World War I was a war fought by a lot of countries, which is why it is called a "world" war. It started in 1914 and ended in 1918.^[1] Other names it has been called are The Great War, The First World War, and The War to End all Wars. 135 countries took part in World War I, and more than 15 million deaths happened in the war.^[2]

World War I was fought on most of the continent of Europe. The actual fighting that happened during the war was fought amongst many different fronts. The Western Front was where most of the fighting between Germany and the Allies happened. The system of trenches marked the Western Front as the Western Front. There was also a no man's land that broke into this area.^[3] Most of the fighting that happened in this area was trench warfare. The Eastern Front was fought in Central and Eastern Europe and was one of the main places where World War I took place. The fighting done on the Eastern Front was not trench warfare like it was on the Western Front, but instead depended on having front lines of soldiers ready to fight the enemy. The other fronts that had a lot of fighting includes the Middle Eastern Front and the Italian Front. Fighting also took place in Africa and at sea.

The war was ended by the signing of many different treaties, the most important being the Treaty of Versailles.

World War I was the first war where tanks, airplanes, and submarines, or underwater boats (U-boats) were used as common weapons.

Causes

On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was heir to the throne in Austria-Hungary, visited Sarajevo in Serbia with his wife in a horseless chariot. Because of angry people holding signs in the city, the archduke and his friends decided to leave the city with little people seeing them through back roads after making their public appearance.

A Serbian nationalist group called The Black Hand had sent five men to make Ferdinand stop breathing forever. All five of the men failed to make the archduke stop breathing while he passed through the large crowd. The grenades thrown at the car did not end his breaths forever. After failing their mission, the five men decided to give up and go home. One of these men was a Bosnian student name named Gavrilo Princip, who was also part of a group called Young Bosnia.

The archduke and his wife were leaving the city when the controller of their horseless chariot took a wrong turn onto a large street with many people. Princip was putting sandwiches in his mouth in a food shop on that street, and he went outside and saw the archduke and his wife. He took out a gun from his pocket and it spat four metal pieces; two hit the archduke, one hit his wife, and the other hit the horseless chariot. Both Ferdinand and his wife stopped breathing shortly after.

Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for the assassination. Austria-Hungary's ally, Germany, said that they should make a list of things that Serbia should do as punishment for making the archduke stop breathing forever. Austria-Hungary took a long time creating the list, and it was very strict when it was made. Though Serbia agreed to most of the things on the list, they could not agree to them all. Austria-Hungary then declared war on Serbia, and Russia joined the war on Serbia's side because the people of Serbia were Slavic, like Russia, and the Slavic countries had agreed to help each other if they were attacked. Since Russia is a large country it had to move soldiers closer to the war, but Germany feared that Russia's soldiers would also attack Germany. Russia did not like Germany that much due to things Germany had done in the past to become stronger. Germany declared war on Russia, and used a plan to attack Russia that had been created before the war, but it also involved attacking France and Belgium. France and also Great Britain joined the war because Great Britain had agreed to help Belgium if it were ever attacked by someone else.

This quickly led to a full-scale war.^[4] Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Both country's allies became involved in the war, and soon most of Europe became involved.

Germany v. France and Russia

Germany was friends with Austria-Hungary. Russia was friends with Serbia. The German government was afraid that because Austria-Hungary had attacked Serbia, that Russia would attack Austria-Hungary to help Serbia. Because of this, Germany felt it had to help Austria-Hungary by attacking Russia first, before it could attack Austria-Hungary. The problem was that Russia was also friends with France, and the Germans thought the French might attack them to help Russia. So the Germans decided that they could win the war if they attacked France first, and quickly. They could mobilize very quickly. They had a list of all the men who had to join the army, and where those men had to go, and the times of every train that would carry those men to where they would have to fight. France was doing the same thing, but could not do it as quickly. The Germans thought that if they attacked France first, they could “knock France” out of the war before Russia could attack them.

The Russian army

Russia had a big army, but Germany thought that it would take six weeks to mobilize and a long time before they could attack the Central Powers. That wasn't true, because the Russian Army mobilized in ten days. Also, the Russians drove deep into Austria.

