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Archduke Franz Ferdinand assassinated
Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the Austrian throne. On this day Franz Ferdinand was in Bosnia to meet the mayor of Sarajevo. Unknown to him a Serbian gang were also in Bosnia and they planned to assassinate him. However, their plan to put a bomb under his car failed. It was only down to luck that Gavrilo Princip one of the gang saw the Archduke when the Archduke's driver got lost. Princip went up to the car and with two shots killed Franz Ferdinand and his wife. -
Period: to
World War I
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Serbia is blamed and attacked
Austria-Hungary blames Serbia for killing the Archduke. It attacks Serbia -
Russia gets involved
Russia, who has promised to protect Serbia against attack, get sits army ready to attack Austria-Hungary -
Germany gets involved
Germany, who supports Austria-Hungary, hears about Russian preparations for war, declares war on Russia. -
The Schlieffen Plan
Germany plans to defeat France quickly with a huge blow through Belgium and then face the enourmous but slow moving Russian Army. This plan was to prevent them having to fight a war on two fronts. -
Britain gets involved
Germany asks Belgium to allow German soldiers to march through their country to attack France. Belgium says 'no'. Germany marches through anyway. Britain, who has a deal to protect Belgium from attack declares war on Germany. -
Austria-Hungary, Russia
Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia -
France gets involved
Britain and France declare war on Austria-Hungary. -
Germany has a war on two fronts
Russia launched an attack on Germany, before the Germans had managed to capture Paris. So the Germans were forced to send troops east to face the Russians. -
Trenches
The German army had retreated 40 miles behind the River Aisne. There they dug trenches and set up machine gun nests. The British and French could not break these defences and dug their own trenches directly opposite. -
Stalemate
The tranches now stretched from the English channel to Switzerland. Neither side could find a way throgh. The war was stuck in a stalemate. -
Sinking of the RMS Lusitania
The RMS Lusitania a luxury liner was sunk by one of the Germans U-boats. 1198 people were killed and of these 128 were Americans. This turned many people in the USA against Germany and in favour of joining the war -
USA gets involved
The Triple Entente gained an ally as USA declared war on the Triple Alliance. -
Russia pulls out
After having their entire royal family killed and over a million soldiers killed. Russia signed the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk and pulled out of the war -
Treaty of Versailles
The Big Three announced their decisions to the world about Germany's punisment. They were set out in a huge document called the Treaty of Versailles. German politicians were told to sign the treaty or face invasion. They signed the Treaty
