Introduction
1362 Words
World War I, often abbreviated as WWI or WW1, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was an international conflict that began on 28 July 1914 and ended on 11 November 1918. It involved much of Europe, as well as Russia, the United States and Turkey, and was also fought in the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, an estimated 9 million were killed in combat, while over 5 million civilians died from occupation, bombardment, hunger or disease. The genocides perpetrated by the Ottomans and the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic spread by the movement of combatants during the war caused many millions of additional deaths worldwide.
Clockwise from the top:
The road to Bapaume in the aftermath of the Battle of the Somme, 1916 British Mark V tanks crossing the Hindenburg Line, 1918 HMS Irresistible sinking after hitting a mine in the Dardanelles, 1915 A British Vickers machine g*n crew wearing gas masks during the Battle of the Somme, 1916 German Albatros D.III biplane fighters near Douai, France, 1917
Date 28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918
(4 years, 3 months and 2 weeks)
Peace treaties
Treaty of Versailles
Signed 28 June 1919
(4 years and 11 months)
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Signed 10 September 1919
(5 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days)
Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine
Signed 27 November 1919
(4 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days)
Treaty of Trianon
Signed 4 June 1920
(5 years, 10 months and 1 week)
Treaty of Sèvres
Signed 10 August 1920
(6 years, 1 week and 6 days)
United States–Austria Peace Treaty
Signed 24 August 1921
(3 years, 8 months, 2 weeks and 3 days)
United States–Germany Peace Treaty
Signed 25 August 1921
(4 years, 4 months, 2 weeks and 5 days)
United States–Hungary Peace Treaty
Signed 29 August 1921
(3 years, 8 months, 3 weeks and 1 day)
Treaty of Lausanne
Signed 24 July 1923
(8 years, 8 months, 3 weeks and 4 days)
Location
Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, China, Indian Ocean, North and South Atlantic Ocean
Result
Allied victory
Central Powers victory on the Eastern Front nullified by defeat on the Western Front and Italian Front
Fall of all continental empires in Europe (including Germany, Russia, Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary)
Allied military occupation of the Rhineland
Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War, with the subsequent formation of the Soviet Union
Widespread unrest and revolutions throughout Europe and Asia
Creation of the League of Nations (see Aftermath of World War I)
Territorial
changes
Formation of new countries in Europe and the Middle East
Transfer of German colonies and territories to other countries, partitionof the Ottoman Empire, dissolution of Austria-Hungary, and the collapse of the Russian Empire
Belligerent
Allied Powers
France
British Empire
United Kingdom
Canada
Australia
India
Ceylon
New Zealand
Newfoundland
South Africa
Russian Empire
(until 1917
Serbia
Belgium
Japan
Montenegro
Italy (from 1915
United State
(from 1917
Romania (from 1916
Portugal (from 1916
Hejaz (from 1916
Greece (from 1917
Siam (from 1917
Republic of China (1912–1949) China (from 1917
... and other
Central Powers
German Empire
Austria-Hungary
Ottoman Empire
Bulgaria (from 1915
... and others
Commanders and leaders
French Third Republic Raymond Poincaré
French Third Republic Georges Clemenceau
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland George V
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland H. H. Asquith
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland David Lloyd George
Nicholas II †
Russian Republic Georgy Lvov
Russian Republic Alexander Kerensky
Kingdom of Italy Victor Emmanuel III
Kingdom of Italy Vittorio Orlando
United States Woodrow Wilson
Empire of Japan Emperor Taishō
Belgium Albert I
Kingdom of Serbia Peter I
Kingdom of Romania Ferdinand I
and others ...
German Empire Wilhelm II
Austria-Hungary Franz Joseph I
Austria-Hungary Karl I
Ottoman Empire Mehmed V
Ottoman Empire Mehmed VI
Ottoman Empire Three Pashas
Kingdom of Bulgaria Ferdinand I
and others ...
