Chronology of the War

The Beginning of the War

Germany attacks France 4/8/1914.
The idea was that Germany could quickly take out France, before Britain to help them.
Then they could focus on Russia before Russia could mobilize, as it was a large nation and thus somewhat slow.
This was called the Schlieffen plan.
Germany planned to attack France through Belgium.
The invasion is stopped at the First Battle of Marne.
People didn't know how the war would play out, as technology had developed a lot, for example machine guns and deadly artillery.
However Germany got slowed down in France due to resistance from British and French forces.
As Russia had mobilized and Germany had gotten into a stalemate in France, their nightmare of a two-front war had come true.

Soldiers weren't well prepared for the war, for example French soldiers wore blue uniforms would stand out in the battlefield.
This didn't matter before as both armies would be trying to shoot each other in a usually open area.
Khaki, brown, gray and green uniforms were common for uniforms and equipment.

In the Eastern front Germany had more success.
Russians had to retreat with great casualties.
Officers weren't selected based on success but instead based on aristocracy thus some officers were far worse than others.
Collapse of moral among Russian troops.
This would lead to the February revolution in 1917.
The revolution led to the overthrowing of the Monarchy and was the first stage of the Russian Revolution.
The provisional government (a provisional government is a temporary government) made reformations which improved morale.
However as they decided to stay in the war due to pressure from France and Great Britain because their busying of German troops was beneficial to the war effort.
However the Russian population was greatly against this decision.
Russia made a big attempt to turn things around, called the Brusilov Offensive, and although initially successful, they ran out of steam.
This led to a second revolution in Russia, called the October Revolution.
After two revolutions Russia makes a seperate peace treaty with Germany, taking them out of the war (Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, 1915).
At this point Russia had a new Bolshevik government and soon began a civil war.
This treaty was very unfavorable for Russia, as they lost a lot of territory and new countries such as Finland and the Baltic countries formed.
This treaty was worth it for the leader of the Bolsheviks at the time, who was Lenin as it took Russia out of the war, which had damaged the country severely.

The war became a war of attrition (meaning that the side with the most resources and troops would win).
Britain and France wanted to gain the advantage by preventing Germany from trading with other countries.
Britain and France formed a naval blockade on German controlled harbors.
Britain and France also got resources and troops from their numerous colonies.
Britain and France also had the ability to trade whereas Germany wasn't able to due to the naval blockade they had formed.
Thus Germany couldn't acquire resources from its own colonies easily.
Submarines were now used more often.
The use of German submarines against U.S. merchant ships would bring the U.S.A. into the Great War.
The U.S.A., although joining in 1917 towards the end of the war, would still be helpful as they would transport resources and troops to the allies.

Germany had realized that they were going to lose the war of attrition.
Their final effort to change the war was moving their troops from the east and try to break through, before the United States would effectively join the war by getting their full industrial power behind the war effort.
Germany initially won over a great area of land, with the Ludendorff Offensive.
However the German advance was stopped after the Second Battle of Maine and the Battle of Amiens.
The German troops and the home front are tired of war.
Although they hadn't been losing the war and there wasn't any fighting in their own soil, they surrendered as they were tired of war and would have lost either way.
An armistice is made on the 11th of November 1918, at 11 a.m. (11/11/18, at 11:00, you can remember it as the "triple eleven").
The end of the Great war.

The nature of war meant that no quick victory, instead there was a war of attrition.
German casualties were in the millions.
German spirits were against the war.
They were tired of the war and morale was low.
The allies had the advantage as the U.S. joined the war and Germany was outnumbered as Germany's allies weren't effective.
Germany was running out of resources as they had been blockaded and had supply problems.
It was evident that they would lose so it was the most reasonable decision to surrender as it would save lives and resources.
Once their initial offensive failed it was unlikely they could win.
Resources were low, such as food.
For example during winter, people had to eat turnips, which were considered animal feed at the time.
People were not only weary of hunger and cold, their relatives were often dying.
There were mutinies within the German army, such as the Kiel Mutiny.
Mutinies are soldier uprisings and are never a good sign for any nation's stability.
Failed campaigns and offensives.
After Germany's surrender, Kaiser Wilhelm II would be replaced by the Weimar Republic.
The Weimar Republic became the blame for many things such as economic crises later on and its unsuccessful (except for a brief period) would lead to its replacement by a far worse government in the future...