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World War II: In Depth

The mass murder of Europe’s Jews took place in the context of World War II. As German troops invaded and occupied more and more territory in Europe, the Soviet Union, and North Africa, the regime’s racial and antisemitic policies became more radical, moving from persecution to genocide.

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German and Japanese Expansion

Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan unleashed World War II with the intention of establishing, by military conquest, a permanent dominance over Europe and Asia respectively. These two nations were the most significant members of the Axis partnership, which was based on anti-Communism and dissatisfaction with the world order after World War I .

Under the leadership of dictator Adolf Hitler , Nazi Germany aimed at the acquisition of a vast, new empire of "living space" ( Lebensraum ) in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The Nazi leadership calculated that the realization of German hegemony in Europe would require war, and began planning a European war from the day the Nazis came to power in late January 1933.

Imperial Japan followed a policy of military conquest with support of its Emperor, military establishment, and many in the educated elite who sought Japanese rule and influence throughout East Asia and the Pacific Ocean. Germany and Japan formed an anti-Communist front aimed at the Soviet Union in 1936. That same year Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany formed the Axis alliance , shortly after Italy completed its brutal and successful conquest of Ethiopia.

Japan had initiated its policy of military conquest by invading Chinese Manchuria in September 1931. Six years later, in July 1937, Japan invaded China proper to unleash World War II in Asia.

Invasion of Poland

Germany incorporated Austria and the Czech lands without having to resort to war in 1938 and 1939. With a pact of nonaggression , Germany secured the neutrality of the Soviet Union, ruled by dictator Joseph Stalin. Germany then invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, beginning World War II in Europe.

Having permitted Nazi Germany to destroy the interwar Czechoslovak state, Britain and France had guaranteed the integrity of Poland's borders in April 1939. They responded to the German invasion of Poland by declaring war on Germany on September 3. Within a month, German and Soviet forces conquered Poland and partitioned the Polish state.

Invasion of Norway and Denmark

The lull which followed the defeat of Poland ended on April 9, 1940, when German forces invaded Norway and Denmark . Denmark surrendered that day. Norway held out until early June before German forces could occupy the entire country.

Invasion of Western Europe

On May 10, 1940, Germany began its assault on western Europe by invading France and the neutral Low Countries (the Netherlands , Belgium , and Luxembourg ). The Low Countries were under German occupation by the end of May. On June 22, 1940, France signed an armistice with Germany. The armistice provided for the German occupation of the northern half of France and permitted the establishment of a collaborationist regime in the south with its seat in Vichy. From July 10 to October 31, 1940, the Germans waged, and ultimately lost, an air war over England, known as the Battle of Britain.

Russo-Finnish War

In accordance with sphere of influence arrangements with Nazi Germany in 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Finland at the end of November 1939. After a bitterly fought winter war, the Soviets forced the Finns to cede territory along the northern shores of Lake Lagoda north of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) and on the Arctic coastline in March 1940.

Soviet Annexations

The Soviet Union occupied and annexed eastern Poland in 1939. With German encouragement, the Soviet Union occupied the Baltic states in June 1940 and annexed them in August 1940. The Soviets also seized Bessarabia and northern Bukovina from Romania in late June 1940.

Italy Enters the War

Italy entered the war on June 10, 1940, and invaded southern France on June 21. Dissatisfied with Italy's share in the spoils at the armistice negotiations, Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini attacked Greece in October 1940 from Albania (which the Italians had seized in April 1939). The Italians also attacked British forces in Egypt from Italian-controlled Libya in late October 1940. Both adventures resulted in military disaster that required German intervention.

Axis Advances

Germany enticed Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia in November 1940 and Bulgaria in March 1941 to join the Axis . In April 1941, Germany—supported by Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria—invaded and dismembered Yugoslavia . By mid-June, the Axis powers had subdued Greece. Out of the collapse of Yugoslavia arose the so-called Independent State of Croatia under the leadership of the fascist and terrorist Ustasa organization. The new state, which encompassed Bosnia and Herzegovina, formally joined the Axis on June 15. Germany occupied eastern Slovenia, the Serbian Banat and most of Serbia proper. Italy seized Istria and western Slovenia, attached Kosovo province to Albania, and occupied the Croat-Dalmatian coastline and Montenegro. Hungary annexed Backa in northeastern Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria occupied Macedonia and the Pirot province of Serbia. After permitting Bulgaria to occupy Greek Thrace, Germany and Italy divided Greece into occupation zones, with the Italians in the west and the Germans in the east.

