World War I started on, more or less, August 1 1914, and ended on November 11, 1918. The initial major combatants were the Allies (France, Russia, the British Empire) vs. the Central Powers (Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.)

Other combatants were Serbia and Belgium (in from the beginning), plus latecomers Japan, Italy, Portugal, Rumania, and the United States, who joined the Allies, plus The Ottoman Empire (Turkey) and Bulgaria, who joined the Central Powers.

In August, 1914 German forces took most of Belgium and northeastern France. After that time, the front line did not move very much, and German forces were still there when the war ended. In the East, the front line moved back and forth by dozens of miles or more several times across the borders, until the Russian army collapsed in 1917.

The Central Powers lost the war in the nominal sense that they surrendered to the Allies. However, the defeat was not the total defeat suffered in World War Two.

It's worth noting that Europe had fewer countries in 1914 than it does today. For example, there was no Poland: Poland's East was part of Russia, while its west was part of Germany. The only European countries to remain neutral throughout the war were Denmark, Switzerland, Spain, Albania, and the Scandanavian Countries.

At the time, most of the major combatants held colonies in Africa and Asia, and the war extended there as well, both in actual combat and in the form of native soldiers who came to Europe to fight. In that sense, this was truly a World war.

More than 9 million soldiers lost their lives.

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France: Pre-1914, France was allied to Russia, and had an informal "understanding" with the British Empire. France had lost 2 eastern provinces, Alsace and Lorraine, to Germany in 1870, and many in France were strongly motivated to recover the lost territories. France was invaded by Germany in August 1914. While it managed to stop the Germans short of Paris, do the majority of fighting on the Western Front and remain in the war for the entire duration, it suffered horrendous casualties: as a fraction of its population, more than any country except Serbia. The almost static trench line that lasted in France (and Belgium) from November 1914 until the end of the war was known as the Western Front.

Russia: Russia was allied to France, and was ruled by the autocratic Czar Nicholas II. More backward technologically and politically than Western Europe, Russia had a huge population. Russia similarly had a huge army, but this advantage was usually squandered though incompetent leadership and relatively small amount of heavy weapons. While Russia lost about 1/3 as much of its population, per capita, as Germany and France (though it lost more people total than either), the stress of the war caused the government to collapse in 1917, and after a bloody civil war that lasted into the mid-1920s, emerged under Communist control as the USSR.

The mediocre record of Russia in World War I, in which it faced a minority of the German army and collapsed, stands in sharp contrast to that of the Soviet Union in World War II, in which it faced roughly 3/4 of the German army and won, despite taking much more severe casualties.

The British Empire: The British Empire came into the war about a week after it started, in response to the German invasion of Belgium. The British navy effectively dominated the World's oceans for the duration of the war. Initially the British army was a small volunteer force, in contrast to the other countries who all required military service. For example, the French army was almost 10 times as large in 1914. As the war dragged on, England came to play a progressively larger role each year as its resources were more fully mobilized. Although it suffered a lower level of losses than did France, the British Empire was bankrupted by the war, going from the world's largest creditor to the world's largest debtor nation, and many see this as the weakening that led to the empire's collapse after World War 2 (1939-45).

In addition to Great Britain (which included all of the British Isles), the British Empire included Canada, Australia, New Zealand, plus India, South Africa, and other colonies which contributed forces. In general, the colonies and ex-colonies fared better than did the UK, as they participated at a lower level. (The commonwealth soldiers who did fight certainly did their share, and were generally regarded as top-quality.)

Serbia: Serbia helped provide the spark which caused World War I to begin. The Serbian army fought well, but was overpowered. A much larger fraction of Serbia's army, and civilians, was killed than that of any other nation. Serbia's territory was conquered in late 1915, but its forces redeployed in Greece with Allied support, and continued to fight throughout the war. After the war Serbs became the dominant ethnic group in Yugoslavia.

Belgium: The closest any nation can come to being an innocent victim. Guaranteed by treaty in 1838 by England, France, and Germany to be neutral, Belgium was brutally invaded by Germany in 1914, due to the Schlieffen plan. Belgium thus found itself fighting on the side of the allies. Provisions in the treaty, which compelled the other powers to fight for its defence if any of them invaded, combined other British interests, brought the British Empire into the war. The Belgian army stayed on the line for the whole war, but well over 90% of Belgium was conquered by Germany in 1914, and remained so for the duration of the war. After the war Belgium war restored, but many lives had been lost and many priceless treasures destroyed.

