World War 1
Storyboard Text
- WW1 began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austria-Hungarian Empire. His murder started a War across Europe that lasted until 1918.
- Austria-Hungary, like many countries around the world, blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the question of Serbian nationalism once and for all.
- Since Russia supported Serbia, Austria-Hungary wanted to declare war but waited until its leaders received assurance from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm ll that Germany would support their cause. Austria-Hungarian leaders feared that a Russian intervention would involve Russia's ally. France, and possibly Great Britain as well. On July 5, Kaiser Wilhelm secretly pledged his support.
- Convinced that Austria-Hungary was getting ready for the war, the Serbian government ordered the Serbian army to appeal to Russia for assistance. On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the peace between Europe's great powers quickly collapsed. Within a week, Russia, Belgium, France, Great Britain ad Serbia had lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and WW1 had begun.
- With technology evolving, the war was very unpleasant. New inventions caused massive amounts of deaths, as well as created trench warfares. The trenches were dirty and flooded in bad weather. They also had pests living in them, including rats, lice, and frogs. Cold weather was dangerous too, and soldiers often lost fingers or toes or died due to frostbite.
- The Treaty of Versailles forced Germany and other Central Powers to take all the blame for WW1. This meant a loss of territories, reduction in military forces, and reparation payments to the Allied Powers, but also the end of World War 1.
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