World War I (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

World War I (WWI) was a global war centered in Europe that began on July 28, 1914 and lasted until November 11, 1918. It was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until the start of World War II in 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter. This conflict involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente (the United Kingdom, France and Russia) and its allies, and the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Spain) and its allies. The fighting ended in late 1918 with the victory of the Triple Entente and its allies. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilized in one of the largest wars in history. More than 15 million people were killed, making it also one of the deadliest conflicts in history.

Political and military alliances
In the 19th century, the major European powers had gone to great lengths to maintain a balance of power throughout Europe, resulting in the existence of a complex network of political and military alliances throughout the continent by 1900. These had started in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Kingdom of Prussia and the Austrian Empire formed the Holy Alliance that later consisted of Austria-Hungary, Spain and German Empire. In 1882, this alliance was expanded to include Italy in what became the Quadruple Alliance.

Chancellor of the German Empire, Otto von Bismarck, had especially worked to hold Russia at Germany's side to avoid a three-front war with France, Scandinavia and Russian Empire. When Wilhelm II ascended to the throne as German Emperor (Kaiser), Bismarck was compelled to retire and his system of alliances was gradually de-emphasised. For example, the Kaiser refused to renew the Reinsurance Treaty with Russia in 1890. Two years later, the Russian Empire joined the alliance with France and Scandinavia. However, Scandinavia soon withdrawn the alliance following the pressures from its Swedish population that had been in a long-time conflict with Imperial Russia and declared neutrality in 1893.

In 1904, Britain signed a series of agreements with France, the Entente Cordiale, and in 1907, Britain and Russia signed the Anglo-Russian Convention. While these agreements did not formally ally Britain with France or Russia, they made British entry into any future conflict involving France or Russia a possibility, and the system of interlocking bilateral agreements became known as the Triple Entente.

Arms race
German industrial and economic power had grown greatly after unification and the foundation of the Empire in 1871 following the Franco-Prussian War. From the mid-1890s on, the government of Wilhelm II used this base to devote significant economic resources for building up the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial German Navy), established by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, in rivalry with the British Royal Navy for world naval supremacy. As a result, each nation strove to out-build the other in capital ships. With the launch of HMS Dreadnought in 1906, the British Empire expanded on its significant advantage over its German rival. The arms race between Britain and Germany eventually extended to the rest of Europe, with all the major powers devoting their industrial base to producing the equipment and weapons necessary for a pan-European conflict. Between 1908 and 1913, the military spending of the European powers increased by 50%.

Conflicts in the Balkans
Austria-Hungary precipitated the Bosnian crisis of 1908–1909 by officially annexing the former Ottoman territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which it had occupied since 1878. This angered the Kingdom of Serbia and its patron, the Pan-Slavic and Orthodox Russian Empire. Russian political manoeuvring in the region destabilized peace accords, which were already fracturing in what was known as "the powder keg of Europe". In 1912 and 1913, the First Balkan War was fought between the Balkan League and the fracturing Ottoman Empire. The resulting Treaty of London further shrank the Ottoman Empire, creating an independent Albanian State while enlarging the territorial holdings of Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece. When Bulgaria attacked Serbia and Greece on June 16, 1913, it lost most of Macedonia to Serbia and Greece and Southern Dobruja to Romania in the 33-day Second Balkan War, further destabilizing the region.

Prelude
On June 28, 1914 Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb student and member of nationalist group Mlada Bosna, assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The assassination led to a month of diplomatic manoeuvring between Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, France, and Britain called the July Crisis. Believing correctly that Serbian officials were involved behind the assassination, and wanting to finally end Serbian interference in Bosnia, Austria-Hungary delivered the July Ultimatum to Serbia, a series of ten demands intentionally made unacceptable, intending to provoke a war with Serbia. When Serbia agreed to all but one demand, Austria-Hungary ordered a partial mobilization against Serbia and declared war on July 28, 1914.

