World War I was one of the most significant conflicts in history,
claiming millions of lives, significantly altering the map of Europe, and
altering the global balance of power. By the war's end, 10 million
were dead, 21 million were wounded, and 7.7 million were missing or
imprisoned. The Ottoman Empire collapsed into nation states
including Turkey, Transjordan, Syria, and Iraq; Russia underwent a
revolution to become a Communist state; and the United States cemented
its position as a world power on the back of its economic and military strength.
On June 28 1914, Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated
by a Serbian nationalist. As heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne,
his death sparked a standoff with Serbia which quickly grew, as European
nations took sides. The Central Powers, made up of Germany,
Austria-Hungary, and Turkey, quickly took the offensive against the
Allied Powers, composed primarily of France, Britain, Russia, Italy, and
(from 1917 on) the United States.
On the western front, Germany quickly invaded neutral Belgium and moved
on to France. At the First Battle of the Marne in September of
1914, the French were finally able to halt the German offensive and
solidify their lines. The conflict quickly broke down into a war of
attrition, with both sides launching infantry assaults from lines of
trenches, backed by machine guns and modern artillery. Neither side
gained significant ground, despite staggering casualties. In 1916,
tens of thousands were killed during the Battles of Verdun and the Somme
in northern France.
On the eastern front, Russian forces advanced aggressively into East
Prussia and Germany in 1914, only to be stopped at the Battle of
Tannenberg and driven back into Russia the following year. After
several failed attempts to break through German defensive lines, Russian
failures and accompanying casualties eventually precipitated the Russian
Revolution of 1917, in which the Bolsheviks claimed power and created the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.). The new government
entered into the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany the following year,
ceding significant territory to the Central Powers and taking Russia out
of the conflict.
Other conflicts occurred across Europe and northern Africa, as
well. British and French forces attempted unsuccessfully to drive
Turks out of the Dardanelles during the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915.
That same year, Serbia fell to Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian
forces. During the Battles of the Isonzo, Italian and Austrian
forces engaged in a series of costly and painfully inconsequential
battles. Hundreds of thousands were lost in these conflicts, with
no real ground gained for either side. Elsewhere, the Allies had
more success. In 1917, Britain overcame Turkish forces in the
Mesopotamian Campaign to capture Baghdad, and took Jerusalem during the
Sinai and Palestine Campaign. Russia succeeded in driving the Turks
out of the Caucasus. The Arab Revolt, begun by Arab nationalists at
the Battle of Mecca, also contributed to the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
The United States took an isolationist approach to the war for several
years, but this changed in 1917. Early in the war, the British had
instituted a naval blockade of Germany, effectively cutting off
military and civilian supplies to strangle the enemy offensive.
Germany responded by commencing unrestricted attacks on Atlantic
shipping. After German submarines began attacks on neutral
shipping, the United States finally joined the conflict. As fresh
American troops reinforced the exhausted Allied forces, the Allies began
a steady march across France and Belgium recovering territory.
In the face of a renewed and powerful Allied force, Bulgaria and the
Ottoman Empire surrendered in the fall of 1918. Germany entered
into a November ceasefire. The Treaty of Versailles was finally signed on June 28, 1919, officially
ending the conflict often remembered as the War to End All Wars.
World War One Gravestones, Flanders Field, Belgium
World War I Resources
The National World War I Museum
in Kansas City, Missouri, offers a wealth of educational and historical
resources about the first World War.
The Great War is a PBS
website which covers the origins, campaigns, and results of World War I.