Strength
Total: 42,928,000
12,000,000
French Third Republic 8,660,000
British Empire 5,839,000
Kingdom of Italy 5,093,000
United States 4,744,000
British Raj 1,680,000
Kingdom of Romania 1,234,000
Empire of Japan 800,000
Kingdom of Serbia 707,000
Canada 629,000
Australia 417,000
Belgium 380,000
Kingdom of Greece 230,000
First Portuguese Republic 200,000
Union of South Africa 136,000
Dominion of New Zealand 129,000
Kingdom of Montenegro 50,000
Kingdom of Hejaz 50,000
Total: 25,248,000
German Empire 13,250,000
Austria-Hungary 7,800,000
Kingdom of Bulgaria 1,200,000
Casualties and losses
Military dead: 5,525,000
Military wounded: 12,832,000
Total: 18,357,000 KIA, WIA and MIA
Civilian dead: 4,000,000
further details ...
Military deaths by country:
1,811,000
French Third Republic 1,398,000
British Empire 1,115,000
Kingdom of Italy 651,000
Kingdom of Romania 250,000–335,000
Kingdom of Serbia 275,000
United States 117,000
Belgium 59,000–88,000
Kingdom of Greece 26,000
First Portuguese Republic 7,000
Kingdom of Montenegro 3,000
Empire of Japan
Military dead: 4,386,000
Military wounded: 8,388,000
Total: 12,774,000 KIA, WIA and MIA
Civilian dead: 3,700,000
further details ...
Military deaths by country:
German Empire 2,051,000
Austria-Hungary 1,200,000
Ottoman Empire 772,000
Kingdom of Bulgaria 88,000
In 1914, the Great Powers were divided into two opposing alliances, the Triple Entente, consisting of France, Russia, and Britain, and the Triple Alliance, made up of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. Tensions in the Balkans came to a head on 28 June 1914 following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Austro-Hungarian heir, by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia and the interlocking alliances involved the Powers in a series of diplomatic exchanges known as the July Crisis. On 28 July, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia; Russia came to Serbia's defence and by 4 August, the conflict had expanded to include Germany, France and Britain, along with their respective colonial empires. In November, the Ottoman Empire, Germany and Austria formed the Central Powers, while in April 1915, Italy joined Britain, France, Russia and Serbia as the Allied Powers.
Facing a war on two fronts, German strategy in 1914 was to defeat France, then shift its forces to the East and knock out Russia, commonly known as the Schlieffen Plan. This failed when their advance into France was halted at the Marne; by the end of 1914, the two sides faced each other along the Western Front, a continuous series of trench lines stretching from the Channel to Switzerland that changed little until 1917. By contrast, the Eastern Front was far more fluid, with Austria-Hungary and Russia gaining, then losing large swathes of territory. Other significant theatres included the Middle East, the Alpine Front and the Balkans, bringing Bulgaria, Romania and Greece into the war.
Shortages caused by the Allied naval blockade led Germany to initiate unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917, bringing the previously neutral United States into the war on 6 April 1917. In Russia, the Bolsheviks seized power in the 1917 October Revolution and made peace in the March 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, freeing up large numbers of German troops. By transferring these to the Western Front, the German General Staff hoped to win a decisive victory before American reinforcements could impact the war, and launched the March 1918 German spring offensive. Despite initial success, it was soon halted by heavy casualties and ferocious defence; in August, the Allies launched the Hundred Days Offensive and although the German army continued to fight hard, it could no longer halt their advance.
The Central Powers began to collapse; Bulgaria signed an Armistice on 29 September, followed by the Ottomans on 31 October, then Austria-Hungary on 3 November. Isolated, facing revolution at home and an army on the verge of mutiny, Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated on 9 November and the new German government signed the Armistice of 11 November 1918, bringing the fighting to a close. The 1919 Paris Peace Conference imposed various settlements on the defeated powers, the best known being the Treaty of Versailles. The dissolution of the Russian, German, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires led to numerous uprisings and the creation of independent states, including Poland, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. For reasons that are still debated, failure to manage the instability that resulted from this upheaval during the interwar period ended with the outbreak of World War II in 1939.
- Writer
