Volume 8 , Issue 45

WWI Begins - June 28, 1914

On the June 28, 1914, an event that sparked the outbreak of the first World War was when Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungary, blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the problem of Slavic nationalism once and for all. Russia supported Serbia, an Austro-Hungarian declaration of war was delayed until its leaders received assurances from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would support their cause in the event of a Russian intervention.

That was also the day that Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. The tenuous peace between Europe's great powers began collapsing. On the 29th of July Austro-Hungarian forces began to shell the Serbian capital, Belgrade, and Russia, Serbia's ally, ordered a troop mobilization against Austria-Hungary. France, allied with Russia, began to mobilize later that year on August 1 -- France and Germany declared war against each other on August 3.

After crossing through neutral Luxembourg, the German army invaded Belgium on the night of August 3-4, 1914, prompting Great Britain, Belgium's ally, to declare war against Germany. For the most part, the people of Europe greeted the outbreak of war with jubilation. Most patriotically assumed that their country would be victorious within months. Of the initial belligerents, Germany was most prepared for the outbreak of hostilities, and its military leaders had formatted a sophisticated military strategy known as the Schlieffen Plan.

The Schlieffen Plan was nearly successful, but in early September the French rallied and halted the German advance at the bloody Battle of the Marne near Paris. By the end of 1914, well over a million soldiers of various nationalities had been killed on the battlefields of Europe, and neither for the allies nor the Central Powers was a final victory in sight. On the western front -- the battle line that stretched across northern France and Belgium -- the combatants settled down in the trenches for a terrible war of attrition.

The year 1916 saw great offensives by Germany and Britain along the western front, but neither side accomplished a decisive victory. In the east, Germany was more successful, and the disorganized Russian army suffered terrible losses, spurring the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917. By the end of 1917, the Bolsheviks had seized power in Russia and immediately set out negoitating peace with Germany.

In 1918, the infusion of American troops and resources into the western front finally tipped the scale in the Allies' favor. Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies on November 11, 1918. World War I was known as the War to end all Wars because of the great slaughter and destruction it caused. Unfortunately, the peace treaty that officially ended the conflict -- Treaty of Versailles of 1919 -- forced punitive terms on Germany that destabilized Europe and laid the groundwork for World War II.

The Armistice agreement was signed, November 11, 1918, at 5 a.m. that morning, with Germany signing the agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside Compiegne, France. The first World War left nine million soldiers dead -- 21 million wounded, with Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, France, and Great Britain each losing nearly a million or more lives. At least five million civilians died from disease, starvation or exposure.
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