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Triple Alliance formed (Central Powers)
The triple allicance was composed of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Italy, although Italy only supported this pact, never entering the war themselves. Germany and Austria shared a langugae link, so an alliance was formed between those two first. Later, Turkey entered the war to be on the winning side, and regain some territories they had lost over the years. -
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European Arms Race
In 1906, Europe realized a conflict between Serbia and Austria-Hungary was going to occour in the near future, and lots of countries started preparing. Alliances were drawn up, and nations like France and Ruissa started bolstering their armed forces. Meanwhile, Britian and Germany started improving their navies, both to outmatch the other. This introduced the Dreadnought, a new kind of vessel that was faster, stronger and more dangerous then anything ever seen before on the sea's. -
Triple Entente signed
To combat the power-hungry central powers, Britian, France and Russia signed the Anglo-Entente, also known as the Triple Entente. Russian and France promised each other that they would aid each other if one was attacked. Britain secretly agreed to help belgium if they were ever invaded. Russia made a similar agreement with Serbia -
Franz Ferdiand, Archduke of Austria, was assassinated
On June the 28th, 1914, Archduke Franz Feriand was touring the capital of Bosnia with his wife when he was attacked by assassians armed with bombs and pistols. They managed to get away from the initial attack, but later, both Franz and his wife were killed by Gavrilo Princip, an assassin working for a Serbian terrorist organistation, The Black Hand. The death of the Archduke enraged Austria-Hungary and started demmanding that Serbia would pay for its actions. -
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World War 1
Serbia managed to furfill 8 out of 10 of Austria-Hungary requests, but Austria-Hungary were'nt satisfied with this, so they declared war on Sebia. Due to her alliance with Serbia, Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary. This led Germany to come to Austria-Hungarys aid, declaring war on Russia. Because of this, France delcared war on Germany to help Russia. -
Australia enters the war
On the 4th of August 1914, Australia entered the war beside the British Commonwealth. Australia was eager to show its worth to the world, and thousands of men joined the armed forces. This was a major factor of Australian pride for the future. -
Britian enters the war
Now that Germany faced a war on two fronts, it was in trouble. A plan formed in which german forces would move through belgium to attack France, bypassing Frances defences. They figured they if they dealt with France before Russia could mobilize its forces, it only faced a war on 1 front. But by going through Beligum, Brtain entered the war against Germany due to a pact. The plan failed and now germany was faced with 3 opponents on 2 fronts. -
Chemical Warfare begins
Chemcial warfare was first used by the French, in an attempt to stop Germany advancing on Paris. They used a non-lethal form of tear-gas, but other countries saw this as an invite to begin experiemnting with chemicals too. The first major attack came at the second battle of Ypres, when German forces released chlorine gas on the allied trenches. After this, gas attacks were a normal occourance. -
Trench warfare begins in the Western Front
After Germanys advance on France was halted, and Russia started mobilizing her troops in the east, it started losing ground fast. To counter this, German troops dug in and formed trenches which spanned all across the western front. The allies realized this and dug in too, but they had less to time prepare and had the low ground. Shelling and mass-infantry charges became the only way to gain ground, and countries started reasearching more crude ways of combat, such as chemical warfare. -
The Christmas truce
On the 24th December 1914, the war stopped for the day. No official cease-fire was made, but one by one, troops stuck there heads out of their trenches and made their way into no-mans land. British and Germany forces traded gifts, and even had a friendly game of soccer, Germany vs England. At one part of the trench, a British soldier gave a German soldier a gift. The german soldier, having nothing to give in return, pulled out his pistol and shot him in the foot. He went home, unable to fight. -
Australian Troops attack Gallipoli
When Turkey joine the Centeral Powers, comprised mainly of Germany and Serbia, it began fortifing the Dardanelles, a narrow strait that the Allies used to ship supplies to Russia. These supplies were vital to the ongoing campaign on the Eastern front, so Australian forces were sent to attack Turkish forces and claim the entrance to the Strait and its fortifications. -
Sinking of the Lusitania
