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Franz Ferdinand is assassinated.
On June 28, 1918, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by a secret society called the black and. This set off a chain of events leading to WW1 -
WW1 starts
WW1 begins when Germany invaded Belgium on August 4th, 1914 so that there would be easier access to France whom they had declared war on and were trying to invade. -
The western front
On August 4, 1914, Germany made its first move west with the Schlieffen plan. This was a plan to invade Belgium in order to get to France, It was named after the person that came up with it Alfred Von Schlieffen. After the victory for Germany, they were able to start fighting France, The battles that would happen between Germany and France at this point were known as being on the western front as France was west of Germany. -
WW1 airplanes
WW1 was the first major conflict to prominently use airplanes. Airplanes served a few purposes during WW1, some of these reasons were reconnaissance and bombing enemies. In air combat was somewhat uncommon at the time because for the most part the only weapons pilots carried with them in air were grenades and pistols. Another common weapon used by and against aircraft was sharp metal darts that the pilots just dropped off the side of the plane by hand. -
The Lusitania sinks
On May 7th, 1915 a german submarine sinks a ship carrying 1,198 people 128 of them being American. This aggravates America, in an attempt to calm America down on September 18, 1915, Kaiser Wilhelm put heavy restrictions on german submarine use for the war. This makes their plan to interrupt American supplies going to France and Britain much harder. -
The Zimmerman telegram is intercepted
on February 25, 1917, the Zimmerman telegram was intercepted by British forces. This telegram was a secret political offer from Germany to Mexico saying that if Mexico joined them that they would get back several of the states that Americans had taken in the Mexican American War in the mid-1800s. America immediately recognized this as a threat and on April 6th of the same year America enters the war on the side of the allied powers. -
Russian revolution
From 1914-1916 Russia had been fighting on the eastern front against the Germans, but after they had been defeated on the battlefield their economy was heavily damaged and people were finding it hard to survive. The majority of Russia's population was very upset at the czar's regime and a group of revolutionary Marxists called the bolsheviks arose and started the great Russian revolution. This caused Russia to stop participating in WW1. In December 1917 Russia reached an armistice with Germany. -
The draft
On may 18, 1917 America put a draft into place this put many Americans fighting on the front lines in Europe. the war rages on for around another year, during the time America was at war they lost 116,708 troops in Europe due to the war. This made it the 3rd deadliest war in American history. -
Archibald Alsop leaves for the army
In 1917 Archibald Alsop left Stanford University and joined the united states army was put on the yale Mobile hospital unit, a new kind of unit for the war. It was as its name states a medical unit that would take people to safe places and treat them. As for the reason it has yale in the title, at the time it was not uncommon for colleges to sponsor units in the military and yale had donated $250,00 to this particular unit. -
Alsop arrives at camp
On August 14 1917 Archibald Alsop sent the first of many letters to a woman named Jesse that he would often write to during the war. Jesse was Archibald's sister but because of their mother's death in 1898 when Archibald was only 7 and Jesse 16 she became much more of a motherly figure to Archibald. This date was not only the first time he had written his sister since his departure, but It was also his first day in his new camp. -
artists are sent to record the war
Art made by WW1 veterans is often realistic, gruesome, and heartbreaking. The reason for that being that Military leaders sent 6 artists to France to portray what they saw. The men were allowed to go wherever they wanted and paint whatever they saw. During this time together they made more than 700 works. The Paintings often depicted soldiers during mealtime, Soldiers during combat, And the devastation of war on the surrounding land. -
The war ends
On November 9th, 1918 Wilhelm abdicates the war and leaves Germany to move to the Netherlands where he lived out the rest of his life. This crushes all hope for Germany winning the war, 2 days later on November 11th, 1918 the war was officially ended on a day known as Armistice Day, or as Americans know it Veterans day.
