The Great War

World War I began with assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914. Through the multiple treaties made between countries, Europe found themselves fighting a war that many countries did not want to fight. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Russia was bound by treaty to Serbia Germany was allied to Austria-Hungary. The Germans saw the Russian movement on Austria-Hungary as an act of war and declared war on Russia.  France was allied with Russia and found themselves as the main battle ground for Germany was on route to invade Paris. England had a moral treaty with France and declared war on Germany. When England entered the war, she brought with her, her colonies with included Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and the Union of South Africa. Also on the Allied powers were Japan, Romania, Serbia, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, and Montenegro. Allied with German and Austria-Hungary was also Turkey and Bulgaria.  The United States entered the war in 1917 due to the German policy of unrestricted submarine warfare and the sinking of American ships. The war ended “on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month”. Russia had pulled out of the war a year earlier. Germany and Austria-Hungary were defeated and severely punished. However the whole world was paying in grief for the war. Russia had 9,150,000 casualties, the British Empire had 3,190,235 casualties, France had 6,160,800 casualties, Italy had 2,197,000 casualties, the United States had 323,018 casualties. Germany had 7,142,558 casualties. Austria-Hungary had 7,020,000 casualties. Turkey had 975,000 casualties and Bulgaria had 266,919 casualties.

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This information came from PBS.org and firstworldwar.com