Germany: Germany was one of the original combatants, was by far the strongest of the Central Powers, and was the last of the Central Powers to surrender. By any yardstick, Germany fought better than any other country, inflicting more casualties than it took, and partially or totally defeating more countries than any other power. Germany lost the war, however, mainly because of aggressive behavior that brought on new opponents, most notably the British Empire (due to its invasion of Belgium) and the United States (due to its sinking of American merchant ships). After the war, Germany lost some territories, was forces to pay moderate reparations, and had the size of its military reduced. These sanctions were one of the factors that led to the rise of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party, and World War Two (1939-1945).

Austro-Hungarian Empire: This was a multi-ethnic state (Think Yugoslavia, only a lot more so.). The assassination of Crown Prince Ferdinand in Sarajevo was the spark that started the war. Austria-Hungary fought in the east, mainly against Russia, Serbia, and Italy. While it did much of the fighting, and suffered accordingly, its army was less capable of offensive action than that of Germany, and most of its successes were accomplished with the assistance of German troops. It surrendered in October 1918. After the war, it broke up into many small states, which was more a result of its own people turning from it than allied sanctions.

Japan: Although Japan had fought Russia in 1905, it was allied to Great Britain. It did not contribute forces to the battles in Europe, but used the war as an opportunity to conquer (and keep) the lightly-defended German colonies in the Pacific.

Italy: Although formally allied to the Central Powers in 1914, Italy initially stayed neutral, as the alliance only required them to fight if one of them was attacked, and in 1914 it was the Central Powers who invaded their opponents first. Italy was later coaxed into the war in 1915 by the allies, who offered it territory that was currently part of Austria-Hungary. The Italian army almost collapsed in 1917, and substantial British and French forces were diverted to "stiffen" it, (Much as Germany did with Austria-Hungary), but it fought to the end. Italy gained these territories afterward, but it was certainly not worth the cost in lives (roughly 5 times what America suffered) and wealth. This disillusion with its gains led directly to the rise of fascism in the early 1920s-a decade before it rose in Germany.

Portugal: Portugal had a couple of divisions on the Western Front, and like the United States was not in range of the Central Powers.

Rumania: In 1916, when its leaders were convinced the Allies would win the war in the East imminently (due to an initially successful Russian "Brusilov Offensive"), Rumania joined in, wanting its "share of the spoils". When the Russian offensive failed, Rumania found itself surrounded on 3 sides by opponents, was overrun, and surrendered within months. The surrender of Rumania gave the Central Powers access to its food and oil, without which they would have been much harder pressed to continue the war.

The United States: Although neutral, the United States manufactured large numbers of weapons, and loaned huge amounts of money, both of which mainly went to the Allies. In 1915, the United States issued an ultimatum to Germany that if German U-boats (= submarines) targeted "neutral" American ships, the United States would go to war. When Germany chose to do this in February 1917, this happened. American forces did not enter Europe in significant strength until the summer of 1918. Even at the end of the war, only 10% of the allied soldiers on the Western Front were American. However, millions more were due to arrive in 1919, and the prospect of this was one of the reasons why Germany surrendered. Due to its late entry into the war, and distance from the fighting the United States was in better shape than any other nation, going from a debtor nation into the world's largest creditor, and becoming without question the most powerful nation in the world militarily as well as economically.

The Ottoman Empire: The Ottoman Empire (Modern day Turkey, plus Arabia.) was in trouble before the war had started, as many of its subject people had thrown off Ottoman rule (such as the Balkan states), or at best saw the Ottomans as foreign conquerors and were waiting for an opportunity to do so (Arabs and Armenians). The rulers of the Ottoman empire were convinced that if it remained neutral it would be destroyed by war, its territories handed out to the victors as prizes. Initially seeking an alliance with the British, it was rebuffed, so it allied with the Central Powers. While most famous for its successful defense in 1915 of the Gallipoli Penninsula near its capitol, it fared less well in other theaters, including the Middle East (vs. the British) and the Caucassus (vs. Russia), and suffered enorous casualties. It committed the most infamous action of the war: a genocide against the Armenian people. After the war it lost all of its outlying territories, though Turkey itself remained intact.

Bulgaria: One of the new Balkan states, Bulgaria entered World War I. in 1916 to recover territory it had lost in the Balkan War of 1913. Bulgaria surrendered in late September 1918. Although it lost a bit of territory, Bulgaria survived the war with its core intact.

Colonies: In 1914, Europe controlled all of Africa except for Ethiopia, and much of Asia apart from China, Japan, and Thailand. Countries used the war as a good excuse to increase their colonial holdings. The British Empire, with a more extended colonial system and control of the seas, was generally successful. By the end of the war, Germany had lost all of its overseas colonies. Fighting outside of Europe was much smaller in scale, a typical battle would involve a few hundred soldiers, as opposed to tens of thousands on the Western Front. One should not forget the hundreds of thousands of non-Europeans who came to Europe (mainly England and France) to fight for their Empires, most notably Indians fighting for the British Empire; and Moroccans and Senegalese fighting for France. Not only did these men fight and die in large numbers, but the volume of waste and stupidity that they witnessed shattered the myth of European superiority, and many went on to support independence.

