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| World War I | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
Central Powers: Germany Austria-Hungary Turkey Bulgaria (from 1915) Afghanistan (1918) Ireland (1918)
| Allied Powers: France British Empire Russia Serbia Belgium Montenegro Japan Italy (from 1915) Rumania (from 1916) Portugal (from 1916) Hejaz (from 1916)
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Wilhelm II Franz Joseph I Charles I Mehmed V Mehmed VI Three Pashas Ferdinand I Habibullah Khan Cathal Brugha
| Raymond Poincaré Georges Clemenceau George V H. H. Asquith David Lloyd George Nicholas II Alexander Kerensky Victor Emmanuel III Vittorio Orlando Emperor Taishō Albert I Peter I Ferdinand I Hussein bin Ali
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World War I or the First World War, often abbreviated as WWI or WW1, was a global conflict that took place from 1914 to 1921. Referred to by contemporaries as the "Great War", its belligerents included much of Europe, Russia, Turkey and Japan, with fighting also expanding into the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, an estimated 9 million people were killed in combat, while over 5 million civilians died from military occupation, bombardment, hunger, and disease. Millions of additional deaths resulted from the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war.
By 1914, the European great powers were divided into the Triple Entente of France, Great Britain and Russia, and the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. Tensions in southeast Europe came to a head on 28 June 1914 following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Austrian heir, by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo. Austria blamed Serbia, which led to the July Crisis, an unsuccessful attempt to avoid conflict through diplomacy. Russia came to Serbia's defense following Austria's declaration of war on the latter on 28 July while Germany sided with Austria, and by 4 August, the system of alliances drew in Germany, France, and Great Britain, along with their respective colonies. By 1915, Bulgaria and Turkey had joined the Central Powers, while Italy and Japan had joined the allies.
Germany, facing a war on two fronts, had a strategy to invade through the Kingdom of Belgium to defeat France, then knock out Russia and ultimately win the war - this was known as the Schlieffen Plan. However, due to British intervention as a result of the German breaching of Belgian neutrality, the advance failed, and ultimately the Western front dragged on longer than it had been hoped. Trench warfare became a common use, with lines stretching from Belgium to Italy. With the Eastern front, it was more fluid, as German troops stormed through Russian territory, eventually causing a drop in popularity of Nicholas II. Meanwhile on the Western front, a German naval victory at the Battle of the North Sea decimated the blockade controlled by the British, allowing more imports of supplies to Germany, allowing a smooth German victory at the Battle of Verdun, causing French morale to decrease. Despite gaining Rumania and Portugal on the allies, it didn't help the Allies much.
By 1917, multiple countries had enough of war, and were exhausted. A revolution in Russia overthrew Nicholas II in March 1917, and established a provisional government and republic, which in turn was overthrown by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks in November, and made peace with the Central Powers in March 1918, allowing Germany to establish client states in the east. The German military began planning for a major offensive to counter the Western allies, and also secretly negotiated with Irish nationalists and Afghanistan to rebel against British authority. In July 1918, after a successful offensive, Italy surrendered, departing the war, allowing the German military to refocus all its attention onto France and Britain, beginning the Spring Offensive in February 1919, coinciding with a successful German attack on French-occupied Kamerun and other of Germany's occupied colonies. Eventually, Paris came under siege, forcing Britain and France to sign an armistice, ending the war in Europe. Japan finally surrendered in 1921 after protests in Tokyo against the economic crisis emerged.
The victorious Central Powers reshaped Europe and the colonial order, as much of Eastern Europe gained independence from Russia, and Britain and France had to give some of their colonies to Germany. The war was left largely unresolved, and the peace conference is considered one of the main reasons for the beginning of World War II in 1948.
Background[]
Military alliances and relations[]
Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the major European great powers attempted to maintain a balance of power among themselves, known as the Concert of Europe. However, after the Revolutions of 1848, the balance system started to fall apart due to a number of factors, including Britain moving towards "splendid isolation", the decline of the Ottoman Empire and the gradual rise of Prussia lead by Otto von Bismarck. The 1866 Austro-Prussian War established Prussian hegenomy over northern Germany, and following the kingdom's victory against France in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, Bismarck successfully unified all German states into one federation dominated by Prussia.
People in France were incredibly resentful towards the newly-formed German Empire, especially after the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, and French nationalism started dominating French foreign policy in the lead-up to World War I. In order to prevent a potential war on two fronts, Bismarck successfully formed the League of the Three Emperors between Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany - however, the League fell apart following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 due to Austria and Russia's conflicting interests of influence in the Balkans. Germany and Austria-Hungary then formed the Dual Alliance in 1879, which expanded to include Italy in 1882, becoming the Triple Alliance. The League was also reformed in 1881, but was eventually replaced with the Reinsurance Treaty, which ensured the neutrality of Russia and Germany if either state were attacked by France - this agreement also fell apart after Bismarck's dismissal by Wilhelm II in 1890 and failure to renew the agreement.
This allowed France to sign a rival alliance with Russia in 1894, which was a major development in Franco-Russian relations. Following a strain in Anglo-German relations following a naval arms race between the two powers, the Entente Cordiale was formed in 1904 between Britain and France, which eventually lead to the creation of the Triple Entente following the Anglo-Russian Convention. While these were not formal alliances and mainly signed to solve the long-standing rivalry between the three powers, British support for France and Russia in any future conflicts became a possibility, and the Agadir Crisis proved Britain and Russia's full support for France against Germany.