Timeline - First World War

1870 - 1914

The First World War (1914 -1918)

Pre-war period

1914

1915

1916

1917

1919

1914

1920

The trigger for war

War of movement

War of position

War of arttrition

The changes

Treaty of Versailles

League of nations

1918

The end of the war

It started at the same time on the two fronts, the Eastern and the Western. Germany attempted a surprise attack on France and invaded Belgium. But the plan failed in the face of French resistance and Russia attacked Germany and Austria-Hungary. Later on, Japan joined the Entente, Trench warfare began and Turkey joined the Central Empires.

The immediate trigger for the outbreak of war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo (Bosnia) in June 1914, by a Serbian nationalist student. This is the beginning of the First World War.

In Europe, the period before the First World War (pre-war period) saw the spread of democracy, economic prosperity and both social and science-advance. In this period, some tensions existed before 1914: - Political conflicts - Balkan wars (1912-1913) - Military Alliance system

In 1917, following Russian defeats and the success of the Communist revolution. After that, Russia signed an armistice. Germany launched submarine warfare and United States joined the war in favour of the Allies.

At the beginning of the year, U.S president Woodrow Wilson set out the 'Fourteen Point'. Later on, Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the central powers, in March. The Allies launched an offensive on all fronts, which led to the progressive surrender of the Central Empires. The war ended in 1918 when Germany requested an armistice and Emperor Wilhelm II abdicated.

An international body was created, known as the Paris Peace Conference, in January (1919). Each defeated country had to sign a peace treaty, but the Treaty of Versailles signed with Germany in 1919, was specially harsh, due to the fact that Germany became responsible for war reparations, the reduction of its army to 100,000 men, the return of Alsace and Lorraine to France and the loss of European territories and its colonies. This made Germany desire for revenge.

The end of the war

Treaty of Versailles

The League of Nations was established in 1920, following one of the 'Fourteen Points'. It was an international organisation with two main purposes:

• To promote international cooperation, peace and security.
• To assume the temporary administration of the colonies and territories that were no longer under the power of the defeated countries.

The lack of a conclusive victory resulted in a dead end along the fronts, extensive trench lines were fortified and protected by machine guns, barbed wire and minefields. In the same year, the Germans used gas for the first time. Italy changed sides and joined the Entente and Bulgaria entered the war joining the Central Empires.

From these trenches both sides launched offensives to wear the enemy down, which resulted in the Battle of Verdun, in February. However, these offensives caused an enormous number of casualties, but did not lead to any advance on the fronts. At this point, the conflict had become a global conflict with the entrance of Bulgaria, Italy, Romania and Portugal.

League of Nations (1920)