World War I

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World War I

Clockwise from top: Trenches on the Western Front; a

British Mark IV tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy
battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine
at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers machine gun
crew with gas masks, and German Albatros D.III
biplanes
28 July 1914 11 November 1918
(Armistice Treaty)
Date
Treaty of Versailles signed 28 June
1919
Europe, Africa and the Middle
Location East (briefly in China and the
Pacific Islands)
 Allied victory; end of the German,
Russian, Ottoman, and Austro-
Hungarian Empires; foundation of
new countries in Europe and the
Result
Middle East; transfer of German
colonies to other powers;
establishment of the League of
Nations.
Belligerents
Allied (Entente) Powers Central Powers
Commanders
Leaders and Leaders and
commanders commanders
Casualties and losses
Military dead: Military dead:
5,525,000 4,386,000
Military wounded: Military wounded:
12,831,500 8,388,000
Military missing: Military missing:
4,121,000 3,629,000
Total: Total:
22,477,500 KIA, WIA or 16,403,000 KIA, WIA or
MIA ...further details. MIA ...further details.
[show]
vde

Theatres of World War I

World War I (abbreviated as WW-I, WWI, or WW1), also known as the First World
War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict that
embroiled most of the world's great powers,[1] assembled in two opposing alliances: the
Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance.[2] More than 70 million military personnel were
mobilized in one of the largest wars in history.[3] The main combatants descended into a
state of total war, pumping their entire scientific and industrial capabilities into the war
effort. More than 15 million people were killed, making it one of the deadliest conflicts
in history.[4]

The immediate or proximate cause of war was the assassination on 28 June 1914 of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, by Gavrilo
Princip, a Serbian nationalist. AustriaHungary's resulting demands against the
Kingdom of Serbia activated a sequence of alliances. Within weeks the major European
powers were at war; their global empires meant that the conflict soon spread worldwide.

By the war's end, four major imperial powersthe German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian
and Ottoman Empireshad been militarily and politically defeated, with the last two
ceasing to exist as autonomous entities.[5] The revolutionized Soviet Union emerged
from the Russian Empire, while the map of central Europe was completely redrawn into
numerous smaller states.[6] The League of Nations was formed in the hope of preventing
another such conflict. The European nationalism spawned by the war, the repercussions
of Germany's defeat, and the Treaty of Versailles would eventually lead to the
beginning of World War II in 1939.[7]

Contents
[hide]

1 Background
2 Chronology
o 2.1 Opening hostilities
2.1.1 Confusion among the Central Powers
2.1.2 African campaigns
2.1.3 Serbian campaign
2.1.4 German forces in Belgium and France
2.1.5 Asia and the Pacific
o 2.2 Early stages
2.2.1 Trench warfare begins
o 2.3 Naval war
o 2.4 Southern theatres
2.4.1 War in the Balkans
2.4.2 Ottoman Empire
2.4.3 Italian participation
2.4.4 Fighting in India
2.4.4.1 Indian independence movement
o 2.5 Eastern Front
2.5.1 Initial actions
2.5.2 Russian Revolution
o 2.6 19171918
2.6.1 Entry of the United States
2.6.1.1 Isolationism
2.6.1.2 Making the case
2.6.1.3 U.S. declaration of war on Germany
2.6.1.4 First active U.S. participation
2.6.2 German Spring Offensive of 1918
2.6.3 New states under war zone
2.6.4 Allied victory: summer and autumn 1918
2.6.5 Allied superiority and the stab-in-the-back legend,
November 1918
o 2.7 End of war
3 Technology
4 Legacy
 o 4.1 Soldiers' experiences
4.1.1 Prisoners of war
o 4.2 Military attachs and war correspondents
o 4.3 Opposition to the war
5 War crimes
o 5.1 Genocide
o 5.2 Rape of Belgium
6 Aftermath
o 6.1 Later conflicts
o 6.2 Peace treaties
o 6.3 New national identities
o 6.4 Social trauma
o 6.5 Macro- and micro-economic effects
7 Cognate names for the war
8 See also
o 8.1 Media
o 8.2 Animated maps
9 Notes
10 References
11 External links

Background
Main article: Causes of World War I

In the 19th century, the major European powers had gone to great lengths to maintain a
"balance of power" throughout Europe, resulting by 1900 in a complex network of
political and military alliances throughout the continent.[2] These had started in 1815
with the Holy Alliance between Germany (then Prussia), Russia, and AustriaHungary.
Then, in October, 1873, German Chancellor Bismarck negotiated the League of the
Three Emperors (German: Dreikaiserbund) between the monarchs of AustriaHungary,
Russia and Germany. This agreement failed because AustriaHungary and Russia could
not agree over Balkan policy, leaving Germany and AustriaHungary in an alliance
formed in 1879, called the Dual Alliance. This was seen as a method of combating
Russian influence in the Balkans as the Ottoman Empire continued to weaken.[2] In
1882, this alliance was expanded to include Italy in what became the Triple Alliance.[8]
After 1870 European conflict was averted largely due to a carefully planned network of
treaties between the German Empire and the remainder of Europeorchestrated by
Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. He especially worked to hold Russia at Germany's side
so as to avoid a two-front war with France and Russia. With the ascension of Kaiser
Wilhelm II as emperor, Bismarck's system of alliances was gradually de-emphasized,
with treaties[which?] between Germany and Russia ending in 1890. Two years later the
Franco-Russian Alliance was signed to counteract the force of the Triple Alliance. In
1907, the British Empire joined France and Russia, signalling the beginning of the
Triple Entente.[2]

German industrial and economic power had grown greatly after unification and the
foundation of the empire in 1870. From the mid-1890s on the government of Kaiser
Wilhelm II used this base to devote significant economic resources to building up the
German Imperial Navy (German: Kaiserliche Marine), established by Admiral von
Tirpitz, in rivalry with the British Royal Navy for world naval supremacy.[9] As a result,
both nations strove to out-build each other in terms of capital ships. With the launch of
HMS Dreadnought in 1906, the British Empire gained a significant advantage over their
German rivals.[9] The arms race between Britain and Germany eventually extended to
the rest of Europe, with all the major powers devoting their industrial base to the
production of the equipment and weapons necessary for a pan-European conflict.[10]
Between 1908 and 1913, the military spending of the European powers increased by
50%.[11]

In 1908 and 1909, AustriaHungary caused the Bosnian crisis by officially annexing the
former Ottoman territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which they had occupied since 1878.
This greatly angered the Pan-Slavic and thus pro-Serbian Romanov Dynasty who ruled
Russia and the Kingdom of Serbia, because Bosnia-Herzegovina contained a significant
Slavic Serbian population.[12] Russian political maneuvering in the region destabilized
peace accords that were already fracturing in what was known as "the Powder keg of
Europe".[12] In 1912 and 1913, the First Balkan War was fought between the Balkan
League and the fracturing Ottoman Empire. The resulting Treaty of London further
shrank the Ottoman Empire, creating an independent Albanian State while enlarging the
territorial holdings of Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece. When Bulgaria attacked both Serbia
and Greece on 16 June 1913 it lost most of Macedonia to Serbia and Greece and
Southern Dobruja to Romania in the 33-day Second Balkan War, further destabilizing
the region.[13]

On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian-Serb student and member of Young

Bosnia, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo, Bosnia.[14] This
began a period of diplomatic manoeuvering between Austria-Hungary, Germany,
Russia, France and Britain called the July Crisis. Wanting to end Serbian interference in
Bosnia once and for all, AustriaHungary delivered the July Ultimatum to Serbia, a
series of ten demands which were deliberately unacceptable, made with the intention of
deliberately initiating a war with Serbia.[15] When Serbia acceded to only eight of the
ten demands levied against it in the ultimatum, AustriaHungary declared war on Serbia
on 28 July 1914. The Russian Empire, unwilling to allow AustriaHungary to eliminate
its influence in the Balkans, and in support of its longtime Serb proteges, ordered a
partial mobilization one day later.[8] When the German Empire began to mobilize on 30
July 1914, France - sporting significant animosity over the German conquest of Alsace-
Lorraine during the Franco-Prussian War ordered French mobilization on 1 August.
Germany declared war on Russia on the same day.[16]
Chronology
Opening hostilities

Confusion among the Central Powers

The strategy of the Central Powers suffered from miscommunication. Germany had
promised to support AustriaHungarys invasion of Serbia, but interpretations of what
this meant differed. Austro-Hungarian leaders believed Germany would cover its
northern flank against Russia.[citation needed] Germany, however, envisioned Austria
Hungary directing the majority of its troops against Russia, while Germany dealt with
France. This confusion forced the Austro-Hungarian Army to divide its forces between
the Russian and Serbian fronts.

On September 9, 1914 the Septemberprogramm, a plan which detailed Germany's

specific war aims and the conditions that Germany sought to force upon the Allied
Powers, was outlined by German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg.

African campaigns

Main article: African theatre of World War I

Some of the first clashes of the war involved British, French and German colonial
forces in Africa. On 7 August, French and British troops invaded the German
protectorate of Togoland. On 10 August German forces in South-West Africa attacked
South Africa; sporadic and fierce fighting continued for the remainder of the war.

Haut-Rhin, France, 1917

Serbian campaign

Main article: Serbian Campaign (World War I)

The Serbian army fought the Battle of Cer against the invading Austrians, beginning on
12 August, occupying defensive positions on the south side of the Drina and Sava
rivers. Over the next two weeks Austrian attacks were thrown back with heavy losses,
which marked the first major Allied victory of the war and dashed Austrian hopes of a
swift victory. As a result, Austria had to keep sizable forces on the Serbian front,
weakening its efforts against Russia.

German forces in Belgium and France

German soldiers in a railway goods van on the way to the front in 1914. A message on
the car spells out "Trip to Paris", early in the war all sides expected the conflict to be a
short one.
Main article: Western Front (World War I)

The German attack on the Western Front began with an invasion through neutral
Belgium. Initially, the Germans had great success in the Battle of the Frontiers (14
August24 August). Russia, however, attacked in East Prussia and diverted German
forces intended for the Western Front. Germany defeated Russia in a series of battles
collectively known as the First Battle of Tannenberg (17 August 2 September), but
this diversion exacerbated problems of insufficient speed of advance from rail-heads not
foreseen by the German General Staff. The Schlieffen Plan called for the right flank of
the German advance to converge on Paris, but the French, with some assistance from
the British forces finally halted the German advance east of Paris at the First Battle of
the Marne (5 September12 September). The Central Powers were thereby denied a
quick victory and forced to fight a war on two fronts. The German army had fought its
way into a good defensive position inside France and had permanently incapacitated
230,000 more French and British troops than it had lost itself. Despite this,
communications problems and questionable command decisions cost Germany the
chance of obtaining an early victory.

Asia and the Pacific

Main article: Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I

New Zealand occupied German Samoa (later Western Samoa) on 30 August. On 11

September the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force landed on the island
of Neu Pommern (later New Britain), which formed part of German New Guinea. Japan
seized Germany's Micronesian colonies and after the Battle of Tsingtao the German
coaling port of Qingdao in the Chinese Shandong peninsula. Within a few months, the
Allied forces had seized all the German territories in the Pacific, only isolated
commerce raiders remained.
In the trenches: Infantry with gas masks, Ypres, 1917

Early stages

Trench warfare begins

This section is missing citations or needs footnotes. Please help add inline
citations to guard against copyright violations and factual inaccuracies. (February
2008)
Main article: Western Front (World War I)

Military tactics before World War I had failed to keep pace with advances in
technology. These changes resulted in the building of impressive defence systems,
which out-of-date tactics could not break through for most of the war. Barbed wire was
a significant hindrance to massed infantry advances. Artillery, vastly more lethal than in
the 1870s, coupled with machine guns, made crossing open ground very difficult. The
Germans introduced poison gas; it soon became used by both sides, though it never
proved decisive in winning a battle. Its effects were brutal, causing slow and painful
death, and poison gas became one of the most-feared and best-remembered horrors of
the war. Commanders on both sides failed to develop tactics for breaching entrenched
positions without heavy casualties. In time, however, technology began to produce new
offensive weapons, such as the tank. Britain and France were its primary users; the
Germans employed captured Allied tanks and small numbers of their own design.

A French assault on German positions. Champagne, France, 1917.

After the First Battle of the Marne, both Entente and German forces began a series of
outflanking maneuvers, in the so-called 'Race to the Sea'. Britain and France soon found
themselves facing entrenched German forces from Lorraine to Belgium's Flemish coast.
Britain and France sought to take the offensive, while Germany defended the occupied
territories; consequently, German trenches were generally much better constructed than
those of their enemy. Anglo-French trenches were only intended to be 'temporary'
before their forces broke through German defenses.[17] Both sides attempted to break the
stalemate using scientific and technological advances. In April 1915 the Germans used
chlorine gas for the first time (in violation of the Hague Convention), opening a six
kilometre (four mile) hole in the Allied lines when British and French colonial troops
retreated. Canadian soldiers closed the breach at the Second Battle of Ypres. At the
Third Battle of Ypres, Canadian and ANZAC troops took the village of Passchendaele.

The British Army endured the bloodiest day in its history, suffering 57,470 casualties
and 19,240 dead on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Most of the
casualties occurred in the first hour of the attack. The entire Somme offensive cost the
British Army almost half a million men.[18]

Neither side proved able to deliver a decisive blow for the next two years, though
protracted German action at Verdun throughout 1916, combined with the Entente's
failure at the Somme,[citation needed] brought the exhausted French army to the brink of
collapse. Futile attempts at frontal assault, a rigid adherence to an ineffectual
method,[citation needed] came at a high price for both the British and the French poilu
(infantry) and led to widespread mutinies, especially during the Nivelle Offensive.

Canadian troops advancing behind a British Mark II tank at the Battle of Vimy Ridge.

Throughout 191517, the British Empire and France suffered more casualties than
Germany, due both to the strategic and tactical stances chosen by the sides. At the
strategic level, while the Germans only mounted a single main offensive at Verdun, the
Allies made several attempts to break through German lines. At the tactical level, the
German defensive doctrine, "defense in depth," was well suited for trench warfare, with
a relatively lightly defended "sacrificial" forward position,[citation needed] and, farther back
(beyond artillery range), a more powerful main position from which an immediate and
powerful counter-offensive could be launched.[19] This combination usually was
effective in pushing out attackers at a relatively low cost to the Germans.[citation needed] In
absolute terms, of course, the cost in lives of men for both attack and defense was
astounding.

