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"World War One", "Great War", and "WW1" redirect here. For other uses, see World War One(di sambiguation), Great War (disambiguation), and WW1 (album). World War I

(Clockwise from the top) The aftermath of shelling during the Battle of t he Somme Mark V tanks cross the Hindenburg Line HMSIrresistible sinks after hitting a mine in the Dardanelles

a British Vickers machine gun crew wears gas masks during the Battle of the Somme Albatros D.IIIfighters of Jagdstaffel 11 Date

28 July 1914 – 11 Novem ber 1918 (4 years, 3 months and 2 weeks) Peace treaties[show]

Location

Europe, Africa, the Middl e East, the PacificIslands, China, Indian Ocean, Nor th and South Atlantic Oc ean

Result

Allied Powers victory Central Power s victory on the E astern Front is nul lified by defeats o n other fronts. Fall of all con tinental empires in Europe (including Germany, Russia, Turkeyand AustriaHungary)

RussianRevolut ion and Russian C ivil War – the coll apse of the Russia n Empire and the subsequent format ion of the Soviet Union Widespread u nrest and revoluti onsthroughout Eur ope and Asia Creation of th e League of Natio ns(more...) Territorial changes

Formation of new co untries in Europe and the Middle East Transfer of Germanc olonies and territories, re gions of the formerOtto man Empire, regionsof th e former Austro-Hungaria n Empire and Soviet Uni

onterritories to other cou ntries

Belligerents Allied Powers:

Central Powers: France BritishEmpire

GermanE mpire Austria-H

Russia (1914–1 ungary

7)

Ottoman

Serbia Empire Belgium

Bulgaria ( Montenegro

1915–18)

Japan Italy (1915–18) UnitedStates (1917–18) Romania (191 6–18) Portugal (191 6–18) Hejaz (1916–1 8)

...and co-belligere

nts

China (1917–1 8) Greece (1917– 18) Siam (1917–18 ) ...and others

Commanders and leaders RaymondPoin

WilhelmII

caré

FranzJose GeorgesClem

ph I †

enceau

Karl I H. H.Asquith David LloydG

Mehmed V †

eorge

Mehmed Albert I

VI

Nicholas II AlexanderKer

ThreePas has

ensky

Ferdinand VictorEmman

uel III

I

and others...

VittorioOrland o WoodrowWils on Yoshihito Peter I Ferdinand I EleftheriosVen izelos

and others...

Strength Total: 42,959,850[1]

Total: 25,248,321[1]

12,000,000 8,841,541[2][3] 8,660,000[4] 5,615,140 4,743,826 1,234,000 800,000 707,343 380,000

13,250,00 0 7,800,000 2,998,321 1,200,000

250,000 80,000 50,000

Casualties and losses Military dead: 5,52

Military dead:

5,000

4,386,000

Military wounded:

Military wound

12,831,500

ed:8,388,000

Total: 18,356,500 K

Total: 12,774,0

IA, WIA and MIA

00 KIA, WIA and MIA

Civilian dead: 4,00 0,000

Civilian dead: 3,700,000

further details...

further details... Military deaths by country[5][6] 1,811,000

Military deaths by country[ 5]

1,397,800 1,114,914 651,000 250,000–335, 000 275,000

2,050,897 1,200,000 771,844 87,500

116,708 58,637–87,500 26,000 7,222 3,000 415 show v t e

Theatres of World War I Events leading to World War I Triple Alliance

1882

Mayerling incident

1889

Franco-RussianAllian 1894 ce Anglo-German nava 1898–1912 larms race Venezuela NavalBlo 1902–1903 ckade Entente Cordiale

1904

Russo-Japanese Wa 1904–1905 r First MoroccanCrisis

1905–1906

Anglo-RussianEntent 1907 e Bosnian crisis Agadir Crisis

1908–1909 1911

Italo-Turkish War

1911–1912

Balkan Wars

1912–1913

Assassination ofFran 1914 z Ferdinand July Crisis

1914 v t e

World War I: Mobilized forces per total population (in %)[citation needed]