Invasion of the Soviet Union

On June 22, 1941, the Germans and their Axis partners (except Bulgaria) invaded the Soviet Union in direct violation of the German-Soviet Pact of August 1939. Finland, seeking redress for its defeat in the winter war of 1939–1940, joined the Axis and the German invasion. By the end of October 1941, German troops had advanced deep into the Soviet Union, overrunning the Baltic states and laying siege to Leningrad in the north; capturing Smolensk and marching on Moscow in the center; and capturing Kiev (Kyiv) and approaching Rostov on the mouth of the Don River in the south. Stiffening Red Army resistance in August and again in November 1941 prevented the Germans from capturing the key cities of Leningrad and Moscow. On December 6, 1941, Soviet troops launched a significant counteroffensive that drove the Germans permanently from the outskirts of Moscow.

United States Enters World War II

One day later, on December 7, 1941, Japan, still engaged in warfare on the Chinese mainland, launched a surprise air attack on Pearl Harbor , Hawaii. The United States immediately declared war on Japan. Great Britain followed suit. On December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

War in the Pacific

During the winter of 1941–1942, the Japanese attacked and conquered the Philippines, French Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia), and British Singapore. In the late spring and early summer of 1942, the British were able to halt the Japanese advance in Burma; and the US soundly defeated the Japanese navy at Midway in the Pacific. In August 1942, US forces halted the Japanese advance in the Pacific islands towards Australia at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.

Allied Bombing of Germany

In May 1942, the British Royal Air Force carried out a raid on the German city of Köln (Cologne) with a thousand bombers, for the first time bringing war home to Germany. For the next three years, Allied air forces systematically bombed industrial plants and cities all over the Reich, reducing much of urban Germany to rubble by 1945.

The War in North Africa

In late 1942 and early 1943, Anglo-American forces achieved a series of significant military triumphs in North Africa . The failure of Vichy French armed forces to resist enabled the Allies to quickly occupy French North Africa to the Tunisian border within days of landings on the beaches of Morocco and Algeria on November 8, 1942. It also triggered the German occupation of Vichy France on November 11, 1942. The British victory over the German Afrika Korps at El Alamein in Egypt in late October 1942 precipitated the flight of Axis military units west across Libya into eastern Tunisia. Trapped in Tunisia, the Axis forces in Africa, approximately 150,000 troops in all, surrendered in May 1943.

Soviet Counteroffensive

In June 1942, the Germans and their Axis partners resumed their offensive in the Soviet Union, reaching Stalingrad (Volgograd) on the Volga River, securing the Crimean peninsula, and penetrating deep into the Caucasus region by late September 1942. In November, Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive northwest and southwest of Stalingrad that cut off the German forces in the city. On February 2, 1943, the German Sixth Army surrendered to the Soviets. The Germans mounted one more offensive at Kursk in July 1943, the biggest tank battle in history, but Soviet troops and tanks blunted the attack and assumed a military initiative that they would not again relinquish. By late 1943, the Germans were forced to evacuate the Caucasus and to relinquish Kiev.

Allied Landings in Italy

In July 1943, the western Allies successfully landed in Sicily. This precipitated the decision of the Italian Fascist Party Grand Council to depose Mussolini. Led by Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio, the Italian Army took advantage of the political vacuum to overthrow the Fascist regime, replacing it with a military dictatorship. In early September, just prior to the landing of Anglo-American forces in Salerno near Naples, the Badoglio government surrendered unconditionally to the Allies on September 8. German troops stationed in Italy seized control of northern Italy, and continued to resist. Mussolini, who had been arrested by Italian military authorities, was rescued by SS commandos in September and established (under German supervision) a neo-Fascist puppet regime in northern Italy.

The Allies successfully landed near Anzio, just south of Rome, but were not able to capture Rome until early June 1944. German troops continued to occupy northern Italy, and resisted tenaciously until they surrendered on May 2, 1945. After the liberation of Rome, Allied air forces could bomb German targets in eastern Europe, such as the synthetic fuel and rubber plants at Auschwitz-Monowitz in Silesia.

D-Day: Photographs On June 6, 1944 ( D-Day ), over 150,000 Allied soldiers landed on the Normandy beaches of France. Trapped on the Normandy coast for six weeks, the British and Americans broke loose on July 25 and liberated Paris by August 25. On September 11, 1944, the first US troops crossed into Germany. By December, all of France, most of Belgium, and part of the southern Netherlands had been liberated.

