World War 1 Timeline

1914-1921

WW1

TIMELINE-

ANGIE FEI - PERIOD 1AB

World War 1

index

11. 1920-1921

10. 1919

9. 1918, part 2

4. 1917, part 2

3. 1917, part 1

2. 1915-1916

8. 1918, part 1

1. 1914

index

*click on the circles for more info!

August 19, 1914

President Woodrow Wilson delivers his neutrality message

August 10, 1914

Austria-Hungary invades Russia

August 2-7, 1914

Germany, France, and British invasions begin, solidifying alliances between countries

July 28, 1914

Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia

June 28, 1914

Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated

1914

1916

May 1915 - January 1916

Internal battles continue to spark throughout Europe between countries

May 7, 1915

Lusitania sinks

April 24, 1915 (- 1923)

Armenian Genocide begins

February 18, 1915

Germany beings naval blockade of Great Britain

1915

March 1, 1917

Zimmerman Telegram is confirmed as genuine

April 13, 1917

Committe on Public Information is formed

April 6, 1917

United States declares war on Germany

April 2, 1917

President Wilson gives his war speech to Congress*

February 3, 1917

United States stops all diplomatic relations with Germany

February 1, 1917

Germany restarts the unrestricted submarine warfare

1917

1917

December 15, 1917

Russia signs armistice with Germany

July 28, 1917

War Industries Board is created

June 15, 1917

Espionage Act of 1917 is passed

May 18, 1917

Selective Service Act is passed

March 8, 1917 (- June 16, 1923)

Russian Revolution begins

1918

July 15, 1918

Germany beings its final offensive of the war

March 11, 1918

Spanish flu breaks out in the US

March 3, 1918

Russia signs the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany

January 8, 1918

President Wilson delivers his Fourteen Points of peace

1918

November 11, 1918

Germany signs the Armistice at Compiègne, which ends the war

October 30, 1918 (- November 1, 1922)

Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire starts

May 16, 1918

Sedition Act of 1918 is passed

September 26, 1918 (- November 11, 1918)

Meuse-Argonne offensive begins

November 19, 1919

United States Senate fails to ratify the Treaty of Versailles

November 11, 1919

President Wilson officially recognizes Armistice Day

June 28, 1919

Allied and German representatives sign Treaty of Versailles

March 3, 1919

Schenk vs United States

February 14, 1919

Draft of the covenant of the League of Nations is completed

January 18, 1919

Peace conference begins at Paris

1919

1921

1920

August 24-29, 1921

United States signs seperate peace treaties with Germany, Austria, and Hungary

March 19, 1920

United States Senate fails to ratify Treaty of Versailles for the second time

January 10, 1920

Treaty of Versailles takes effect

1914-1921

WW1

thank

you!

Russia signs a temporary armistice with Germany to stop fighting for a period of time. The Russian Revolution is still ongoing and economic, political, and social tensions are only rising in the country, thus forcing Russia to pull out of the war to deal with internal problems that keep threatening to tear the country apart.

On April 6, 1917, American officially declares war on Germany and enters World War 1. The next year of fighting is grueling and traumatizing. War is not like it was before. Before, it was orderly and formal, but now, war is not pleasing and exciting. Because of innovations in technology, war is now more deadly than ever. Planes, chemical warfare, tanks all play a part in causing World War 1 to be the deadliest war people in that time have ever faced.

More and more European countries get involved in the war as the months go by.

They were suspicious of this minority group and because of this, a lot of reforms started, trying to restrict this group, and this spiraled into a genocide that killed over one million Armenians.

This dislike for the Armenian minority group started with the Muslim Turks who blamed a lot of the internal economic and political tensions on this group who had recently just got representation and participation in the government system.

The Ottoman government attempted to persecute all of its civilian Armenian population.

After stopping the submarine warfare shortly after the sinking of the Lusitania, Germany starts back naval submarine warfare February 1, 1917. This gives Germany a larger advantage, to not only be able to attack on land, but also on water. This sets the precedent for future warfare, as technology such as submarines and naval ships become weapons for countries fighting through water rather than land.

The Committee on Public Information was an independent agency of the government of the US. President Wilson created this organization to influence public opinion in order to get more American people to support the US joining World War 1. It attempted to promote the war effort by getting people to see that the US joining the war was a good thing, and essentially used propaganda to convince people that supporting the war was the “ultimate American value” to have.

He states that Germany is now directly attacking America and that they are harming humanity. He expresses in this speech that it is America’s duty to protect the world as well as the American people, and the only way to do that is to join the war to fight for American values.