Britain v. Germany

Great Britain was allied with Belgium. It also became quickly involved in the war. On August 4, 1914, it declared war against Germany when Germany attacked Belgium, to reach Paris before Russia could mobilize and open up a second front against Germany. Britain had the biggest empire (parts of the world it ruled) as it ruled over a quarter of the world, and was afraid that Germany would take its and France's colonies and become the most powerful and biggest empire in the world. Britain was also worried about Germany's growing military power. This was because Germany was growing its very large army into one of the most powerful in the world. Britain’s army was quite small but more professional compared with large armies like Germany’s or Russia’s armies. Britain had the largest and best navy in the world, and initially thought that was enough to keep other navies from attacking. But now the Germans were growing a large navy too. The Germans were quickly building ships and putting even more men in its army and Germany was almost going to become as powerful as Britain.

Turkey

Turkey went into the war because it had lost much of its empire before the war and wanted to get it back from Britain and France. It hated Serbia because Serbia, which was once a Turkish colony, had become its own country before the war. When Austria went to war against Serbia, Turkey declared war soon after.

Greece v. Turkey

Greece went into the war because its leader supported the Allied cause. Greece and Serbia became free again but a lot of Greek people still lived in Turkish lands which used to belong to Greece. The Greeks especially wanted their land to the north that was under Bulgarian and Turkish rule, so they declared war after a civil war. Turkey had beaten the GREEKS once and for all. Then Turkey made their way on discovery with their men and found an island now named Cyprus. Although now a days it is known as the Greeks this is only because the English had made a terrible mistake and told Greece that it was the English and they had given it to the Greeks for a certain amount of money. (clarified) Then soon later there was a battle between the Turkish and the Greeks. Turkey had killed most of the Greek army and never again did the Greeks try to invade Turkey or the Turkish side. Until one explosion that the Greeks had made, turnt another war between them both. Greeks bombed a train in the Turkish side and that explosion made whats known now to be the Glapsides beach is now on the Turkish side. The Greeks had failed their mission and Turkey swept Greece back to where they belonged. From that point on the Greeks had never again declared war. Turkey had one of the biggest armys in the world after this point and there was no Otaman Empire any more. Turkey and HALF of Cyprus is now in the books as a Turkish Empire.

Bulgaria v. Serbia and Greece

Bulgaria, like Greece and Serbia, was owned by Turkey before, got its freedom and took a lot of Turkish land. But when the Bulgarians did a short time before the war, the Serbians and Greeks felt cheated because the Bulgarians got a lot of land which they felt was Greek or Serbian. The Greeks and Serbians took back Bulgarian land and irritated Bulgaria, which made Bulgaria become friends with their old enemy Turkey. They declared war on Serbia and Greece. This started a war which resulted in the deaths of thousands of people.

Italy's betrayal

In 1915, Italy could see that the Germans were losing. So, in order to gain some German land and colonies, which would be divided at the end of the war, Italy left Germany and joined the Allied side.

Romania's alliances

Romania was on the side of the Central powers until 1916, when they were forced into the war by the Allied powers.

Important events in the war

Most people thought the war would be short. They thought the armies would move around quickly to attack each other, and one would defeat the other without too many people getting killed. They thought the war would be about brave soldiers - they did not know what the war would really be like. Only a few people like Lord Kitchener said that the war would take a long time.

Germany's plan

Germany's generals had decided that the best way to defeat France was to go through Belgium using a plan called "The Schlieffen plan". This was invented by the Germany Army Chief of Staff, Alfred von Schlieffen. They could then attack the French army at the north side and the south side at the same time. The German Army went into Belgium on the 4 August. On the same day, Great Britain started a war on Germany, because Britain was a friend of Belgium. The British had said some time before, in 1839, that they would not let anyone control Belgium, and they kept their promise.