Ludendorff wrote on the fighting in 1917, "The 25th of August concluded the second
phase of the Flanders battle. It had cost us heavily. The costly August battles in
Flanders and at Verdun imposed a heavy strain on the Western troops. In spite of all the
concrete protection they seemed more or less powerless under the enormous weight of
the enemys artillery. At some points they no longer displayed the firmness which I, in
common with the local commanders, had hoped for. The enemy managed to adapt
himself to our method of employing counter attacks I myself was being put to a
terrible strain. The state of affairs in the West appeared to prevent the execution of our
plans elsewhere. Our wastage had been so high as to cause grave misgivings, and had
exceeded all expectation."

On the battle of the Menin Road Ridge Ludendorff wrote: "Another terrific assault was
made on our lines on the 20 September. The enemys onslaught on the 20th was
successful, which proved the superiority of the attack over the defence. Its strength did
not consist in the tanks; we found them inconvenient, but put them out of action all the
same. The power of the attack lay in the artillery, and in the fact that ours did not do
enough damage to the hostile infantry as they were assembling, and above all, at the
actual time of the assault."[20]

Officers and senior enlisted men of the Bermuda Militia Artillery's Bermuda
Contingent, Royal Garrison Artillery, in Europe.

Around 800,000 soldiers from the British Empire were on the Western Front at any one
time.[citation needed] 1,000 battalions, occupying sectors of the line from the North Sea to
the Orne River, operated on a month-long four-stage rotation system, unless an
offensive was underway. The front contained over 9,600 kilometres (5,965 mi) of
trenches. Each battalion held its sector for about a week before moving back to support
lines and then further back to the reserve lines before a week out-of-line, often in the
Poperinge or Amiens areas.

In the 1917 Battle of Arras the only significant British military success was the capture
of Vimy Ridge by the Canadian Corps under Sir Arthur Currie and Julian Byng. The
assaulting troops were able for the first time to overrun, rapidly reinforce and hold the
ridge defending the coal-rich Douai plain.[21][22]

Naval war
Main article: Naval Warfare of World War I

German fleet surrendering to the English. First German U-boat near Tower Bridge.
London, England, 1918.

The British Grand Fleet

At the start of the war, the German Empire had cruisers scattered across the globe, some
of which were subsequently used to attack Allied merchant shipping. The British Royal
Navy systematically hunted them down, though not without some embarrassment from
its inability to protect Allied shipping. For example, the German detached light cruiser
SMS Emden, part of the East-Asia squadron stationed at Tsingtao, seized or destroyed
15 merchantmen, as well as sinking a Russian cruiser and a French destroyer. However,
the bulk of the German East-Asia squadronconsisting of the armoured cruisers
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, light cruisers Nrnberg and Leipzig and two transport
shipsdid not have orders to raid shipping and was instead underway to Germany
when it encountered elements of the British fleet. The German flotilla, along with
Dresden, sank two armoured cruisers at the Battle of Coronel, but was almost
completely destroyed at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December 1914, with only
Dresden and a few auxiliaries escaping, but at the Battle of Ms a Tierra these too were
destroyed or interned.[23]

Soon after the outbreak of hostilities, Britain initiated a naval blockade of Germany.
The strategy proved effective, cutting off vital military and civilian supplies, although
this blockade violated generally accepted international law codified by several
international agreements of the past two centuries.[24] Britain mined international waters
to prevent any ships from entering entire sections of ocean, causing danger to even
neutral ships.[25] Since there was limited response to this tactic, Germany expected a
similar response to its unrestricted submarine warfare.[26]
A battleship squadron of the Hochseeflotte at sea

The 1916 Battle of Jutland (German: Skagerrakschlacht, or "Battle of the Skagerrak")

developed into the largest naval battle of the war, the only full-scale clash of battleships
during the war. It took place on 31 May1 June 1916, in the North Sea off Jutland. The
Kaiserliche Marine's High Seas Fleet, commanded by Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer,
squared off against the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet, led by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. The
engagement was a standoff, as the Germans, outmaneuvered by the larger British fleet,
managed to escape and inflicted more damage to the British fleet than they received.
Strategically, however, the British asserted their control of the sea, and the bulk of the
German surface fleet remained confined to port for the duration of the war.

German U-boats attempted to cut the supply lines between North America and
Britain.[27] The nature of submarine warfare meant that attacks often came without
warning, giving the crews of the merchant ships little hope of survival.[28] The United
States launched a protest, and Germany modified its rules of engagement. After the
notorious sinking of the passenger ship RMS Lusitania in 1915, Germany promised not
to target passenger liners, while Britain armed its merchant ships, placing them beyond
the protection of the "cruiser rules" which demanded warning and placing crews in "a
place of safety" (a standard which lifeboats did not meet).[29] Finally, in early 1917
Germany adopted a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, realizing the Americans
would eventually enter the war.[30] Germany sought to strangle Allied sea lanes before
the U.S. could transport a large army overseas.

The U-boat threat lessened in 1917, when merchant ships entered convoys escorted by
destroyers. This tactic made it difficult for U-boats to find targets, which significantly
lessened losses; after the introduction of hydrophone and depth charges, accompanying
destroyers might actually attack a submerged submarine with some hope of success.
The convoy system slowed the flow of supplies, since ships had to wait as convoys
were assembled. The solution to the delays was a massive program to build new
freighters. Troop ships were too fast for the submarines and did not travel the North
Atlantic in convoys.[31][32] The U-boats had sunk almost 5,000 Allied ships, at a cost of
178 submarines.[33]

World War I also saw the first use of aircraft carriers in combat, with HMS Furious
launching Sopwith Camels in a successful raid against the Zeppelin hangars at Tondern
in July 1918, as well as blimps for antisubmarine patrol.[34]
Southern theatres

War in the Balkans

Main articles: Balkans Campaign (World War I), Serbian Campaign (World War I), and
Macedonian front (World War I)

Faced with Russia, AustriaHungary could spare only one third of its army to attack
Serbia. After suffering heavy losses, the Austrians briefly occupied the Serbian capital,
Belgrade. A Serbian counterattack in the battle of Kolubara, however, succeeded in
driving them from the country by the end of 1914. For the first ten months of 1915,
AustriaHungary used most of its military reserves to fight Italy. German and Austro-
Hungarian diplomats, however, scored a coup by convincing Bulgaria to join in
attacking Serbia. The Austro-Hungarian provinces of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia
provided troops for AustriaHungary, invading Serbia as well as fighting Russia and
Italy. Montenegro allied itself with Serbia.

Serbia was conquered in a little more than a month. The attack began in October, when
the Central Powers launched an offensive from the north; four days later the Bulgarians
joined the attack from the east. The Serbian army, fighting on two fronts and facing
certain defeat, retreated into Albania, halting only once in order to make a stand against
the Bulgarians. The Serbs suffered defeat near modern day Gnjilane in the Battle of
Kosovo[citation needed]. Montenegro covered the Serbian retreat toward the Adriatic coast in
the Battle of Mojkovac in 6-7 January 1916, but ultimately the Austrians conquered
Montenegro, too. Serbian forces were evacuated by ship to Greece.

Austrian troops executing captured Serbians in 1917.

In late 1915 a Franco-British force landed at Salonica in Greece, to offer assistance and
to pressure the government to declare war against the Central Powers. Unfortunately for
the Allies, the pro-German King Constantine I dismissed the pro-Allied government of
Eleftherios Venizelos, before the Allied expeditionary force could arrive.

After conquest, Serbia was divided between Austro-Hungary and Bulgaria. Bulgarians
commenced bulgarization of the Serbian population in their occupation zone, banishing
Serbian Cyrillic and the Serbian Orthodox Church. After forced conscription of the
Serbian population into the Bulgarian army in 1917, the Toplica Uprising began.
Serbian rebels liberated for a short time the area between the Kopaonik mountains and
the South Morava river. The uprising was crushed by joint efforts of Bulgarian and
Austrian forces at the end of March 1917.

The Macedonian Front proved static for the most part. Serbian forces retook part of
Macedonia by recapturing Bitola on 19 November 1916. Only at the end of the conflict
were the Entente powers able to break through, after most of the German and Austro-
Hungarian troops had withdrawn. The Bulgarians suffered their only defeat of the war at
the Battle of Dobro Pole but days later, they decisively defeated British and Greek
forces at the Battle of Doiran, avoiding occupation. Bulgaria signed an armistice on 29
September 1918.

Ottoman Empire

Main article: Middle Eastern theatre of World War I

British artillery placements during the Battle of Jerusalem (1917)

The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in the war, the secret Ottoman-German
Alliance having been signed in August 1914. It threatened Russia's Caucasian territories
and Britain's communications with India via the Suez Canal. The British and French
opened overseas fronts with the Gallipoli (1915) and Mesopotamian campaigns. In
Gallipoli, the Turks successfully repelled the British, French and Australian and New
Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs). In Mesopotamia, by contrast, after the disastrous
Siege of Kut (191516), British Imperial forces reorganised and captured Baghdad in
March 1917. Further to the west, in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, initial British
setbacks were overcome when Jerusalem was captured in December 1917. The
Egyptian Expeditionary Force, under Field Marshal Edmund Allenby, broke the
Ottoman forces at the Battle of Megiddo in September 1918.

Russian armies generally had the best of it in the Caucasus. Enver Pasha, supreme
commander of the Turkish armed forces, was ambitious and dreamed of conquering
central Asia. He was, however, a poor commander.[35] He launched an offensive against
the Russians in the Caucasus in December 1914 with 100,000 troops; insisting on a
frontal attack against mountainous Russian positions in winter, he lost 86% of his force
at the Battle of Sarikamis.[36]

The Russian commander from 1915 to 1916, General Yudenich, drove the Turks out of
most of the southern Caucasus with a string of victories.[36] In 1917, Russian Grand
Duke Nicholas assumed command of the Caucasus front. Nicholas planned a railway
from Russian Georgia to the conquered territories, so that fresh supplies could be
brought up for a new offensive in 1917. However, in March 1917, (February in the pre-
revolutionary Russian calendar), the Czar was overthrown in the February Revolution
and the Russian Caucasus Army began to fall apart. In this situation, the army corps of
Armenian volunteer units realigned themselves under the command of General Tovmas
Nazarbekian, with Dro as a civilian commissioner of the Administration for Western
Armenia. The front line had three main divisions: Movses Silikyan, Andranik, and
Mikhail Areshian. Another regular unit was under Colonel Korganian. There were
Armenian partisan guerrilla detachments (more than 40,000[37]) accompanying these
main units.

The Arab Revolt (described in Lawrence of Arabia) was a major cause of the Ottoman
Empire's defeat. The revolts started with the Battle of Mecca by Sherif Hussain of
Mecca with the help of Britain in June 1916, and ended with the Ottoman surrender of
Damascus. Fakhri Pasha the Ottoman commander of Medina showed stubborn
resistance for over two and half years during the Siege of Medina.

Along the border of Italian Libya and British Egypt, the Senussi tribe, incited and armed
by the Turks, waged a small-scale guerrilla war against Allied troops. According to
Martin Gilbert's The First World War, the British were forced to dispatch 12,000 troops
to deal with the Senussi. Their rebellion was finally crushed in mid-1916.

Italian participation

Main article: Italian Campaign (World War I)

Austro-Hungarian mountain corps in Tyrol

Italy had been allied with the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires since 1882 as part
of the Triple Alliance. However, the nation had its own designs on Austrian territory in
Trentino, Istria and Dalmatia. Rome had a secret 1902 pact with France, effectively
nullifying its alliance.[citation needed] At the start of hostilities, Italy refused to commit
troops, arguing that the Triple Alliance was defensive in nature, and that Austria
Hungary was an aggressor. The Austro-Hungarian government began negotiations to
secure Italian neutrality, offering the French colony of Tunisia in return. The Allies
made a counter-offer in which Italy would receive the Alpine province of South Tyrol
and territory on the Dalmatian coast after the defeat of AustriaHungary. This was
fomalised by the Treaty of London. Further encouraged by the Allied invasion of
Turkey in April 1915, Italy joined the Entente and declared war on AustriaHungary on
May 23. Fifteen months later Italy declared war on Germany.

Militarily, the Italians had numerical superiority. This advantage, however, was lost, not
only because of the difficult terrain in which fighting took place, but also because of the
strategies and tactics employed. Field Marshal Luigi Cadorna, a staunch proponent of
the frontal assault, had dreams of breaking into the Slovenian plateau, taking Ljubljana
and threatening Vienna. It was a Napoleonic plan, which had no realistic chance of
success in an age of barbed wire, machine guns, and indirect artillery fire, combined
with hilly and mountainous terrain.

On the Trentino front, the Austro-Hungarians took advantage of the mountainous

terrain, which favoured the defender. After an initial strategic retreat, the front remained
largely unchanged, while Austrian Kaiserschtzen and Standschtzen (German
wikipedia) engaged Italian Alpini in bitter hand-to-hand combat throughout the
summer. The Austro-Hungarians counter-attacked in the Altopiano of Asiago, towards
Verona and Padua, in the spring of 1916 (Strafexpedition), but made little progress.