World War I (often abbreviated as WWI or WW1), also known as the First World War or the Gr eat War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1 918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars",[7] it led to the mobilisation of m ore than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the larg est wars in history.[8][9] It is also one of the deadliestconflicts in history,[10] with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the 1918influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide.[11] On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb Yugoslav nationalist, assassinated the Austro-Hu ngarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, leading to the July Crisis.[12][13] In response, on 23 July Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia. Serbia's reply failed to satisfy the Austria ns, and the two moved to a war footing. A network of interlocking alliances enlarged the crisis from a bilateral issue in the Balkans to on e involving most of Europe. By July 1914, the great powers of Europe were divided into two coa litions: the Triple Entente—consisting of France, Russia and Britain—and the Triple Alliance of Ge rmany, Austria-Hungary and Italy(the Triple Alliance was primarily defensive in nature, allowing It aly to stay out of the war in 1914). [14] Russia felt it necessary to back Serbia and, after Austria-H ungary shelled the Serbian capital of Belgrade on the 28th, partial mobilisation was approved. [15] General Russian mobilisation was announced on the evening of 30 July; on the 31st, Austria-Hun gary and Germany did the same, while Germany demanded Russia demobilise within 12 hours. [16] When Russia failed to comply, Germany declared war on 1 August in support of Austria-Hungar y, with Austria-Hungary following suit on 6th; France ordered full mobilisation in support of Russ ia on 2 August.[17] German strategy for a war on two fronts against France and Russia was to rapidly concentrate t he bulk of its army in the West to defeat France within four weeks, then shift forces to the Eas t before Russia could fully mobilise; this was later known as the Schlieffen Plan.[18] On 2 August,

Germany demanded free passage through Belgium, an essential element in achieving a quick vic tory over France.[19] When this was refused, German forces invaded Belgium on 3 August and de clared war on France the same day; the Belgian government invoked the 1839 Treaty of London and in compliance with its obligations under this, Britain declared war on Germany on 4 Augus t.[20][21] On 12 August, Britain and France also declared war on Austria-Hungary; on the 23rd, Japa n sided with the Entente, seizing German possessions in China and the Pacific. In November 191 4, the Ottoman Empire entered the war on the side of the Alliance, opening fronts in the Cauc asus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai Peninsula. The war was fought in and drew upon each powers ' colonial empires as well, spreading the conflict to Africa and across the globe. The Entente an d its allies would eventually become known as the Allied Powers, while the grouping of AustriaHungary, Germany and their allies would become known as the CentralPowers. The German advance into France was halted at the Battle of the Marne and by the end of 1914 , the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, marked by a long series of trench lines tha t changed little until 1917 (the Eastern Front, by contrast, was marked by much greater exchang es of territory). In 1915, Italy joined the Allied Powers and opened a front in the Alps. Bulgaria j oined the Central Powers in 1915 and Greece joined the Allies in 1917, expanding the war in the Balkans. The United States initially remained neutral, although by doing nothing to prevent the Allies from procuring American supplies whilst the Allied blockade effectively prevented the Ger mans from doing the same the U.S. became an important supplier of war material to the Allies. Eventually, after the sinking of American merchant ships by German submarines, and the revelati onthat the Germans were trying to incite Mexico to make war on the United States, the U.S. de clared war on Germany on 6 April 1917. Trained American forces would not begin arriving at th e front in large numbers until mid-1918, but ultimately the American Expeditionary Force would r each some two million troops.[22]

Though Serbia was defeated in 1915, and Romania joined the Allied Powers in 1916 only tobe d efeated in 1917, none of the great powers were knocked out of the war until 1918. The 1917 Fe bruary Revolution in Russia replaced the Tsarist autocracy with the ProvisionalGovernment, but c ontinuing discontent at the cost of the war led to the October Revolution, the creation of the S oviet Socialist Republic, and the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk by the new government in March 1918, ending Russia's involvement in the war. This allowed the transfer of large numbers of German troops from the East to the Western Front, resulting in the German March 1918 Offe nsive. This offensive was initially successful, but the Allies rallied and drove the Germans back in their Hundred Days Offensive.[23] Bulgaria was the first Central Power to sign an armistice—the A rmistice of Salonica on 29 September 1918. On 30 October, the Ottoman Empire capitulated, sig ning the Armistice ofMudros.[24] On 4 November, the Austro-Hungarian empire agreed to the Ar mistice of VillaGiusti. With its allies defeated, revolution at home, and the military no longer willi ng to fight, Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated on 9 November and Germany signed an armistice on 11N ovember 1918. World War I was a significant turning point in the political, cultural, economic, and social climate of the world. The war and its immediate aftermath sparked numerous revolutions and uprisings. The Big Four (Britain, France, the United States, and Italy) imposed their terms on the defeated powers in a series of treaties agreed at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, the most well known being the German peace treaty—the Treaty ofVersailles.[25] Ultimately, as a result of the war the Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Russian Empires ceased to exist, with numerous new s tates created from their remains. However, despite the conclusive Allied victory (and the creation of the League of Nations during the Peace Conference, intended to prevent future wars), a Sec ond World War would follow just over twenty years later.