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There are several ways in which it can be said to have started:

First, there are the events that set off the war. Here's the short version:

Serbia as a state was roughly 100 years old, having thrown off Ottoman rule in the previous century. Much like today, many Serbs lived outside Serbia proper, and there were those who desired to form a "Greater Serbia," to include their people. One such outlying area was called Bosnia, recently annexed to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Crown Prince Ferdinand supported greater autonomy for Serbs and other ethnic minorities within the empire, then thus because a target of Serbian radicals, who were supported by elements of Serbia's secret police. While visiting Sarajevo, Prince Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated on June 28, 1914.

Austria Hungary thus very reasonably sought to punish Serbia for at minimum providing the rhetoric that inspired the assassins, and more likely (and, in reality) directly aiding them. Had the negotiations been held in good faith, it is likely that a compromise would have been reached. For example: Serbia agreed to halt all support for dissidents within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and punish the guilty. They were not being held in good faith. Germany had thus given Austria-Hungary a "carte blanche" to impose whatever ultimatum it wanted, with the assurance that Germany would back it up. Austria-Hungary decided to crush Serbia once and for all, and absorb it into their empire.

Russia, in turn, reacted in its tradition role of protector of the Slavic people (which included the Serbs), so when Serbia turned to Russia for military support, Russia agreed, in part fearing the "loss of face" if it let its small ally down.

France and Russia were allies. The German Military had one, and only one, plan for fighting a major war, the Schlieffen Plan, which involved the immediate invasion of France via Belgium and Luxembourg, in an all-out bid to defeat France in 40 days. Thus, when countries started to mobilize, the Kaiser gave the go-ahead to the Schleiffen plan, and the war was on.

Then, there are the larger alliances and politics that put countries into the position where they expected a war to happen. Without this background, the events that set off the war may not have done so. Look at recent history: there have been events which under other circumstances might have started a war, but because the countries did not view each other as enemies, the differences were quickly negotiated. Typical of this sort of incident is Canada, which has repeatedly fired warning shots at and boarded fishing boats of countries which fish in waters that it claims, but has never ended up in a war.

To sum up some of these factors:

After the Napoleonic wars of the Early 1800s, European politics focused on a "Balance of Power", in which all states were out for themselves, without permanent alliances, their main interests being the accumulation of wealth, and preventing any other power from becoming dominant in Europe. Then, around 1900, Europe shifted from a "Balance of Power" model to a "Cold War" model, with alliances solidifying, increased spending on armaments by all, and a view that there would be a 2-sided confrontation. In a 2-sided confrontation, any dispute was seen as a "test of wills" between the two sides, as opposed to a minor issue to be resolved as quickly and painlessly as possible.

In 1870, Germany (then named Prussia) defeated France in the Franco-Prussian war and kept the eastern French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, in addition to imposing a large indemnity. This contrasted with the three wars which Germany had fought in the mid-1800s with Austria-Hungary, in which it made nice afterward, returning conquered territory in exchange for relatively painless concessions (usually involving diplomatic recognition or support of Prussian absorption of another small German state). Indeed, Bismarck, Germany's master statesman of the 1800s, had opposed keeping these French provinces. The result of this lost territory was that France was made a permanent antagonist of Germany viewing Germany as its primary enemy is a "Cold War" that lasted from 1871-1914.

As a result of this antagonism, France allied itself with Russia, as Russia was a major power that bordered Germany. Russia benefited from French capital and technology, while the French now had a major ally that bordered Germany. Never mind that France was the most democratic country in Europe while Russia was a backward, repressive autocracy.

The British Empire was the only country that imported most of its food, as well as much of its raw materials. Given its dependence on the sea, it was British policy to have a navy the size of the next two largest European navies combined. For no rational reason whatsoever the Kaiser decided that Germany needed a big navy. {He reportedly had read a book by an American which claimed that the nation which ruled the sea always won the wars in the end, and was thereby convinced that Germany needed a big navy, without any real idea what it would do with it.) This led to an arms race, and a souring of relations between England and Germany. At the same time, England chose to make nice with France and Russia, as many British colonies bordered these countries, or their colonies, so good relations made for a more stable, manageable empire.

The Kaiser made many belligerent pronouncements regarding Germany's manifest destiny to rule Europe, and that it would take what was its due "by the sword," which had the effect of scaring much of Europe to unite against Germany.