Beginning in 1915, the Italians under Cadorna mounted eleven offensives on the Isonzo
front along the Isonzo River, north-east of Trieste. All eleven offensives were repelled
by the Austro-Hungarians, who held the higher ground. In the summer of 1916, the
Italians captured the town of Gorizia. After this minor victory, the front remained static
for over a year, despite several Italian offensives. In the autumn of 1917, thanks to the
improving situation on the Eastern front, the Austrians received large numbers of
reinforcements, including German Stormtroopers and the elite Alpenkorps. The Central
Powers launched a crushing offensive on 26 October 1917, spearheaded by the
Germans. They achieved a victory at Caporetto. The Italian army was routed and
retreated more than 100 km (60 miles) to reorganise, stabilizing the front at the Piave
River. Since in the Battle of Caporetto Italian Army had heavy losses, the Italian
Government called to arms the so called '99 Boys (Ragazzi del '99), that is, all males
who were 18 years old. In 1918, the Austro-Hungarians failed to break through, in a
series of battles on the Asiago Plateau, finally being decisively defeated in the Battle of
Vittorio Veneto in October of that year. AustriaHungary surrendered in early
November 1918.[38][39][40]

Further information: Battles of the Isonzo

Fighting in India

The war began with an unprecedented outpouring of loyalty and goodwill towards the
United Kingdom from within the mainstream political leadership, contrary to initial
British fears of an Indian revolt. India under British rule contributed massively to the
British war effort by providing men and resources. This was done by the Indian
Congress in hope of achieving self-government as India was very much under the
control of the British. The United Kingdom disappointed the Indians by not providing
self-governance, leading to the Gandhiian Era in Indian history. About 1.3 million
Indian soldiers and labourers served in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, while both
the Indian government and the princes sent large supplies of food, money, and
ammunition. In all 140,000 men served on the Western Front and nearly 700,000 in the
Middle East. 47,746 Indian soldiers were killed and 65,126 wounded during World War
I.[41]

Indian independence movement

Bengal and Punjab remained hotbeds of anti-colonial activities. Terrorism in Bengal,

increasingly closely linked with the unrests in Punjab, was significant enough to nearly
paralyse the regional administration. Also from the beginning of the war, expatriate
Indian population, notably in Germany, United States and Canada, headed by the Indian
Independence Committee and the Ghadar Party respectively, attempted to trigger
insurrections in India on the lines of the 1857 uprising with Irish Republican, German
and Turkish help in a massive conspiracy that has since come to be called the Hindu
German conspiracy. The conspiracy also made attempts to rally the Amir of
Afghanistan against British India, starting a political process in that country that
culminated three years later in the assassination of Amir Habibullah and precipitation of
the Third Anglo-Afghan war. A number of failed attempts at mutiny were made in
India, of which the February mutiny plan and the Singapore mutiny remain most
notable. This movement was suppressed by means of a massive international counter-
intelligence operation and draconian political acts (including the Defence of India act
1915) that lasted nearly ten years.[42][43][44]

The Ghadarites also attempted to organise incursions from the western border of India,
recruiting Indian prisoners of war from Turkey, Germany, Mesopotamia. Ghadarite
rebels, led by Sufi Amba Prasad, fought along with Turkish forces in Iran and in
Turkey. Plans were made in Constantinopole to organise a campaign from Persia,
through Baluchistan, to Punjab. These forces were involved skirmishes that captured the
frontier city of Karman, taking into custody the British consul. Percy Sykes's campaign
in Persia was directed mostly against these composite forces. It was at this time that the
Aga Khan and his brother were recruited into the British War effort. However, the Aga
Khan's brother was captured and shot dead by the rebels, who also successfully harassed
British Forces in Sistan in Afghanistan, confining British forces to Karamshir in
Baluchistan, later moving towards Karachi. They were able to take control of the coastal
towns of Gawador and Dawar. The Baluchi chief of Bampur, having declared his
independence from the British rule, also joined the Ghadarite forces. It was not before
the war in Europe turned for the worse for Turkey and Baghdad was captured by the
British forces that the Ghadarite forces, their supply lines starved, were finally
dislodged. They retreated to regroup at Shiraz, where they were finally defeated after a
bitter fight. Amba Prasad Sufi was killed in this battle. The Ghadarites carried on
guerrilla warfare along with the Iranian partisans till 1919.[45][46][47][48]

Although the conflict in India was not explicitly a part of the First World War, it was
part of the wider strategic context. The British attempt to subjugate the rebelling tribal
leaders drew away much needed troops from other theaters, in particular, of course, the
Western Front, where the real decisive victory would be made.

The reason why some Indian and Afghani tribes rose up simply came down to years of
discontent which erupted, probably not coincidentally, during the First World War. It is
likely that the tribal leaders were aware that Britain would not be able to field the
required men, in terms of either number or quality, but underestimated the strategic
importance of India to the British. Despite being far from the epicenter of the conflict,
India provided a bounty of men for the fronts. Its produce was also needed for the
British war effort and many trade routes running to other profitable areas of the Empire
ran through India. Therefore, although the British were not able to send the men that
they wanted, they were able to send enough to mount a gradual but effective counter-
guerrilla war against the tribesmen. The fighting continued into 1919 and in some areas
lasted even longer.

See also: Third Anglo-Afghan War and Hindu-German Conspiracy

Eastern Front

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article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be
challenged and removed. (December 2008)

World War I Russian infantry.

Russian forest trench

Initial actions
Main article: Eastern Front (World War I)

While the Western Front had reached stalemate, the war continued in East Europe.
Initial Russian plans called for simultaneous invasions of Austrian Galicia and German
East Prussia. Although Russia's initial advance into Galicia was largely successful, they
were driven back from East Prussia by Hindenburg and Ludendorff at Tannenberg and
the Masurian Lakes in August and September 1914. Russia's less developed industrial
base and ineffective military leadership was instrumental in the events that unfolded. By
the spring of 1915, the Russians had retreated into Galicia, and in May the Central
Powers achieved a remarkable breakthrough on Poland's southern frontiers. On 5
August they captured Warsaw and forced the Russians to withdraw from Poland.

Russian Revolution

Main article: Russian Revolution of 1917

Dissatisfaction with the Russian government's conduct of the war grew, despite the
success of the June 1916 Brusilov offensive in eastern Galicia. The success was
undermined by the reluctance of other generals to commit their forces to support the
victory. Allied and Russian forces were revived only temporarily with Romania's entry
into the war on 27 August. German forces came to the aid of embattled Austrian units in
Transylvania and Bucharest fell to the Central Powers on 6 December. Meanwhile,
unrest grew in Russia, as the Tsar remained at the front. Empress Alexandra's
increasingly incompetent rule drew protests and resulted in the murder of her favourite,
Rasputin, at the end of 1916.

Vladimir Illyich Lenin

In March 1917, demonstrations in Petrograd culminated in the abdication of Tsar

Nicholas II and the appointment of a weak Provisional Government which shared power
with the Petrograd Soviet socialists. This arrangement led to confusion and chaos both
at the front and at home. The army became increasingly ineffective.

The war and the government became more and more unpopular. Discontent led to a rise
in popularity of the Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin. He promised to pull Russia
out of the war and was able to gain power. The triumph of the Bolsheviks in November
was followed in December by an armistice and negotiations with Germany. At first the
Bolsheviks refused the German terms, but when Germany resumed the war and
marched across Ukraine with impunity, the new government acceded to the Treaty of
Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918. It took Russia out of the war and ceded vast territories,
including Finland, the Baltic provinces, parts of Poland and Ukraine to the Central
Powers. The manpower required for German occupation of former Russian territory
may have contributed to the failure of the Spring Offensive, however, and secured
relatively little food or other war materiel.

With the Bolsheviks' accession to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Entente no longer
existed. The Allied powers led a small-scale invasion of Russia to stop Germany from
exploiting Russian resources and, to a lesser extent, to support the Whites in the Russian
Civil War. Allied troops landed in Archangel and in Vladivostok.

Further information: North Russia Campaign

19171918

In the trenches: Royal Irish Rifles in a communications trench on the first day on the
Somme, 1 July 1916.

Photographic documentation of combat

Events of 1917 proved decisive in ending the war, although their effects were not fully
felt until 1918. The British naval blockade began to have a serious impact on Germany.
In response, in February 1917, the German General Staff convinced Chancellor
Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg to declare unrestricted submarine warfare, with the
goal of starving Britain out of the war. Tonnage sunk rose above 500,000 tons per
month from February to July. It peaked at 860,000 tons in April. After July, the
reintroduced convoy system became extremely effective in neutralizing the U-boat
threat. Britain was safe from starvation and German industrial output fell.
On 3 May 1917 during the Nivelle Offensive the weary French 2nd Colonial Division,
veterans of the Battle of Verdun, refused their orders, arriving drunk and without their
weapons. Their officers lacked the means to punish an entire division, and harsh
measures were not immediately implemented. There upon the mutinies afflicted 54
French divisions and saw 20,000 men desert. The other Allied forces attacked but
received massive casualties.[49] However, appeals to patriotism and duty, as well as
mass arrests and trials, encouraged the soldiers to return to defend their trenches,
although the French soldiers refused to participate in further offensive action.[50] Robert
Nivelle was removed from command by 15 May, replaced by General Philippe Ptain,
who suspended large-scale attacks. The French would go on the defensive for the next
year, leaving the burden of attack to Britain, her Empire and other allies, and
subsequently the United States.

The victory of AustriaHungary and Germany at the Battle of Caporetto led the Allies
at the Rapallo Conference to form the Supreme War Council to coordinate planning.
Previously, British and French armies had operated under separate commands.

In December, the Central Powers signed an armistice with Russia. This released troops
for use in the west. Ironically, German troop transfers could have been greater if their
territorial acquisitions had not been so dramatic. With German reinforcements and new
American troops pouring in, the final outcome was to be decided on the Western front.
The Central Powers knew that they could not win a protracted war, but they held high
hopes for a quick offensive. Furthermore, the leaders of the Central Powers and the
Allies became increasingly fearful of social unrest and revolution in Europe. Thus, both
sides urgently sought a decisive victory.[51]

In December 1916, the Germans attempted to negotiate peace with the Allies, declaring
themselves the victors. The Allies rejected the offer. This German poster from January
1917 quotes a speech by Kaiser Wilhelm II lambasting them for their decision.

Entry of the United States

President Wilson before Congress, announcing the break in official relations with
Germany on 3 February 1917

An American doughboy, circa 1918

Isolationism

The United States originally pursued a policy of isolationism, avoiding conflict while
trying to broker a peace. This resulted in increased tensions with Berlin and London.
When a German U-boat sank the British liner Lusitania in 1915, with 128 Americans
aboard, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson vowed, "America is too proud to fight" and
demanded an end to attacks on passenger ships. Germany complied. Wilson
unsuccessfully tried to mediate a settlement. He repeatedly warned the U.S. would not
tolerate unrestricted submarine warfare, in violation of international law and U.S. ideas
of human rights. Wilson was under pressure from former president Theodore Roosevelt,
who denounced German acts as "piracy".[52] Wilson's desire to have a seat at
negotiations at war's end to advance the League of Nations also played a role.[53]
Wilson's Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, resigned in protest at what he felt
was the President's decidedly warmongering diplomacy. Other factors contributing to
the U.S. entry into the war include the suspected German sabotage of both Black Tom
in Jersey City, New Jersey, and the Kingsland Explosion in what is now Lyndhurst,
New Jersey.

Making the case

In January 1917, after the Navy pressured the Kaiser, Germany resumed unrestricted
submarine warfare. Britain's secret Royal Navy cryptanalytic group, Room 40, had
broken the German diplomatic code. They intercepted a proposal from Berlin (the
Zimmermann Telegram) to Mexico to join the war as Germany's ally against the United
States, should the U.S. join. The proposal suggested, if the U.S. were to enter the war,
Mexico should declare war against the United States and enlist Japan as an ally. This
would prevent the United States from joining the Allies and deploying troops to Europe,
and would give Germany more time for their unrestricted submarine warfare program to
strangle Britain's vital war supplies. In return, the Germans would promise Mexico
support in reclaiming Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.[54]

U.S. declaration of war on Germany

After the British revealed the telegram to the United States, President Wilson, who had
won reelection on his keeping the country out of the war, released the captured telegram
as a way of building support for U.S. entry into the war. He had previously claimed
neutrality, while calling for the arming of U.S. merchant ships delivering munitions to
combatant Britain and quietly supporting the British blockading of German ports and
mining of international waters, preventing the shipment of food from America and
elsewhere to combatant Germany. After submarines sank seven U.S. merchant ships
and the publication of the Zimmerman telegram, Wilson called for war on Germany,
which the U.S. Congress declared on 6 April 1917.[55]

African-American soldiers marching in France.[56]

Crucial to U.S. participation was the massive domestic propaganda campaign executed
by the Committee on Public Information overseen by George Creel. The campaign
included tens of thousands of government-selected community leaders giving brief
carefully scripted pro-war speeches at thousands of public gatherings. Along with other
branches of government and private vigilante groups like the American Protective
League, it also included the general repression and harassment of people either opposed
to American entry into the war or of German heritage. Other forms of propaganda
included newsreels, photos, large-print posters (designed by several well-known
illustrators of the day, including Louis D. Fancher and Henry Reuterdahl), magazine
and newspaper articles, etc.

First active U.S. participation

The United States was never formally a member of the Allies but became a self-styled
"Associated Power". The United States had a small army, but it drafted four million
men and by summer 1918 was sending 10,000 fresh soldiers to France every day. In
1917, the U.S. Congress gave U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans when they were drafted
to participate in World War I, as part of the Jones Act. Germany had miscalculated,
believing it would be many more months before they would arrive and that the arrival
could be stopped by U-boats.[57]

M1905 Howitzer used by Allied Forces

The United States Navy sent a battleship group to Scapa Flow to join with the British
Grand Fleet, destroyers to Queenstown, Ireland and submarines to help guard convoys.
Several regiments of U.S. Marines were also dispatched to France. The British and
French wanted U.S. units used to reinforce their troops already on the battle lines and
not waste scarce shipping on bringing over supplies. The U.S. rejected the first
proposition and accepted the second. General John J. Pershing, American Expeditionary
Force (AEF) commander, refused to break up U.S. units to be used as reinforcements
for British Empire and French units. As an exception, he did allow African-American
combat regiments such as the Harlem Hellfighters to be used in French divisions.[58]
AEF doctrine called for the use of frontal assaults, which had long since been discarded
by British Empire and French commanders because of the large loss of life.[59]

German Spring Offensive of 1918

Main article: Spring Offensive

For most of World War I, Allied forces were stalled at trenches on the Western Front

German General Erich Ludendorff drew up plans (codenamed Operation Michael) for
the 1918 offensive on the Western Front. The Spring Offensive sought to divide the
British and French forces with a series of feints and advances. The German leadership
hoped to strike a decisive blow before significant U.S. forces arrived. The operation
commenced on 21 March 1918 with an attack on British forces near Amiens. German
forces achieved an unprecedented advance of 60 kilometers (40 miles).[60]

British and French trenches were penetrated using novel infiltration tactics, also named
Hutier tactics, after General Oskar von Hutier. Previously, attacks had been
characterised by long artillery bombardments and massed assaults.[citation needed] However,
in the Spring Offensive, the German Army used artillery only briefly and infiltrated
small groups of infantry at weak points. They attacked command and logistics areas and
bypassed points of serious resistance. More heavily armed infantry then destroyed these
isolated positions. German success relied greatly on the element of surprise.[citation needed]

The front moved to within 120 kilometers (75 mi) of Paris. Three heavy Krupp railway
guns fired 183 shells on the capital, causing many Parisians to flee. The initial offensive
was so successful that Kaiser Wilhelm II declared 24 March a national holiday. Many
Germans thought victory was near. After heavy fighting, however, the offensive was
halted. Lacking tanks or motorised artillery, the Germans were unable to consolidate
their gains. The sudden stop was also a result of the four AIF (Australian Imperial
Forces) divisions that were "rushed" down, thus doing what no other army had done and
stopping the German advance in its tracks. During that time the first Australian division
was hurriedly sent north again to stop the second German breakthrough.

