Facing revolution at home, and with his army on the verge of mutiny, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated on 9 November. Failure left the German Imperial Army exhausted and demoralised, and when the Allies took the offensive in August 1918, German forces could not stop the advance.īetween 29 September and 3 November 1918, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire, and Austria-Hungary agreed to armistices with the Allies, leaving Germany isolated. Freed from the Eastern Front, Germany launched an offensive in the west on March 1918, hoping to achieve a decisive victory before American troops arrived in significant numbers.
The United States entered the war on the side of the Allies in April 1917, while the Bolsheviks seized power in the Russian October Revolution, and made peace with the Central Powers in early 1918. Fighting expanded onto secondary fronts as Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, and others entered the war between 19.
The Eastern Front was more fluid, but neither side could gain a decisive advantage, despite a series of costly offensives. 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. German strategy in 1914 was to first defeat France, then attack Russia. Russia came to Serbia's defence, and by 4 August, defensive alliances had drawn in Germany, France, and Britain, with the Ottoman Empire joining the war in November. Austria-Hungary held Serbia responsible, and declared war on 28 July. 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. The first decade of the 20th century saw increasing diplomatic tension between the European great powers. Millions more died as a result of genocide, while the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Fighting occurred throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. It was fought between two coalitions, the Allies and the Central Powers. World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history.
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