World War I

**World War I**, also referred to as the **First World War**, **Great Imperialist War**, or often abbreviated to WWI, was a global conflict occurring in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Asia from 1914 to 1918. It was fought between two coalitions, the Allies (primarily France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, Serbia, Montenegro, and Japan) and the Central Powers (led by Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire). Being one of the deadliest conflicts in history, an estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, in addition to another 23 million being wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died as a result of the Armenian Genocide, while the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war.

The first decade of the 20th century saw increasing diplomatic tension between the European great powers. This reached breaking point on 28 June 1914, when a Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Austria-Hungary held Serbia responsible, declaring war on 28 July. Russia came to Serbia's defense, and by 4 August, defensive alliances had drawn in Germany, France, and Britain.

German strategy in 1914 was to first defeat France, then attack Russia. However, this failed, and by the end of 1914, the Western Front consisted of a continuous line of trenches stretching from the English Channel to Switzerland. The Eastern Front was more fluid, but neither side could gain a decisive advantage, despite a series of costly offensives. Attempts by both sides to bypass the stalemate caused fighting to expand into the Middle East, the Alps, the Balkans, and overseas colonies, bringing Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, and others into the war.

Outside of some major shifts in national territories along the Eastern Front and Balkans, the war mostly resulted in a stalemate that was too costly, in both lives and money, to continue, with the incentive of territorial gains and expanded influence far out of reach for most countries involved. The Bolsheviks also seized power in Russia in late 1917, plunging the former Tsarist empire into a civil war, resulting in decreased Russian involvement along the Eastern Front. In early 1918, a cease-fire was called, and the Treaty of Versailles was signed later that year, formally ending the war and redrawing land borders. The treaty saw Germany maintain hold of its colonies in Africa, while Britain and France kept hold of land conquered from the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East.

Though the war would end in a stalemate with no direct victor, World War I would have major indirect consequences. The losses in the Eastern Front by the Russian Empire would give rise to the Russian Revolution and later the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The damage caused by the war would result in the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of Turkey, along with several occupied states in the Middle East. Additionally, the damage and instability would plunge Austria-Hungary into civil war, beginning the Danubian Civil War and the creation of the Socialist Federal Republic of Danube in 1925.