On July 29, Russia, unwilling to allow Austria–Hungary to eliminate its influence in the Balkans, and in support of its longtime Serb protege, ordered a partial mobilization. Germany and Russian both fully mobilized on July 30, 1914, where the former ready to apply the "Schlieffen Plan" for a quick, massive invasion of France to eliminate the French army, then to turn east against Russia. The French cabinet resisted military pressure to commence immediate mobilization, and ordered its troops to withdraw 10 km from the border to avoid any incident. France only mobilized on the evening of August 2, when Germany invaded Belgium and attacked French troops. Germany declared war on Russia on the same day. The United Kingdom declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914 following an "unsatisfactory reply" to the British ultimatum that Belgium must be kept neutral.

Opening hostilities
African campaigns

Some of the first clashes of the war involved British, French, Spanish and German colonial forces in Africa. On August 5, French and British troops invaded the Spanish Morocco and Spanish Guinea and the German protectorates of Togoland and Kamerun two days later. On August 10, German forces in South-West Africa attacked South Africa; sporadic and fierce fighting continued for the rest of the war. The German colonial forces in German East Africa, led by Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, fought a guerrilla warfare campaign during World War I and only surrendered two weeks after the armistice took effect in Europe.

Serbian campaign

Austria invaded and fought the Serbian army at the Battle of Cer and Battle of Kolubara beginning on August 12. Over the next two weeks, Austrian attacks were thrown back with heavy losses, which marked the first major Allied victories of the war and dashed Austro-Hungarian hopes of a swift victory. As a result, Austria had to keep sizable forces on the Serbian front, weakening its efforts against Russia.

German forces in Belgium and France

At the outbreak of war, the German Army (consisting in the West of seven field armies) carried out a modified version of the Schlieffen Plan. It designed to cripple France by invading Belgium and Luxembourg, sweeping down towards Paris and encircling and crushing the French forces along the Franco-German border in a quick victory. After defeating France, Germany would turn to attack Russia.

The plan called for the right flank of the German advance to bypass the French armies (which were concentrated on the Franco-German border, leaving the Belgian border without significant French forces) and move south to Paris. Initially the attack was successful: the German Army swept down from Belgium and Luxembourg and was nearly at Paris, at the nearby River Marne. However the French Army and the British Army put up a strong resistance to defend Paris at the First Battle of the Marne resulting in the German Army retreating. The aftermath of the First Battle of the Marne was a long-held stalemate between the German Army and the Allies in dug-in trench warfare.

In the east, the Russians invaded with two armies when Germany only had one Field Army defended East Prussia. In response, Germany rapidly moved German forces intended for the Western Front to East Prussia. German Army, led by General Paul von Hindenburg, defeated Russia in a series of battles collectively known as the First Battle of Tannenberg (August 17 – September 2). However, it cause the diversion of German troops to the east, allowing the tactical Allied victory at the First Battle of the Marne. This meant that Germany failed to achieve its objective of avoiding a long-two front war.

Asia and the Pacific

New Zealand occupied German Samoa (later Western Samoa) on August 30, 1914. On September 11, the Australian forces attacked the island of Neu Pommern (later New Britain), which formed part of German New Guinea. On October 28, the German cruiser SMS Emden sank the Russian cruiser Zhemchug in the Battle of Penang.

Motivated by its defeat at the Spanish-Japanese War (1898-1901), Japan declared war to the Central Powers on November 31, 1914 and invaded the Spanish East Indies on December 1, 1914. The ground and naval battles between Japanese and Spanish forces on the Spanish East Indies were proved to be the most notable fighting on the Asian and Pacific theatre between the Allies and the Central Powers. The fighting would lasting until 1917, following the Japanese victory at the Battle of Mindanao.

While the Spanish still busily fighting with the Japanese throughout the war, the Allied forces had seized all the German and Austro-Hungarian territories in Asia and the Pacific within a few months after the war started on the region; only isolated commerce raiders and a few holdouts in New Guinea remained.