-
Period: to
World War I and Russian Revolution timeline
-
France loses Alsace and Loriane to Germany
France loses Alsace and Loriane after their defeat to Germany in the Franco-German War. This was a major cause of anti-German feeling in France. -
Russo-Japanese War
A war that was developed out of a rivalry between Russia and Japan for control over Korea and Manchuria. Japan had won every battle. The war also showed some signs of bogging down in the sort of stalemate that bedevilled the fighting in the the First World War. -
Bloody Sunday
When Russia had lost a war against Japan, Russia was furrious. They finally explode into violence in St.Petersburg that is known as the Bloody Sunday Massacre. A group of workers led by Georgy Apollonovich Gapon marched to the czar's Winter Palace in St.Petersburg to make their demands. Imperial foces opened fire on the demonstrators, killing and wounding hundreds. The response to the massacre included, strikes and riots throughout the country as they were outraged. -
Austira-Hungary annexes Bosina
The great powers of Europe awarded the Dual Monarchy the right occupy the two provinces, with the legal title to remain with Turkey. As the provinces were coveted by many-in fact, both Austria and Hungary wanted Bosina and Herzagovina for themselves, the decision was more or less a stopgap to preserve the dlicate balance of power in Europe. Austria-Hungary's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina upset the fragile balance of power in the Balkans, enraging Serbia and Salvic nationalist in Europe -
Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates
Wilhelm II gave Austria-Hungary the assurance it needed then promptly went off on a cruise around Norway. By the time he returned from holiday, the whole of Europe was teetering on the edge of war. During the First World War, Wilhelm’s role became increasingly insignificant as his ministers and generals bypassed him totally. Wilhelm remained defiant until the news came through, in Berlin, Prince Max had proclaimed a socialist republic. The new Germany didnt want a monarch. Wilhelm II abdicated -
Assasination of Archduke Franz ferdinand
This event sparked the outbreak of World War I, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nephew of Emperor Franz Josef and heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, is shot todeath long with his wife by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia, killed by Princip. Austira-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary because Russia was allied with Serbia and Germany then declared war on Serbia being Austria-Hungary's allies. This started World War I -
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia
One month to the day after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were killed by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, effectively beginning the First World War. -
Russia Mobilizes Army
Russia reacts to the Austrian attack on Serbia, and begins full mobilization of its troops. Germany demands that it stop, Germany declares war on Russia. -
Schlieffen Plan put into action
The Schlieffen Plan was created by General Count Alfred von Schlieffen in December 1905. The Schlieffen Plan was the operational plan for a designated attack on France once Russia, in response to international tension, had started to mobilise her forces near the German border. The execution of the Schlieffen Plan led to Britain declaring war on Germany on August 4th, 1914. -
Germany Invades Belgium
Albert took personal command of the armed forces and although outnumbered, decided to resist the German invasion that began on 4th August. The German Army quickly overwhelmed Belgian defences and King Albert was forced to move his government to Le Havre in France. However, the Belgian Army resisted more than the Germans expected and this help to frustrate the Schlieffen Plan. By the end of September 1914, Germans ruled most of Belgium. -
Start of the Battle of Marne
The First Battle of the Marne was fought to the north and east of Paris in early September 1914. The opportunity opened for Anglo-French forces to reverse the hitherto victorious German advance through Belgium and France when First Army commander Heinrich von Kluck, who anchored the right wing of the German advance, swung north, rather than west, of Paris, across the front of Michel-Joseph Maunoury’s French Sixth Army. -
Sinking of the Lusitania
A German U-boat torpedoed and sank the RMS Lusitania, a British ocean liner en route from New York to Liverpool, England. 1,100 perished, including more than 120 Americans. Two years passed before the United States formally entered World War I. -
Start of the Battle of Verdun
German forces advanced quickly in February 1916, claiming Fort Douaumont and Fort Vaux after brutal subterranean melees. Despite coming within two miles of Verdun cathedral, the Germans called off their offensive in mid-July, and Falkenhayn was relieved of his position. The French retook their forts and pushed back the line, and by the time their forces ground to a halt in December, both sides were left with more than 600,000 casualties. -
Start of the Battle of Somme
The morning of July 1, the German machine crews emerged from their fortified trenches and set up their weapons. At 7:30 a.m., 11 British divisions attacked at once, and the majority of them were gunned down. The soldiers optimistically carried heavy supplies for a long march, but few made it more than a couple of hundred yards. Five French divisions that attacked south of the Somme at the same time fared a little better, but without British success little could be done to exploit their gains. -
Zimmerman Telegraph found
In the telegram, intercepted and deciphered by British intelligence in January 1917, Zimmermann instructed the ambassador, Count Johann von Bernstorff, to offer significant financial aid to Mexico if it agreed to enter any future U.S-German conflict as a German ally. If victorious in the conflict, Germany also promised to restore to Mexico the lost territories of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. -
Russian Czar Nicholas II abdicates
During the February Revolution, Czar NicholasII, is forced to abdicate the throne by the Petrograd insurgents, and a provincial government is installed in his place. -
U.S Enters World War I
U.S. joins World War I two years after a German U-Boat sank the British passenger liner the Lusitania. The U.S. joined its allies: Britain, France, and Russia, to fight in World War I. -
Russian Civil War
The civil war occurred because after November 1917, many groups had formed that opposed Lenin’s Bolsheviks. These groups included monarchists, militarists, and, for a short time, foreign nations. Collectively, they were known as the Whites while the Bolsheviks were known as the Reds. -
October Revolution
on November 6 and 7, 1917 or October 24 and 25 on the Julian calendar, which is why this event is also referred to as the October Revolution, leftist revolutionaries led by Bolshevik Party leader Vladimir Lenin launched a nearly bloodless coup d’état against the provisional government. The Bolsheviks and their allies occupied government buildings and other strategic locations in Petrograd, and soon formed a new government with Lenin as its head. -
Fourteen Points proposed
In an address before a joint meeting of Congress, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson discusses the aims of the United States in World War I and outlines his famous “Fourteen Points” for achieving a lasting peace in Europe. The peace proposal, based on Wilson’s concept of peace without victory, called for the victorious Allies to set unselfish peace terms, including freedom of the seas, the restoration of territories conquered during the war and the right to national self-determination in such conte -
Russia signs Treat of Brest-Litovsk
On March 3, 1918, in the city of Brest-Litovsk, located in modern-day Belarus near the Polish border, Russia signs a treaty with the Central Powers ending its participation in World War I. -
Armistice Signed
At the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the Great War ends. At 5 a.m. that morning, Germany, bereft of manpower and supplies and faced with imminent invasion, signed an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compiégne, France. The First World War left nine million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded, with Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France, and Great Britain each losing nearly a million or more lives. In addition, at least five million civilians -
Treaty of Versailles signed
World War I officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919. Was written by the Allies with almost no participation by the Germans. -
Stalin takes over Russia
Stalin took military leadership positions in the Russian Civil War and Soviet-Polish War. After Lenin's death, Stalin suppressed documentation of Lenin's recommendation. Thereafter, Stalin politically isolated his major enemies, such as arch-rival Leon Trotsky, and had them dismissed from government altogether. This eventually led him to be the sole uncontested leader of the Party and the Soviet Union.