British 55th (West Lancashire) Division troops blinded by tear gas during the Battle of
Estaires, 10 April 1918

American divisions, which Pershing had sought to field as an independent force, were
assigned to the depleted French and British Empire commands on 28 March. A
Supreme War Council of Allied forces was created at the Doullens Conference on 5
November 1917.[61] General Foch was appointed as supreme commander of the allied
forces. Haig, Petain and Pershing retained tactical control of their respective armies;
Foch assumed a coordinating role, rather than a directing role and the British, French
and U.S. commands operated largely independently.[61]

Following Operation Michael, Germany launched Operation Georgette against the

northern English channel ports. The Allies halted the drive with limited territorial gains
for Germany. The German Army to the south then conducted Operations Blcher and
Yorck, broadly towards Paris. Operation Marne was launched on 15 July, attempting to
encircle Reims and beginning the Second Battle of the Marne. The resulting Allied
counterattack marked their first successful offensive of the war.
By 20 July the Germans were back at their Kaiserschlacht starting lines,[citation needed]
having achieved nothing. Following this last phase of the war in the West, the German
Army never again regained the initiative. German casualties between March and April
1918 were 270,000, including many highly trained stormtroopers.

Meanwhile, Germany was falling apart at home. Anti-war marches become frequent and
morale in the army fell. Industrial output was 53% of 1913 levels.

New states under war zone

In 1918, the internationally recognized Democratic Republic of Armenia and

Democratic Republic of Georgia bordering the Ottoman Empire were established, as
well as the unrecognized Centrocaspian Dictatorship and South West Caucasian
Republic.

In 1918, the Dashnaks of the Armenian national liberation movement declared the
Democratic Republic of Armenia (DRA) through the Armenian Congress of Eastern
Armenians (unified form of Armenian National Councils) after the dissolution of the
Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic. Tovmas Nazarbekian became the first
Commander-in-chief of the DRA. Enver Pasha ordered the creation of a new army to be
named the Army of Islam. He ordered the Army of Islam into the DRA, with the goal of
taking Baku on the Caspian Sea. This new offensive was strongly opposed by the
Germans. In early May 1918, the Ottoman army attacked the newly declared DRA.
Although the Armenians managed to inflict one defeat on the Ottomans at the Battle of
Sardarapat, the Ottoman army won a later battle and scattered the Armenian army. The
Republic of Armenia was forced to sign the Treaty of Batum in June 1918.

Allied victory: summer and autumn 1918

Main articles: Hundred Days Offensive and Weimar Republic

U.S. engineers returning from the front during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel in September
1918

The Allied counteroffensive, known as the Hundred Days Offensive, began on 8 August
1918. The Battle of Amiens developed with III Corps Fourth British Army on the left,
the First French Army on the right, and the Australian and Canadian Corps
spearheading the offensive in the centre through Harbonnires.[62][63] It involved 414
tanks of the Mark IV and Mark V type, and 120,000 men. They advanced 12 kilometers
(7 miles) into German-held territory in just seven hours. Erich Ludendorff referred to
this day as the "Black Day of the German army".[62][64]

The Australian-Canadian spearhead at Amiens, a battle that was the beginning of

Germanys downfall,[65] helped pull the British armies to the north and the French
armies to the south forward. While German resistance on the British Fourth Army front
at Amiens stiffened, after an advance as far as 14 miles (23 km) and brought the battle
there to an end, the French Third Army lengthened the Amiens front on 10 August,
when it was thrown in on the right of the French First Army, and advanced 4 miles
(6 km) liberating Lassigny in fighting which lasted until the 16th. South of the French
Third Army General Mangin (The Butcher) drove his French Tenth Army forward at
Soissons on 20 August to capture eight thousand prisoners, two hundred guns and the
Aisne heights overlooking and menacing the German position north of the Vesle.[66]
Another "Black day" as described by Ludendorff.

Meanwhile General Byng of the Third British Army, reporting that the enemy on his
front was thinning in a limited withdrawal, was ordered to attack with 200 tanks toward
Bapaume, opening what is known as the Battle of Albert with the specific orders of "To
break the enemy's front, in order to outflank the enemies present battle front" (opposite
the British Fourth Army at Amiens).[20] Allied leaders had now realized that to continue
an attack after resistance had hardened was a waste of lives and it was better to turn a
line than to try and roll over it. Attacks were being undertaken in quick order to take
advantage of the successful advances on the flanks and then broken off when that attack
lost its initial impetus.[66]

The British Third Army's 15-mile (24 km) front north of Albert progressed after stalling
for a day against the main resistance line to which the enemy had withdrawn.[67]
Rawlinsons Fourth British Army was able to battle its left flank forward between
Albert and the Somme straightening the line between the advanced positions of the
Third Army and the Amiens front which resulted in recapturing Albert at the same
time.[66] On 26 August the British First Army on the left of the Third Army was drawn
into the battle extending it northward to beyond Arras. The Canadian Corps already
being back in the vanguard of the First Army fought their way from Arras eastward
5 miles (8 km) astride the heavily defended Arras-Cambrai before reaching the outer
defenses of the Hindenburg line, breaching them on the 28th and 29th. Bapaume fell on
the 29th to the New Zealand Division of the Third Army and the Australians, still
leading the advance of the Fourth Army, were again able to push forward at Amiens to
take Peronne and Mont St. Quentin on August 31. Further south the French First and
Third Armies had slowly fought forward while the Tenth Army, who had by now
crossed the Ailette and was east of the Chemin des Dames, was now near to the
Alberich position of the Hindenburg line.[68] During the last week of August the
pressure along a 70-mile (113 km) front against the enemy was heavy and unrelenting.
From German accounts, "Each day was spent in bloody fighting against an ever and
again on-storming enemy, and nights passed without sleep in retirements to new
lines."[66] Even to the north in Flanders the British Second and Fifth Armies during
August and September were able to make progress taking prisoners and positions that
were previously denied them.[68]

Close-up view of an American major in the basket of an observation balloon flying over
territory near front lines.

On 2 September the Canadian Corps outflanking of the Hindenburg line, with the
breaching of the Wotan Position, made it possible for the Third Army to advance and
sent repercussions all along the Western Front. That same day OHL had no choice but
to issue orders to six armies for withdrawal back into the Hindenburg line in the south,
behind the Canal Du Nord on the Canadian-First Army's front and back to a line east of
the Lys in the north, giving up without a fight the salient seized in the previous April.[69]
According to Ludendorff We had to admit the necessityto withdraw the entire front
from the Scarpe to the Vesle.[70]

In nearly four weeks of fighting since 8 August over 100,000 German prisoners were
taken, 75,000 by the BEF and the rest by the French. Since "The Black Day of the
German Army" the German High Command realized the war was lost and made
attempts for a satisfactory end. The day after the battle Ludenforff told Colonel Mertz
"We cannot win the war any more, but we must not lose it either." On 11 August he
offered his resignation to the Kaiser, who refused it and replied, "I see that we must
strike a balance. We have nearly reached the limit of our powers of resistance. The war
must be ended." On 13 August at Spa, Hindenburg, Ludendorff, Chancellor and Foreign
minister Hintz agreed that the war could not be ended militarily and on the following
day the German Crown Council decided victory in the field was now most improbable.
Austria and Hungary warned that they could only continue the war until December and
Ludendorff recommended immediate peace negotiations, to which the Kaiser responded
by instructing Hintz to seek the Queen of Holland's mediation. Prince Rupprecht warned
Prince Max of Baden "Our military situation has deteriorated so rapidly that I no longer
believe we can hold out over the winter; it is even possible that a catastrophe will come
earlier." On 10 September Hindenburg urged peace moves to Emperor Charles of
Austria and Germany appealed to Holland for mediation. On the 14th Austria sent a
note to all belligerents and neutrals suggesting a meeting for peace talks on neutral soil
and on 15 September Germany made a peace offer to Belgium. Both peace offers were
rejected and on 24 September OHL informed the leaders in Berlin that armistice talks
were inevitable.[68]

September saw the Germans continuing to fight strong rear guard actions and launching
numerous counter attacks on lost positions, with only a few succeeding and then only
temporarily. Contested towns, villages, heights and trenches in the screening positions
and outposts of the Hindenburg Line continued to fall to the Allies as well as thousands
of prisoners, with the BEF alone taking 30,441 in the last week of September. Further
small advances eastward would follow the Third Army victory at Ivincourt on 12
September, the Fourth Armies at Epheny on the 18th and the French gain of Essigny Le
Grand a day later. On the 24th a final assault by both the British and French on a four
mile (6 km) front would come within two miles (3 km) of St. Quentin.[68] With the
outposts and preliminary defensive lines of the Siegfried and Alberich Positions
eliminated the Germans were now completely back in the Hindenburg line. With the
Wotan position of that line already breached and the Siegfried position in danger of
being turned from the north the time had now come for an assault on the whole length
of the line.

The Allied attack on the Hindenburg Line began on 26 September. 260,000 U.S.
soldiers went "over the top". All initial objectives were captured; the U.S. 79th Infantry
Division, which met stiff resistance at Montfaucon, took an extra day to capture its
objective. The U.S. Army stalled due to supply problems because its inexperienced
headquarters had to cope with large units and a difficult landscape.[71] At the same time,
French units broke through in Champagne and closed on the Belgian frontier.[citation
needed]
The most significant advance came from Commonwealth units, as they entered
Belgium.[citation needed] The last Belgian town to be liberated before the armistice was
Ghent, which the Germans held as a pivot until Allied artillery was brought up.[72][73]
The German army had to shorten its front and use the Dutch frontier as an anchor to
fight rear-guard actions.

By October, it was evident that Germany could no longer mount a successful

defence.[citation needed] They were increasingly outnumbered, with few new recruits.
Rations were cut. Ludendorff decided, on 1 October,[citation needed] that Germany had two
ways out total annihilation or an armistice. He recommended the latter at a summit
of senior German officials. Allied pressure did not let up.

Meanwhile, news of Germany's impending military defeat spread throughout the

German armed forces. The threat of mutiny was rife. Admiral Reinhard Scheer and
Ludendorff decided to launch a last attempt to restore the "valour" of the German Navy.
Knowing the government of Max von Baden would veto any such action, Ludendorff
decided not to inform him. Nonetheless, word of the impending assault reached sailors
at Kiel. Many rebelled and were arrested, refusing to be part of a naval offensive which
they believed to be suicidal. Ludendorff took the blamethe Kaiser dismissed him on
26 October. The collapse of the Balkans meant that Germany was about to lose its main
supplies of oil and food. The reserves had been used up, but U.S. troops kept arriving at
the rate of 10,000 per day.[74]

Having suffered over 6 million casualties, Germany moved toward peace. Prince Max
von Baden took charge of a new government as Chancellor of Germany to negotiate
with the Allies. Negotiations with President Wilson began immediately, in the vain
hope that better terms would be offered than with the British and French. Instead
Wilson demanded the abdication of the Kaiser. There was no resistance when the social
democrat Philipp Scheidemann on 9 November declared Germany to be a republic.
Imperial Germany was dead; a new Germany had been born: the Weimar Republic.[75]

Allied superiority and the stab-in-the-back legend, November 1918

In November 1918 the Allies had ample supplies of men and materiel; continuation of
the war would have meant the invasion of Germany. This had unforeseeable
consequences; some Allied decision-makers felt the war should be "finished," not just
stopped, and many voices on both sides voiced the opinion that the war was not really
over.[citation needed] But most Allied decision-makers were eager to see the end of
hostilities.

Berlin was almost 900 miles (1,400 km) from the Western Front; no Allied soldier had
ever set foot on German soil in anger, and the Kaiser's armies retreated from the
battlefield in good order. Thus many veterans who had fought for the Central Powers,
including Adolf Hitler, were convinced their armies had not really been defeated,
resulting in the stab-in-the-back legend.

End of war

In the forest of Compigne after reaching an agreement for the armistice that ended
World War I, Foch is seen second from the right. The carriage seen in the background,
where the armistice was signed, later was chosen as the symbolic setting of Ptain's
June 1940 armistice. It was moved to Berlin as a prize, but due to Allied bombing it was
eventually moved to Crawinkel, Thuringia, where it was deliberately destroyed by SS
troops in 1945[76].

The collapse of the Central Powers came swiftly. Bulgaria was the first to sign an
armistice on 29 September 1918 at Saloniki.[77] On 30 October the Ottoman Empire
capitulated at Mudros.[77]

On 24 October the Italians began a push which rapidly recovered territory lost after the
Battle of Caporetto. This culminated in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, which marked the
end of the Austro-Hungarian Army as an effective fighting force. The offensive also
triggered the disintegration of Austro-Hungarian Empire. During the last week of
October declarations of independence were made in Budapest, Prague and Zagreb. On
29 October, the imperial authorities asked Italy for an armistice. But the Italians
continued advancing, reaching Trento, Udine and Trieste. On 3 November Austria
Hungary sent a flag of truce to ask for an Armistice. The terms, arranged by telegraph
with the Allied Authorities in Paris, were communicated to the Austrian Commander
and accepted. The Armistice with Austria was signed in the Villa Giusti, near Padua, on
3 November. Austria and Hungary signed separate armistices following the overthrow
of the Habsburg monarchy.

Following the outbreak of the German Revolution, a republic was proclaimed on 9

November. The Kaiser fled to the Netherlands. On 11 November an armistice with
Germany was signed in a railroad carriage at Compigne. At 11 a.m. on 11 November
1918 the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month a ceasefire came
into effect. Opposing armies on the Western Front began to withdraw from their
positions. Canadian Private George Lawrence Price is traditionally regarded as the last
soldier killed in the Great War: he was shot by a German sniper at 10:57 and died at
10:58.[78]

A formal state of war between the two sides persisted for another seven months, until
signing of the Treaty of Versailles with Germany on 28 June 1919. Later treaties with
Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire were signed. However, the latter
treaty with the Ottoman Empire was followed by strife (the Turkish Independence War)
and a final peace treaty was signed between the Allied Powers and the country that
would shortly become the Republic of Turkey, at Lausanne on 24 July 1923.

Some war memorials date the end of the war as being when the Versailles treaty was
signed in 1919; by contrast, most commemorations of the war's end concentrate on the
armistice of 11 November 1918. Legally the last formal peace treaties were not signed
until the Treaty of Lausanne. Under its terms, the Allied forces abandoned
Constantinople on 23 August 1923.

Technology
See also: Technology during World War I and Weapons of World War I
British Army Vickers machine gun.