He expresses that this war has spread, and is now a war against all nations. He emphasizes that American ships have been attacked, American lives have been taken, despite them trying to remain neutral in the war.

President Wilson presents a war speech to Congress addressing why he feels that America needs to enter the war.

The War Industries Board was a government agency that assisted in helping the United States with producing industrial materials for the American Army. It was created on July 28, 1917 under the instruction President Wilson.

Tensions between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Austria-Hungary were already high by this point. A secret revolutionary group of peasant students, the Young Bosnians, started plotting to assassinate Ferdinand after hearing about the archduke's plans to visit the country. Gavrilo Princip successfully shot Ferdinand as he was making his way to visit his injured soldiers that the other Young Bosnians had accidentally hurt.

In summary, a teenage Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne (along with his wife, Sophie).

This begins small discussions of whether or not America should join the war because trade with Great Britain was an essential part of American economy, and when Germany blocked that route, it felt like an indirect attack on America, not just on Great Britain.

Even though the US did not enter war until two years later, this event is seen as a turning point in the history of war, changing the traditional strategy of “gentlemanly” war practices to vicious and traumatizing strategies of total warfare.

Also enforces the ongoing debate between American citizens of whether or not America should join the war. It solidified the public view of Germany. However, while some people saw this event as an act of evil, others argued that Germany did warn countries about possible attacks on British ships.

This event led to a temporary pause on the submarine warfare (that starts back up on Feb. 1, 1917)

On May 7, 1915, the German submarine U-20 torpedoed and sank the Lusitania, which was a British cruise liner traveling from New York to Liverpool, England. A total of 1,195 people died, 128 of them Americans. The total amount of passengers was 1,959.

After the assassination of the archduke, Austria-Hungary tried to avoid military actions by giving Serbia a series of ultimatums. These ultimatums included allowing Austria-Hungary to investigate and prosecute those who were involved in the assassination of the archduke, but because this violated the Serbian Constitution and threatened Serbia’s sovereignty, the ultimatum was not accepted by Serbia. As a result, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, officially sparking what would be known as World War 1.

About a month after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian terrorist, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. The country felt that it needed to establish its dominance over Serbia. Before, Austria-Hungary and Serbia already had a not-so-peaceful relationship, as Serbia was extremely against Austria-Hungary annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina. They felt that if Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed into Austria-Hungary, it would have more control and power in the Balkans, which Serbia wanted to prevent.

• Back in January of 1917, the Zimmerman Telegram was intercepted by British signals intelligence. They decrypted a coded German telegram that was from German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman. Zimmerman intended to send the telegram to Germany’s ambassador for Mexico, essentially asking Mexico to attack the United States from the Southern side.
• This telegram caused uproar in the United States as it seemed like a direct threat to America, even though America was remaining neutral during that time.
• However, the telegram was not confirmed until March 1, 1917, when Zimmerman himself confirmed that the telegram was intended to ask Mexico to attack America on behalf of Germany.

This act was passed on June 15, 1917, as another measure for America to stay united as they were in war. With American people still being torn between supporting and brutally against the war, the government passed this act that prohibited anyone saying anything bad about the United States regarding their government or their society, or their involvement in the war. It also prohibited people from give false information or provide foreign nations with information that could be used against them.

As a result of these alliances already being present, other countries were quickly involved. Germany supported Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war on Serbia, and Russia backed Serbia against Austria-Hungary. As a result of this, Austria-Hungary quickly made plans to attack Russia, as the country knew that Russia would most likely be involved since it was known as Serbia’s “protector.”

Before World War One even started, alliances were already being formed. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy were known as the Central Powers, and Britain, France and Russia were known to be the Triple Entente. Eventually, these alliances would be the core of World War One.

As soon as the war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia is declares, alliances begin to heighten. They were already there before the war, but now they become even more pronounced. Germany quickly sides with Austria-Hungary, and France and Britain form alliances with Serbia. This further spreads the war, to not only just Austria-Hungary and Serbia, but into more and more countries in Europe.

This begins the fast climb to the US joining in on World War 1.

As a result of Germany starting this submarine warfare again, the US decides to cut off all diplomatic relations with Germany, publicly showing which side the US is on.

He warned in this message that America did not need to get entangled in European affairs. He also knew that the American people felt strongly about staying neutral, and made this speech as an appeal for the approval of the American people. He emphasized that American was under a Progressive reform, and entering the war would bring an end to all the positive changes that America was going through.

As more and more countries in Europe began to become involved in this conflict President Wilson emphasized the importance of America staying neutral and not getting involved in the war.

