By transferring these forces to the Western Front, the German General Staff hoped to win a decisive victory before American reinforcements could impact the war, and launched the German spring offensive in March 1918. In Russia, the Bolsheviks seized power in the October Revolution of 1917, and made peace in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918, freeing up a large number of German troops. Shortages caused by the Allied naval blockade led Germany to initiate unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917, bringing the previously-neutral United States into the war on 6 April 1917. The battle finally ended in September 1915 with the entirety of Poland and parts of Minsk being occupied. By the 5th of August, Warsaw had been occupied by the Germans. By May the Germans had launched the Gorlice–Tarnów offensive, an offensive which eventually turned into a Russian retreat. The siege of Przemyśl had been a success for the Russians but by April the Germans had begun drawing up plans to liberate Galicia. The Russians had suffered around 450,000 casualties in all of those battles, by then their armies were demoralized and the Germans had sent the bulk of their armies towards the Eastern Front. Other significant theatres included the Middle Eastern Theatre, the Italian Front, and the Balkans Theatre, drawing Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece into the war.īy early 1915 Russia had been seeing defeat after defeat in the twin Battle of Tannenberg and the Battle of the Masurian Lakes. By contrast, the Eastern Front was far more fluid, with Austria-Hungary and Russia gaining and then losing large swathes of territory.
BATTLE OF TANNENBERG LOCATION SERIES
However, Germany's advance into France failed, and by the end of 1914, the two sides faced each other along the Western Front, a continuous series of trench lines stretching from the English Channel to Switzerland that changed little until 1917. In November, the Ottoman Empire, Germany, and Austria-Hungary formed the Central Powers, while in April 1915, Italy switched sides to join Britain, France, Russia, and Serbia in forming the Allies of World War I.įacing a war on two fronts, German strategy in 1914 was first to defeat France, then shift its forces to Eastern Europe and knock out Russia in what was known as the Schlieffen Plan. Russia came to Serbia's defense following Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on the latter on 28 July, and by 4 August, the system of alliances drew in Germany, France, and Britain, along with their respective colonies. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia, which led to the July Crisis, an unsuccessful attempt to avoid conflict through diplomacy.
Tensions in the Balkans came to a head on 28 June 1914 following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Austro-Hungarian heir, by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb. īy 1914, the European great powers were divided into the Triple Entente of France, Russia, and Britain and the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. Millions of additional deaths resulted from genocides within the Ottoman Empire and the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, an estimated 9 million people were killed in combat, while over 5 million civilians died from military occupation, bombardment, hunger, and disease. Referred to by contemporaries as the " Great War", its belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting also expanding into the Middle East, Africa, and parts of Asia. World War I or the First World War, often abbreviated as WWI or WW1, began on 28 July 1914 and ended on 11 November 1918.
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