The First World War began as a clash of 20th century technology and 19th century
tactics, with inevitably large casualties. By the end of 1917, however, the major armies,
now numbering millions of men, had modernised and were making use of telephone,
wireless communication, armoured cars, tanks, and aircraft. Infantry formations were
reorganised, so that 100-man companies were no longer the main unit of maneuver.
Instead, squads of 10 or so men, under the command of a junior NCO, were favoured.
Artillery also underwent a revolution.

In 1914, cannons were positioned in the front line and fired directly at their targets. By
1917, indirect fire with guns (as well as mortars and even machine guns) was
commonplace, using new techniques for spotting and ranging, notably aircraft and
(often overlooked) field telephone. Counter-battery missions became commonplace,
also, and sound detection was used to locate enemy batteries.

RAF Sopwith Camel.

Germany was far ahead of the Allies in utilizing heavy indirect fire. She employed 150
and 210 mm howitzers in 1914 when the typical French and British guns were only 75
and 105 mm. The British had a 6 inch (152 mm) howitzer, but it was so heavy it had to
be assembled for firing. Germans also fielded Austrian 305 mm and 420 mm guns, and
already by the beginning of the war had inventories of various calibers of Minenwerfer
ideally suited for trench warfare.[79]

Much of the combat involved trench warfare, where hundreds often died for each yard
gained. Many of the deadliest battles in history occurred during the First World War.
Such battles include Ypres, the Marne, Cambrai, the Somme, Verdun, and Gallipoli.
The Haber process of nitrogen fixation was employed to provide the German forces
with a constant supply of gunpowder, in the face of British naval blockade. Artillery
was responsible for the largest number of casualties and consumed vast quantities of
explosives. The large number of head-wounds caused by exploding shells and
fragmentation forced the combatant nations to develop the modern steel helmet, led by
the French, who introduced the Adrian helmet in 1915. It was quickly followed by the
Brodie helmet, worn by British Imperial and U.S. troops, and in 1916 by the distinctive
German Stahlhelm, a design, with improvements, still in use today.

French Nieuport 17 C.1 fighter, 1917

There was chemical warfare and small-scale strategic bombing, both of which were
outlawed by the 1907 Hague Conventions, and both proving of limited effectiveness,[80]
though they captured the public imagination.[81]

The widespread use of chemical warfare was a distinguishing feature of the conflict.
Gases used included chlorine, mustard gas and phosgene. Only a small proportion of
total war casualties were caused by gas. Effective countermeasures to gas attacks were
quickly created, such as gas masks.

The most powerful land-based weapons were railway guns weighing hundreds of tons
apiece. These were nicknamed Big Berthas, even though the namesake was not a
railway gun. Germany developed the Paris Gun, able to bombard Paris from over
100 km (60 mi), though shells were relatively light at 94 kilograms (210 lb). While the
Allies had railway guns, German models severely out-ranged and out-classed them.

Fixed-wing aircraft were first used militarily by the Italians in Libya 23 October 1911
during the Italo-Turkish War for reconnaissance, soon followed by the dropping of
grenades and aerial photography the next year. By 1914 the military utility was obvious.
They were initially used for reconnaissance and ground attack. To shoot down enemy
planes, anti-aircraft guns and fighter aircraft were developed. Strategic bombers were
created, principally by the Germans and British, though the former used Zeppelins as
well.

Towards the end of the conflict, aircraft carriers were used for the first time, with HMS
Furious launching Sopwith Camels in a raid against the Zeppelin hangars at Tondern in
1918.
Armoured cars

German U-boats (submarines) were deployed after the war began. Alternating between
restricted and unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic, they were employed by the
Kaiserliche Marine in a strategy to deprive the British Isles of vital supplies. The deaths
of British merchant sailors and the seeming invulnerability of U-boats led to the
development of depth charges (1916), hydrophones (passive sonar, 1917), blimps,
hunter-killer submarines (HMS R-1, 1917), forward-throwing anti-submarine weapons,
and dipping hydrophones (the latter two both abandoned in 1918).[82] To extend their
operations, the Germans proposed supply submarines (1916). Most of these would be
forgotten in the interwar period until World War II revived the need.

Trenches, machineguns, air reconnaissance, barbed wire, and modern artillery with
fragmentation shells helped bring the battle lines of World War I to a stalemate. The
British sought a solution with the creation of the tank and mechanised warfare. The first
tanks were used during the Battle of the Somme on 15 September 1916. Mechanical
reliability became an issue, but the experiment proved its worth. Within a year, the
British were fielding tanks by the hundreds and showed their potential during the Battle
of Cambrai in November 1917, by breaking the Hindenburg Line, while combined arms
teams captured 8000 enemy soldiers and 100 guns. Light automatic weapons also were
introduced, such as the Lewis Gun and Browning automatic rifle.

Manned observation balloons, floating high above the trenches, were used as stationary
reconnaissance platforms, reporting enemy movements and directing artillery. Balloons
commonly had a crew of two, equipped with parachutes.[83] In the event of an enemy air
attack, the crew could parachute to safety. At the time, parachutes were too heavy to be
used by pilots of aircraft (with their marginal power output) and smaller versions would
not be developed until the end of the war; they were also opposed by British leadership,
who feared they might promote cowardice.[84] Recognised for their value as observation
platforms, balloons were important targets of enemy aircraft. To defend against air
attack, they were heavily protected by antiaircraft guns and patrolled by friendly
aircraft; to attack them, unusual weapons such as air-to-air rockets were even tried.
Blimps and balloons contributed to air-to-air combat among aircraft, because of their
reconnaissance value, and to the trench stalemate, because it was impossible to move
large numbers of troops undetected. The Germans conducted air raids on England
during 1915 and 1916 with airships, hoping to damage British morale and cause aircraft
to be diverted from the front lines. The resulting panic took several squadrons of
fighters from France.[84]

Johnson's Nieuport 11 armed with Le Prieur rockets for attacking observation balloons

Another new weapon, flamethrowers, were first used by the German army and later
adopted by other forces. Although not of high tactical value, they were a powerful,
demoralizing weapon and caused terror on the battlefield. It was a dangerous weapon to
wield, as its heavy weight made operators vulnerable targets.

Trench railways evolved to supply the enormous quantities of food, water, and
ammunition required to support large numbers of soldiers in areas where conventional
transportation systems had been destroyed. A trench railway system was included in
construction of the Maginot Line, but internal combustion engines and improved
traction systems for wheeled vehicles rendered trench railways obsolete within a
decade.

Legacy
Main articles: World War I in art and literature, Media of World War I, and War
memorials

The first tentative efforts to comprehend the meaning and consequences of modern
warfare began during the initial phases of the war, and this process continued
throughout and after the end of hostilities.

Soldiers' experiences

Main articles: Surviving veterans of World War I, World War I casualties,

Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and American Battle Monuments
Commission
The First Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps Contingent, raised in 1914, sent as an extra,
90-man company to the 1 Lincolns in June, 1915, the first colonial volunteer unit to
reach the Front. Its strength rapidly reduced. After losing 50% of its remaining men at
Gueudecourt on 25 September 1916, the survivors merged with a Second Contingent of
thirty-seven, and trained as Lewis gunners. By the War's end, the two contingents had
lost over 75% of their combined strength. Forty died on active service. 16 were
commissioned., one received the O.B.E, and six the Military Medal

The soldiers of the war were initially volunteers, except for Italy, but increasingly were
conscripted into service. Books such as All Quiet on the Western Front detail the
mundane time, but also the intense horror, of soldiers that fought the war. Britain's
Imperial War Museum has collected more than 2,500 recordings of soldiers' personal
accounts and selected transcripts, edited by military author Max Arthur, have been
published. The museum believes that historians have not taken full account of this
material and accordingly has made the full archive of recordings available to authors
and researchers.[85]

Prisoners of war

This photograph shows an emaciated Indian army soldier who survived the Siege of Kut

About 8 million men surrendered and were held in POW camps during the war. All
nations pledged to follow the Hague Convention on fair treatment of prisoners of war.
In general, a POW's rate of survival was much higher than their peers at the front.[86]
Individual surrenders were uncommon. Large units usually surrendered en masse. At
the Battle of Tannenberg 92,000 Russians surrendered. When the besieged garrison of
Kaunas surrendered in 1915, 20,000 Russians became prisoners. Over half of Russian
losses were prisoners (as a proportion of those captured, wounded or killed); for Austria
32%, for Italy 26%, for France 12%, for Germany 9%; for Britain 7%. Prisoners from
the Allied armies totalled about 1.4 million (not including Russia, which lost between
2.5 and 3.5 million men as prisoners.) From the Central Powers about 3.3 million men
became prisoners.[87]

Germany held 2.5 million prisoners; Russia held 2.9 million and Britain and France held
about 720,000. Most were captured just prior to the Armistice. The U.S. held 48,000.
The most dangerous moment was the act of surrender, when helpless soldiers were
sometimes gunned down.[88][89] Once prisoners reached a camp, in general, conditions
were satisfactory (and much better than in World War II), thanks in part to the efforts of
the International Red Cross and inspections by neutral nations. Conditions were terrible
in Russia, starvation was common for prisoners and civilians alike; about 1520% of
the prisoners in Russia died. In Germany food was in short supply, but only 5%
died.[90][91][92]

The Ottoman Empire often treated POWs poorly.[93] Some 11,800 British Empire
soldiers, most of them Indians, became prisoners after the Siege of Kut, in
Mesopotamia, in April 1916; 4,250 died in captivity.[94] Although many were in very
bad condition when captured, Ottoman officers forced them to march 1,100 kilometres
(684 mi) to Anatolia. A survivor said: "we were driven along like beasts, to drop out
was to die."[95] The survivors were then forced to build a railway through the Taurus
Mountains.

In Russia, where the prisoners from the Czech Legion of the Austro-Hungarian army
were released in 1917 they re-armed themselves and briefly became a military and
diplomatic force during the Russian Civil War.

Military attachs and war correspondents

Main article: Military attachs and war correspondents in the First World War

Military and civilian observers from every major power closely followed the course of
the war. Many were able to report on events from a perspective somewhat like what is
now termed "embedded" positions within the opposing land and naval forces. These
military attachs and other observers prepared voluminous first-hand accounts of the
war and analytical papers.

For example, former U.S. Army Captain Granville Fortescue followed the
developments of the Gallipoli campaign from an embedded perspective within the ranks
of the Turkish defenders; and his report was passed through Turkish censors before
being printed in London and New York.[96] However, this observer's role was
abandoned when the U.S. entered the war, as Fortescue immediately re-enlisted,
sustaining wounds at Montfaucon d'Argonne in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive,
September 1918.[97]
In-depth observer narratives of the war and more narrowly focused professional journal
articles were written soon after the war; and these post-war reports conclusively
illustrated the battlefield destructiveness of this conflict. This was the not first time the
tactics of entrenched positions for infantry defended with machine guns and artillery
became vitally important. The Russo-Japanese War had been closely observed by
Military attachs, war correspondents and other observers; but, from a 21st Century
perspective, it is now apparent that a range of tactical lessons were disregarded or not
used in the preparations for war in Europe and during the course of the Great War.[98]

An early recorded use of the term "World War" is attributed to a well-known journalist
for The Times, Colonel Charles Repington, who wrote in his diary on 10 September
1918: "We discussed the right name of the war. I said the we called it now The War, but
that this could not last. The Napoleonic War was The Great War. To call it The German
War was too much flattery for the Boche. I suggested The World War as a shade better
title, and finally we mutually agreed to call it The First World War in order to prevent
the millennium folk from forgetting that the history of the world was the history of
war."[99]

Opposition to the war

Main articles: Opposition to World War I and French Army Mutinies (1917)

The trade union and socialist movements had long voiced their opposition to a war,
which they argued, meant only that workers would kill other workers in the interest of
capitalism. Once war was declared, however, many socialists and trade unions backed
their governments. Among the exceptions were the Bolsheviks, the Socialist Party of
America, and the Italian Socialist Party, and individuals such as Karl Liebknecht, Rosa
Luxemburg and their followers in Germany. There were also small anti-war groups in
Britain and France. Other opposition came from conscientious objectors - some
socialist, some religious - who refused to fight. In Britain 16,000 people asked for
conscientious objector status.[100] Many suffered years of prison, including solitary
confinement and bread and water diets. Even after the war, in Britain many job
advertisements were marked "No conscientious objectors need apply". Many countries
jailed those who spoke out against the conflict. These included Eugene Debs in the
United States and Bertrand Russell in Britain. In the U.S. the 1917 Espionage Act
effectively made free speech illegal and many served long prison sentences for
statements of fact deemed unpatriotic. The Sedition Act of 1918 made any statements
deemed "disloyal" a federal crime. Publications at all critical of the government were
removed from circulation by postal censors.[53]

The Central Asian Revolt started in the summer of 1916, when the Russian Empire
government ended its exemption of Muslims from military service.[101] In September
1917 the Russian soldiers in France began questioning why they were fighting for the
French at all and mutinied.[102] In Russia, opposition to the war led to soldiers also
establishing their own revolutionary committees and helped foment the October
Revolution of 1917, with the call going up for "bread, land, and peace". The Bolsheviks
agreed a peace treaty with Germany, the peace of Brest-Litovsk, despite its harsh
conditions.

War crimes
Genocide

Main article: Ottoman casualties of World War I

See also: Armenian Genocide, Assyrian Genocide, and Pontic Greek Genocide

The ethnic cleansing of the Ottoman Empire's Christian population, with the most
prominent among them being the massacres of Armenians (similar policies were
enacted against the Assyrians and Greeks), during the final years of the Ottoman Empire
is considered genocide.[103] The Ottomans saw the entire Armenian population as an
enemy[104] that had chosen to side with Russia during the beginning of the war.[105] The
exact number of deaths is unknown although a range of 250,000 to 1.5 million is given
for the deaths of Armenians.[106] The government of Turkey has consistently rejected
charges of genocide and of others, arguing that those who died were simply caught up
in the fighting or that killings of Armenians and other Christians were justified by their
individual or collective treason.[107]

Rape of Belgium

Main article: Rape of Belgium

In Belgium, German troops, in fear of French and Belgian guerrilla fighters, or francs-
tireurs, massacred townspeople in Andenne (211 dead), Tamines (384 dead), and
Dinant (612 dead). On 25 August 1914, the Germans set fire to the town of Leuven,
burned the library containing about 230,000 books, killed 209 civilians and forced
42,000 to evacuate. These actions brought worldwide condemnation.[108]

Aftermath
Main article: Aftermath of World War I

The Beaumont Hamel Newfoundland Memorial in the Somme

No other war had changed the map of Europe so dramatically four empires
disappeared: the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and the Russian. Four defunct
dynasties, the Hohenzollerns, the Habsburg, Romanovs and the Ottomans together with
all their ancillary aristocracies, all fell after the war. Belgium and Serbia were badly
damaged, as was France with 1.4 million soldiers dead, not counting other casualties.
Germany and Russia were similarly affected.

