SEEDLING TO WORLD WAR 1 ,93 YEARS BACK(ON JUNE 28,1914)

Clockwise from top: Trenches on the Western Front; a British Mark IV tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks, and a Sopwith Camel biplane


Date 28 July 1914 - 11 November 1918
Location Europe, Africa and the Middle East (briefly in China and the Pacific Islands)
Casus belli Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (28 June) followed by Austrian declaration of war on Serbia (28 July) and Russian mobilisation against Austria-Hungary (29 July). Also nationalism, militarism and imperialism.
Result Allied victory. End of the German Empire, the Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Creation of many new countries in Eastern and Central Europe.

World War I, also known as the Great War and "The War To End All Wars," was a global military conflict which took place primarily in Europe between 1914 and 1918. More than nine million soldiers and civilians died. The conflict had a decisive impact on the history of the 20th century.

The Allied Powers, led by France, Imperial Russia, Britain, and, from 1917 on, the United States, defeated the Central Powers, led by the Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Bulgarian Empires. Italy joined the Allies in 1915, and Imperial Russia withdrew in 1917.



The fighting that took place along the Western Front occurred along a system of trenches and fortifications separated by an area known as no man's land. These series of fortifications ran from the North Sea to Switzerland. This system of static trench warfare defined the war for many. On the Eastern Front, the vast eastern plains and limited rail network prevented a trench warfare stalemate. But the scale of the conflict was just as large. The Middle East and the Italian Front saw heavy fighting as well. Hostilities also occurred at sea, and for the first time, in the air.

The war caused the disintegration of four empires: the Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman and Russian. Germany lost its overseas empire and states such as Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Yugoslavia gained independence. The cost of waging the war set the stage for the breakup of the British Empire as well and left France devastated for more than a generation.

World War I marked the end of the old world order, which had emerged after the Napoleonic Wars. The result of the conflict was an important factor in the outbreak of World War II.

causes


On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb student, killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo. Princip was a member of Young Bosnia, a group whose aims included the unification of the South Slavs and independence from Austria-Hungary. The assassination in Sarajevo set into motion a series of fast-moving events that escalated into a full-scale war. Austria-Hungary demanded action by Serbia to punish those responsible, and when Austria-Hungary deemed Serbia had not complied, they declared war. Major European powers were at war within a matter of weeks because of overlapping agreements for collective defense and the complex nature of international alliances. Though the assassination was the event that started the war, it was the last in a long succession of complex causes and events that pitted the nations of Europe against each other.

Fighting in India


Although the conflict in India cannot be explicitly said to have been a part of World War One, it can certainly be said to be significant in terms of the wider strategic context, because the British attempt to subjugate the tribal leaders who had rebelled against their British overlords drew away much needed troops from other theaters, in particular, of course, the Western Front, where the real decisive victory would be made.

The reason why some Indian and Afgani tribes rose up simply comes down to years of discontent which erupted, probably not coincidentally, in WWI. It is likely that the tribal leaders were aware that Britain would not be able to field the required men, in terms of either number or quality. However, India, despite being located far away from the epicenter of the conflict, was still strategically important since it provided a bounty of men for the fronts; its produce was required for the war effort and many trade routes running to other profitable areas of the Empire ran through India. Therefore, although the British were not able to send the men that they wanted, they were able to send enough to push the resolve of the tribesmen through a gradual but effective counter-guerilla war. The fighting continued into 1919 and in some areas lasted even longer.


Russian Ilya Muromets worlds first strategic bomber, 1913

End of war


This photograph was taken after reaching an agreement for the armistice that ended World War I. The location is in the forest of Compiègne. Foch is second from the right. The train carriage seen in the background, where the armistice was signed, would prove to be the setting of France's own armistice in June 1940. When the WWII armistice was signed, Hitler had the rail car taken back to Berlin where it was destroyed when allied aircraft bombed the city.

The collapse of the Central Powers came swiftly. Bulgaria was the first to sign an armistice on September 29, 1918.[citation needed] On October 30, the Ottoman Empire capitulated.[citation needed]

On October 24 the Italians began a push which rapidly recovered territory lost after the Battle of Caporetto. This culminated in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, which marked the end of the Austro-Hungarian Army as an effective fighting force. The offensive also triggered the disintegration of Austro-Hungarian Empire. During the last week of October declarations of independence were made in Budapest, Prague and Zagreb. On October 29, the imperial authorities asked Italy for an armistice. But the Italians continued advancing, reaching Trento, Udine and Trieste. On November 3 Austria-Hungary sent a flag of truce to ask for an Armistice. The terms, arranged by telegraph with the Allied Authorities in Paris, were communicated to the Austrian Commander and accepted. The Armistice with Austria was signed in the Villa Giusti, near Padua, on November 3. Austria and Hungary signed separate armistices following the overthrow of the Habsburg monarchy.

Following the outbreak of the German Revolution, a republic was proclaimed on 9 November. The Kaiser fled to the Netherlands. On November 11 an armistice with Germany was signed in a railroad carriage at Compiègne. At 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918 — the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month — a ceasefire came into effect.[citation needed] Opposing armies on the Western Front began to withdraw from their positions. Canadian George Lawrence Price is traditionally regarded as the last soldier killed in the Great War: he was shot by a German sniper and died at 10:58.[18]

A formal state of war between the two sides persisted for another seven months, until signing of the Treaty of Versailles with Germany on June 28, 1919. Later treaties with Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire were signed. However, the latter treaty with the Ottoman Empire was followed by strife (the Turkish Independence War) and a final peace treaty was signed between the Allied Powers and the country that would shortly become the Republic of Turkey, at Lausanne on July 24, 1923.

Some war memorials date the end of the war as being when the Versailles treaty was signed in 1919; by contrast, most commemorations of the wars end concentrate on the armistice of November 11, 1918. Legally the last formal peace treaties were not signed until 1923.[citation needed]

links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I

WW 1.TANKS&CARS:
http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/ww1/WW1.html

WW1 DOCUMENT ARCHIVE
http://net.lib.byu.edu/~rdh7/wwi/

MORE DETAIS
http://www.firstworldwar.com/