World War I

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"World War One", "Great War", and "WWI" redirect here. For other uses, see World
War One (disambiguation), Great War (disambiguation), and WWI (disambiguation).

World War I

Clockwise from the top:

 The road to Bapaume in the aftermath of the Battle of the Somme, 1916

 British Mark V tanks crossing the Hindenburg Line, 1918

 HMS Irresistible sinking after hitting a mine in the Dardanelles, 1915

 A British Vickers machine gun crew wearing gas masks during the Battle of the

Somme, 1916
 German Albatros D.III biplane fighters near Douai, France, 1917
Date 28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918
(4 years, 3 months and 2 weeks)
show

Peace treaties
Location Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Pacific
Islands, China, Indian Ocean, North and South
Atlantic Ocean
Result Allied victory

 Central Powers victory on the Eastern

Front nullified by defeat on the Western
Front and Italian Front
 Fall of all continental empires in Europe
(including Germany, Russia, Ottoman
Empire and Austria-Hungary)
 Russian Revolution and Russian Civil
War, with the collapse of the Russian
 Empire and the subsequent formation of
the Soviet Union
 Widespread unrest
and revolutions throughout Europe and
Asia
 Creation of the League of
Nations (see Aftermath of World War I)
Territorial  Formation of new countries in Europe
changes and the Middle East
 Transfer of German colonies and
territories, Partitioning the former
Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary and
the Russian Empire, transfer of territories
to other countries

Belligerents

Allied Powers: Central Powers:

France
German Empire
show
British Empire Austria-Hungary

Ottoman Empire

Russian Empire[a] Bulgaria (from 1915)

(until 1917) ... and others

Serbia

Belgium

Japan

Montenegro

Italy (from 1915)

United States

(from 1917)

Romania (from 1916)

Portugal (from 1916)

Hejaz (from 1916)

Greece (from 1917)

Siam (from 1917)

China (from 1917)

... and others

Commanders and leaders

Raymond Poincaré Wilhelm II

Georges Clemenceau Franz Joseph I[k]

George V Karl I

Herbert Henry Asquith Mehmed V[l]

David Lloyd George Mehmed VI

Nicholas II[j] Three Pashas

 Alexander Kerensky Ferdinand I
Victor Emmanuel III and others ...
Vittorio Orlando

Woodrow Wilson
Emperor Taishō

Albert I

Peter I

Ferdinand I

and others ...

Strength

Total: 42,928,000[1] Total: 25,248,000[1]

12,000,000 13,250,000

8,660,000[m] 7,800,000

5,839,000 [n] 2,998,000

5,093,000 1,200,000

4,744,000

1,680,000
1,234,000

800,000

707,000

629,000

417,000
380,000

230,000

200,000

136,000

129,000
50,000

68,176,000 (Total all)

Casualties and losses

Military dead: 5,525,000 Military dead: 4,386,000

Military wounded: 12,832,000 Military wounded: 8,388,000

Total: 18,357,000 KIA, WIA and MIA Total: 12,774,000 KIA, WIA and MIA

Civilian dead: 4,000,000 Civilian dead: 3,700,000

further details ... further details ...

Military deaths by country:[2][3] Military deaths by country:[2]

1,811,000 2,051,000

1,398,000 1,200,000

1,115,000 772,000

651,000 88,000
250,000–335,000

275,000

117,000
59,000–88,000

26,000

7,000

3,000

<1,000

show
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Theaters of World War I

hideEvents leading to World War I

Franco-Prussian War 1870–1871

Second Concert of Europe 1871
Congress of Berlin 1878
Campaign in Bosnia 1878
Dual Alliance 1879
Triple Alliance 1882
Franco-Russian Alliance 1894
Anglo-German naval arms race 1898–1912
Entente Cordiale 1904
Russo-Japanese War 1904–1905
First Moroccan Crisis 1905–1906
Pig War 1906–1908
Anglo-Russian Entente 1907
 Bosnian Crisis 1908–1909
Agadir Crisis 1911
Italo-Turkish War 1911–1912
Balkan Wars 1912–1913
Assassination of Franz Ferdinand 1914
July Crisis 1914

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World War I: Mobilized forces per total population (in %)[citation needed]

