World War I
PARTICIPANTS
Bulgaria
France
Germany
Italy
Japan
Ottoman Empire
Portugal
Russia
United Kingdom
United States
CAUSES
The assassination of Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand by South Slav nationalist Gavrilo
Princip on June 28, 1914.
A naval arms race between Great Britain and the German Empire made conflict on the high
seas almost inevitable.
German success in the Franco-German War fostered a belief in the supremacy of Prussian
militarism.
Germany's annexation of Alsace-Lorraine after the Franco-German War aroused a deep
longing for revenge in the French people.
The Balkan Wars virtually eradicated the Ottoman presence in Europe, but led to violent
strife among the victors.
OUTCOMES
As many as 8.5 million soldiers and 13 million civilians died as a result of the war.
Failure to deliver mandated reparations leads to the armed occupation of the Ruhr River
valley region by French and Belgian troops.
German militarists perpetuate the myth that the German Army was undefeated in battle,
undermining faith in the civilian government of the Weimar Republic.
Imperial dynasties in Austria-Hungary, Germany, the Ottoman Empire, and Russia collapsed.
Mass movement of troops and refugees helped spread the Spanish flu, a devastating
influenza pandemic that claimed as many as 50 million lives in 1918-19.
Ottoman territories in the Middle East are divvied up among the victorious Allied powers at
the Conference of San Remo.
, The League of Nations is established, but its effectiveness is hampered by the non-
participation of the United States.
KEY PEOPLE
Kemal Atatürk
Winston Churchill
Georges Clemenceau
Franz Joseph
Herbert Hoover
David Lloyd George
Nicholas II
George Patton
William II
Woodrow Wilson
World War I In Depth
World War I, also called First World War or Great War, an international conflict that in 1914–18
embroiled most of the nations of Europe along with Russia, the United States, the Middle East, and
other regions. The war pitted the Central Powers—mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey—
against the Allies—mainly France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917, the United
States. It ended with the defeat of the Central Powers. The war was virtually unprecedented in the
slaughter, carnage, and destruction it caused.
It I was one of the great watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history. It led to the fall of four
great imperial dynasties (in Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey), resulted in the Bolshevik
Revolution in Russia, and, in its destabilization of European society, laid the groundwork for World
War II.
The outbreak of war
With Serbia already much aggrandized by the two Balkan Wars (1912–13, 1913), Serbian nationalists
turned their attention back to the idea of “liberating” the South Slavs of Austria-Hungary.
Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević, head of Serbia’s military intelligence, was also, under the alias “Apis,”
head of the secret society Union or Death, pledged to the pursuit of this pan-Serbian ambition.
Believing that the Serbs’ cause would be served by the death of the Austrian archduke Franz
Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph, and learning that
the Archduke was about to visit Bosnia on a tour of military inspection, Apis plotted his
assassination. Nikola Pašić, the Serbian prime minister and an enemy of Apis, heard of the plot and
warned the Austrian government of it, but his message was too cautiously worded to be
understood.
At 11:15 AM on June 28, 1914, in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, Franz Ferdinand and his morganatic
wife, Sophie, duchess of Hohenberg, were shot dead by a Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Princip. The chief of
the Austro-Hungarian general staff, Franz, Graf (count) Conrad von Hötzendorf, and the foreign
PARTICIPANTS
Bulgaria
France
Germany
Italy
Japan
Ottoman Empire
Portugal
Russia
United Kingdom
United States
CAUSES
The assassination of Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand by South Slav nationalist Gavrilo
Princip on June 28, 1914.
A naval arms race between Great Britain and the German Empire made conflict on the high
seas almost inevitable.
German success in the Franco-German War fostered a belief in the supremacy of Prussian
militarism.
Germany's annexation of Alsace-Lorraine after the Franco-German War aroused a deep
longing for revenge in the French people.
The Balkan Wars virtually eradicated the Ottoman presence in Europe, but led to violent
strife among the victors.
OUTCOMES
As many as 8.5 million soldiers and 13 million civilians died as a result of the war.
Failure to deliver mandated reparations leads to the armed occupation of the Ruhr River
valley region by French and Belgian troops.
German militarists perpetuate the myth that the German Army was undefeated in battle,
undermining faith in the civilian government of the Weimar Republic.
Imperial dynasties in Austria-Hungary, Germany, the Ottoman Empire, and Russia collapsed.
Mass movement of troops and refugees helped spread the Spanish flu, a devastating
influenza pandemic that claimed as many as 50 million lives in 1918-19.
Ottoman territories in the Middle East are divvied up among the victorious Allied powers at
the Conference of San Remo.
, The League of Nations is established, but its effectiveness is hampered by the non-
participation of the United States.
KEY PEOPLE
Kemal Atatürk
Winston Churchill
Georges Clemenceau
Franz Joseph
Herbert Hoover
David Lloyd George
Nicholas II
George Patton
William II
Woodrow Wilson
World War I In Depth
World War I, also called First World War or Great War, an international conflict that in 1914–18
embroiled most of the nations of Europe along with Russia, the United States, the Middle East, and
other regions. The war pitted the Central Powers—mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey—
against the Allies—mainly France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917, the United
States. It ended with the defeat of the Central Powers. The war was virtually unprecedented in the
slaughter, carnage, and destruction it caused.
It I was one of the great watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history. It led to the fall of four
great imperial dynasties (in Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey), resulted in the Bolshevik
Revolution in Russia, and, in its destabilization of European society, laid the groundwork for World
War II.
The outbreak of war
With Serbia already much aggrandized by the two Balkan Wars (1912–13, 1913), Serbian nationalists
turned their attention back to the idea of “liberating” the South Slavs of Austria-Hungary.
Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević, head of Serbia’s military intelligence, was also, under the alias “Apis,”
head of the secret society Union or Death, pledged to the pursuit of this pan-Serbian ambition.
Believing that the Serbs’ cause would be served by the death of the Austrian archduke Franz
Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph, and learning that
the Archduke was about to visit Bosnia on a tour of military inspection, Apis plotted his
assassination. Nikola Pašić, the Serbian prime minister and an enemy of Apis, heard of the plot and
warned the Austrian government of it, but his message was too cautiously worded to be
understood.
At 11:15 AM on June 28, 1914, in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, Franz Ferdinand and his morganatic
wife, Sophie, duchess of Hohenberg, were shot dead by a Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Princip. The chief of
the Austro-Hungarian general staff, Franz, Graf (count) Conrad von Hötzendorf, and the foreign
