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Bismarck completes efforts to unify Prussia and the German kingdoms into a single nation and has King Wilhelm I proclaimed Kaiser.
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France forced to sign humiliating treaty with Germany that ends the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War.
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After his father's untimely death, 29 year-old Wilhelm II becomes ruler, Kaiser Wilhelm II, of Germany.
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Nicolas is crowned Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, a position he did not want. Germany and Russia do not renew a friendship treaty and begin their adversary relationship.
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Great Britain's Queen Victoria, whose bloodline runs through most of the ruling houses of Europe, dies.
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"Bloody Sunday Massacre" by Tsarist troops in St. Petersburg left Russian workers dead and cost Nicholas support among the workers and farmers.
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British launch first "dreadnought" class battleship.
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Archduke Franz Ferdinand heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife are assassinated in Sarajevo.
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Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
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Germany declares war on neutral Belgium and invades in a right flanking move designed to defeat France quickly. As a result of this invasion, Britain declares war on Germany.
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"The Battle of the Frontiers" -- 27,000 French soldiers die on this single day in an offensive thrust to the east of Paris, towards the German borders.
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German army, led by Erich Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg achieves its greatest victory of the war on the Eastern front against Russia at the Battle of Tennenberg.
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