World War I (1917 – 1918)
| American Combatants: 4,744,000 American Casualties: 116,000 American Veterans Alive Today: 4,800 Americans Wounded/Disabled: 200,000 World War I was a global war taking place primarily in Europe. The immediate cause of the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb citizen of Austria-Hungary and member of the Black Hand. The reprisal attacks by Austria-Hungary against the Kingdom of Serbia resulted in a series of alliances that set off a chain reaction of war declarations across most of Europe. Two major alliances formed during the war. The Entente Powers included France, the United Kingdom, Russia, and their associated empires and dependencies, as well as Italy and the United States. The Central Powers initially included Germany and Austria-Hungary and their associated empires, as well as the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. The Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain and the Scandinavian nations remained neutral, although many provided financial and material support to one side or the other. Two war-time firsts occurred during WWI: trench warfare and the use of airplanes in battle. The war ended with the signing of several treaties, including the Treaty of Versailles. The most interesting result of the war was the redesign of the map of Europe. All of the Central Powers lost territory, and new nations were formed. The German Empire lost its colonial possessions and was forced to accept blame for the war, including paying punitive reparations for it. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was cut into several states including Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. The Ottoman Empire fell, and the Turkish core was restructured into the Republic of Turkey. The Russian Empire lost a vast amount of its western land so that the nations of Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland could be created. Additionally, the League of Nations was created as an international organization to give nations a way to solve their disputes diplomatically. Click here to return to Conflicts. |
