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Allied Powers: France Commonwealth RussiaFile:Poland-Lithuania flag We Didn't Start the Fire.png Poland-Lithuania  Nederlands Albania Illyria Hungary Bohemia Serbia Sweden Andalusia United States (from 1917) Canada (from 1917) Brazil (from 1917)
| Central Powers: File:North Germany flag We Didn't Start the Fire.png German Empire  Austria Italy Romania Denmark-Norway (from 1915) Hispania (1915–1917)
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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 1918. Referred to by contemporaries as the "Great War", its belligerents included much of Europe, Russia, the United States, and Romania, 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 Quadruple Entente of France, the Commonwealth, Russia, and Poland-Lithuania; and the Quadruple Alliance of Germany, Austria, Italy, and Romania. Tensions in southeast Europe came to a head on 28 June 1914 following the assassination of Crown Prince Constantine, the Roman heir, by an Albanian nationalist in Pristina. Austria blamed Albania, which led to the July Crisis, an unsuccessful attempt to avoid conflict through diplomacy. Poland-Lithuania and Russia came to Albania'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 the Commonwealth, along with their respective colonies.
Germany, facing a war on two fronts, had a strategy to invade through the Nederlands and Luxembourg to defeat France, then knock out Poland-Lithuania and Russia and ultimately win the war - this was known as the Schlieffen Plan. However, due to Commonwealth intervention as a result of the German breaching of Dutch 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 the Nederlands to Italy. With the Eastern Front, it was more fluid, as Germany made semi-successful pushes into Poland-Lithuania, and the Roman Empire occupied Albania, which lead to Serbia and Illyria joining the conflict to defend their ally, which in turn opened another front for Austria. After an agreement with the Central Powers in 1915, Hispania and Denmark-Norway intervened in the conflict, resulting in Sweden joining the war against Denmark-Norway.
By 1917, multiple countries had enough of war, and were exhausted. Fears of revolution in Hispania lead to the nation suing for peace in December 1917, with the Treaty of Madrid confirming its full withdrawal from the conflict. This allowed the allies to redirect troops from Hispania and towards the Western Front, which was already making more progress in favour of the allied powers especially with the entry of American, Canadian and Brazilian troops by late 1917.
In mid-1918, the Central Powers began collapsing. After Hispania's sudden withdrawal from the war, Romania, Austria, Italy and Denmark-Norway began negotiations for peaceful withdrawal from the conflict, ultimately leaving Germany by itself. In October 1918, a civil war broke out, dividing the country into two factions - the imperial government and communist government, of which the latter agreed to an armistice with the allies on 7 November 1918, ending the war. In the delayed Treaty of Versailles signed in 1920, the German Empire lost some territory, while the remaining territory was partitioned between the imperial north and the communist south, while the Roman Empire and Austria were forced to pay severe war reparations and also lost some territory. The conflict in the long run was left unresolved, as hate for the allied powers developed in Austria, Denmark-Norway and Italy, leading to the rise of radicalism and ultimately World War II.