Soviet Advances

On June 22, 1944, Soviet forces destroyed the German Army Group Center in Eastern Belorussia. They swept west to the Vistula River across from Warsaw by August 1, 1944. In early August, Soviet troops, having conquered the eastern Romanian province of Bessarabia, appeared on the Prut River and prepared to strike into the heart of Romania, precipitating a Romanian surrender on August 23. The Bulgarians surrendered on September 8, 1944. These developments forced the Germans to evacuate Greece, Albania, and southern Yugoslavia.

To forestall Hungarian government efforts to pursue a separate peace, Germany had occupied Hungary on March 19, 1944. Germany had then, in October, sponsored a coup d'état of the radical Arrow Cross Party to prevent another Hungarian effort to surrender.

Finally, with the appearance of Soviet troops on the Finnish border, Finland sued for an armistice on September 12, 1944.

In August 1944, the underground Polish Home Army and the Slovak National resistance organizations rose against the Germans to liberate Warsaw and Slovakia from German rule; the Germans were able to quell both uprisings.

Defeat of Germany

On December 16, 1944, the Germans launched an unsuccessful counterattack in Belgium and northern France, known as the Battle of the Bulge . By New Year's Day, British and US troops had driven the Germans back into Germany. On January 12, 1945, the Soviets resumed the offensive, liberating Warsaw and western Poland. In December the Soviets had encircled Budapest, though the city did not fall until February 13, 1945. By early April, the Soviets had driven the remnants of the Arrow Cross regime out of Hungary and forced the surrender of the fascist Slovak Republic with the fall of Bratislava on April 4, 1945. On April 13, the Soviets captured Vienna, while Marshal Josip Tito's Partisans compelled the flight of the Ustasa leaders and the collapse of the so-called Independent State of Croatia.

In mid-February 1945, the Allies bombed Dresden, killing up to 25,000 German civilians. US troops crossed the Rhine River at Remagen on March 7, 1945. A final Soviet offensive on April 16, 1945, enabled Soviet forces to encircle Berlin. As Soviet troops fought their way towards the Reich Chancellery, Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945. On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered unconditionally to the western Allies at Reims and on May 9 to the Soviets in Berlin.

Defeat of Japan

After clearing the Japanese from the Solomon Islands in November 1942, British and US forces began slowly to move northward, island-hopping toward the Japanese mainland, while British forces worked with the Nationalist Chinese government to fight the Japanese in China. In a parallel campaign, the Chinese Communist movement fought the Japanese, while it defended itself against attacks from the Nationalists. In October 1944, US troops landed in the Philippines; by May 1945, British and US troops had conquered Okinawa, the last major Japanese base before the mainland itself.

On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, following with a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki on August 9. On August 8, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and invaded Japanese-occupied Manchuria.

Less than a week later, on August 14, 1945, Japan agreed to surrender; the formal ceremony took place on September 2. World War II was over.

Deaths during World War II

World War II resulted in an estimated 55 million deaths worldwide. While many of the following statistics are subject to variation in the available source material, they serve as benchmarks for estimates. In battle, the United States lost 292,129 dead and 139,709 missing in action. The Soviet Union suffered 8,668,400 dead and another 4,559,000 missing. Germany lost 2,049,872 dead and 1,902,704 missing. China lost 1,324,516 dead and 115,248 missing. Japan lost 1,506,000 dead and 810,000 missing. Great Britain lost 397,762 dead and 90,188 missing.

The large number of civilian dead was equally appalling. The Soviet Union lost 14,012,000 civilians, including between 1.0 and 1.5 million Jews. China lost more than a million civilians; while Poland lost nearly five million civilians, including nearly three million Jews.

Series: World War II

World War II in Europe

World War II Dates and Timeline

The Holocaust and World War II: Key Dates

Axis Powers in World War II

Blitzkrieg (Lightning War)

Invasion of Poland, Fall 1939

German Invasion of Western Europe, May 1940

Allied Military Operations in North Africa

Invasion of the soviet union, june 1941.

World War II in Eastern Europe, 1942–1945

The Eastern Front: The German War against the Soviet Union

World War II in the Pacific

Pearl Harbor

Allied Military Advances in the West

Critical thinking questions.

• What was the relationship between the progress of the war and the mass murder of Europe’s Jews?