• The Russian Revolution sparked when increasing governmental corruption caused the people to overthrow the imperial government, resulting in the Bolsheviks taking power of the country.
• Additionally, Russia being a part of the war contributed harshly to the country’s already declining economic conflicts (that eventually spiraled into political and social conflicts that ultimately resulted in this revolution)

Congress passed the Selective Service Act on May 18, 1917. The act authorized the Federal Government to temporarily expand the military through compulsory enrollment of people. Eventually, this act required all men between the ages of 21 to 45 to register for military service.

On January 9, 1918, President Wilson presents his Fourteen Points speech that focused on the idea of lasting peace. His speech focused mainly on trade equality, freedom of the seas, ending secrete treaties and alliances, and establishing the League of Nations among many other smaller topics.

Russia officially withdraws from the war and loses to Germany. They sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany. They spend months perfecting this treaty and negotiating peace terms. In this treaty, Russia lost major territory to Germany including the Baltic States, which Germany would use as vassal states.

Despite doctors attempting to get the government to do something about this epidemic, the government insisted that this would just be a distraction from the war and may cause the US to lose the war. Instead, this backfired, as more deaths were caused by the Spanish flu than the war itself.

The Spanish flu breaks out on March 11, 1918. Because the government were hyper focused with war efforts, they completely disregarded this epidemic, causing around 675,000 deaths which is more American deaths than World War 1, World War 2, the Korean War and the Vietnam War combined.

Also known as the Second Battle of the Marne, it would be Germany’s final offensive push of World War 1. It was located near the Marne River in the Champagne region of France. However, the offensive only lasted a few days with a major victory for the Allies.

This was part of the final Allied offensive of World War 1 that brought an end to the war. It was the largest operation of the American Expeditionary Forces with participation of over a million American soldiers. It was the deadliest campaign in American history with over 26,000 soldiers killed and over 120,000 casualties. It was a series of confrontations on the Western Front, with multiple surprise attacks on already shaken and worn out German soldiers. Because the Germans were weak and outnumbered, the US and France successfully cleared German troops from the area, which eventually ended in the signing of the Armistice in November.

This act passed on May 16, 1918 made it illegal to print, write or publish anything that would be disloyal, disrespectful, or undermine the government of the United States. It also made it illegal for people to outwardly express their opposition for the US being a part of the war or try to influence others to oppose the war. It was mainly directed at socialists, pacifists and other anti-war activists.

The Ottoman Empire was broken up as a result of World War 1, and the Allied countries started planning how the territory of this empire was going to be split up on October 30, 1918.

This signing of the Armistice officially ends World War 1. It ended all of the fighting on land, at seat, and in the air between the Entente and Germany. Armistices between Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary had already been established.

The Big Four (Lloyd George of Britain, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando of Italy, Georges Clemenceau of France, and Woodrow Wilson of the U.S.) met at Versailles to negotiate peace terms. It was an international meeting to negotiate the Treaty that would come with the end of World War 1 to ensure that another war like this one wouldn’t happen again.

Although the United States never becomes part of the League of Nations, the draft of the League of Nations is completed on February 14, 1919. After a few days of intense committee discussions, a document that outlined the Covenant of the League of Nations was published as a draft. This attempted to maintain peace between countries so that conflicts would not result in another war as deadly as the war that had just ended.

This court case set the precedent for limited freedom during times of war. Congress determined that during war, acts such as the Espionage and Sedition Acts were constitutional. Essentially, people did not have the right to say things that could cause chaos in times of war.

The Treaty of Versailles is completed and signed by Allied leaders and German representatives, officially establishing a peace treaty to prevent war. However, it does not succeed and World War 2 occurs as a result of the unfair aspects of this treaty.

Armistice Day is recognized by President Woodrow Wilson as a national holiday, as a way to celebrate the end of the war and victory of the Allies against Germany.

Because not enough people in the Senate agreed with the Treaty, the Senate fails to ratify the Treaty of Versailles.

The Treaty of Versailles officially takes effect on January 10, 1920, and all the things stated in it becomes a reality. This eventually boils over to World War 2, as the treaty was especially unfair to Germany, which paved a path to Adolf Hitler’s leadership in Germany.

The US Senate tries to ratify the Treaty of Versailles for the second time but fails again, with not enough votes of those in favor for it. It was heavily debated in the Senate but ultimately, more people rejected it.

Instead of the Treaty of Versailles, the US sign separate peace treaties to attempt to maintain order between opposing countries after the war ends.