The fateful march toward the beginning of World War I started on 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo, Bosnia, with the

is considered the first modern war because it involved the mobilization of entire populations. For the United States, it also

In the nineteenth century Great Britain had fought for mastery of the Mediterranean against European rivals France and Russia,

World War I (August 1914 to November 1918) was a watershed event in the history of Europe and

The first world war of the twentieth century raged from 1914 to 1918. Every statesman and senior commander in

affected Australia more than any other event since British settlement, if only by killing or injuring over 200 000 Australians in

Italy entered the war on the Franco-British side in May 1915. Behind the intervention were diplomatic manœuvrings aiming to

Now usually abbreviated ‘WW I’, to the British it was until recently always ‘the Great War’. It was the first

broke out in August 1914, when the High Court had already shared in the experience of nation‐building for over

Australian politics have rarely been so divisive as during World War I. The huge loss of life on the battlefields

International conflict precipitated by the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbs in Sarajevo (June 28, 1914).

(1914–18).

At the beginning of the war the threat of civil conflict in the summer of 1914 was

(1914–18) Essentially a civil war in Europe with global implications, World War I resulted in a shift of economic and cultural influences away from Europe, ultimately enabling new nations to emerge and encouraged others (notably the United States) to challenge Europe's international leadership. The fighting pitted Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire (together styled the Central Powers) against an alliance of Britain, France, Russia, Italy and, eventually, the United States. With the mobilization of 65 million troops, World War I was ultimately the most destructive military conflict in world history to that point.Triggered by the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne in Bosnia-Herzegovina's capital, Sarajevo (allegedly by Serbian nationalists), open warfare grew from a series of strategic alliances that drew in powers that seemingly had little interest in this immediate cause. The Austrians, given unequivocal support by their ally, Germany, decided to crush Serbia's perceived challenge. Russia, fearing domestic uprisings in support of Orthodox Serbia, gave notice that it would support its coreligionists against Catholic Austria-Hungary. German military leaders, particularly Gen. Alfred von Schlieffen, sought to advance their own goals by using the crisis as a justification for attacking Russia's ally, France. That all these nations had been steadily arming over the previous years only further exacerbated the crisis, pushing them toward war. By August 12, all major powers had declared war, and Germany, challenging Belgium's declarations of neutrality, began hostilities by marching through the smaller nation in order to launch an attack on France. France and Britain responded by meeting the German attack. Acting on its own declaration of war, Russia launched an attack on Germany's eastern front.Within three weeks the engaged armies had fought to a virtual standstill. German troops destroyed an entire Russian army at Tannenberg (August 26–30). A week later, British and French stopped Germany's own flanking maneuver through Belgium in the First Battle of the Marne (September 5–9). Soon the western armies had constructed an almost continuous parallel line of defensive systems stretching from Switzerland to the North Sea. Trench warfare, most prominent in France and Flanders, but existing in some areas of Russia, Italy, the Balkans, and Palestine as well, flouted attempts by Europe's military leaders to return to a war of maneuver by rupturing the enemy's front. To restore the offensive, both sides eventually introduced new weapons such as tanks and chemical warfare. High-explosive shells, recoilless carriages, optical sights, improved communications, and cannon ranges of 20 or more miles made indirect artillery bombardment the dominant force of the battlefield. The application of massive and increasingly sophisticated artillery fire proved to be the most effective means of reducing fortifications. But western defenses were so strong and thickly defended that, although it was possible to break into them, there remained severe limitations to any advance.In ...

World War I.

In the Great War of 1914–18 the new technology of attack (high‐velocity shells, machine‐guns, tanks, aeroplanes) at first out‐stripped the

The first two deaths of World War I came on 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the

In August 1914, nobody living anywhere in the world could imagine a spectacle as violent as the one into which humanity was about to be plunged....

World War I (1914–1918), also known as the Great War, transformed gender roles on a global scale through women's participation. As a ...

[This entry includes eight subentries, an overview and discussions of the war in Europe and of its effects on the United States, Africa, East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East...