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The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
On june 28, 1914, the couple paid a state visit to sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia. The royal pair were shot by Gavrilo Princip at point black range streets of sarajevo in an open car. -
World War I begins
Austria Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia set off chain reaction within the alliance system. -
European Nations Take Sides
the battle lines were clearly drawn. On one side were Germany and Austria-Hungary. They were known as the Central Powers, because of their location in the heart of Europe. Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire would later join the Central Powers in the hopes of regaining lost territories. -
In the east, Russian forces had already invaded Germany
In the east, Russian forces had already invaded Germany. Germany was going to have to fight a long war on two fronts. Realizing this, the German high command sent thousands of troops from France to aid its forces in the east. Meanwhile, the war on the Western Front settled into a stalemate. -
Allies attacked the Germans northeast of Paris,
Allies attacked the Germans northeast of Paris, in the valley
of the Marne River. Every available soldier was hurled into the struggle. When reinforcements were needed, more than 600 taxicabs rushed soldiers from Paris to the front. -
War in the Trenches
By early 1915, opposing armies on the Western Front had dug
miles of parallel trenches to protect themselves from enemy fire.this set the stage for what called knows as Trench Warfare. in this type of warfare, soldiers fought each other from trenches. and armies traded huge losses for pittyfully small land gains. -
Germans launched a massive attack against the French.
The slaughter reached a peak in 1916. In February, the Germans launched a massive attack against the French near Verdun. Each side lost more than 300,000 men. -
British army tried to relieve the pressure on the French.
British forces attacked the Germans northwest of Verdun, in the valley of the Somme River. In the first day of battle alone, more than 20,000 British soldiers were killed. By the time the Battle of the Somme ended in November, each side had suffered over half a million casualties. -
Germans announced that their submarines would sink without warning any ship in the waters around Britain.
In January 1917, the Germans announced that their submarines would sink without warning any ship in the waters around Britain. This policy was called unrestricted submarine warfare. -
President Wilson asked Congress to declare war.
The United States entered the war on the side of the Allies. -
Communist leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin seized power.
Lenin insisted on ending his country's involvement in the war. one of his first acts was to offer Germany a truce. -
Germany and Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The treaty was extremely hard on Russia. It required the Russian government to surrender lands to Germany that now include Finland, Poland, Ukraine, Estonia,Latvia, and Lithuania. Treaty became invalid after the war, these nations still gained their independence. -
Allies and Germans clashed at the Second Battle of the Marne.
Leading the Allied attack were some 350 tanks that rumbled slowly forward, smashing through the German lines. With the arrival of 2 million more American troops, the Allied forces began to advance steadily toward Germany. -
World War I came to an end.
After four years of slaughter and destruction, the time had come to forge a peace settlement. Leaders of the victorious nations gathered outside Paris to work out the terms of peace. While these leaders had come with high hopes, the peace settlement they crafted left many feeling bitter and betrayed. -
The Treaty of Versailles between Germany and the Allied powers was signed on June 28, 1919 five years to the day after Franz Ferdinand’s assassination in Sarajevo
Adopting Wilson’s fourteenth point, the treaty created a League of Nations. The league was to be an international association whose goal would be to keep peace among nations. The five Allied powers the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan were to be permanent members of the league’s Executive Council. Its General Assembly would consist of representatives of 32 Allied and neutral nations.