World War 1:

For more than four years, the world was engaged in a war of a ferocity and scale never seen before. The conflict, known then as the Great War and today as World War 1, arose out of the economic, colonial, and military rivalry of the European empires. The assassination in 1914 of the heir to one of those empires – Austria-Hungary- was the spark that set the rivalries alight. Within months, fighting had broken out in Europe, Africa, and Asia. By the time the war ended in 1918, the old empires were in ruins, their place taken by a new world power – the USA.

World War 1 was the first truly international war in history. People from every continent took part in the fighting. In Africa and Asia, the Turkish Empire and former German colonies were over run by British Empire troops. There was also fighting in the Middle East and in the Pacific. The entry of the USA into the war in 1917 marked the end of European dominance of world affairs.

End of the war

In mid-1918, fresh US troops arrived to fight on the Allied side, and there was increasing hunger and discontent among the German soldiers. The Allies broke through the German lines in August 1918. Austria-Hungary and Turkey collapsed on October, and the Allies finally forced Germany to make peace on 11 November 1918.

The cost of war

No one knows how many people died in the war. About 9 million soldiers and possibly 13 million civilians were killed. A further 20 million died in the influenza epidemic that swept Europe during 1918-19. Poppies, which grew on the fields of France, became the symbol of those killed in the war.

Countries involved in World War 1

1. The Entente Forces
    The Entente Forces are sometimes also referred to as the Entente Powers or Allies of World War I.

2. The Central Powers