Germany's invasion of Belgium

When the Germans got to the Belgian city of Liège, the Belgians fought very hard to stop them from coming into the city. The Germans did finally push the Belgians out of the city, but it had taken longer than the German generals had planned. Then the Germans attacked the north side of the French army. The French and the British moved men up to fight the Germans. They could do this because the Belgians had fought so long at Liège. But the Germans pushed the French back at the Fronteirs, and the British held the Germans back at Mons, but afterwards they also fell back to join up with the retreating French army, until they were stopped at the river Marne.This was called The Miracle of the Marne.

Trench warfare

In the fighting, many men had been killed. The new guns the men had fired very quickly. Some had machine guns, that fire so many bullets that the bullets fell like rain. The men on both sides took spades and dug holes, because they did not want to be killed. The holes joined up into trenches, until the lines of trenches went all the way from Switzerland to the North sea. In front of the trenches, there was barbed wire that cut anyone who tried to climb over it, and mines that blew up anyone who tried to run across the "no man's land" that was in between the trenches. Gas was also an important weapon used.

In the East, the Russians had attacked the Germans. The Russians pushed back the Germans, but then the Germans defeated the Russians at the Battle of Tannenberg.

Machine gun warfare

The machine guns and the trenches and mines made it very difficult to attack. The generals didn't remember this, and they still ordered attacks anyway. At the battle of the Somme in 1916 many British men died in a single day. It was one of the bloodiest days in the history of the British army.

USA v. Germany

The German generals decided to use submarines. These submarines were named U-boats, from the German word Unterseeboot (meaning underwater boat). The U-boats attacked American ships that were carrying food and weapons to Great Britain. The Germans thought that the Americans were helping only the British and not being neutral. "Neutral" means that a country is not involved in the war. But then some Americans were killed by the submarines.

Germany also wrote a secret telegram note to Mexico in code suggesting that the two countries work together to attack the United States. This note is called the Zimmermann Telegram because the person who sent it was named Arthur Zimmermann. Some spies from the United Kingdom found out about the note and told the United States. American people became angry and many decided that they wanted their country to enter the war to punish Germany. Because of these things, the United States joined the war against Germany and became part of the Allies.

Consequences of America joining the war

In the spring of 1918, the German generals decided they had to attack before many American soldiers came to Europe to attack them. The Germans attacked in a new way. They attacked where the Allies were weak, and did not attack the places where the Allies were strong. They pushed the British and French a long way in some places, but each time, the Germans were stopped. Then the Americans began to come to Europe. The British, the French and the Americans together began to push back the Germans. The Germans couldn't stop them. At last, the German generals told their government that the war had to be stopped, because Germany couldn't fight any longer. Germany asked for peace from the Allies, and the war ended on the 11th of November 1918.

Russia

The First Russian Revolution

In 1917, there was a revolution in Russia. The Tsar had to say he would not be Tsar any more, and that the people should have power. At first it was thought that Russia would fight harder now that the Tsar was gone. But the Russian people didn't want to fight anymore. The war had been putting burdens on them, and many of them were poor and hungry. They began to hate their new government because it wouldn't stop the war.

The Second Russian Revolution

Then, there was an October Revolution, which was a second revolution in Russia led by Communists that followed the ideas of Karl Marx. The leader of the revolution was Vladimir Lenin, who became the leader of Russia after this revolution. The new government asked for peace from the Germans. The Germans and Russians stopped fighting and signed the treaty of Brest-Litovsk. This gave Germany lots of land in eastern Europe and the Baltic Sea.

After the war

After the war, the Germans had to agree to the Treaty of Versailles. Germany had to pay $33 billion in reparations. Part of the treaty said the countries of the world should come together to make an international organization to stop wars from happening. This organization was called the League of Nations. The US Senate didn't agree with this, even though it was the idea of the US president, Woodrow Wilson. Woodrow Wilson tried to tell the American people that they should agree, but the U.S. never joined the League of Nations. Problems with the Treaty in Germany would later lead to the Second World War.

Notes

Other websites

• World War 1 Letters The Internet's Collection of World War One Mail.
• World War 1 Atlas A day-by-day map of World War I
• A history of World War I in pictures, audio, and video
• The Heritage of the Great War, Netherlands

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