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World War 2

A comprehensive World War 2 history guide with facts and information on one of the most important events in British history.

World War 2 Summary

Known as one of the most brutal conflicts in recent history, the Second World War wreaked havoc for six years, involving 113 countries from six continents. Starting in 1939, the Allied forces – mainly Britain, Russia, and the USA – sought to stop Nazi Germany in its conquest for European domination. By 1945, Western Europe had been rampaged, an entire race of people had come close to eradication, and the dynamic of power in many participating countries was to change forever.

What followed was six years of turmoil. One of Hitler’s key aims as Fuhrer of Germany was the destruction of the Jewish race, and even before the war began the Nazis had implemented a number of laws which discriminated against the Jews. Things became gradually worse, with the Nazis establishing Jewish ghettos in Poland in 1940, and the concentration camps 1942. It is estimated that 6 million Jews were killed during the reign of Hitler. Other social minorities were targeted by the Nazis, including homosexuals, communists, Romani, and people with disabilities.

The battles of WW2 were fought at sea, in the air, as well as on land. Some of the most well-known battles include the Battle of Britain (1940), Stalingrad (1942-3), El Alamein (1942-3), Iwo Jima (1945), and the Battle of the Bugle (1944-5). The D-Day landings in June 1944 are also some of the most famous events from the war, since many people consider it a turning point in the course of the war. D-Day resulted in the liberation of Paris, and allowed the Allied forces to close in around Germany. By 1944, the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union was proving unsuccessful, and the Soviets were bringing the Eastern front closer to Germany, meaning that the final year of the war saw Hitler stop fighting his own offense, and switching to tactics of defence.

By May 1945, Hitler had committed suicide, and the Nazi regime had collapsed. Japan surrendered in August 1945, and the Allied forces had achieved victory. All territory that had been claimed by Germany was split between the Western and Eastern Allied countries, and Germany itself was divided likewise. Many other countries who previously boasted empires lost their own territories in the years that followed, with the hangover of the Nazi dictatorship leaving bad associations with colonisation. Approximately 73 million people are thought to have died during the conflict, and the economic repercussions were felt across the participating countries for decades after peace was declared.

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(page 123) p. 123 Conclusion

• Published: November 2014
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The ‘Conclusion’ shows how the world was changed forever by World War II, during which around sixty million people had been killed, the majority of them civilians. There were huge losses in the Soviet Union and China, but the country most damaged was Poland. Massive destruction and economic dislocation characterized much of Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and portions of North Africa. The war and its ending also brought about enormous population movements. Countries faced massive reconstruction, the defeated had reparations to pay, and war criminals had to be dealt with. The war also provided new developments in technology and medicine, which transformed post-war life.

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Free World War 2 Essay Examples & Topics

World War 2 is an international war from 1939 to 1945. The conflict involved the Axis alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan against the Allied powers of France, Great Britain, the USA, the USSR, and China. WW2 remains the most significant conflict in history, with estimated 40,000,000–50,000,000 deaths.

Keep in mind that you should be politically correct and ethically proper while writing a WW 2 essay. Being one of the most crucial events in the world’s history, it has caused controversial interpretations.

In this article, our team has prepared some tips on how to write World War 2 in an essay or research paper. You’ll find great topics for practice or completing your assignment. Besides, there are World War 2 essay examples. They will be amazing for understanding the appropriate structure and argumentation.

To compose a paper about any war, you’ll have to use common techniques. In essence, writing WWII essays is similar to describing other tragic historical events. You should elaborate on the assigned timeline, refer to trustworthy sources, and be careful in stating your points.

WW2 essay writing includes the following aspects:

• Sources . There are two types of sources that you can use. Primary sources are the first-hand retelling of the event. It might be the newspapers, documents, etc. Secondary sources are based on the primary ones. It might be researches or books. Remember that the sources should be trustworthy.
• Citations . Make sure to cite all your quotes, even the paraphrased ones. Provide the context to each one and try to summarize information from different sources. If you do a quotation, remember to mention it in the reference list.
• Historical context . While writing a paper about real events, it is crucial to provide historical context. You need to analyze the evidence and study various sources. Express your own thoughts based on what you’ve learned.
• Thesis statement . In one sentence, summarize the point of your paper. That’s your thesis statement. It can be a question that you’ll answer in your essay. Our thesis generator can help you create one for your paper.
• Outline. Writing about a war, you should follow the standard academic structure. It includes an introduction with a hook, three body paragraphs with arguments and evidence, and a conclusion. In the body paragraphs, write topic sentences that support the thesis.
• Title . Your WW2 essay title should summarize the main idea of your paper. Make sure to capitalize the words according to the required format.