Of the 60 million European soldiers who were mobilized from 1914 1918, 8 million
were killed, 7 million were permanently disabled, and 15 million were seriously injured.
Germany lost 15.1% of its active male population, AustriaHungary lost 17.1%, and
France lost 10.5%.[109] About 750,000 German civilians died from starvation caused by
the British blockade during the war.[110] By the end of the war, famine had killed an
estimated 100,000 people in Lebanon.[111] The war had profound economic
consequences. In addition, a major influenza epidemic spread around the world.
Overall, the Spanish flu killed at least 50 million people.[112][113] In 1914 alone,
epidemic typhus killed 200,000 in Serbia.[114] There were about 25 million infections
and 3 million deaths from epidemic typhus in Russia from 1918 to 1922.[115]

Approximately 200,000 Germans living in Volhynia and about 600,000 Jews were
deported by the Russian authorities.[116][117][118] In 1916, an order was issued to deport
around 650,000 Volga Germans to the east as well, but the Russian Revolution
prevented this from being carried out.[119] Many pogroms accompanied the Revolution
of 1917 and the ensuing Russian Civil War, 60,000200,000 civilian Jews were killed
in the atrocities throughout the former Russian Empire.[120][121] The best estimates of the
death toll from the Russian famine of 1921 run from 5 million to 10 million people.[122]
By 1922 there were at least 7 million homeless children in Russia as a result of nearly a
decade of devastation from World War I and the Russian Civil War.[123] Considerable
numbers of anti-Soviet Russians fled the country after the Revolution; by the 1930s the
northern Chinese city of Harbin had 100,000 Russians.[124]

Later conflicts

The end of World War I set the stage for other world conflicts, some of which are
continuing into the 21st century. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, pushed for
socialist revolution. Out of German discontent with the still controversial Treaty of
Versailles, Adolf Hitler was able to gain popularity and power.[125][126] World War II
was in part a continuation of the power struggle that was never fully resolved by the
First World War; in fact, it was common for Germans in the 1930s and 1940s to justify
acts of international aggression because of perceived injustices imposed by the victors
of the First World War.[127]

The establishment of the modern state of Israel and the roots of the continuing Israeli-
Palestinian Conflict are partially found in the unstable power dynamics of the Middle
East which were born at the end of World War I.[128] Previous to the end of fighting in
the war, the Ottoman Empire had maintained a modest level of peace and stability
throughout the Middle East.[129] With the end of the war and the fall of Ottoman
government, power vacuums developed and conflicting claims to land and nationhood
began to emerge.[130] Sometimes after only cursory consultation with the local
population, the political boundaries drawn by the victors of the First World War were
quickly imposed, and in many cases are still problematic in the 21st century struggles
for national identity.[131][132] While the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire at the end of
World War I was a pivotal milestone in the creation of the modern political situation of
the Middle East, including especially the Arab-Israeli conflict,[133][134][135] the end of
Ottoman rule also spawned lesser known disputes over water and other natural
resources.[136]

Further information: SykesPicot Agreement

Peace treaties

After the war, the Allies imposed a series of peace treaties on the Central Powers. The
1919 Treaty of Versailles, which Germany was kept under blockade until she signed,
ended the war. It declared Germany responsible for the war and required Germany to
pay enormous war reparations and award territory to the victors. Unable to pay them
with exports (a result of territorial losses and postwar recession),[137] she did so by
borrowing from the United States, until the reparations were suspended in 1931. The
"Guilt Thesis" became a controversial explanation of events in Britain and the United
States. The Treaty of Versailles caused enormous bitterness in Germany, which
nationalist movements, especially the Nazis, exploited with a conspiracy theory they
called the Dolchstosslegende. The treaty contributed to the economic collapse of the
Weimar Republic by sparking runaway inflation in the 1920s.

The German Empire lost its colonial possessions and was saddled with accepting blame
for the war, as well as paying punitive reparations for it. The Austro-Hungarian and
Ottoman empires were completely dissolved.

AustriaHungary was also partitioned, largely along ethnic lines, into several successor
states including Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia, as well as adding
Transylvania to the Greater Romania who was allied with the victors. The details were
contained in the Treaty of Saint-Germain and the Treaty of Trianon.

The Russian Empire, which had withdrawn from the war in 1917 after the October
Revolution, lost much of its western frontier as the newly independent nations of
Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland were carved from it; Bessarabia was
also re-attached to the Greater Romania as it had been a Romanian territory for more
than a thousand years.[138]

The Ottoman Empire disintegrated, and much of its non-Anatolian territory was
awarded as protectorates of various Allied powers, while the remaining Turkish core
was reorganised as the Republic of Turkey. The Ottoman Empire was to be partitioned
by the Treaty of Svres in 1920. The treaty, however, was never ratified by the Sultan
and was rejected by the Turkish republican movement. This led to the Turkish
Independence War and, ultimately, to the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.

New national identities

Poland reemerged as an independent country, after more than a century. Yugoslavia and
Czechoslovakia were entirely new nations agglomerating previously independent
peoples. Russia became the Soviet Union and lost Finland, Estonia, Lithuania and
Latvia, which became independent countries. The Ottoman Empire was soon replaced
by Turkey and several other countries in the Middle East.

In the British Empire, the war unleashed new forms of nationalism. In Australia and
New Zealand the Battle of Gallipoli became known as those nations' "Baptism of Fire".
It was the first major war in which the newly established countries fought and it was
one of the first times that Australian troops fought as Australians, not just subjects of
the British Crown. Anzac Day, commemorating the Australian and New Zealand Army
Corps, celebrates this defining moment.[139][140]

After the Battle of Vimy Ridge, where the Canadian divisions fought together for the
first time as a single corps, Canadians began to refer to theirs as a nation "forged from
fire".[141] Having succeeded on the same battleground where the "mother countries" had
previously faltered, they were for the first time respected internationally for their own
accomplishments. Canada entered the war as a Dominion of the British Empire and
remained so afterwards, although she emerged with a greater measure of
independence.[142][143] While the other Dominions, for example, were represented by
Britain, Canada was an independent negotiator and signatory of the Versailles Treaty.

Social trauma

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The experiences of the war led to a collective trauma for all participating countries. The
optimism of the 1900s was gone and those who fought in the war became known as the
Lost Generation. For the next few years, much of Europe mourned. Memorials were
erected in thousands of villages and towns. The soldiers returning home from World
War I suffered greatly from the horrors they had witnessed. Many returning veterans
suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, called shell shock at the time.

The social trauma caused by years of fighting manifested itself in different ways. Some
people were revolted by nationalism and its results, and so they began to work toward a
more internationalist world, supporting organisations such as the League of Nations.
Pacifism became increasingly popular. Others had the opposite reaction, feeling that
only strength and military might could be relied upon in a chaotic and inhumane world.
Anti-modernist views were an outgrowth of the many changes taking place in society.
The rise of Nazism and fascism included a revival of the nationalist spirit and a
rejection of many post-war changes. Similarly, the popularity of the Dolchstosslegende
("stab-in-the-back legend") was a testament to the psychological state of defeated
Germany and was a rejection of responsibility for the conflict. The conspiracy theory of
betrayal became common and the German public came to see themselves as victims.
The Dolchstosslegende's popular acceptance in Germany played a significant role in the
rise of Nazism. A sense of disillusionment and cynicism became pronounced, with
nihilism growing in popularity. This disillusionment for humanity found a cultural
climax with the Dadaist artistic movement. Many believed the war heralded the end of
the world as they had known it, including the collapse of capitalism and imperialism.
Communist and socialist movements around the world drew strength from this theory
and enjoyed a level of popularity they had never known before. These feelings were
most pronounced in areas directly or harshly affected by the war.[144][145]

Lt. Col. John McCrae of Canada, who wrote the poem "In Flanders Fields", died in
1918 of pneumonia

On 3 May 1915, during the Second Battle of Ypres, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer was
killed. At his graveside, his friend John McCrae, M.D., of Guelph, Ontario, Canada
wrote the memorable poem In Flanders Fields as a salute to those who perished in the
Great War. Published in Punch on 8 December 1915, it is still recited today, especially
on Remembrance Day and Memorial Day.[146][147]

Macro- and micro-economic effects

One of the most dramatic effects of the war was the expansion of governmental powers
and responsibilities in Britain, France, the United States, and the Dominions of the
British Empire. In order to harness all the power of their societies, new government
ministries and powers were created. New taxes were levied and laws enacted, all
designed to bolster the war effort; many of which have lasted to this day. Similarly, the
war strained the abilities of the formerly large and bureaucratised governments such as
in AustriaHungary and Germany; however, any analysis of the long-term effects were
clouded by the defeat of these governments.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased for three Allies (Britain, Italy, and U.S.), but
decreased in France and Russia, in neutral Netherlands, and in the main three Central
Powers. The shrinkage in GDP in Austria, Russia, France, and the Ottoman Empire
reached 30 to 40%. In Austria, for example, most of the pigs were slaughtered and, at
war's end, there was no meat.

All nations had increases in the government's share of GDP, surpassing fifty percent in
both Germany and France and nearly reaching fifty percent in Britain. To pay for
purchases in the United States, Britain cashed in its massive investments in American
railroads and then began borrowing heavily on Wall Street. President Wilson was on the
verge of cutting off the loans in late 1916, but allowed a massive increase in U.S.
government lending to the Allies. After 1919, the U.S. demanded repayment of these
loans, which, in part, were funded by German reparations, which, in turn, were
supported by American loans to Germany. This circular system collapsed in 1931 and
the loans were never repaid.

Macro- and micro-economic consequences devolved from the war. Families were
altered by the departure of many men. With the death or absence of the primary wage
earner, women were forced into the workforce in unprecedented numbers. At the same
time, industry needed to replace the lost laborers sent to war. This aided the struggle for
voting rights for women.

As the war slowly turned into a war of attrition, conscription was implemented in some
countries. This issue was particularly explosive in Canada and Australia. In the former it
opened a political gap between French-Canadians who claimed their true loyalty was
to Canada and not the British Empire and the Anglophone majority who saw the war
as a duty to both Britain and Canada. Prime Minister Robert Borden pushed through a
Military Service Act, provoking the Conscription Crisis of 1917. In Australia, a
sustained pro-conscription campaign by Prime Minister Billy Hughes, caused a split in
the Australian Labor Party and Hughes formed the Nationalist Party of Australia in
1917 to pursue the matter. Nevertheless, the labour movement, the Catholic Church, and
Irish nationalist expatriates successfully opposed Hughes' push, which was rejected in
two plebiscites.

In Britain, rationing was finally imposed in early 1918, limited to meat, sugar, and fats
(butter and oleo), but not bread. The new system worked smoothly. From 1914 to 1918
trade union membership doubled, from a little over four million to a little over eight
million. Work stoppages and strikes became frequent in 191718 as the unions
expressed grievances regarding prices, alcohol control, pay disputes, fatigue from
overtime and working on Sundays and inadequate housing. Conscription put into
uniform nearly every physically fit man, six of ten million eligible. Of these, about
750,000 lost their lives and 1,700,000 were wounded. Most deaths were to young
unmarried men; however, 160,000 wives lost husbands and 300,000 children lost
fathers.[148]

Britain turned to her colonies for help in obtaining essential war materials whose supply
had become difficult from traditional sources. Geologists, such as Albert Ernest Kitson,
were called upon to find new resources of precious minerals in the African colonies.
Kitson discovered important new deposits of manganese, used in munitions production,
in the Gold Coast.[149]

Cognate names for the war

Before World War II, the war was also known as The Great War, The World War, The
War to End All Wars, The Kaiser's War, The War of the Nations and The War in
Europe. In France and Belgium it was sometimes referred to as La Guerre du Droit (the
War for Justice) or La Guerre Pour la Civilisation / de Oorlog tot de Beschaving (the
War to Preserve Civilization), especially on medals and commemorative monuments.

The term used by official histories of the war in Britain and Canada is The First World
War, while American histories generally use the term World War I.

The earliest known use of the term First World War appeared during the war. German
biologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel wrote shortly after the start of the war:

There is no doubt that the course and character of the feared 'European War' ... will
become the first world war in the full sense of the word.[150]

Indianapolis Star, September 20, 1914

The term was used again near the end of the war. English journalist Charles A.
Repington wrote:

[Diary entry, September 10, 1918]: We discussed the right name of the war. I said that
we called it now The War, but that this could not last. The Napoleonic War was The
Great War. To call it The German War was too much flattery for the Boche. I suggested
The World War as a shade better title, and finally we mutually agreed to call it The First
World War in order to prevent the millennium folk from forgetting that the history of
the world was the history of war.[150]

The First World War, 1914-1918 (1920)

See also
World War I portal

Wikipedia:Books has a book on: World War I

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

World War I

European Civil War

 List of people associated with World War I
List of wars
List of wars by death toll
World War One - Medal Abbreviations

Media

Video clip of allied bombing runs Primitive WWI tanks help the Allies with an
over German lines advance in Langres, France (1918)

Animated maps

An animated map "Europe plunges into war"