World War I or the First World War, often abbreviated as WWI or WW1, was
a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November
1918. Contemporaneously known as the Great War or "the war to end all wars",[4] it
led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million
Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history,[5][6] and also one of
the deadliest conflicts in history,[7] with an estimated 8.5 million combatant deaths and
13 million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war.[8] Resulting genocides and the
related 1918 Spanish flu pandemic caused many millions of deaths worldwide.[9][10]
On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb Yugoslav nationalist and member
of the Serbian Black Hand military society, assassinated the Austro-Hungarian
heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, leading to the July Crisis.[11][12] In
response, Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia on 23 July. Serbia's reply
failed to satisfy the Austrians, and the two moved to a war footing. A network of
interlocking alliances enlarged the crisis from a bilateral issue in the Balkans to one
involving most of Europe. By July 1914, the great powers of Europe were divided
into two coalitions: the Triple Entente, consisting of France, Russia, and Britain; and
the preestablished Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. The Triple
Alliance was only defensive in nature, allowing Italy to stay out of the war until 26
April 1915, when it joined the Allied Powers after its relations with Austria-Hungary
deteriorated.[13] Russia felt it necessary to back Serbia, and approved partial
mobilisation after Austria-Hungary shelled the Serbian capital of Belgrade, which
was a few kilometres from the border, on 28 July 1914.[14] Full Russian mobilisation
was announced on the evening of 30 July; the following day, Austria-Hungary and
Germany did the same, while Germany demanded Russia demobilise within twelve
hours.[15] When Russia failed to comply, Germany declared war on Russia on
1 August 1914 in support of Austria-Hungary, the latter following suit on 6 August
1914. France ordered full mobilisation in support of Russia on 2 August 1914.[16] In
the end, World War I would see the continent of Europe split into two major opposing
alliances; the Allied Powers, primarily composed of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the United States, France, the Russian
Empire, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro; and the Central
Powers, primarily composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria.
Germany's strategy for a war on two fronts against France and Russia was to rapidly
concentrate the bulk of its army in the West to defeat France within 6 weeks, then
shift forces to the East before Russia could fully mobilise; this was later known as
the Schlieffen Plan.[17] On 2 August, Germany demanded free passage through
Belgium, an essential element in achieving a quick victory over France.[18] When this
was refused, German forces invaded Belgium on 3 August and declared war on
France the same day; the Belgian government invoked the 1839 Treaty of
London and, in compliance with its obligations under this treaty, Britain declared war
on Germany on 4 August. On 12 August, Britain and France also declared war on
Austria-Hungary; on 23 August, Japan sided with Britain, seizing German
possessions in China and the Pacific. In November 1914, the Ottoman
Empire entered the war on the side of Austria-Hungary and Germany, opening fronts
in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, and the Sinai Peninsula. The war was fought in (and
drew upon) each power's colonial empire also, spreading the conflict to Africa and
across the globe.
The German advance into France was halted at the Battle of the Marne and by the
end of 1914, the Western Front settled into a war of attrition, marked by a long series
of trench lines that changed little until 1917 (the Eastern Front, by contrast, was
marked by much greater exchanges of territory). In 1915, Italy joined the Allied
Powers and opened a front in the Alps. Bulgaria joined the Central Powers in 1915
and Greece joined the Allies in 1917, expanding the war in the Balkans. The United
States initially remained neutral, though even while neutral it became an important
supplier of war materiel to the Allies. Eventually, after the sinking of American
merchant ships by German submarines, the declaration by Germany that its navy
would resume unrestricted attacks on neutral shipping, and the revelation that
Germany was trying to incite Mexico to initiate war against the United States,
the U.S. declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917. Trained American forces did not
begin arriving at the front in large numbers until mid-1918, but the American
Expeditionary Force ultimately reached some two million troops.[19]
Though Serbia was defeated in 1915, and Romania joined the Allied Powers in
1916, only to be defeated in 1917, none of the great powers were knocked out of the
war until 1918. The 1917 February Revolution in Russia replaced the Monarchy with
the Provisional Government, but continuing discontent with the cost of the war led to
the October Revolution, the creation of the Soviet Socialist Republic, and the signing
of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk by the new government in March 1918, ending
Russia's involvement in the war. Germany now controlled much of eastern Europe
and transferred large numbers of combat troops to the Western Front. Using new
tactics, the German March 1918 Offensive was initially successful. The Allies fell
back and held. The last of the German reserves were exhausted as 10,000 fresh
American troops arrived every day. The Allies drove the Germans back in
their Hundred Days Offensive, a continual series of attacks to which the Germans
had no countermove.[20] One by one, the Central Powers quit: first Bulgaria
 (September 29), then the Ottoman Empire (October 31) and the Austro-Hungarian
Empire (November 3). With its allies defeated, revolution at home, and the military
no longer willing to fight, Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated on 9 November and Germany
signed an armistice on 11 November 1918, ending the war.
World War I was a significant turning point in the political, cultural, economic, and
social climate of the world. The war and its immediate aftermath sparked
numerous revolutions and uprisings. The Big Four (Britain, France, the United
States, and Italy) imposed their terms on the defeated powers in a series of treaties
agreed at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, the most well known being the Treaty
of Versailles with Germany.[21] Ultimately, as a result of the war, the Austro-
Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Russian Empires ceased to exist, and numerous
new states were created from their remains. However, despite the conclusive Allied
victory (and the creation of the League of Nations during the peace conference,
intended to prevent future wars), a second world war followed just over twenty
years later.

