World War I

The First World War began when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, a month after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo by the Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip. A web of alliances quickly drew in the great powers. The Central Powers, led by Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, faced the Allies, chiefly France, Britain, Russia and later Italy and the United States. On the Western Front, the war settled into trench warfare marked by huge casualties for small gains, while fighting also raged in eastern Europe, the Middle East and at sea. Russia left the war after its revolution in 1917, and fighting ended with an armistice in November 1918. The Treaty of Versailles followed in 1919, and the war destroyed the German, Austro-Hungarian, Russian and Ottoman empires.

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