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Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is killed.
He was shot by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip while he was visiting the city of Sarajevo. -
Period: to
All the major powers of the time except for the USA start joining the war
Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia because of Franz Ferdinand's assassination. Then, Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary because they were allied with the Serbians. A few days later, Germany sided with the Austrians and declared war on Serbia and Russia. France entered the war on Serbia's side, along with Britain and Japan. Finally, the Ottoman Empire, who the Russians called "the sick man of Europe", joined the war on the German side. -
Battle of the Marne
The Germans, having quickly swept aside the Belgian army in their plan to get around the French defensive line, arrived at the Marne river, where they fought with the allied forces.
This battle signifies the beginning of full-blown trench warfare, which would dominate the front throughout the rest of the war. The French managed to save Paris, however, and Germany's Schleiffen Plan had failed. -
Christmas Truce
It was an unofficial ceasefire in both the Western and the Eastern fronts of the war. The British and French soldiers had a football match with the Germans, and the Russians and Austro-Hungarians partied together. -
Sinking of the Lusitania
The ocean liner Lusitania was sunk by a German submarine. Hundreds of Americans died, so the USA cancelled all commercial and diplomatic ties with Germany. -
Italy refuses to help the Central Powers and joins the war on the Allies' side
Although leading up to WWI Italy had formed close bonds with the Central Powers, when the war started they chose to remain neutral. The Allies offered Italy the Italian-speaking areas of the Austria-Hungary, along with Dalmatia and Istria, so they joined the war on the Allied side. -
Period: to
Battle of Verdun
It was the longest battle in WW1. Both the French and the Germans suffered almost a million casualties. -
Battle of Jutland
This battle fought between the British and German navies in the North Sea was the biggest naval conflict in the war. Its outcome is debated, since there is no clear victor: Germany claimed that they won the battle since Britain lost more ships and men, but the UK argued that they won it because they accomplished their objective of blockading the German navy from the British shipping lanes. -
The USA joins the war
President Woodrow Wilson joined the war on the Allies' side because the German Empire kept sinking American ships, and most importantly, the Zimmerman telegram: Kaiser Wilhelm II sent a message to the Mexican president asking him to invade the United States. But Britain intercepted the telegram and told Wilson about it. -
Mutiny in the French army
Mutinies rose in the French Army after a large number of their soldiers were killed in the bloody Battle of Arras. The French hated the conditions they lived in and started having bad relationships with their senior officers. -
Russian Revolution
After two years of defeat, the Russian population grew discontent with the war and were unhappy with Russia's leaders. They started a communist revolution, led by Vladimir Lenin. The Russians couldn't withstand another major German offensive because of the political turmoil and their civil war, so they signed a separate peace treaty with the Central Powers, indirectly letting them focus on the Western Front. -
Germany's allies surrender
First, Bulgaria, who joined the war on Germany's side a year after the war started, capitulated to the Allies. Then, the Ottoman Empire signed an armistice. At first, Turkey was going to become a small state in the northern part of Anatolia, and the rest of the Ottoman Empire was going to be divided between the Allies. But since the Turks won the Turkish War of Independence, their country received its modern borders. Then, the collapsing Austrio-Hungarian Empire surrendered. -
End of the war
Alone and exhausted, the German Empire signed an armistice with the Allies, giving land to France, Denmark, and the newly created states of Poland and Lithuania, and ceding its colonies to the Allies.
World War 1 saw the deaths of 20 million soldiers and civilians, the downfall of many empires, the independence of new states, the rise of the Soviet Union, and planted the seed of nazism in Germany, humiliated by the Treaty of Versailles.
