Key people of WW1 by Tasnia Chowdhury

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

2007728_3 — 2025-01-13 18:24:18 UTC

1.Francis Ferdinand was archduke of Austria and heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian throne. His assassination in 1914 was the immediate cause of World War I.

2.He started a military career at the age of 15, serving in Hungary, Upper Austria, and Bohemia.

Gavrilo Princip

2007728_3 — 2025-01-13 18:24:33 UTC

1.Gavrilo Princip stepped in front of the automobile carrying Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, the Duchess Sophie, putting two bullets into their bodies and killing both, that is precisely the path on which he sent the world.

2.Princip left home at thirteen and went to Sarajevo to live with his brother, Jovo.

Vladimir Lenin

2007728_3 — 2025-01-13 18:24:47 UTC

1.Vladimir Lenin was one of the greatest revolutionary leaders of all time. He was the founder of the Russian Communist party and the moving force behind the Russian Revolution of 1917.

2.The government he created formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.), better known as the Soviet Union.

Kaiser Wilhelm II

2007728_3 — 2025-01-13 18:24:57 UTC

1.The last of the Hohenzollern rulers, William II was emperor of Germany and king of Prussia from 1888 until his forced abdication in 1918.

2.In the crucial years before World War I, William II was the most powerful and most controversial figure in Europe.

Tsar Nicholas II

2007728_3 — 2025-01-13 18:25:32 UTC

Escorted by Russian cruisers and destroyers, the imperial yacht Standart brought Tsar Nicholas, the Tsarina Alexandra and their children to the Isle of Wight and a spectacular welcome by King Edward VII with a review of the Royal Navy in its then awe-inspiring might.
George V refused to allow Tsar Nicholas and his family to escape to England from the Bolshevik Revolution and the last Romanovs were murdered in Ekaterinburg in 1918.

Georges Clemenceau

2007728_3 — 2025-01-13 18:25:44 UTC

1.The French statesman Georges Clemenceau was twice premier of France, in 1906-1909 and 1917-1919. He led France through the critical days of World War I and headed the French delegation to the Paris Peace Conference.

2.He studied medicine at Nantes and Paris. In 1865 he traveled to the United States, where he served as correspondent for a Paris newspaper and taught riding and French in a girls' academy at Stamford, Conn.

King George V

2007728_3 — 2025-01-13 18:26:12 UTC

George V was king of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and emperor of India from 1910 to 1936. He maintained the monarchy as a stabilizing influence in a period of rapid international and domestic changes.
George V was the second son of the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra).

Winston Churchill

2007728_3 — 2025-01-13 18:26:28 UTC

1.The American author Winston Churchill was known during his lifetime for his historical and political novels.

2.Winston Churchill went to Smith Academy, then attended Annapolis. He served briefly in the U.S. Navy, working as an editor for the Army and Navy Journal, and then joined the staff of Cosmopolitan Magazine. He had been encouraged to write during his years in the Naval Academy and soon began a career as an author.

Woodrow Wilson

2007728_3 — 2025-01-13 18:26:45 UTC

1.Woodrow Wilson, then president of the United States, led the Congress to enact progressive reform legislation, led the U.S. through World War I, and led the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 to make the League of Nations part of the peace treaty with Germany.

2.Woodrow Wilson grew up in the home of a highly educated Presbyterian pastor. The family assumed the obviously intelligent youth would imitate his father intellectually, but the boy was probably dyslexic and had a difficult time learning to read. While he overcame his problem by sheer force of intellect, reading was always a strain.

John Joseph Pershing

2007728_3 — 2025-01-13 18:27:02 UTC

1.John Joseph Pershing was commander in chief of the American Expeditionary Force in Europe during World War I.

2.He graduated from West Point in 1886 with an outstanding record. Assigned to the cavalry, he campaigned against the Apache Indians in the Southwest.

Ferdinand Foch

2007728_3 — 2025-01-13 18:27:19 UTC

1.The French marshall Ferdinand Foch was commander in chief of the Allied armies in World War I.

2.His early schooling revealed his "geometrical mind" and mathematical ability. He enlisted in the infantry during the Franco-Prussian War but did not see active service. Resuming his education, he graduated from the École Polytechnique in 1873 and was commissioned a lieutenant in the artillery.

Douglas Haig

2007728_3 — 2025-01-13 18:27:36 UTC

1.The British general Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, commanded British forces on the Western front in Europe during World War I. He is credited with the final British victories over the German armies in 1918.

2.He was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford University, and the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. His first army duty was in India. He later attended the staff college and then went to join H.H. Kitchener for his campaign in the Sudan in 1898, where he was an outstanding officer.