Contents

 1Names
 2Background
o 2.1Political and military alliances
o 2.2Arms race
o 2.3Conflicts in the Balkans
 3Prelude
o 3.1Sarajevo assassination
o 3.2Expansion of violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina
o 3.3July Crisis
 4Progress of the war
o 4.1Opening hostilities
 4.1.1Confusion among the Central Powers
 4.1.2Serbian campaign
 4.1.3German Offensive in Belgium and France
 4.1.4Asia and the Pacific
 4.1.5African campaigns
 4.1.6Indian support for the Allies
o 4.2Western Front
 4.2.1Trench warfare begins
 4.2.2Continuation of trench warfare
o 4.3Naval war
o 4.4Southern theatres
 4.4.1War in the Balkans
 4.4.2Ottoman Empire
 4.4.3Italian participation
 4.4.4Romanian participation
o 4.5Eastern Front
 4.5.1Initial actions
 4.5.2Russian Revolution
 4.5.3Czechoslovak Legion
o 4.6Central Powers peace overtures
o 4.71917–1918
  4.7.1Developments in 1917
 4.7.2Ottoman Empire conflict, 1917–1918
 4.7.315 August 1917: Peace offer by the Pope
 4.7.4Entry of the United States
 4.7.5German Spring Offensive of 1918
 4.7.6New states enter the war
o 4.8Allied victory: summer 1918 onwards
 4.8.1Hundred Days Offensive
 4.8.2Allied advance to the Hindenburg Line
 4.8.3German Revolution 1918–1919
 4.8.4New German government surrenders
 4.8.5Armistices and capitulations
 5Aftermath
o 5.1Formal end of the war
o 5.2Peace treaties and national boundaries
o 5.3National identities
o 5.4Health effects
 6Technology
o 6.1Ground warfare
 6.1.1Areas taken in major attacks
o 6.2Naval
o 6.3Aviation
 7War crimes
o 7.1Baralong incidents
o 7.2Torpedoing of HMHS Llandovery Castle
o 7.3Blockade of Germany
o 7.4Chemical weapons in warfare
o 7.5Genocide and ethnic cleansing
 7.5.1Ottoman Empire
 7.5.2Russian Empire
o 7.6Rape of Belgium
 8Soldiers' experiences
o 8.1Prisoners of war
o 8.2Military attachés and war correspondents
 9Support for the war
 10Opposition to the war
 11Conscription
o 11.1Canada
o 11.2Australia
o 11.3Britain
o 11.4United States
o 11.5Austria-Hungary
 12Diplomacy
 13Legacy and memory
o 13.1Historiography
o 13.2Memorials
o 13.3Cultural memory
o 13.4Social trauma
o 13.5Discontent in Germany and Austria
o 13.6Economic effects
 14See also
 15Footnotes
 16References
 17Bibliography
o 17.1Sources
o 17.2Primary sources
o 17.3Historiography and memory
 18Further reading
 19External links
o 19.1Animated maps
o 19.2Library guides

Names
The term world war was first coined in September 1914 by German biologist and
philosopher Ernst Haeckel. He claimed that "there is no doubt that the course and
character of the feared 'European War' ... will become the first world war in the full
sense of the word,"[22] citing a wire service report in The Indianapolis Star on 20
September 1914.
Prior to World War II, the events of 1914–1918 were generally known as the Great
War or simply the World War.[23][24] In October 1914, the Canadian
magazine Maclean's wrote, "Some wars name themselves. This is the Great
War."[25] Contemporary Europeans also referred to it as "the war to end war" or "the
war to end all wars" due to their perception of its then-unparalleled scale and
devastation.[26] After World War II began in 1939, the terms became more standard,
with British Empire historians, including Canadians, favouring "The First World War"
and Americans "World War I".[27]

Background
Main article: Causes of World War I
Political and military alliances

Rival military coalitions in 1914: Triple Entente in green; Triple Alliance in brown. Only the Triple Alliance
was a formal "alliance"; the others listed were informal patterns of support.

For much of the 19th century, the major European powers had tried to maintain a
tenuous balance of power among themselves, resulting in a complex network of
political and military alliances.[28] The biggest challenges to this were Britain's
withdrawal into so-called splendid isolation, the decline of the Ottoman Empire and
the post-1848 rise of Prussia under Otto von Bismarck. Victory in the 1866 Austro-
Prussian War established Prussian hegemony in Germany, while victory over France
in the 1870–1871 Franco-Prussian War unified the German states into a German
Reich under Prussian leadership. French desire for revenge over the defeat of 1871,
known as revanchism, and the recovery of Alsace-Lorraine became a principal
object of French policy for the next forty years (see French–German enmity).[29]
In 1873, to isolate France and avoid a war on two fronts, Bismarck negotiated
the League of the Three Emperors (German: Dreikaiserbund) between Austria-
Hungary, Russia and Germany. Concerned by Russia's victory in the 1877–
1878 Russo-Turkish War and its influence in the Balkans, the League was dissolved
in 1878, with Germany and Austria-Hungary subsequently forming the 1879 Dual
Alliance; this became the Triple Alliance when Italy joined in 1882.[30][31]