An animated map of Europe at the end of the war

Notes
1. ^ Willmott 2003, p. 10
2. ^ a b c d Willmott 2003, p. 15
3. ^ Keegan 1988, p. 8
4. ^ Willmott 2003, p. 307
5. ^ Willmott 2003, p. 6
6. ^ Keegan 1988, p. 7
7. ^ Keegan 1988, p. 11
8. ^ a b Keegan 1998, p. 52
9. ^ a b Willmott 2003, p. 21
10. ^ Prior 1999, p. 18
11. ^ Fromkin
12. ^ a b Keegan 1998, pp. 4849
13. ^ Willmott 2003, pp. 2223
14. ^ Willmott 2003, p. 26
15. ^ Willmott 2003, p. 27
16. ^ Willmott 2003, p. 29
17. ^ Donald James Goodspeed, The German Wars 1914-1945 (N.Y., N.Y.:
Bonanza Books, 1985), page 199 (footnote).
18. ^ Duffy
19. ^ D. J. Goodspeed, The German Wars 1914-1945 (N.Y., N.Y.: Bonanza Books,
1985), page 226.
20. ^ a b Terraine 1963, p. 508
21. ^ "Vimy Ridge, Canadian National Memorial" ([dead link] Scholar search),
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23. ^ Taylor2007, pp. 3947
24. ^ Keene 2006, pp. 5
25. ^ Halpern 1995, p. 293
26. ^ Zieger 2001, pp. 50
27. ^ "Coast Guard in the North Atlantic War".
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28. ^ Gilbert 2004, pp. 306
29. ^ von der Porten 1969
30. ^ Jones, p. 80
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33. ^ The U-boat War in World War One
34. ^ Price
35. ^ Fromkin 2001, p. 119
36. ^ a b Hinterhoff 1984, pp. 499503
37. ^ Boghos Nubar the president of the "Armenian National Assembly" declared to
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44. ^ Dignan 1971, p. 57
45. ^ Sykes 1921, p. 101
46. ^ Singh
47. ^ Herbert 2003
48. ^ Asghar 2005
49. ^ Lyons, 243.
50. ^ Marshall, 292.
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67. ^ Maurice 1918
68. ^ a b c d Chronicle Of The First World War
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80. ^ Heller 1984
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References
See also: List of World War I books

American Armies and Battlefields in Europe: A History, Guide, and Reference

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http://www.secstate.wa.gov/history/ww1/maps.aspx
Army Art of World War I, U.S. Army Center of Military History: Smithsonian
Institution, National Museum of American History, 1993, OCLC 28608539,
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Asghar, Syed Birjees (2005-06-12), A Famous Uprising, Dawn Group,
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Ashworth, Tony (2000), Trench warfare, 1914-18 : the live and let live system,
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(translated from the German)
Balakian, Peter (2004), The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's
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Bass, Gary Jonathan (2002), Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War
Crimes Tribunals, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, pp. 424pp,
ISBN 0691092788, OCLC 248021790
Blair, Dale (2005), No Quarter: Unlawful Killing and Surrender in the Australian
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1740272919, OCLC 62514621
Blumberg, Arnold, ed. (1995), Great Leaders, Great Tyrants?, Westport,
Connecticut: Greenwood Press, ISBN 0313287511, OCLC 30400598
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 Cecil, Lamar (1996), Wilhelm II: Emperor and Exile, 1900-1941, II, Chapel Hill,
North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, pp. 176, ISBN 0807822833,
OCLC 186744003
Chickering, Rodger (2004), Imperial Germany and the Great War, 1914-1918,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521839084, OCLC 55523473
Clark, Charles Upson (1927), Bessarabia, Russia and Roumania on the Black Sea,
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Crows Nest, New South Wales: Allen & Unwin, pp. 320pp, ISBN 1865086347,
OCLC 48793439
Cruttwell, Charles Robert Mowbray Fraser (2007), A History of the Great War,
19141918, Chicago: Academy Chicago Publishers, ISBN 0897333152 general
military history
Dignan, Don K (February 1971), "The Hindu Conspiracy in Anglo-American
Relations during World War I.", The Pacific Historical Review (University of
California Press) 40 (1): 5776, ISSN 0030-8684,
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Eksteins, Modris (1989), Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the
Modern Age, London: Bantam, ISBN 0593018621, OCLC 19455240 an analysis of
cultural changes before, during, and after the war
Ellis, John; Cox, Michael (2001), The World War I Databook: The Essential Facts
and Figures for All the Combatants, London: Aurum, ISBN 1854107666, OCLC
46506978
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http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/web03/atlases/great%20war/great%20war%20in
dex.htm despite the title covers entire war
Evans, David (2004), The First World War, Teach yourself, London: Hodder
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12-30
Falls, Cyril Bentham (1959), The Great War, New York: Putnam, ISBN
0399501002, OCLC 8664179 general military history
Ferguson, Niall (1999), The Pity of War, New York: Basic Books, pp. 563pp, ISBN
046505711X, OCLC 41124439
 Ferguson, Niall (2006), The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the
Descent of the West, New York: Penguin Press, ISBN 1594201005
Fischer, Fritz (1967), Germany's Aims in the First World War, New York: Norton,
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Kriegzielpolitik des kaiserlichen Deutschland 1914/18")
Fischer, Fritz; Jackson, Marian (1975), War of Illusions: German Policies From
1911 to 1914, New York: Norton, OCLC 221830012 (original German title "Krieg
der Illusionen die deutsche Politik von 1911 - 1914")
Fortescue, Granville Roland (28 October 1915), London in Gloom over Gallipoli;
Captain Fortescue in Book and Ashmead-Bartlett in Lecture Declare Campaign
Lost. Say Allies Can't Advance; Attack on Allied Diplomacy in Correspondent's
Doleful Talk Passed by Censor, New York Times,
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669D946496D6CF
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0850524059, OCLC 59816503
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Geological Society Quarterly Journal (Geological Society) 94
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 Herrmann, David G (1996), The Arming of Europe and the Making of the First
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36292837
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51922814, historiography, stressing military themes
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Middle East, University of Waterloo,
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t/water/Roots+of+the+Water+Conflict+in+the+Middle+East.htm
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War I, 1914-1941, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, ISBN 0838620043, OCLC
5726236
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Cassell, ISBN 0304358606, OCLC 45991828
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 Keegan, John (1998), The First World War, Hutchinson, ISBN 0091801788,
general military history
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pp. 5, ISBN 0313331812, OCLC 70883191
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Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195032098, OCLC 9906841, covers
politics & economics & society
Kennett, Lee B (1992), The First Air War, 19141918, New York: Free Press,
ISBN 0029173019, OCLC 22113898
Keynes, John Maynard (1920), The Economic Consequences of the Peace, New
York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, OCLC 213487540
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0582418690, OCLC 247285240,
http://www.jimmyatkinson.com/papers/versaillestreaty.html#endnotes
Knobler, Stacey L, ed. (2005), The Threat of Pandemic Influenza: Are We Ready?
Workshop Summary, Washington DC: National Academies Press, ISBN
0309095042, OCLC 57422232,
http://www.nap.edu/books/0309095042/html/7.html
Lee, Dwight Erwin, ed. (1953), The Outbreak of the First World War: Who Was
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points of view
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Timeline of World War I

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The following tables list the main events which happened during World War I.

Legend
Western Theater Eastern Theater Italian Theater
Caucasian Theater Middle East Theater Balkan Theater
Colonial Theater Naval Theater Diplomacy and politics

[edit] 1914
Dates Events
The Assassination in Sarajevo: of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian
June 28 Details
throne, who is killed along with his wife, Archduchess
Sophie.
Austria-Hungary sends an ultimatum to Serbia.
July 23 Details
Serbian response is seen as unsatisfactory.
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. Russia
July 28
mobilizes. The Great War begins.
Germany enjoins Russia to stop mobilizing. Russia
July 31
says mobilization is against Austria-Hungary only.
Germany declares war on Russia and mobilizes.
August 1 Italy declares its neutrality.
Germany and the Ottoman Empire sign a secret
alliance treaty.
August 2 Germany invades Luxembourg. Details
Belgium refuses German ultimatum.
August 3 Germany declares war on France.
German troops enter Russia.
Germany invades Belgium to outflank the French
army.
Britain protests the violation of Belgian neutrality,
August 4 guaranteed by a treaty;
German Chancellor replies that the treaty is just a
chiffon de papier (a scrap of paper).
The United Kingdom declares war on Germany.
Montenegro declares war on Austria-Hungary.
August 5
The Ottoman Empire closes the Dardanelles.
August 5 The Germans besiege and then capture the fortresses
Details
August 16 of Lige, Belgium.
Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia.
August 6
Serbia declares war on Germany.
August 7 The British Expeditionary Force arrives in France. Details
August 9 Montenegro declares war on Germany.
August 11 France declares war on Austria-Hungary.
The United Kingdom declares war on Austria-
August 12
Hungary.
Battle of the Frontiers. The Germans obtain a victory
August 14
against the British Expeditionary Force and France's Details
August 24
Fifth Army.
August 16 The Serbs defeat the Austro-Hungarians at the Battle
Details
August 19 of Cer.
The Russian army enters East Prussia. Battle of
August 17 Details
Stalluponen.
The Germans attack the Russians in East Prussia. The
August 20 attack is a failure in addition to being a violation of the Details
Schlieffen Plan.
August 17 Battle of Tannenberg: the Russian army undergoes a
Details
September 2 heavy defeat by the Germans.
August 20 The Germans occupy Brussels.
August 22 Austria-Hungary declares war on Belgium.
August 23 Japan declares war on Germany.
August 23 Battle of Kranik. The Austro-Hungarian First Army
Details
August 25 defeats the Russian Fourth Army
August 24 The Germans siege and capture the Maubeuge
Details
September 7 Fortress.
August 25 Japan declares war on Austria-Hungary.
British and French forces invade Togoland, a German
August 26 Details
protectorate in West Africa.
August 26
Battle of Le Cateau. Allied retreat. Details
August 27
August 26
Battle of Lemberg. The Russians capture Lviv. Details
September 11
August 27 Battle of Tsingtao: British and Japanese forces capture
Details
November 7 the German-controlled port of Tsingtao in China.
The Royal Navy wins the First Battle of Heligoland
August 28 Details
Bight, North Sea.
August 29 Battle of Saint Quentin, aka Battle of Guise. Orderly
Details
August 30 Allied retreat.
 New Zealand occupies German Samoa (later Western
August 30 Details
Samoa).
September 3
Austro-Hungarian defeat at the Battle of Rava Russka. Details
September 11
First Battle of the Marne. The German advance on
September 5
Paris is halted, marking the failure of the Schlieffen Details
September 12
Plan.
First Battle of the Masurian Lakes: The Russian Army
September 7
of the Neman withdraws from East Prussia with heavy Details
September 14
casualties.
September 8 Second Austro-Hungarian attempt at invading Serbia
September 17 fails.
Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg lays out Germany's
September 9 Details
war aims.
September 11
Australian forces occupy German New Guinea. Details
September 21
Troops from South Africa begins invading German
September 13 Details
South-West Africa.
September 13 The First Battle of the Aisne ends in a substantial
Details
September 28 draw. The Race to the Sea begins.
Erich von Falkenhayn replaces Helmuth von Moltke
September 14 Details
the Younger as German Chief of Staff.
September 17 The Siege of Przemyl begins Details
September 28
The Germans siege and capture Antwerp, Belgium. Details
October 10
September 29
Battle of the Vistula, aka Battle of Warsaw. Details
October 31
October 16 Battle of the Yser. French and Belgian forces secure
Details
October 31 the coastline of Belgium.
The First Battle of Ypres ends the Race to the Sea. The
October 19
Germans are prevented from reaching Calais and Details
November 22
Dunkirk.
Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
November 1 Battle of Coronel. Von Spee's German cruiser
squadron defeats a Royal Navy squadron under Details
Christopher Cradock.
The United Kingdom begins the naval blockade of
November 2 Details
Germany.
November 3 Montenegro declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
November 3 Von Lettow-Vorbeck's German colonial forces defeat
Details
November 5 the British at the Battle of Tanga, German East Africa.
 France and the United Kingdom declare war on the
November 5
Ottoman Empire.
November 6 The Austro-Hungarians enter Belgrade.
Battle of Cocos, northeast Indian Ocean. The
November 9 Australian cruiser Sydney destroys the German cruiser Details
Emden.
November 11
Battle of d (Lviv). Details
December 6
December 3
Battle of Kolubara. The Serbs take Belgrade back. Details
December 15
Battle of the Falklands. Von Spee's German cruiser
December 8 Details
squadron is defeated by the Royal Navy.
The German fleet shells Scarborough and Hartlepool,
December 16 Details
England.
December 24- An unofficial Christmas truce is declared between
Details
December 25 large numbers of German and French forces.
December 29
January 2, The Russians win the Battle of Sarikamis, Caucasia. Details
1915

[edit] 1915
Dates Events
The Russian offensive in the Carpathians begins. It
January 2
will continue until April 12.
January 19 First Zeppelin raid on Great Britain. Details
Battle of Dogger Bank between squadrons of the
January 24 Details
British Grand Fleet and the German Hochseeflotte.
January 28
The Ottomans fail to capture the Suez Canal. Details
February 3
Germany begins submarine warfare against merchant
February 4 Details
vessels.
February 7 Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes. The Russian X
Details
February 22 Army is defeated.
British and French naval attack on the Dardanelles.
February 19 Details
The Gallipoli Campaign begins.
March 10 Battle of Neuve Chapelle. After an initial success, a
Details
March 13 British offensive is halted.
The Siege of Przemyl ends. The Russians capture the
March 22 Details
fortress.
April 22May At the Second Battle of Ypres, the Germans use Details
25 chemical weapons (gas) for the first time.
Allied forces land on Gallipoli. Details
April 25
London Pact between the Entente and Italy. Details
April 28 First Battle of Krithia. The Allied advance is repelled. Details
Battle of Gorlice-Tarnw: the German troops under
May 1May 3 General Mackensen break through the Russian lines Details
in Galicia.
Second Battle of Krithia. The Allied attempts at
May 6May 8 Details
advancing are thwarted again.
The British liner Lusitania is sunk by a German U-
May 7 Details
boat.
Troops from Hungary rout the Russians at Jarosaw.
May 10
Lviv is again in Austrian hands.
Windhoek, capital of German South-West Africa, is
May 12 Details
occupied by South African troops.
May 23 Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
Thiird Battle of Krithia. Yet another Allied failure. Details
June 4
The Russians leave Przemyl. Details
Mackensen breaks again through the Russian lines in
June 22 Details
the Lviv area.
June 23July 7 First Battle of the Isonzo.
June 27 The Austro-Hungarians re-enter Lviv. Details
June 28July 5 The British win the Battle of Gully Ravine. Details
July 9 The German forces in South-West Africa surrender. Details
July 18August
Second Battle of the Isonzo.
3
August 5 The Germans occupy Warsaw. Details
Battle of Sari Bair, aka the August Offensive. Last
August 6
and unsuccessful attempt by the British to seize the Details
August 29
Gallipoli peninsula.
September 1 Germany suspends unrestricted submarine warfare. Details
Nicholas II removes Grand Duke Nicholas
September 8 Nikolayevich as Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Details
Army, personally taking that position.
The Germans occupy Vilnius. The Gorlice-Tarnw
September 19 Details
Offensive ends.
September 25
Battle of Loos. A British major offensive fails. Details
September 28
Serbia is invaded by Germany, Austria-Hungary and
October 6 Details
Bulgaria.
October 14 Bulgaria declares war on Serbia
October 15 The United Kingdom declares war on Bulgaria.
October 16 France declares war on Bulgaria.
October 18
Third Battle of the Isonzo
November 4
October 19 Italy and Russia declare war on Bulgaria.
A French army lands in Salonika and, with the help of
October 27
British and Italian troops, sets up a Balkan Front.
November 10
Fourth Battle of the Isonzo
December 2
November 22
Battle of Ctesiphon, in present-day Iraq. Details
November 25
The Serbian army collapses. It will retreat to the
November 27 Adriatic Sea and be evacuated by the Italian and Details
French Navies.
The Siege of Kut, Mesopotamia, by the Ottomans
December 7 Details
begins.
Douglas Haig replaces John French as commander of
December 19 Details
the British Expeditionary Force.

