World War I: The Complete Guide to Ace Your Test
4 SEP 2018
CLASS

Conflict has played a role in human civilization since its inception, but it was World War I that first introduced warfare to the global stage and brought a deadly arsenal of new military technology along with it. Though tensions over foreign policy had been building for some time prior, it was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand that triggered the beginning of World War I in 1914 and pitted the world’s biggest powers against each other.
The Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire stood in one corner of the global ring and the Allied forces of Great Britain, the United States, France, Russia, Italy and Japan stood in the other. The Allied Powers claimed victory four years later in 1918 but not before more than 16 million people lost their lives in what was an unprecedented level of death and destruction.
1 World War I Timeline
1914
June 28
- A Bosnian Serb Nationalist named Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his pregnant wife
July 5
- Germany announced its support for Austria-Hungary against Serbia
July 28
- Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia
August 1
- Germany declared war on Russia
August 3
- Germany declared war on France
August 4
- Britain declared war on Germany
- Germany declared war on Belgium
August 5
- Montenegro declared war on Austria-Hungary
August 10
- Austria-Hungary invaded Russia
August 13
- Japan declared war on Germany
August 23
- Germany invaded France
August 26
- Germany defeated Russia at the Battle of Tannenberg
September 6
- The Battle of the Marne began
October 18
- The Battle of Ypres began
October 29
- Turkey entered the war in support of Germany. Trench warfare began to take over the Western Front
November 2
- Russia declared war on Turkey
November 5
- Britain and France declared war on Turkey
1915
January 19
- First airship raid on Britain
February 19
- Allied forces began a naval attack on Turkish forts in the Dardanelles
April 25
- Allied forces landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula of the Ottoman Empire
May 7
- A German submarine sank the passenger liner Lusitania
May 23
- Italy declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary
August 5
- Germany captured Warsaw from the Russians
September 25
- The Battle of Loos began
December 19
- Allied forces began evacuating Gallipoli
1916
February 21
- Battle of Verdun began
April 29
- British forces surrendered to Turkish forces at Kut in Mesopotamia
May 31
- Battle of Jutland began
June 4
- The Brusilov Offensive began
July 1
- The Battle of the Somme began
August 10
- The Brusilov Offensive ended
September 1
- Bulgaria declared war on Rumania
December 7
- Lloyd George became British prime minister
1917
February 1
- Germany began an unrestricted submarine warfare campaign
April 6
- The United States declared war on Germany
April 16
- France launched an offensive on the Western Front but was unsuccessful
July 31
- The Third Battle at Ypres began
November 6
- Britain launched a major offensive on the Western Front
November 20
- British tanks claimed victory at Cambrai
December 5
- Germany and Russia signed an armistice
December 9
- Britain captured Jerusalem from Turkey
1918
March 3
- Russia and Germany signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
March 21
- Germany broke through on the Somme
March 29
- Marshal Foch was appointed Allied commander on the Western Front
April 9
- Germany began an offensive in Flanders
July 15
- Second Battle of the Marne began
- The German army began to collapse
August 8
- Successful advance of the Allies
September 19
- Turkish forces collapsed at Megiddo
October 4
- Germany requested an armistice from the Allies
October 29
- Germany’s navy mutinied
October 30
- Turkey made peace
November 3
- Austria made peace
November 9
- Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated
November 11
- Germany signed an armistice with the Allies ending World War I
Read more: What Happened During the Early Weeks of WWI?
2 World War I Fast Facts
- World War I officially started on July 28, 1914, and ended on November 11, 1918.
- It was a Serbian terrorist group called the Black Hand that planned the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which Bosnian revolutionary Gavrilo Princip carried out.
- Foreign policy differences between major world powers was an underlying cause of the war.
- World War I was known by several other names, such as The Great War, The War to End All Wars, The War of the Nations and WWI.
- The United States joined World War I in response to the 128 Americans who were killed when a German submarine sank the British passenger ship Lusitania in 1915.
- World War I ushered in the first use of chemical weapons, such as mustard gas. There were 8 million soldier casualties in the war and 21 million more injured.
- The United States's direct involvement in actual combat only spanned seven and a half months, which resulted in 116,000 casualties and 204,000 wounded.
- The Russian, Ottoman, German and Austro-Hungarian empires all collapsed by the end of 1918 because of the war.
- The Treaty of Versailles, which was signed in 1919, officially ended World War I by requiring Germany to accept responsibility for the war, make reparations, surrender some of its territories and restrict the size of its military. The treaty was also designed to prevent future wars through the establishment of the League of Nations, which helped to rebuild Europe.
- Despite resentment by some Germans toward the Treaty of Versailles, Germany officially joined the League of Nations in 1926 but then withdrew in 1933 along with Japan. Three years later, Italy also withdrew from the League of Nations. The League of Nations was powerless over the German, Italian and Japanese expansion of power and subsequent conquering of smaller countries.
- An explosion on the battlefield in France was so loud that it was heard in England.
- Journalists risked their lives and those who were caught faced execution during World War I.
- Every week during the war, 12 million letters were delivered to the frontline.
- Injuries during the war led a surgeon named Dr. Harold Gillies to develop facial reconstruction techniques and invent plastic surgery.
- More than 250,000 underage soldiers fought in the war. The youngest British soldier was only 12 years old.
- American army doctor Captain Oswald Johnson established the first blood bank on the Western Front in 1917.
- Most British soldiers survived the trenches, with nine out of 10 making it out alive.
- To avoid losing highly trained and experienced leaders, army generals were banned from going “over the top” and putting their lives at higher risk.
Read more: Types of Weapons Invented for WWI
3 World War I Movies
World War I inspired the creation of countless movies, including:
- The Water Diviner (2014)
- War Horse (2011)
- Beneath Hill 60 (2010)
- The Admiral (2008)
- Passchendaele (2008)
- The Ode to Joy (2006)
- Joyeux Noel (2005)
- A Very Long Engagement (2004)
- Max (2002)
- Behind the Lines (1997)
Read more: What Caused Germany to Become a Dictatorship After WWI?