25 Word War 2 Essay Topics

You’ll have no trouble writing your WW2 essay if you use our tips. What you need to do now is to choose an idea to elaborate on. For that purpose, use our topic generator or check the list below.

There are 25 WW2 essay topics we can recommend to you:

• Impact of World War 2 on the world’s economy.
• What were the reasons for World War 2?
• What are the results of WW2?
• The military training process in the Second World War.
• Versailles Treaty and the way it affected Germany.
• What role did WW2 play in aircraft development?
• The role of African American soldiers in WW2.
• The ways rationing affected people’s lives during WW2.
• WW2 sides and leaders, and their impact on world history.
• The role of propaganda posters during WW2.
• The way WW2 affected civil liberties.
• How the creation of atomic bombs affected WW2.
• The reason why WW2 caused Cold War.
• What are the consequences of World War 2 for the USA?
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights after WW2.
• The reasons the USA entered WW2.
• Causes and events that led to WW2.
• What are the WW2 innovations that changed our lives?
• What role did Penicillin play during WW2?
• The WW2 impact on international alliances.
• What was the women’s role in World War 2?
• Activities for teaching younger students about WW2.
• How WW2 influenced art and culture.
• Could WW2 have been avoided?
• The ways WW2 impacted the railroads.

Thanks for reading, and good luck with your World War 2 essay! You’ll find free samples below.

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Home — Essay Samples — War — Fascism in World War II — The Causes of World War Two

The Causes of World War Two

• Categories: Fascism in World War II

About this sample

Words: 2589 |

13 min read

Published: Apr 11, 2019

Words: 2589 | Pages: 6 | 13 min read

The outbreak of World War II in 1939 was driven by a complex web of interconnected causes. The Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I, imposed harsh conditions on Germany, fostering deep resentment and setting the stage for Adolf Hitler's rise to power. Simultaneously, Italy embraced fascism under Benito Mussolini, destabilizing Europe. Japan's imperialist ambitions in Asia went unchecked due to Western powers' policy of appeasement, contributing to the formation of the Axis Powers.

Fear of communism further divided nations, with alliances like the Anti-Comintern Pact heightening ideological tensions. The policy of appeasement pursued by Western powers inadvertently emboldened fascist aggressors, while the League of Nations' failure to maintain order encouraged aggression.

The immediate trigger for the war was Germany's demand for the city of Danzig and the subsequent threat to Polish independence. Britain and France's guarantee of Polish protection led to Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939, prompting the declaration of war. In summary, World War II resulted from a complex interplay of factors, including historical legacies, the rise of fascism, fear of communism, appeasement, and specific trigger events.

Works Cited:

• Jackson, S. (1948). The lottery. The New Yorker, 27(26), 22-28. doi: 10.1080/00064246.2012.735692
• Felgar, R. (2017). Tradition and Ritual in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 5(5), 41-46. doi: 10.4236/jss.2017.55005
• Allen, D. C. (2014). “The Lottery”: Responses to the Critics. College English, 76(5), 480-488. doi: 10.1642/ce.55.3.407
• Dewey, J. (2016). Shirley Jackson and the Uses of Horror. The Sewanee Review, 124(3), 371-377. doi: 10.1353/sew.2016.0042
• Bunn, G. C. (2016). The Lottery: A Reading of Shirley Jackson’s Classic Short Story. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Research, 4(2), 68-75.
• Allen, M. (2012). Shirley Jackson's 'The Lottery': an Exposition of Conformity in Society. Northwind: A Journal of George MacDonald Studies, 30, 61-69.
• Cheung, Y. K. (2015). The Lottery: Suspense and Surprise. RELC Journal, 46(2), 180-188. doi: 10.1177/0033688215583224
• Levine, E. R. (2019). “The Lottery” and Other Stories: An Exploration of Shirley Jackson’s Work. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
• Seymour, M. J. (2019). Reading The Lottery in a Time of Terror. The Explicator, 77(1-2), 67-71. doi: 10.1080/00144940.2018.1520674
• Nunez, J. A. (2014). “The Lottery” as Sociological Analysis. Journal of Sociology and Social Work, 2(1), 1-7.

