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The beginning of World War I
After Archduke Franz Ferdinand's death, WWI began. Austria declared war on Serbia. Germany declared war on Serbia, Russia, and France and was allied with Austria. Russia declared war on Austria and Germany and because Russia was allied with France, called upon the French as well to join the war. The British joined the war against Austria and Germany after Germany's refusal to withdraw from Belgium. -
The first Battle of Ypres
The first Battle of Ypres in West Flanders, Belgium, was the climactic fight of the ‘Race to the Sea’, an attempt by the German army to break through Allied lines and capture French ports on the English Channel to gain access to the North Sea and beyond.
It was horribly bloody, with neither side gaining much ground and Allied soldier losses including 54,000 British, 50,000 French, and 20,000 Belgian soldiers killed, wounded, or missing, and German casualties numbering more than 130,000. -
The Battle of Somme
The Battle of Somme has been known as the bloodiest battle of WWI, causing more than one million casualties, including 400,000 dead or missing. The predominantly British Allied force aimed to relieve pressure on the French, who were suffering in Verdun, by attacking Germans hundreds of kilometers away in the Somme. Throughout the battle, both sides lost an equivalent of four regiments of soldiers daily. When it was over, the Allies had only advanced a few kilometers. -
Letter by Archibald Alsop
The letter was written by Archibald Alsop to his sister during World War I, while he was part of the United States Army in France. He is telling her that they are in camps and visitors are not allowed to go in. Therefore, he doesn’t know when he’ll have the chance to see his sister again. -
Letter by Edgar D. Andrews
Edgar D. Andrews writes a letter to his mother saying that they’ve arrived in France but they were still on the boat and will if they were lucky they would disembark on the next day. He said that the trip was quite an experience and the first thing he noticed when they got there was that everything there was military. -
The Bolshevik Revolution
The Bolshevik Revolution was a hugely unpopular conflict.
The new socialist government battled to impose control but did not want to withdraw from the war. Lenin’s Bolsheviks seized power in the October Revolution with the aim of finding a way out of the war. By December, Lenin had agreed on an armistice with Germany, and in March, the disastrous treaty of Brest-Litovsk ceded enormous chunks of territory to Germany – including Poland and Finland. -
Letter by Quincy Claude Ayres
The letter was written by Quincy Claude Ayres, who was part of the American navy during World War I. In this letter, Ayres said that the port in France was really busy, as President Lincoln was there, and they were loading a bunch of ships with troops and supplies. -
Letter by John Joseph Brenan
John Joseph Brenan was part of the US army and lived in France during World War I. Brenan explains that they usually had only three or four hours of break, and the living conditions were terrible, such as the food, which was canned meat that they had to share, and an awful biscuit. However, he said that it wasn’t the case of do you like it, it was a case of eat or leave it. -
The end of World War I
World War I (1914-1918) was finally over. This first global conflict claimed from 9 million to 13 million lives and caused unprecedented damage. Germany formally surrendered on November 11, 1918, and all nations agreed to stop fighting while the terms of peace were negotiated. On June 28, 1919, Germany and the Allied Nations (including Britain, France, Italy, and Russia) signed the Treaty of Versailles, formally ending the war. -
Reports by James Frederick Campbell
The US army member James Frederick Campbell explained briefly that on November 11 they heard the last shots fired at Sedan front and on the next day they started evacuating Argonne. That shows the war was over.