World War 1 On Sunday, June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo, Bosnia, an 18-year-old Serbian named Gavr iloPrincip, shot and

killed Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife Duchess Soph ie whilethey were driving in an open car. Princip belonged to a sercet terror so ciety, called theBlack Hand, that wanted to rid Bosnia of Austrian rule and unit e it with Serbia. Theassassination led to the first World War. This terrible con flict latsed over 4 years, involvedover 30 nations, and claimed more than 20,000 ,000 lives, both miltary and civilian. Itcost billions of dollars, destroyed Eur ope, crumbled empires, and sowed seeds of WorldWar 2.There were also others caus es that led up to World War 1. Over time, countries in Europemade mutual defense agreements that would pull them into battle. If one country wasattacked, allied countries were bound to defend them. Before World War 1, the followingalliances existed: Russia and Serbia, Germany and Austria-Hungary (The Dual Alliance1879) , France and Russia (Franco-Russian Alliance 1891), Britain and France andBelgiu m, and Japan and Britain. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia (July 28, 1914) ,Russia got involved to defend Serbia. Germany seeing Russia mobilizing, declare d war on Russia (August 1, 1914). France was then drawn in against Germany and A ustria-Hungary (August 3, 1914). Germany attacked France through Belgium pulling Britaininto war (August 4, 1914). This eventually split the continent into two hostile sides. TheCentral Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, later joined by Bulg aria and the OttomanEmpire), and the Allies (Great Britain, France, Russia, late r joined by Japan, Italy, and theUnited States).Another factor that increased th e rivalry in Europe was imperialism. Before World War 1,Africa and parts of Asia were areas of conflict between the European countries. This was because of the raw materials these areas could provide. The increasing competition anddesire fo r greater empires led to an increase in conflict that helped start World War I.M ilitarism means that the army and military forces are given a high profile by th egovernment. The division between European countries and militarism, or a policy of glorying military power and keeping an army prepared for war, led to anarms race between the main countries, another cause of World War I. The armies of bo th France andGermany had more than doubled between 1870 and 1914, and there was fiercecompetition between Britain and Germany for mastery of the seas.In the fal l of 1914, a series of battles occured in the region of northern France known as the Western Front. During this time a German general, named Alfred Graf von Schl ieffen,had drawn up a plan, called the Schlieffen Plan, which called for attacki ng and defeatingFrance in the west and rushing to fight Russia in the east. By e arly September, Germantroops had reached the outskirts of Paris. But, on Septemb er 5, the Allies attacked theGermans northeast of Paris, in the valley of Marne River. The Germans retreated after four days of fighting. The Battle of the Marn e was an important battle because the Frenchand British forces were able to stop the Schlieffen plan for a quick victory. However, theGerman army was not beaten , and its successful retreat ended all hope of a short war.By early 1915, armies on the Western Front began digging long trenches to protect themselves from opposing armies. This became known as trench warfare where soldi ersfought each other from trenches. New technology, such as machine guns, poison gas,tanks, and submarines, allowed armies to wipe out each other more quickly.W ar was also going on in a region known as the Eastern Front, which strecthed alo ng theRussian and German border. In this region, the Russian and the Serbs fough t the Germansand Austro-Hungarians. Here, the Russians lost many lives. Near the town of Tannenberg,the Germans defeated the Russians killing over 30,000 Russia n soldiers. In September 1914, after defeating the Austrians twice, the Russians were defaeted by the Austrians pushing them out of Austria-Hungary. By 1916, Ru ssia was near collapse. Russia wasless industrialized than the other European co untries, but they had a large populationwhich allowed their army to rebuilt its ranks.In Feburary 1915, the Allies made an effort to take the Dardanelles strait , which led to theOttoman capital Constantinople. Taking over this region, would allow them to defeat theTurks and make a supply line to Russia. This became kno wn as the Gallipoli campaign.The Gallipoli peninsula was attacked by British, Fr ench, Australian, and New Zealandtroops. By May, the campaign turned bloody. In

December, the Allies began to evacuate.They had lost over 250,000 soldiers.Germa ny's colonies in Africa and Asia were attacked. The Japanese defeated the German sin China and captured Germany's Pacific island colonies. Four of Germany's colo nieswere attacked by France and England who took control of three of the colonie s. Soldiersand laborers from India, South Africa, Senegal, Egypt, Algeria, and I ndochina joinedtheir French or British rulers in hope that their service would l ead to their independence.In 1917, many wars took place on the sea. During the y ear, the Germans used unrestrictedsubmarine warfare, in which the submarines wou ld sink without warning any ships in thewater around Britain. In Janurary 1917, a German submarine sunk the British passenger ship Lusitania which left 1,198 people dead, including 128 United States citizens.Germany claim ed the ship had been carrying ammunition, but still recevied strong protests fro m President Woodrow Wilson. After two more attacks, the Germans agreed tostop at tacking neutral and passenger ships.In February 1917, United States officals int ercepted a telegram from Arthur Zimmermann, Germany's foreign secretary, which s tated that Germany would helpMexico regain the land it lost to the United States if Mexico would help Germany fight.This pushed President Wilson, on April 2, 19 17, to ask Congress to declare war onGermany. The United States then joined the Allies. When the United States entered thewar, the war had already been going on for three years.World War 1 became a total war because all of the countries dev oted their resources tothe war. The wartime government took control of the econo my and told factories whatand how much to produce. Nearly every civilian able to work was put to work.Governments began rationing or limiting the number of good s people bought that might be needed at war and using propaganda to put people i n favor of the war. Women werealso a big help by taking over factories jobs and helping the wounded on the battlefield. In March 1917, Czar Nicholas was forced to step down due the shortages of fuel a nd foodin Russia. By 1917, about 5.5 million Russian soldiers were either killed , wounded, or a prisoner of war. Russia refused to fight anymore. In November 19 17, a Communistleader, named Vladimie llyich Lenin took control and insisted on pulling Russia out of the war. Germany and Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Lit ovsk which ended the war between them in March 1918.In May 1918, the Germans ag ain reached the Marne River. In July 1918, the Allies andthe Germans fought the second battle of Marne. The weakened Central Powers wereunable to fight off the Allies. The Bulgarians first surrendered and then the Ottomans.In Germany, the s oldiers and the people revolted. On November 9, 1918, Kaiser WilhelmII stepped d own, and Germany became a republic with socialist Friedrich Elbert as president. A representative of the new German government met with Commander Marshal Foch n ear Paris. They signed an armistice or an agreement to stop fighting. On Novembe r 11, the Great War came to an end.World War 1 left the nations of Europe devast ated. France and England had large debts.Germany, near economic collapse, was to ld to pay reparations that it could not pay. For hope the Germans turned to a ma n, named Adolf Hitler, that promised to avengeGermany's defeat. This would soon lead to another bloody war in the years to come.