Meanwhile, despite this outward belligerence, the Kaiser and the military elite in Germany considered their position relative to France and Russia to be deteriorating, as Russian was starting to catch up to the West, and its immense size would make it the most powerful state in Europe. Thus, many in Germany thought that the sooner a war happened the better Germany would do. This was one reason why that Germany gave Austria-Hungary the go-ahead to attack Serbia.

Finally, the broader culture in most of Europe, particularly Germany and France, was highly militarized, with most young men serving for 2 years in the army (3 in France), plus more years in the reserves, and in which the ruling classes participated actively in the military, and viewed it as the primary means to achieve their national interests. (Today most countries view economics as their primary means, and measure gains in dollars, not square miles.) While the Marxists were not correct in colonial rivalry provoking the war, certainly the conquering mentality applied by European countries to Africa and Asia could easily transform into a desire to conquer each other. The sorts of atrocities: summary executions, collective punishment, forces labor, and the like committed in Belgium by Germans had previously been committed in large scale by the Belgians in the Congo, a Belgian colony in Africa.

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Probably the most infamous military plan, the Schlieffen Plan was the German Plan of War in the event of a conflict with France and Russia.

It was based on the following facts/assumptions:

1. Germany was smaller in population and military than France and Russia combined, and thus would lose a long war in which it had to fight both countries. (A long war was in any case undesirable (to everyone in Europe), due to its high economic cost.) Germany could, however, win a war against one or the other.
2. Given its huge size (and, during much of the year, terrible weather), Germany would not be able to knock Russia out of the war quickly.
3. The forts constructed by France, the large French Army, and the hostile terrain meant that the German military was unlikely to defeat France in a massive frontal attack across the German-French border.

The solution to this quandary was called the Schlieffen plan, after Count Alfred Von Schlieffen, the German Army's chief of staff from 1891-1906. Its essence involved holding the line against Russia and on all but the northernmost part of the German-French border with an absolute minimum of forces, even allowing French forces to get into Germany (but not too far) while sending over half its army in a huge Flanking maneuver through the Netherlands and Belgium. This "Powerful Right Wing" would march virtually unopposed through Belgium and the undefended French-Belgian Border, would swing around Paris, then get in the rear of the French armies and compel their surrender.

According to the plan, by the 40th day of the war, France must be defeated, so that German forces can then turn to face a fully mobilized Russia.

A note on the meaning of Right Wing, for you non-military types: Clashing armies are assumed to be facing each other at all times. Since France is to Germany's West, the German right wing was its northern wing, while the German Left Wing was its southern wing. For France, this would be the opposite, where the French left was its northern wing. The German Right would thus be battling the French Left. Note that this has nothing whatsoever to do with the political definitions of "right wing" and "left wing."

The Schlieffen plan was a truly massive document. It not only stated intentions, but everything was calculated with absolute thoroughness: how many rail cars per hour would cross a certain bridge, how many civilians to shoot if the Belgians resist to various degrees, which roads each army would use and where each one should be on each day, what to do in various contingencies such is the British army landing, and so forth.

Another facet of the Schlieffen plan that proved very effective was immeditate mobilization of the German reserves, creating a reserve unit for each regular army unit. This would effectively double the size of the German army in the event of war.

There was an alternate plan: hold the Western Front (vs. France) with minimal forces, while fighting a long but successful war in the East (vs. Russia). While this page is not devoted to counterfactual history, it does seem like this would have worked far more in Germany's favor: England, and hence the United States, would almost certainly have stayed out of the war. Germany was able to hold the line vs. France in the south when the French did attack, and continued to hold the line for 4 more years, and Russia was eventually defeated.

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One point about the Schlieffen Plan bears particular note: Mobilization of the army took roughly a week, and deployment another week. Transportation was done primarily by railroad, and railroad logistics are notoriously complex: unlike with highways, train cars can not simply pull to the side to let another car pass, and any delay was likely to snowball. Mobilization plans were thus more rigid in the early 1900s than they were during any time period before or after.

Unlike every other nations plan of war, the Schlieffen Plan of mobilization was based on the assumption of Germany invading Belgium. In other words, trains would show up to transport a given formed unit to some point in Belgium. Every other country transported troops to some point within its own borders.

Thus, while countries had all mobilized before without wars (something we continue to see today), the Schleiffen plan removed that middle step: either Germany would not fully mobilize its army, or it would attack.

This actions of the German government should be contrasted with that of the French, which, despite the protests of the Army, ordered all troops to pull back 10 kilometers from the border in the days before war was declared, in order to prevent any sort of incident from accidentally sparking a war.

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