75-90 years ago (great-grandparent's time)...
THE WAR TO END ALL WARS WWI Chronology 1914-1918

1914

June 28 Franz Ferdinand, archduke of Austria and heir to throne of the Austro- Hungarian empire, is assassinated in Sarajevo by pro-Serb terrorists

July 28 Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia

July 30 with guarantee of French support, Russia, Serbia's ally, mobilizes*

August 1 Germany mobilizes, declares war on Russia--Britain mobilizes its fleet

August 3 Germany declares war on France--German army invades Belgium with plans to reach Paris through northern France

August 4 Britain threatens war against Germany unless it withdraws troops from Belgium--Germany refuses

August 26-30 Battle of Tannenberg--successfully advancing Russian armies stopped

September 6-9 Battle of the Marne--decisive defeat of German offensive against Paris- -followed by the German retreat back to Belgian North Sea coast

September 6-15 Battle of the Masurian Lakes--Russian army in German East Prussia decisively defeated and forced to retreat--Austrian army defeated at the two battles of Lvov

October-November "race to the sea", as French and British try to cut the Germans off from the sea, but fail--trench warfare results--the battle lines stretch from the North Sea in Belgium, through eastern France up to the Swiss border--there are no major changes until 1918

November German-Austrian counterattack defeats Russians at Lodz and Lowicz in Poland, and at Limanova--Ottoman Turkey enters the war on the side of Germany and Austria

1915

February German winter offensive finally frees all of East Prussia

February-March French winter in offensive in Champagne fails to attain breakthrough

April 25 British-Australian forces invade Turkey at Gallipoli, but are defeated--they evacuate the Gallipoli beaches in January 1916

April German army invades Russian Lithuania

May Battles of Tarnow and Gorlice--Russians pushed out of Austrian Galicia and Bukovina

April-May Battle of Ypres--first use of poison gas by Germans, who make minor gains

May 31 first Zeppelin air raid against London

June Italy enters the war on the side of Britain and France

August 8-25 Germans drive Russian army out of Poland

September-November French second Champagne offensive defeated

October Bulgaria joins Germany and Austria against Serbia--Serbia completely overrun

1916

February 21-December 16 Siege of Verdun--Germany takes the offensive against France resulting in the battle for Verdun--lasting ten months, it becomes one of the worst battles of all time

April siege of Kut--British army in Iraq surrenders to the Turks

May 31-June 1 Battle of Jutland--this is the one and only major battle between the Royal Navy and the German fleet and the only major battle ever fought between two fleets of dreadnought battleships--Germany fails to win the decisive victory needed to break the British blockade of German ports

June-August 1st Brusilov Offensive results in some major Russian gains against the Austrians but at the cost of huge losses

June 24-November 26 Battle of the Somme--first major British offensive of the war makes minor gains but at the cost of massive casualties

September-December 2nd and 3rd Brusilov offensives fail completely-- demoralization of the Russian army begins--Romania enters the war on the side of Russia but is overrun by December

1917

February 1 Germany declares unrestricted submarine warfare

March British occupy Baghdad

April 6 the United States declares war on Germany

April-May 3rd French Champagne offensive and British Arras offensive fail with heavy losses (the Canadian capture of Vimy Ridge was part of this otherwise unsuccessful offensive)

May mutiny breaks out in French army--French army operations paralyzed for most of the summer and fall

June 27 pro-German government in Greece overthrown--Greece joins the war as an ally of France and Britain

May-December Passchendaele offensive by British army takes pressure of French army, but only at the cost of terrible losses once again

July German-Austrian summer offensive against Russia recaptures the territory lost in the Brusilov battles

September Germany captures Riga--St. Petersburg, site of the Tsar's main residence, is threatened

October Russian Revolution breaks out--Russia fights on but is effectively out of the war--battle of the Isonzo River results in a serious defeat of the Italian army

1918

March-July Kaiserslacht ("Kaiser's battle")--with troops moved back west from the Russian front, German offensive takes British and French by surprise--major breakthrough is achieved but German army is too weak to take Paris

April 21 Baron Manfred von Richthofen, dubbed the "Red Baron" and most famous fighter pilot of the war, is killed in action

July-October with American reinforcements, British and French counterattack and drive German army back to Belgium once again

November 3 Austria, Turkey and Bulgaria surrender--soon after the defeat, revolutions overthrow the monarchies in all three countries--Habsburg dynasty in Austria and the Ottoman dynasty in Turkey end, each had ruled for about 600 years

November 11 Germany agrees to a cease-fire--combat ceases at 11 A.M.

*(Did trains cause the First World War? Railroads were part of the transportation revolution that made the huge armies of 1914 possible, but those same armies now could not survive without railroads. But, railroads and trains were limited in number. To move hundreds of thousands of men, and millions of tons of ammunition and food to the battle lines required precise scheduling of the railway services. When mobilization was begun, that is putting the army on a war footing, the complex train scheduling was activated, and once started it was not easy to stop. Even if a country did not really want war, mobilization was considered so serious that it was usually treated as almost the same as a declaration of war, and was usually matched by a counter-mobilization. Calling a halt to mobilization half way through would have resulted in terrible confusion as trains would have to be rerouted and rescheduled, and military units left scattered and mixed up, all of which could have taken days and weeks to sort out, during which time the country involved would have been left defenceless. So once the mobilization "button" was pushed and the armies were marching, it was really impossible to stop them and all-out war was the result. Trains were part of a new technology that people had not completely adapted to. The result was a "technology trap" where the leaders involved lost control of the technology and instead became controlled by it. So it is partly true to say trains caused the war. )

It was called the "war to end all wars", but the Great War of 1914-18, as it was called at the time, was followed by an other major global war just 20 years later, the Second World War. The "great war" instead became the First World War, just one in a series of major conflicts the world would see in the 20th century. The conflict showed clearly that wars cannot solve problems--only create new ones. The war saw the death of more than 10 million people and fall of four great empires: Germany, Austria, Russia and Turkey. The social upheavals resulting from industrialization and the revolution in energy and transportation were not settled. The League of Nations was created in 1920 as a means where countries could settle problems peacefully at a conference table rather than on a battlefield, but the hopes placed in the League proved false. In Russia, the world's first Communist government arose out of the corruption of the old tsarist empire leading to the brutal dictatorship of Josef Stalin--a new tsar in everything but name, while in Italy and Germany, the anti-democratic fascist movements arose, based on racism and hate. The great optimism with which Europe greeted the new century in 1900 was shattered. Faced with the communist and fascist challenges at home, the main democratic powers, Britain and France, clung on to their colonial empires in spite of growing demands for freedom from their Asian and African subjects. For culture, however, it was an exciting time with bold new directions being made in all areas, from painting and sculpture to music and dance to architecture and design. It was also a time which saw the European dominance of culture begin to decline with the recognition of the achievements of men and women from other parts of the globe.