When Germany began submarine warfare, America threatened to retaliate if any American citizen was harmed at sea because of it. Germany adhered to this, and was very cautious at first, but when Germany begun losing the war, they resorted to Unrestricted Submarine warfare. The sinking of the Luistania was the nail in Germanys coffin. It was thought to be shipping munitions to Britian, but it was just a cruise ship, althought it was shipping ammunition. 128 Americans drowned, angering America. -
Zepplins begin bombing London
In the start of the 19th century, Aviation was still being introduced to the world, and generals hadnt noticed its potential on the battlefield. When the dominance of the skys became important, Germany introduced the zepplins, a massive balloon filled with hydogen, with a compartment at the bottom were pilots could drop bombs. These vessels started terrorising london, and although they didnt do much damage, they were feared by many. -
Battle of Lone Pine
After the failure of the landings, Allied command decieded to attack send ANZAC and French troops to take the Turkish positions on the higher ground. To take attention away from this, ANZAC troops would launch a major offensive aimed at capturing the Turkish troops forward trenches, which they hoped would distract them from their true attack. A artillery strike barraged the Turkish postions beforehand, and at 5.30, ANZAC troops leapt out of the trenches and attacked. 3,000 Australian troops died -
End of the Gallipoli Campaign
After 9 months of fighting and with no serious gain to show for it, Allied command decieded to pull all troops from Gallipoli. The fighting had cost over 10,000 ANZAC lives, with 33,500 more injured. The Turkish troops were victorious , but its army was all but destroyed, and it wouldnt have a serious impact on the rest of the war. Picture: The self-firing gun was an invention devised for the evacutation of Allied forces. It fired by itself, making the Turks think the ANZACS were still there. -
Battle of Verdun begins
The goal behind Germanys attack on Verdun was to 'bleed France white'. It hoped that in attacking an area of great sentimenal importance to the French, they would exhaust their supply of troops. While it was a major loss by France with a total of 360,000 men, Germanys were almost as great, with a total of 340,000. -
Battle of Jutland
The battle of Jutland was the first and only major sea battle to occour in the First World War. It involved the two strongest navies- Britains and Germanys. Britians Navy was bigger, but Germanys had newer ships. The two nations feared that an engagment would cripple their respective navies, so only smaller occourances happened beforehand. Britian lost 5 more ships, but Germanys navy was crippled. -
Battle Of The Somme
The Battle of Somme is the most successful at illustating how vicous WW1 was. The idea was to relieve preassure off French troops at Verdun by attacking on another front. A huge artillery strike forshadowed an infantry charge, so that the defenders would be too stunned to react. The Germans were prepared however, and so the loss of life was extraordinary. 420,000 for the British, 200,000 for the French and 500,000 for Germany. -
Germany declares War zone around Brtiain, begins submarine warfare
When submarines first began sinking allied ships and merchant vessels, they had to fight using cruiser warfare. This meant that subs had to surface in order to attack, putting the subs crew in harms away and also increasing the chances the vessel could escape. When Germany started losing, they started attacking from underwater, increasing the damage done to 600,000 tonnages per month. -
America enters the war
The main reason that America entered the War was the sinking of the Luistania, but other factors were involved too. Alongisde ties with European countries, a telegram was intercepted by british code-breakers sent from Germany to Mexico. It urged Mexico to start a war with the USA. This angered them greatly. And so on the 6th of April, 1917, America entered the war -
Russia exits the war
After years of fighting for a tyrannical goverment, the Russian people revolted and implaced a new goverment. One of their first acts was the end of the war. This meant losing massive amounts of lands to the germans and other countries. -
Treaty of Versailles signed
Named after the palace in which it was signed, this treaty offically marked the end of WW1. There was a variety of different ways in which the victors wanted to deal with Germany. Some wanted to make her pay by making it impossible for her to gain power again, whilst others were cautious, wanting to use Germany as a barrier from the possibilty of communism from Russia. -
Leauge Of Nations formed
Orginally thought up of by the American president Woodrow Wilson, the League was designed to stop another World War from ever happening. The league had the power to impose sanctions and bans if neccasary. It was quite flawed though, as America would join, Russia wasnt allowed too, and they had no serious power to enforce their decisions.
