Causes of WWI
This European power dramatically expanded its navy, challenging Britain’s naval dominance and escalating tensions before World War I.
Germany
This rapid-fire weapon, capable of shooting hundreds of rounds per minute, made trench warfare especially deadly and forced soldiers to dig in rather than charge across open ground during World War I.
Machine Gun
During the 1916 Battle of the Somme, this country suffered nearly 60,000 casualties on the first day alone, making it one of the bloodiest days in its military history.
Britain
During World War I, opposing soldiers along the Western Front temporarily stopped fighting, exchanged gifts, sang carols, and even played soccer during a famous truce that occurred on this holiday.
Christmas
In 1919, world leaders including Woodrow Wilson, Georges Clemenceau, and David Lloyd George gathered in this city to negotiate the peace settlements that formally ended World War I.
Paris
This pre–World War I alliance united France, Russia, and Great Britain in response to growing German power and the formation of the Triple Alliance.
Triple Entente
First introduced by the British at the Battle of the Somme in 1916, these armored vehicles were designed to cross trenches, crush barbed wire, and break the stalemate on the Western Front.
Tanks
Germany’s Schlieffen Plan called for a rapid invasion through this neutral country in order to quickly defeat France before turning east to face Russia in World War I.
Belgium
As part of the British Empire during World War I, over one million soldiers from this colony served overseas in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
India
As part of the post–World War I peace settlements, this nation was reestablished as an independent state after more than a century of being partitioned by Russia, Prussia, and Austria, and it was granted territory from Germany and access to the Baltic Sea.
Poland
After losing Alsace and Lorraine in 1871, this country sought revenge and longed to reclaim the territories, fueling tensions with Germany before World War I.
France
Though primitive at the start of the war, these flying machines were used for reconnaissance, dogfights, and eventually bombing missions, adding a new dimension to warfare during World War I.
Aircraft
In 1916, this brutal battle between France and Germany lasted nearly ten months and resulted in nearly one million casualties, becoming a symbol of national endurance with little territorial gain.
Verdun
After suffering massive territorial losses on the Eastern Front and even organizing all-female combat units like the “Women’s Battalion of Death,” this country eventually withdrew from World War I following a revolution in 1917.
Russia
Although President Woodrow Wilson strongly supported the creation of the League of Nations after World War I, this country ultimately refused to join the organization due to opposition in its Senate.
USA
After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, this empire issued a harsh ultimatum to Serbia and declared war on July 28, 1914, setting the First World War in motion.
Austria-Hungary
This European nation was the first to develop and deploy poison gas on a large scale during World War I, introducing a terrifying new weapon that forced soldiers to rely on gas masks for survival.
Germany
Fought in 1916 between the British Royal Navy and the German High Seas Fleet, this naval battle ended without a clear tactical victor but ensured that Britain maintained its naval blockade of Germany.
Jutland
In 1917, the Zimmermann Telegram proposed that Germany would support this country in regaining territory lost to the United States if it joined the war against the U.S.
Mexico
Created after World War I from the former territories of Austria-Hungary and Serbia, this new nation united many South Slavic peoples under a single monarchy in 1918.
Yugoslavia
This 19-year-old Bosnian Serb nationalist, connected to the secret society known as the Black Hand, fired the fatal shots that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo in 1914.
Gavrilo Princip
This blade, fixed to the end of a rifle, was used in close-quarters combat when soldiers went “over the top” and engaged the enemy in trench raids during World War I.
Bayonet
During the 1915 Gallipoli Campaign against the Ottoman Empire, the courage and heavy casualties of this military corps became central to its nations’ emerging sense of identity.
ANZAC
During World War I, women in Britain sometimes handed out this symbol of cowardice to men not in uniform, pressuring them to enlist in the military.
White Feather
After World War I, Germany lost territory that created the Polish Corridor, separating the main body of the country from this region along the Baltic Sea.
East Prussia