Obsidian Vault

World War I

Jul 20, 20254 min read

July 28th, 1914–November 11th, 1918

Belligerents

AlliesCentral Powers
FranceGerman Empire
RussiaAustria-Hungary
United KingdomOttoman Empire
United StatesBulgaria

Overview

Things I already know (Mostly in order by timeline):

  • Austria-Hungary’s leader is assassinated in Serbia.
    • Something about “Arch Duke?” (Probably a title of the Austrian leader killed.)
  • Austria-Hungry asks Serbia for unreasonable demands for punishment.
  • Serbia fulfills most but not all of them.
  • Austria-Hungary declares war in 1914, despite Hungary’s plea not to.
  • Adolf Hitler was a soldier who fought for Germany.
  • Russia then declares war on Austria-Hungry, pulling France into the war because Russia and France are in the Entente alliance.
  • Germany comes to the aid of Austria-Hungry and joins war on their side, the “Central Powers.”
  • Romania at some point joins the war on the Ententes side.
  • The Ottoman Empire at some point joins the war on the Central Powers side to hopefully screw with Russia, despite massive pushback from home.
  • Italy was initially in a military alliance, the Triple Alliance, with Germany and Austria-Hungry, but remained neutral. Later on, however, they join the war on the Ententes side with the promise of gaining land from Austria-Hungry, as well as pressure from the people to attack Austria-Hungry, an old enemy.
  • The United Kingdom only joins later after Germany invades through a neutral country to get around France’s defenses, Belgium.
  • Germany committed many atrocities during the war, notably with the Rape of Belgium.
  • Greece joins the war on the side of the Allies.
  • Lenin gets help from Germany and takes a train car to Russia with the intent to cause a revolution in Russia during the war.
  • Russia surrenders to Germany after Russia goes through two revolutions/governments.
    • First one is more democratic, second one is communist.
  • Russia signs the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
  • Germany sets up German zones of influence within old Russia land during the war.
  • The United States joins the war in 1917.
  • Austria-Hungry defeats Romania, but once the war turns against the Central Powers, Romania declares war again on Germany and maybe Austria-Hungry a day before Germany surrenders.
  • Germany and Austria-Hungry lose the war, with Austria-Hungry collapsing due to nationalist revolts, and Germany signing the official surrender in November of 1918, notably signing surrender in France rather than within Germany.
  • Germany is punished through the Treaty of Versailles.
    • Germany is forced to do the following:
      • Reduce size of military massively.
      • Demilitarize the Rhineland (Western part of Germany.)
      • All the land Germany took was given to the Allies to carve up.
      • Lose territory, notably creating a small enclave with a new Poland.
        • Lose Alsace-Lorraine (used to be part of France) back to France.
      • Pay massive amount of reparations for the damage caused in the war, notably more than Austria or Hungary.
      • Mostly was blamed for the war.
  • Germany’s embarrassment of losing would cause it to go through some turmoil with its economy and society, which later culminated into circumstances that would lead to World War II.
  • Austria-Hungry is punished with a different treaty.
    • Austria-Hungry is forced to do the following:
      • Completely broken up (country no longer exists).
      • Each land within the empire is now an independent country.
        • Austria
        • Hungary
          • Hungary, in its own separate treaty, the Treaty of Trianon, loses massive amounts of land, which is historically had for centuries, notably a lot to Romania in Transylvania, which included many ethnic Hungarians.
        • Czechoslovakia
        • Balkan lands create Yugoslavia, which is primarily taken over and lead by Serbia.1
  • Russia has collapsed and turned communist, now the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.) or more commonly referred to as the Soviet Union.
    • Many of its former territories attempted to succeed, including Georgia.
  • The Soviet Union lost land to create an independent Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, however they got to keep the Ukrainian land that Germany originally took from them during the war.
  • Ottoman Empire, similar to Austria-Hungry, is completely dissolved.

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