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Serbia assassinated the Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. He was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne.
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The Austrians were slow to react. They finally delivered an unacceptable ultimatum to Serbia, but the general hostility toward Serbia had started to subside. Serbia sent back a conciliatory answer, but Austria was determined to fight.
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The Austrians declared war on Serbia, but they couldn't field an army until mid-August. In response, the Russians mobilized. This upset the delicate balance of Germany's Schlieffen Plan, so from this point on German General Moltke pressed for war.
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Austria mobilized against Russia, and in response Russia and Germany ordered general mobilization.
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The Schlieffen Plan went into effect. Germany invaded Belgium.
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Britain had guaranteed Belgian neutrality, so it was now allied against Germany. Germany then invaded France. Britain declared war on Germany, beginning the Great War and changing Europe forever.
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General Erich Ludendorff under the command of the elderly Paul von Hindenburg, destroyed an entire Russian army at the Battle of Tannenburg, August 26-30, 1914. As a result, the Central Powers drove int othe Baltic States and western Russia, killing 2 million people. Russia's confidence was shaken.
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Because of poor execution of plans on Germany's part, the French and British were able to sto the Germans at the Battle of the Marne September 5-12, 1914.
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While Turkey and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers. Italy joined the Allies in 1915 after they agreed to give Italy Italia Irredenta from Austria after victory.
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The Allies decided to break the deadlock in the fighting by going around it. The plan was to capture Constantinople and knock Turkey out of the war to ease communication with Russia. The campaign lasted from 25 April 1915 - 9 January 1916. It was abandoned and the Allies lost almost 150,000 men.
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The British ship Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine. 118 of the 1,200 drowned were Americans.
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Romania joined the Allies in 1916, but was quickly defeated and driven from the war. Meanwhile, Japan honored it's alliance with Britain and ovveran the German colonies in China and the Pacific.
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Germany sought success by an attack on the French stronghold of Verdun that lasted from 21 of February to the 18 of December 1916. It failed.
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The Allies launched a major offensive along the River Somme, resulting in massive casualties on both sides. It lasted from July 1 - November 18 1916.
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December 1916, President Woodrow Wilson attempted to bring about negotiated peace. Neither side would give up its hopes for total victory.
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The Germans announced that their unrestricted submarine warfare would resume. They'd desisted when the United States protested after the sinking of the Lusitania.
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The overthrow of Russia's tsarist government after the Russian Revolution was one of the game-changing events of 1917.
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Until now, the presence of the autocratic tsarist Russia among the Allies had been a deterrent to American intervention. After the Russian Revolution, the United States declared war on Germany April 6, 1917.
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The Bolsheviks signed an armistice with Germany in December 1917.
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In this treaty between Russia and Germany, Russia yielded Finland, Poland, the Baltic States, the Ukraine, and Georgian territory in the Transcaucasus.
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The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk had brought Germany to the beak of its success. It decided to gamble everything on a last offensive. The German army couldn't get beyond the Marne. Germany was exhausted, and the Allies were bolstered by the arrival of American troops. The Allies launched a counteroffensive that caused Austria to collapse. Germany knew the end was coming.
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The disintegration of the German army forced William II to abdicate. The Social Democratic Party proclaimed a republic.
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The republican, socialist-led German government signed an armistice and accepted German defeat.
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Representatives of the victorious states gathered at Versailles for the first half of 1919. The "Big Four" present were the United States, Britain, France and Italy. Only Russia and Germany weren't included in the decision-making.
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The Paris Settlement consisted of five separate treaties between the victors and the defeated powers. Formal sessions began on January 18,1919.
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The last treaty of the Paris settlement was signed on August 10, 1920.
