threads / conflict #2

14 newly added in the last 14 days mark read

1. A wrong turn by a driver put the Archduke in front of a nineteen-year-old with a pistol. Within five weeks, every great power in Europe was at war.

   28 June 1914 new

   Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

   Gavrilo Princip shoots the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and his wife Sophie during a state visit.

2. The alliance system now worked like a trap: Russia mobilized to protect Serbia, which pulled in Germany, which pulled in France.

   28 July 1914 new

   Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia

   After Serbia accepts most but not all of the July Ultimatum, Austria-Hungary declares war, one month to the day after the assassination.

3. Germany’s war plan required beating France quickly before Russia could fully mobilize, and the fastest road to Paris ran through neutral Belgium.

   1 August 1914 new

   Germany declares war on Russia

   Germany answers Russian mobilization with a declaration of war, activating the long-planned two-front strategy.

4. The quick victory never came. The German advance was stopped within sight of Paris.

   4 August 1914 new

   Germany invades Belgium; Britain enters the war

   German armies cross into neutral Belgium; Britain, guarantor of Belgian neutrality, declares war on Germany the same day.

5. With the western front frozen, both sides looked for a way around, and found only new places to bleed.

   5 September 1914 to 12 September 1914 new

   First Battle of the Marne

   French and British forces halt the German advance on Paris; both sides dig in, beginning four years of trench warfare.

6. 1916 became the year of the great attrition battles, fought over yards of ground.

   19 February 1915 to 9 January 1916 new

   Gallipoli campaign

   also in The British Empire, The Ottoman Empire

   An Allied attempt to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war by forcing the Dardanelles fails at great cost.

7. To relieve pressure on Verdun, the British launched their own offensive on the Somme.

   21 February 1916 to 18 December 1916 new

   Battle of Verdun

   The longest battle of the war; France holds Verdun at a combined cost of some 700,000 casualties.

8. The next year the war became truly global, and one of its original members collapsed.

   1 July 1916 to 18 November 1916 new

   Battle of the Somme

   The British Army suffers 57,000 casualties on the first day alone; five months of fighting gain roughly six miles.

9. While fresh American strength gathered, Russia buckled.

   6 April 1917 new

   United States enters the war

   Unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann telegram bring the United States into the war on the Allied side.

10. The new Bolshevik government made peace at any price.

    7 November 1917 new

    October Revolution

    also in Hinges of history, Russia, the USSR, and Ukraine

    The Bolsheviks seize power in Russia on a promise of peace, land, and bread.

11. Freed in the east, Germany gambled everything on one last offensive in the west before the Americans arrived in force.

    3 March 1918 new

    Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

    also in Russia, the USSR, and Ukraine

    Soviet Russia leaves the war, ceding vast territories to Germany.

12. The gamble failed. The Allied counteroffensive rolled forward through the autumn until Germany asked for terms.

    21 March 1918 to 18 July 1918 new

    German spring offensive

    Germany's final offensives gain more ground than any since 1914 but exhaust her last reserves.

13. The peace that followed was written by the victors, and it planted the resentments the next war would grow from.

    11 November 1918 new

    Armistice of 11 November 1918

    Fighting ends at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month; some nine million soldiers are dead.

14. 28 June 1919 new

    Treaty of Versailles

    also in Hinges of history, How the Second World War unfolded, Making peace: the great settlements

    The peace treaty assigns Germany responsibility for the war, imposes reparations, and redraws the map of Europe. Signed five years to the day after the assassination.