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actually broke out, the spark that ignited World War I was struck in Sarajevo, Bosnia.
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Kaiser Wilhelm secretly pledged his support, giving Austria-Hungary a so-called carte blanche or “blank check” assurance of Germany’s backing in the case of war.
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Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe’s great powers collapsed
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German troops under Erich Ludendorff crossed the border into Belgium, in violation of that country’s neutrality
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the Germans assaulted the heavily fortified city of Liege, using the most powerful weapons in their arsenal–enormous siege cannons–to capture the city
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On the Eastern Front of World War I, Russian forces invaded East Prussia and German Poland, but were stopped short by German and Austrian forces at the Battle of Tannenberg in late August
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The First Battle of the Marne was faught in
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After the Battle of Dogger Bank, the German navy chose not to confront Britain’s mighty Royal Navy in a major battle for more than a year
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Allied forces led by Britain launched a large-scale land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula in April
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Sinking by U-boat of the British ocean liner Lusitania helped
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The First Battle of the Isonzo took place in the late spring of 1915 in the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, or the Battle of
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Allied forces were forced to stage a full retreat from the shores of the peninsula, after suffering 250,000 casualties
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Particularly long and costly battles in this campaign were fought at Verdun
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The Battle of Jutland
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Particularly long and costly battles in this campaign were fought at the Somme
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Congress passed a $250 million arms appropriations bill intended to make the United States ready for war
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Germany sunk four more U.S. merchant ships the following month and on
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in the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, or the Battle of Caporetto, German reinforcements helped Austria-Hungary win a decisive victory
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Russia reached an armistice with the Central Powers, freeing German troops to face the other Allies on the Western Front.
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German troops under Erich von Ludendorff launched what would become the last German offensive of the war, attacking French forces (joined by 85,000 American troops as well as some of the British Expeditionary Force) in the Second Battle of the Marne
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Despite the Turkish victory at Gallipoli, later defeats by invading forces and an Arab revolt had combined to destroy the Ottoman economy and devastate its land, and the Turks signed a treaty with the Allies
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Austria-Hungary, dissolving from within due to growing nationalist movements among its diverse population, reached an armistice
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Germany was finally forced to seek an armistice, ending World War I
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By the fall of 1918, the Central Powers were unraveling on all fronts