-
Period: to
Cause of World War I
-
The assassination of Archduke
The driver put his foot on the brake, and began to back up. In doing so he moved slowly past the waiting Gavrilo Princip. The assassin stepped forward, drew his gun, and at a distance of about five feet, fired several times into the car. Franz Ferdinand was hit in the neck and Sophie von Chotkovato in the abdomen. Princip's bullet had pierced the archduke's jugular vein but before losing consciousness, he pleaded "Sophie dear! Sophie dear! Don't die! Stay alive for our children!" -
Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
Threatened by Serbian ambition in the tumultuous Balkans region of Europe, Austria-Hungary determined that the proper response to the assassinations was to prepare for a possible military invasion of Serbia. After securing the unconditional support of its powerful ally, Germany, Austria-Hungary presented Serbia with a rigid ultimatum on July 23, 1914, demanding, among other things, that all anti-Austrian propaganda within Serbia be suppressed. -
Germany declares war on France.
When the Russians came to the defense of the Serbs, the Germans had no choice but to go to war to defend their Austrian allies. Their strategy for war against Russia was the Schefffein Plan which called for an initial attack against France, Russia's ally. So even though Germany had no dispute with France at the time, it still declared war against France. -
Germany declares a submarine blockade of Great Britain
This blockade was unusually restrictive in that even food was stopped as it was said to help the war. The Germans regarded this as an attempt to starve the German people into submission and wanted to fight back. As Germany could not fight with British naval strength on an even basis, the only possible way Germany could impose a blockade on Britain was through the submarines. The German Chancellor was against this sort of blockade because it meant attacking neutral ships as those of the USA -
Tsar Nicholas takes command of the Russian armies.
The Tsar's decision to assume command of the Russian Army was made in spite of virtually unanimous cabinet opposition; the latter correctly feared that any setbacks the Army suffered would necessarily reflect directly upon the Tsar himself. -
Woodrow Wilson re-elected President
Woodrow Wilson re-elected President of the United States with campaign slogan: "He kept us out of the war". Woodrow Wilson was re-elected President of the U.S. because apparently, he kept them out of the war. -
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicates
In December 1916, Rasputin was murdered by a group of disaffected nobles. Then in February 1917, widespread popular demonstrations began in the capital Petrograd (as St Petersburg was renamed in 1914). Nicholas lost the support of the army and had no alternative but to abdicate. A shaky provisional government was established. The tsar and his family were held in various locations, eventually being imprisoned in Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains. -
American troops in France fire their first shot in trench warfare
The artillery fired the first shot of the war at 6 o'clock on the morning of a recent day at a German working party. There has been intermittent artillery fighting since. -
British capture Jerusalem
Masterman gave a good deal of historical perspective to those military events which led to the city's fall at the hands of Entente forces led by British General Sir Edmund Allenby on 9 December 1917; Allenby formally entered the city two days later.The capture of Jerusalem proved a notable morale booster to the Entente Powers in rounding off what was generally regarded as a difficult year. -
Peace Treaty signed by German delegates and Allies in Versailles
The treaty demanded demilitarization and occupation of the Rhineland, and special status for the Saarland under French control. Plebiscites were to determine the future of areas in northern Schleswig on the Danish-German frontier and parts of Upper Silesia on the border with Poland.
