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June 28, 1914: The assassination of Franz Ferdinand

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June 28, 1914: The assassination of Franz Ferdinand

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Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in 1914, as a cause of minority populations being repressed in Austria-Hungary. Franz Ferdinand drove through Sarajevo and was assassinated by an assassin who had earlier that day messed up his assassination attempt on the Archduke by bombing the wrong vehicle he was in. Due to the death of Franz Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary laid the blame on the Serbian government, to whom they sent a list of repirations which must be met. If these were not followed, war would ensue. As the Serbians did not agree with the repirations they had to make, this is often seen as the start of the First World War. This is due to the alliances that Serbia and Austria-Hungary had throughout Europe. Austria-Hungary was allied with it's neighbour Germany, and Serbia was allied with Russia, who was also allied with France. At this point in the conflict, Great Britain still stayed out of the conflict, but had an alliance with France.

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August 2, 1914: Germany invades Belgium and Luxembourg Britain arrives in France

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August 2, 1914: Germany invades Belgium and Luxembourg Britain arrives in France

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Germany goes into this war with a defined tactic they want to enact. The Schlieffen Plan is a plan devised by the Germans to take advantage of Russia's size and disorganization. The Germans first take out France, and after that turn their attention on the Eastern front. However, the well defended French German border seemed as too big of an obstacle for the Germans, which forced them to go around France, through Belgium and Luxembourg. Great Britain was very displeased with Germany marching through neutral countries, and thus declared war upon Germany.

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September 9 1914: Allied Forces stop Germany at the battle of the Marne, forcing Trench warfare

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September 9 1914: Allied Forces stop Germany at the battle of the Marne, forcing Trench warfare

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Germany kept pressing on the Allied forces, forcing themselves into deep French territory. The Allied forces decided to not keep running and hold their ground at Marne. This forced the German army into a stalemate, as neither side wanted to give up ground. This caused for trenches to be dug on either side of the army, stretching throughout the entire battlefield. These trenches kept the war in a standstill for many years, with very few advancements to be made. On the Eastern side of the conflict, Russia had gotten ready for war a lot faster than Germany anticipated, which also forced this fight into Trench Warfare. Trench Warfare was the main reason of so many lives lost in the First World War

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April 1915: Germany starts using chemical weapons, Zeppelin bombings and targetting civilian ships

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April 1915: Germany starts using chemical weapons, Zeppelin bombings and targetting civilian ships

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The German and Austro-Hungarian forces had realised that they needed to break the stalemate on the fronts of battle, so decided to start using tactics and strategies that were deemed unethical and forbidden before the war. From Germany's desperation, they started to use Zeppelins to bomb civilian targets. They also used their submarines to target civilian ships from allied, and even neutral countries. And worst of all, they started using chemical warfare, namely toxic gases which would be thrown onto the frontline of battle to wipe out the unsuspecting enemies. The first place they used these gases was in the battle of Ypres in 1915. The angered allies quickly also started using this gas to fight fire with fire. But in the end, we were all the losers.

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May 7, 1915: German submarine sinks passenger liner containing 128 Americans

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May 7, 1915: German submarine sinks passenger liner containing 128 Americans

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Following up on the earlier mentioned targetting of civilian ships, Germany was fighting in full force on all fronts. In this time, one of the ships they targeted was the Lusitania, which was boarded by 130 American citizens. The Lusitania was sunk which greatly angered America, who from this point on, they started to cut ties with Germany, and there was a war sentiment growing in America against Germany.

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February 21, 1916: The start of the Battle of Verdun

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February 21, 1916: The start of the Battle of Verdun

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The more the war dragged on, the more Germany realised that their true enemy was not necessarily the French, but the English. To combat this problem, Germany decided that to effecitvely fight and win the war, they first needed to completely take out France. They saw Verdun as one of the key positions to take in France, and wanted to inflict as many casualties as possible to demoralize and extremely weaken France's resolve to fight in this war. However the French did not want to give up and thus engaged in some of the most brutal and costly fighting the world has ever seen. The fighting started in February of 1916, and would not see its end until the end of that year

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May 31, 1916: English Naval Battle versus Germany (Jutland)

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May 31, 1916: English Naval Battle versus Germany (Jutland)

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As the war continued, and Germany kept some naval domination around it's own coast, England decided to create a naval blockade in the North Sea to stop Germany from obtaining any outside help. This angered the Germans, which eventually led to the biggest and one of the only naval battles in World War 1, which was the battle of Jutland. Both sides of the conflict had a navy power that was quite formidable, but in this battle, no ships were destroyed. This was due to both sides wanting to preserve their naval power, and not daring to lose too many ships.

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Allied soldiers running across no man's land 

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As the war raged on, and Germany had lead an offensive against the French in Verdun, France felt desperate in more help to be able to beat France. So England started to mass-conscript its youth to help fight on the front lines. Also, to help the allies at Verdun, the English started their own counteroffensive to draw away firepower from Verdun. This worked as both sides of the conflict now saw some of the heaviest, brutal and hellish fighting of the First World War, and cost Britain around 500,000 troops, which was 60,000 on the first day of the battle of the Somme alone. During this time, England's war technology was also coming to fruition as the battle of the Somme saw the first usage of Tanks in the world.

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Famous Anti-German propaganda from America

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April 6, 1917: The United States declares war on Germany

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April 6, 1917: The United States declares war on Germany

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For some time after sinking the Lusitania, the Germans stopped attacking civilian ships which contained American citizens, which kept America at bay for some time. However, on February 1, 1917, Germany starts using their submarine warfare unrestrictedly, to try and gain an upper hand in the war due to their heavy fighting on the front line. As a response, the angered America decides to cut diplomatic ties with Germany a couple of days later, and two months after that, the United States declare war upon Germany, and they make their landing two months later. This is a certain death blow to Germany as they are exhausted and have just created a new enemy, which has not been hurt by war weariness.

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March 3, 1918: Russia signs the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty with Germany.

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March 3, 1918: Russia signs the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty with Germany.

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While the fighting on the Western Front was reaching a climax, the Russians had been exhausted from years of fighting, while dealing with mutliple revolutions and uprisings. As soon as the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia, they decided to be the first major power to surrender in the First World War. The Brest-Litovsk Treaty was heavily in favour of Germany, as they were winning the Eastern Front. And thus Russia had to give up huge chunks of land, but gained their peace.

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March 21, 1918. The German's final counter offense

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March 21, 1918. The German's final counter offense

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A desperate Germany saw that the war situation was not a winning situation anymore after the battle of Verdun and the battle of the Somme. On top of that, the United States had now finally joined the front lines. From this desperation, Germany saw their only option as trying to penetrate the Western Front one last time. They led five attacks against the allies, in which they created some wins, but after the fourht and fifth attack, the allies knew how to repel them. With the dwindling forces of Germany, and the growing forces of the Allies, Germany knew that their time was nearing the end.

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A few months after the German's final counterattack, the war situation had come to a dire situation. The Allied forces had won multiple battles in a row, such as the battle of Cantigny, St Mihiel and Meusse-Argonne. Knowing Germany was about to break due to starvation, the Germans surrendered on November 11, 1918. A few months later, the Treaty of Versailles would be signed, which declared that if Germany were to step out of line again and attack France, the Americans would interfere. On top of this there were a lot of demands of repiration costs and demilitarization. From our standpoint of history now, we can see that this Treaty of Versailles eventually led to World War 2.