# World War I

28 July 1914 - 11 November 1918

World War I (or the First World War, often abbreviated as WWI or WW1) was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously known as the Great War or "the war to end all wars". A network of interlocking alliances and crisis led to the great powers of Europe to be divided into two coalitions:

Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire(Turkish tribes)
Allied Powers of Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States

# Statistics

70 million military personnel(60 million Europeans)
Estimated 9 million combatant deaths, and
13 million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war

# Start of the War

Although there were a number of causes for the war, the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was the main catalyst for starting the war. The assassination was carried out by Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Princip, which lead Austria to declared war on Serbia.

A series of wars broke out in just a few days

Russia prepared to defend its ally Serbia.
Germany declared war on Russia to protect Austria.
This caused France to declare war on Germany to protect its ally Russia.
Germany invaded Belgium to get to France which caused Britain to declare war on Germany.

Later the Ottoman Empire was brought into the fray as well, after Germany tricked Russia into thinking that Turkey had attacked it. Britain and France launched a mostly failed attacks in 1915.

# Trench Warfare

Many reference refer to trench warfare, afforded some protection by allowing soldiers more time to take other defensive steps, trench warfare caused enormous numbers of casualties.

The middle part of the war, 1916 and 1917, was dominated by continued Trench Warfare in both the east and the west. Soldiers fought from dug-in positions, striking at each other with Machine Guns, Heavy Artillery, and Chemical Weapons. Though soldiers died by the millions in brutal conditions, neither side had any substantive success or gained any advantage.

# The End of the War

The fighting between exhausted, demoralized troops continued to plod along until the Germans lost a number of individual battles and very gradually began to fall back. A deadly outbreak of Influenza, meanwhile, took heavy tolls on soldiers on all sides. Eventually, the governments of both Germany and Austria-Hungary began to lose control as both countries experienced multiple mutinies from within their military structures.

# Armistice

The war ended in the late fall of 1918, after the member countries of the Central Powers signed Armistice Agreements one by one. Germany was the last, signing its armistice on November 11, 1918. As a result of these agreements, Austria-Hungary was broken up into several smaller countries. Germany, under the Treaty Of Versailles, was severely punished with hefty economic reparations, territorial losses, and strict limits on its rights to develop militarily.

# Notes

Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary.
An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir apparent or of a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question.
The Treaty of Versailles (peace treaty) brought World War I to an end between Germany and the Allied Powers.

# References

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