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Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Archduke was assassinated by a Serbian terrorsit. Austria-Hungary was very angry at Serbia for this. A chain of events was set off that resulted in WWI. -
Austria Declares War
After the assassination, Austria presented Serbia with an ultimatum. Serbia offered to accept most of Austria's demands, but Austria did not want to negotiate. Austria declared war on Serbia.
Russia, as the ally of Serbia, declared war on Austria. -
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Germany declares War
Once Russia was mobilized towards Austria-Hungary and Germany (ally of Austria-Hungary), Germany declared war on Russia. Russia went looking for help in France, and immediatly after, Germany declared war on France too. -
Battle of Marne
In the valley of the Marne river, northeast of Paris, the Allies attacked the Germans. It was the first major battle on the Western Front. By September 13, the Allies had driven back the Germans about 60 miles. -
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Austrian army turns the tide
A 17-day battle near Limanowa takes place with Austria and Germany against Russia. Russia was defeated, and driven back towards the east. About two weeks after the battle, Russia was completly driven out of Austria-Hungary. Now Austria and Germany have the upper hand. -
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Galliopi Campaign
The Allies wanted to attack the Ottoman Empire, in a place called Dardanelles. If they could secure the sea strait that was near the Ottoman capital, they would be able to take Constantinople and defeat the Turks. It turned into a stalemate, and was a failure for the Allies. Even though they had lost this battle, the Allies still looked for other ways to bring down the Turks. -
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Battle of Verdun
On the Western Front, the Germans launched a giant attack against the French near Verdun. They were using lots of new war tools, such as machine guns, poison gas, big artillery, and armored tanks. Both sides in this battle lost more than 300,000 men. This battle caused the French lots of stress and let the Germans advance four miles. -
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Battle of Somme
The British wanted to help out the French, so they attacked the Germans in the valley of the Somme River. In this battle, there was much bloodshed, and in the first day alone, more than 20,000 British soldiers died. Because of this battle, the British were able to gain five miles in the Somme valley. -
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Germans announce submarine warfare
The Germans announced to the world in January of 1917 that they would sink any ship in the waters around Great Britain without warning. They knew that this tatic might lead to war with the U.S., but they were hoping to starve Britain of their resources. By taking this action, they pushed the U.S. closer to declaring war. -
U.S. Declares War
After Arthur Zimmerman sent a note to Mexico asking them to declare war on the U.S., America could not stand it any longer. President Wilson and Congress entered the war on the side of the Allies against the Central powers. -
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Lenin seizes power
A revoltion had been taking place in Russia, and in November , Communist leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin seized power. He wanted Russia to get out of the war. So, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed between Russia and Germany, taking Russia out of the war and allowing Germany to send all of its troops to the Western Front. This gave Germany an advantage on the Western Front. -
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Second Battle of the Marne
The Allies fought against the Germans in this battle. With the help of 350 tanks and 2 million American troops, the Allies were able to move closer to Germany, and closer to defeating the Central Powers. -
End of WWI
In a railway car near Paris, Marshal Foch and a representative of the German government signed a treaty that said they would stop fighting. After this, leaders of different countries gathered to work out terms of the peace treaty. After four years of bloodshed, the war was finally over. -
Treaty of Versailles
Germany and the Allied Powers signed a peace treaty. Conditions of this treaty were that Germany lost substantial amounts of their land and were very restricted in the use of their military. Any territories that Germany had in Africa were taken away by the Allied powers. Also, full responsibility of the war was given to Germany, and they had to pay lots of money to the Allies to make up for the war. It was very harsh towards Germany, and the result of it was Germany's depression.