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On Sunday, 28 June 1914, at about 10:45 am, Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The perpetrator was 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip, a member of Young Bosnia and one of a group of assassins organized and armed by the Black Hand. -
On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, a direct response to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand a month earlier. This declaration initiated the July Crisis, setting off a catastrophic chain of events that led to World War I as other European powers mobilized and entered the conflict, ultimately engulfing most of the continent in war -
Yes, Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, 1914, after Russia refused to stop its full military mobilization in response to Austria-Hungary's war declaration on Serbia. This declaration activated Germany's Schlieffen Plan to quickly defeat France before turning its focus on Russia. The German invasion of Belgium, a neutral nation, on August 4th, prompted Great Britain to declare war on Germany -
On August 3, 1914, Germany declared war on France as part of its Schlieffen Plan, a pre-emptive strategy for a two-front war that involved invading France through neutral Belgium. This declaration followed Germany's declaration of war on Russia a day earlier and escalated the conflict that began with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. The invasion of Belgium prompted Britain to declare war on Germany the following day, August 4 -
On August 4, 1914, Germany invaded the neutral country of Belgium, and as a result, Britain declared war on Germany because its own neutrality was guaranteed by the 1839 Treaty of London. Britain had issued an ultimatum demanding German withdrawal, but when Germany did not comply by the deadline, Britain formally entered World War I -
The Battle of Tannenberg (August 26–30, 1914) was a decisive German victory over Russia in World War I, where the German 8th Army, led by Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, destroyed Russia's 2nd Army. German forces exploited Russian disunity and poor communication, encircling and crushing the advancing Russian army, which suffered heavy casualties and captured soldiers. -
The First Battle of the Marne, fought from September 6-12, 1914, was a major Allied victory that halted the German army's advance toward Paris at the beginning of World War I. The Allied counteroffensive, which included French and British forces, capitalized on a German tactical error, where their forces turned east instead of maintaining their march around Paris. This opened a gap between the German First and Second Armies, which the Allies exploited, forcing the Germans to retreat and end -
The First Battle of Ypres, fought from October 19 to November 22, 1914, marked the end of the "Race to the Sea" and the beginning of trench warfare on the Western Front. Both Allied and German forces attempted to outflank each other but failed to achieve significant breakthroughs, leading them to dig extensive trench systems that characterized the rest of the war. The battle was exceptionally costly for both sides, resulting in a strategic stalemate and heavy casualties. -
The Second Battle of Ypres, from April 22 to May 25, 1915, is notable for the first large-scale use of poison gas by Germany on the Western Front, which involved releasing chlorine gas from cylinders. This new weapon caused significant shock and casualties, creating a gap in the Allied line, although the Germans were unable to fully exploit their initial success -
On April 25, 1915, Allied troops, including British, Australian, and New Zealand forces, began the Gallipoli Campaign by landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Ottoman Turkey. The objective was to capture the peninsula, allowing Allied ships to pass through the Dardanelles strait, and knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war. The initial landings encountered fierce resistance from entrenched Turkish soldiers and, despite initial progress, the campaign became a brutal stalemate, ending in a costly -
On May 7, 1915, a German U-boat torpedoed and sank the British-owned luxury liner Lusitania off the coast of Ireland, killing 1,198 people, including 128 Americans. This event, a result of Germany's declaration of a war zone around Britain and its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, significantly inflamed anti-German sentiment in the United States and brought the U.S. closer to entering World War l. -
The Battle of Verdun, fought from February 21 to December 18, 1916, was a massive and prolonged conflict of World War I between the French and German armies. Initiated by Germany to "bleed France white," it became one of the longest and bloodiest battles in history, symbolizing the brutality of trench warfare and resulting in an estimated 700,000 casualties. The battle is known for its staggering loss of life and strategic significance as a symbol of French national determination. -
The Battle of the Somme, which lasted from July to November 1916, was a major offensive of World War I that resulted in over one million casualties and saw the first use of tanks. The battle began with the British Army's bloodiest single day in history on July 1st, with nearly 60,000 casualties, though the Allies only gained a few miles of territory over the entire campaign. The introduction of tanks on the battlefield, though unreliable, marked a significant, though initially flawed -
The Zimmermann Telegram was intercepted and sent by the German Foreign Minister in January 1917, but its contents were not revealed to the American public until March 1, 1917. -
On April 6, 1917, the United States declared war on Germany, officially entering World War I after President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for the declaration. The decision followed Germany's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare and the interception of the Zimmermann Telegram, which proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico against the U.S. -
On November 7, 1917, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, seized power in Russia, overthrowing the Provisional Government during the October Revolution. The new Bolshevik government, which promised "peace, land, and bread," immediately began to seek an end to World War I and enact radical reforms, such as land redistribution. The new regime established the Council of People's Commissars with Lenin as its head, and the revolution paved the way for the establishment of the world's first -
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed on March 3, 1918, officially ended Russia's participation in World War I. Under the terms of the treaty, Soviet Russia ceded large territories to the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire), including Ukraine, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and other regions. This controversial treaty was a major victory for the Central Powers, but it was short-lived, as it was annulled by Germany's armistice and subsequent -
The Second Battle of the Marne (July 15–August 6, 1918) was a decisive turning point in World War I because the Allied forces, including critical American troops, stopped Germany's final major offensive on the Western Front. The subsequent Allied counterattack, starting on July 18, took the Germans by surprise and forced them into a major retreat, ending their hope of victory and shifting the momentum permanently in favor of the Allies -
The statement is correct: on November 11, 1918, at 11 a.m., the Armistice was signed, which ended fighting on the Western Front of World War I. Negotiated by the Allies and Germany, the agreement took effect at the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month". While the Armistice stopped the fighting, the official end to the war came with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles the following year -
The Treaty of Versailles, signed on June 28, 1919, formally ended World War I and established terms for peace between the Allied nations and Germany. Key provisions included Germany accepting blame for the war through the "war guilt" clause, ceding territory, drastically reducing its military, and paying significant reparations. The treaty also created the League of Nations to promote future peace.