[edit] 1916
Dates Events
January 8 Austro-Hungarian offensive against Montenegro,
January 16 which capitulates.
The Gallipoli Campaign ends in an Allied defeat and
January 9 Details
an Ottoman victory.
January 11 Corfu occupied by the Allies. Details
Reinhard Scheer is appointed commander of
January 24 Details
Germany's Hochseeflotte.
Conscription introduced in the United Kingdom by
January 27 Details
the Military Service Act.
February 13
Battle of Erzurum.
February 16
February 21 The Battle of Verdun begins.
February 28 German Kamerun (Cameroon) surrenders. Details
March 1 Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare. Details
March 1March
Fifth Battle of the Isonzo.
15
March 8 Battle of Dujaila: a British attempt to relieve Kut Details
 fails.
March 18April Lake Naroch offensive.
Easter Rising by Irish rebels against the United
April 23 Details
Kingdom.
The British forces under siege at Kut surrender to the
April 29 Details
Ottomans.
May 10 Germany suspends unrestricted submarine warfare. Details
May 15June 10 Austro-Hungarian Strafexpedition in Trentino. Details
Battle of Jutland between Britain's Grand Fleet and
May 31June 1 Details
Germany's Hochseeflotte.
June 4 The Brusilov Offensive begins.
The Arab Revolt in Hejaz begins. Details
June 5 The HMS Hampshire is sunk off the Orkneys; Lord
Details
Kitchener dies.
Italy: Paolo Boselli succeeds Antonio Salandra as
June 10 Details
Prime Minister.
July 1 The Battle of the Somme begins. Details
July 2 Battle of Erzincan.
Battle of Bazentin Ridge (second phase of the Battle
July 14 Details
of the Somme)
July 23August Battle of Pozires (middle phases of the Battle of the
Details
7 Somme)
August 3 Battle of Romani. Ottoman attack on the British in
Details
August 5 the Sinai peninsula fails.
August 3 Sixth Battle of the Isonzo. The Italians capture
Details
August 17 Gorizia (August 9).
August 18 Battle of Guillemont (intermediate phase of the Battle
Details
September 5 of the Somme)
Italy declares war on Germany.
August 27 Romania enters the war on the Entente's side. Her
army is defeated in a few weeks.
Paul von Hindenburg replaces Erich von Falkenhayn
August 29 Details
as German Chief of Staff.
September 6 The Central Powers create a unified command.
Battle of Ginchy (intermediate phase of the Battle of
September 9 Details
the Somme)
September 10
Allied offensive on the Salonika Front.
November 19
September 14
Seventh Battle of the Isonzo
September 17
 Battle of Flers-Courcelette (last offensive of the
September 15 Battle of the Somme). The British use armored tanks Details
for the first time in history.
The Brusilov Offensive ends with a substantial
September 20 Details
Russian success.
September 25 Battle of Morval (part of the Battle of the Somme) Details
September 26 Battle of Thiepval Ridge (part of the Battle of the
Details
September 28 Somme)
October 1 Battle of Le Transloy (part of the Battle of the
Details
November 5 Somme)
October 9
Eighth Battle of the Isonzo.
October 12
October 24 The French recapture Fort Douaumont near Verdun. Details
November 1
Ninth Battle of the Isonzo.
November 4
November 13 Battle of the Ancre (final phase of the Battle of the
Details
November 15 Somme)
The Battle of the Somme ends with enormous
November 18 Details
casualties and no winner.
HMHS Britannic sinks because of a German mine Details
November 21 Francis Joseph I, Emperor of Austria and King of
Details
Hungary, dies and is succeeded by Charles I.
David Beatty replaces John Jellicoe as commander of
November 25 the Grand Fleet. Jellicoe becomes First Lord of the Details
Sea.
December 5 United Kingdom: Prime Minister Henry Asquith
Details
December 7 resigns and is succeeded by David Lloyd George.
The Germans occupy Bucharest. The capital of
December 6 Details
Romania moved to Iai.
Robert Nivelle replaces Joseph Joffre as Commander-
December 13 Details
in-Chief of the French Army.
December 23 Battle of Magdhaba in the Sinai peninsula. Details
Togoland is divided in British and French
December 27 Details
administrative zones.
Grigori Rasputin, Russia's minence grise, is
December 29 Details
assassinated.

[edit] 1917
Dates Events
 Battle of Roof. The British drive the Ottomans out of
January 9 Details
Sinai.
The German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann
sends a telegram to his ambassador in Mexico,
January 16 Details
instructing him to propose the Mexican government an
alliance against the United States.
February 1 Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare. Details
February 23 Second Battle of Kut. The British recapture the city. Details
February 23
The Germans withdraw to the Hindenburg Line. Details
April 5
Arz von Straussenberg replaces Conrad von Htzendorf
March 1 Details
as Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff.
March 8
The British capture Baghdad. Details
March 11
Russia: Czar Nicholas II abdicates. A provisional
March 15 Details
government is appointed.
First Battle of Gaza. The British attempt to capture the
March 26 Details
city fails.
The United States of America declares war on
April 6
Germany.
April 9April The Canadians obtain a significant victory in the Battle
Details
12 of Vimy Ridge.
The Second Battle of the Aisne (aka Nivelle Offensive)
April 16May
ends in disaster for both the French army and its Details
9
commander Robert Nivelle.
Second Battle of Gaza. The Ottoman lines resist a
April 19 Details
British attack.
April 29May
Series of mutinies in the French army. Details
20
May 5May
Allied offensive on the Salonika Front.
15
Battle of Arras. The British attack a heavily fortified
May 9May
German line without obtaining any strategic Details
16
breakthrough.
May 12June
Tenth Battle of the Isonzo. Details
6
Philippe Ptain replaces Robert Nivelle as Commander-
May 15 Details
in-Chief of the French Army.
May 23 Battle of Mount Hermada in the Karst. Details
June 7June 8 The British recapture Messines Ridge. Details
June 10June Battle of Mount Ortigara. Details
29
June 12 Greece: King Constantine I abdicates. Details
June 25 First American troops land in France. Details
The Kerensky Offensive fails. It is the last Russian
July 1July 19 Details
initiative in the war.
Arab rebels led by Lawrence of Arabia seize the
July 6 Details
Jordanian port of Aqaba.
Corfu Declaration about the future Kingdom of
July 20 Details
Yugoslavia.
The Battle of Passchendaele (aka Third Battle of
July 31 Details
Ypres) begins.
August 6
Battle of Mreti. Details
August 20
August 18
Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo. Details
August 28
September 8 Russia: General Kornilov's coup attempt fails. Details
September
27September Battle of Ramadi, Mesopotamia. Details
28
Battle of Caporetto. The Austro-Hungarians and
October 24
Germans break through the Italian lines. The Italian Details
November 4
army is defeated and falls back on the Piave River.
Italy: Vittorio Emanuele Orlando succeeds Paolo
October 30 Details
Boselli as Prime Minister.
October 31 Third Battle of Gaza. The British break through the
Details
November 7 Ottoman lines.
Balfour Declaration: the British government supports
November 2 Details
plans for a Jewish "national home" in Palestine.
The Allies agree to establish a Supreme War Council at
November 5
Versailles.
The October Revolution begins in Russia. The
November 7 Details
Bolsheviks seize power.
Armando Diaz replaces Luigi Cadorna as Commander-
November 8 Details
in-Chief of the Italian Army.
November 9 First Battle of the Piave: the Austro-Hungarians and
Details
December 28 Germans try unsuccessfully to cross the river.
The Battle of Passchendaele (aka Third Battle of
November 10 Details
Ypres) ends in a stalemate.
France: Paul Painlev is replaced by Georges
November 13 Details
Clemenceau as Prime Minister.
November 17 Second Battle of Heligoland Bight, North Sea. Details
November 20 Battle of Cambrai. A British attack fails and the battle
Details
December 3 results in a stalemate.
December 7 The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.
December 8 Battle of Jerusalem. The British enter the city
Details
December 26 (December 11)
December 23 Russia signs an armistice with Germany.

[edit] 1918
Dates Events
January 8 Woodrow Wilson outlines his Fourteen Points. Details
February 18 Fighting resumes on the Eastern Front.
February 21 The British capture Jericho.
February 25 German troops capture Estonia.
At Brest-Litovsk, Leon Trotsky signs the peace treaty
March 3 Details
with Germany.
March 21 First phase of the Spring Offensive (Operation
Details
March 25 Michael). The Germans obtain a Pyrrhic victory.
March 23
Artillery bombardment of Paris. Details
August 7
French Marshall Ferdinand Foch is appointed Supreme
March 26 Details
Commander of all Allied forces.
Second phase of the Spring Offensive (Operation
April 4April
Georgette). The results are disappointing for the Details
30
Germans.
Treaty of Bucharest between Romania and the Central
May 7 Details
Powers. It will never be ratified.
Third Battle of the Aisne (aka Operation Blcher-
May 27June 6 Yorck, third phase of the Spring Offensive). After Details
initial gains, the German advance is halted.
Final phase of the Spring Offensive (Operation
June 9June 12 Gneiseau). Although substantial territorial gains, the Details
Germans do not achieve their strategic goals
June 13June Second Battle of the Piave: the Austro-Hungarian
Details
23 offensive is repelled.
Second Battle of the Marne and last German offensive
July 15
on the Western Front, which fails when the Germans Details
August 5
are counterattacked by the French.
August 8 Battle of Amiens, first phase of the Hundred Days
Details
August 11 Offensive.
 Battle of Havrincourt, a phase of the Hundred Days
September 12 Details
Offensive.
The Allies break through the Bulgarian lines at Dobro
September 15 Details
Polje.
September 18 Battle of Doiran, The Bulgarians halt the British and
Details
September 19 Greek advance.
Battle of the Hindenburg Line, a phase of the Hundred
September 18
Days Offensive. The Allies break through the German Details
October 10
lines.
September 19
Battle of Megiddo. The British conquer Palestine. Details
September 21
September 26 Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the final phase of the
Details
November 11 Hundred Days Offensive and of World War I.
September 30 Bulgaria signs an armistice with the Allies.
October 1 The British enter Damascus. Details
October 20 Germany suspends submarine warfare. Details
October 24 Battle of Vittorio Veneto. The Austro-Hungarian army
Details
November 4 is routed. The Italians enter Trent and land at Triest.
Wilhelm Groener replaces Erich Ludendorff as
October 29 Details
Hindenburg's deputy.
October 29 Germany's Hochseeflotte mutinies. Details
October 30 The Ottoman Empire signs the Armistice of Mudros.
Austria-Hungary signs the armistice with Italy,
November 3
effective November 4.
Germany: Kaiser William II abdicates; republic
November 9 Details
proclaimed.
November 10 Austria-Hungary: Kaiser Charles I abdicates. Details
At 6 am, Germany signs the Armistice of Compigne.
November 11
End of fighting at 11 a.m..
November 12 Austria proclaimed a republic.
Czechoslovakia proclaimed a republic. Details
German U-boats interned.
November 14 3 days after the armistice, fighting ends in the East
African theater when General von Lettow-Vorbeck Details
agrees a cease-fire on hearing of Germany's surrender.
Germany's Hochseeflotte surrendered to the United
November 21
Kingdom.
November 22 The Germans evacuate Luxembourg.
9 days after agreeing a cease-fire, General von Lettow-
November 23 Details
Vorbeck formally surrenders his undefeated army at
 Abercorn in present-day Zambia.
November 27 The Germans evacuate Belgium.
December 1 Yugoslav independence proclaimed. Details

[edit] 1919
Dates Events
January Treaty of Versailles between the Allies and Germany: the
Details
18 Peace Conference opens in Paris.
January
Proposal to create the League of Nations accepted. Details
25
German High Seas Fleet (53 ships) scuttled in Scapa Flow
June 21 Details
with nine deaths, the last casualties of the war.
July 8 Germany ratifies the Treaty of Versailles. Details
July 21 The United Kingdom ratifies the Treaty of Versailles. Details

[edit] 1920
Dates Events
First meeting of the League of Nations held in London.
Details
January 10 Official end of World War I.
Free City of Danzig established. Details
January 21 The Paris Peace Conference ends. Details
February 10 A plebiscite returns Northern Schleswig to Denmark. Details
Conference of Sanremo, Italy, about League of Nations
April 19
mandates in former Ottoman territories of the Middle Details
April 26
East.
June 4 Treaty of Trianon between the Allies and Hungary. Details
Treaty of Svres between the Allies and the Ottoman
Empire. The treaty is not recognized by the Turkish
August 10 Details
national movement, which consider the Istanbul
government illegitimate.
Gabriele D'Annunzio proclaims in Fiume the Italian
September 8 Details
Regency of Carnaro.
League of Nations headquarters moved to Geneva,
November 1 Details
Switzerland.
Treaty of Rapallo between Italy and Yugoslavia. Zadar is
November
annexed by Italy and the Free State of Fiume is Details
12
established.
November The League of Nations holds its first general assembly. Details
15

[edit] Post-1920
Dates Events
1921
Treaty of Kars between
October 13 Bolshevik Russia and Details
Turkey.
1922
Washington Naval Treaty,
limiting naval tonnage,
February 6 signed by France, Italy, Details
Japan, the United Kingdom
and the United States.
Genoa Conference.
Representatives of 34
April 10
countries discuss Details
May 19
economics in the wake of
the Great War.
Treaty of Rapallo between
Germany and Bolshevik
April 16 Details
Russia to normalize
diplomatic relations.
September Treaty of Kars ratified in
Details
11 Yerevan, Armenia.
1923
Treaty of Lausanne
between the Allies and
Turkey, successor State to
July 24 Details
the Ottoman Empire. It
supersedes the Treaty of
Svres.
1924
 Treaty of Rome between
Italy and Yugoslavia.
Fiume is annexed by Italy
January 27 Details
and the neighboring town
of Suak is assigned to
Yugoslavia.

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