The Story of World War I

Morgan Toal
Timeline
of
the
War
Start of the War

❖ 1914
➢ Franz Ferdinand
● Assassinated by Gavrilo
Princip, a Serbian
■ Archduke of Austria
■ Born in 1863
■ Inspector general of the Austria-
Hungarian Army
❖ July 28
➢ Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia
 Alliances
Triple Alliance:
German Empire
Austria-Hungary
Italy
Triple Entente:
France
United Kingdom
Russia
Slavic Allies of
Russia:
Serbia
Montenegro
Western Front
❖ Western Front
➢ August 4, 1914
■ German troops crossed Belgium
border into Leige.
➢ Weapons?
■ Siege cannons
➢ August 15, 1914
■ City captured
Eastern Front
❖ Late August 1914
➢ Battle of Tannenberg
■ Russia invaded East Prussia and Poland
■ Stopped by Austrian and German Troops
❖ Western front to eastern front
➢ Battle of Tannenberg caused Germany to move to the Eastern front then causing them to lose in the
Battle of the Marne
America Entering the War
❖ President Woodrow Wilson
➢ Had U.S stay neutral
➢ Shipping to both sides of the conflict in Europe
❖ 1915
➢ Germany sunk many different ships and vessels including U.S ships
➢ May 1915
■ More ships were sunk
❖ 1917
➢ February 1917
■ U.S Congress passed an arms appropriations bill to prepare for war
➢ April 2 1917
■ Woodrow Wilson declares war on Germany
War in Air & Sea

❖ Sea
➢ May 1916 ❖ Different Planes
■ Battle of Jutland ➢ Machine guns on plane
● Biggest Naval Engagement in WWI ■ U.S successfully built but propeller could be
■ Who was involved? destroyed by bullet
● Britain’s Royal Navy ➢ Morane-Saulnier L
● Germany’s Navy ■ French plane
❖ Air ■ Propeller armed with defense against bullets
➢ First major conflict with planes ➢ British Bristol Type 22
➢ Battle of the Marne ■ Fighter plane
■ Planes used by allies to push Germany out of ➢ Handley-Page HP 0/400
France ■ Two engine bomber
➢ April 1918
■ British created the Royal Air Force
Treaty of Versailles
❖ 1919
➢ Paris Peace Conference
■ Build a safe post-war world
➢ June 28, 1919
■ Treaty of Versailles was signed
■ Wanted WWI to be “The War to End All
Wars”
● Germany did not like the treaty
and was thus the cause of WWI a
few decades later

Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors

Painted in 1919 by William Orpen
 Legacies & Casualties
❖ Casualties?
➢ 9,000,000+ soldiers ❖ Legacies
➢ 10,000,000 civilians ➢ 1918 Spanish Flu
❖ Wounded? ➢ Technology
■ More military weapons and
➢ 21,000,000 soldiers
technology introduced.
❖ One Day’s List by Ford Madox shows casualties in just ➢ Geneva Convention
one day. ■ No more biological and
chemical agents allowed in
warfare

John Singer Sargent's “Gassed”

WWI: Before & After
 Literature of the War
❖ On Heaven and Other
Poems Written on Active
Service
➢ Written by Ford Madox
Hueffer
■ He wrote these poems
while active in France
➢ XI “One Day’s List”
■ Written about one day
of casualties.
Parallels & Today’s Significance
❖ Parallels
➢ WWI & the conflict in Ukraine
■ “History Repeats itself”
● WWI: Franz Ferdinand Assassinated
● Ukraine: Zelensky threatened to be killed
➢ Coronavirus
■ Tension between two powers
● WWI: Germany & UK
● COVID-19: China & US
■ Created new technologies
● WWI: More military technology, such as aircrafts, cannons, bombers, etc.
● COVID-19: New vaccines & tests
■ Both saw decrease in population
References
Cotter, Holland. “World War I - The Quick. the Dead. the Artists.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Jan.
2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/05/arts/design/review-world-war-i-the-quick-the-dead-the-artists.html.
History.com Editors. “World War I.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 29 Oct. 2009,
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/world-war-i-history#world-war-i-begins.
Madox, Ford. “On Heaven, and Poems Written on Active Service (1918 Edition).” Open Library, John Lane, 1 Jan. 1970,
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7235011M/On_Heaven_and_poems_written_on_active_service?
edition=onheavenpoemswri00forduoft.
“The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 Sept. 2021,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Signing_of_Peace_in_the_Hall_of_Mirrors.
“World War I and American Art: PAFA - Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.” PAFA, 3 Nov. 2014,
https://www.pafa.org/museum/exhibitions/world-war-i-american-art.
“WWI Primary Resource Guide: Literature during WWI.” Oxford LibGuides, https://ox.libguides.com/c.php?
g=423227&p=2890894.