War
Because Russia took part during World War 1, the consequences proved to be disastrous on the government and their army. In addition, Russia had the most casualties compared to any other nation that took part in the war. While Russian soldiers were fighting in the war, back at home was another war. Their economy had collapsed and food shortages had caused riots. This all led up to Russia signing a peace treaty with Germany that ended Russia's involvement in the war. -
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Battle of Chateau-Thierry
This battle was one of the first movements that the United States did after entering the war. The United States had joined their French allies at Chateau-Thierry, east of Paris. The Germans had seen this and began to start going on the offensive because they thought that the U.S. was not battle ready and were amateurs. However, this was proven wrong after the U.S. and French forces effectively pushed back the German forces even while the U.S. was behind enemy lines. -
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Battle of Argonne
After French and U.S. forces pushed back German offensives during the Battle of Chateau-Thierry, orders to take offense on those retreating Germans were made. The thick Argonne forest proved to be a problematic obstacle for the United States. Germany tried to defend themselves, but in the end, it didn't work out and they were forced to retreat even further. However, due to the U.S.'s amateur strategies in the thick forest, their casualties were in 192,00s. -
Armistice
An armistice is where both parties of a battle see eye to eye and end the war. They both wanted to end the fighting and the casualties to stop so they came the an agreement of an armistice. All the parties became exhausted of the fighting and they wanted to quit, however no one wanted to surrender. Even though they wanted the war to come to an end, neither of the sides wanted to surrender. -
Signing of the Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles basically took away some of Germany's land that they took over and gave to it's surrounding nations. Also, any of the land that they took over seas was taken away from them. In addition, they were required to pay back the damage they had caused to the Allied nations. All of these factors made a certain Austrian man angry. -
First Meeting of the League of Nations
Because of all the casualties that happened during World War 1 gave the idea of a group of different nations who would prolong the peace. The League of Nations signed the Treaty of Versailles that made Germany lose their land and putting them in debt. The League of Nation eventually came to an end when the United Nations was put in to place. However, the United Nations was based off of the League of Nations.
