-
The Start Of The War: Sarajevo
The event that instigated World War 1 was the attack on the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the Archduchess of Austria-Hungary who were visiting Sarajevo. This was unsucessfully carried out by a terrorist group called Black Hand. Moments later Gavrilo Princip also a member of the group, walked up to the car and shot the Archduke and his wife. -
The Austro-Hungarian Ultimatum
The war was declared by the Austro-Hungarians with their ally Germany on Serbia because the latter refused one of the terms of the ultimatum sent by Austria after the assassination to the Serbian government. -
Alliances
Since Russia was an ally of Serbia, they started to mobilize their army for war. France as an ally of Russia did the same. Germany,sharing borders with France and Russia felt threatened and declared war on them. -
The Begining Of The War
By midnight, all the countries of the two alliances except for Italy were at war. World War 1 had begun. -
The Battle Of Mons
The battle of Mons was the first engagement of the British and the Germans. The original plan of the British was to meet with the French Fifth Army near Charleroi on the Sambre but before reaching the rendezvous the met the German Patrol. The British had to retreat because of the strength of the German army who invaded France. -
The First Battle Of Ypres
This battle of Ypres was the first of three. It was also known as "Race to the Sea" because this race ended at the North Sea. Every army wanted to flank its enemy by moving to the North and West. -
The Lusitania
Lusitania was a cruise ship going from New York to Liverpool. The German embassy had printed an article in the newspaper saying that any ship sailing in the "European Warzone" could become a target for the German U-boats . Many of the passengers had recieved anonymous telgrams warning them not to travel on the ship. On May 7th the ship was spotted by a German U-boat and they fired a torpedo at the ship. Lusitania sank in eighteen minutes. -
The Somme
The Battle of The Somme started in July and lasted until November 1916. This battle had many casualties which made people realise that trench warfare was not the best idea. The Somme was also the first battle in history to ever introduce tanks. Tanks were used sucessfully for the first time on September 17th. -
New Allies
The sinking of the Lusitania provoked the United States of America to declare war on Germany . They started with a small army and later had 2 million soldiers in France, Flanders and Italy. -
Passchendaele
The third battle at Ypres more commonly known as Passchendaele showed the true strength of Canadian Soldiers. It was the battle where Germany started using mustard gas on their enemies. The British soldiers retreated once they saw the effects of this gas but the Canadian Corps held their ground. To defend themselves against the gas they urinated in rags and held it to their faces. With all their hard work and perserverance they were able to capture Passchendaele. -
Conscription In Canada
After the Battle of Somme, the Canadian military desperatly needed more recruits. By this time in the war, not many people wanted to volunteer. After visiting Great Britain, PM Bordon decided that he was going to introduce Conscription in Canada. It meant that anyone who meets the age requirments and who were physically fit had to join the army. -
The End of the War
On November 11 also known as Armistice day, A truce was signed between the allies of world war I and Germany. This took place at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month which is commemorated in many countries around the world as "Remembrance Day". -
The Treaty of Versailles
A peace conference was met in Versailles, Paris to sign a treaty which was a peace settlement signed by three major world leaders: David Lloyd George from Great Britain, Georges Clemenceau from France and Woodrow Wilson from the United States.