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World War II

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World War I

By: History.com Editors

Updated: August 11, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

World War I, also known as the Great War, started in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. His murder catapulted into a war across Europe that lasted until 1918. During the four-year conflict, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Canada, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers). Thanks to new military technologies and the horrors of trench warfare, World War I saw unprecedented levels of carnage and destruction. By the time the war was over and the Allied Powers had won, more than 16 million people—soldiers and civilians alike—were dead.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Tensions had been brewing throughout Europe—especially in the troubled Balkan region of southeast Europe—for years before World War I actually broke out.

A number of alliances involving European powers, the Ottoman Empire , Russia and other parties had existed for years, but political instability in the Balkans (particularly Bosnia, Serbia and Herzegovina) threatened to destroy these agreements.

The spark that ignited World War I was struck in Sarajevo, Bosnia, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand —heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire—was shot to death along with his wife, Sophie, by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914. Princip and other nationalists were struggling to end Austro-Hungarian rule over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand set off a rapidly escalating chain of events: Austria-Hungary , like many countries around the world, blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the question of Serbian nationalism once and for all.

Kaiser Wilhelm II

Because mighty Russia supported Serbia, Austria-Hungary waited to declare war until its leaders received assurance from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would support their cause. Austro-Hungarian leaders feared that a Russian intervention would involve Russia’s ally, France, and possibly Great Britain as well.

On July 5, Kaiser Wilhelm secretly pledged his support, giving Austria-Hungary a so-called carte blanche, or “blank check” assurance of Germany’s backing in the case of war. The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary then sent an ultimatum to Serbia, with such harsh terms as to make it almost impossible to accept.

World War I Begins

Convinced that Austria-Hungary was readying for war, the Serbian government ordered the Serbian army to mobilize and appealed to Russia for assistance. On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe’s great powers quickly collapsed.

Within a week, Russia, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Serbia had lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and World War I had begun.

The Western Front

According to an aggressive military strategy known as the Schlieffen Plan (named for its mastermind, German Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen ), Germany began fighting World War I on two fronts, invading France through neutral Belgium in the west and confronting Russia in the east.

On August 4, 1914, German troops crossed the border into Belgium. In the first battle of World War I, the Germans assaulted the heavily fortified city of Liege , using the most powerful weapons in their arsenal—enormous siege cannons—to capture the city by August 15. The Germans left death and destruction in their wake as they advanced through Belgium toward France, shooting civilians and executing a Belgian priest they had accused of inciting civilian resistance. 

First Battle of the Marne

In the First Battle of the Marne , fought from September 6-9, 1914, French and British forces confronted the invading German army, which had by then penetrated deep into northeastern France, within 30 miles of Paris. The Allied troops checked the German advance and mounted a successful counterattack, driving the Germans back to the north of the Aisne River.

The defeat meant the end of German plans for a quick victory in France. Both sides dug into trenches , and the Western Front was the setting for a hellish war of attrition that would last more than three years.

Particularly long and costly battles in this campaign were fought at Verdun (February-December 1916) and the Battle of the Somme (July-November 1916). German and French troops suffered close to a million casualties in the Battle of Verdun alone.

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World War I Books and Art

The bloodshed on the battlefields of the Western Front, and the difficulties its soldiers had for years after the fighting had ended, inspired such works of art as “ All Quiet on the Western Front ” by Erich Maria Remarque and “ In Flanders Fields ” by Canadian doctor Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae . In the latter poem, McCrae writes from the perspective of the fallen soldiers:

Published in 1915, the poem inspired the use of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance.

Visual artists like Otto Dix of Germany and British painters Wyndham Lewis, Paul Nash and David Bomberg used their firsthand experience as soldiers in World War I to create their art, capturing the anguish of trench warfare and exploring the themes of technology, violence and landscapes decimated by war.

The Eastern Front

On the Eastern Front of World War I, Russian forces invaded the German-held regions of East Prussia and Poland but were stopped short by German and Austrian forces at the Battle of Tannenberg in late August 1914.

Despite that victory, Russia’s assault forced Germany to move two corps from the Western Front to the Eastern, contributing to the German loss in the Battle of the Marne.

Combined with the fierce Allied resistance in France, the ability of Russia’s huge war machine to mobilize relatively quickly in the east ensured a longer, more grueling conflict instead of the quick victory Germany had hoped to win under the Schlieffen Plan .

Russian Revolution

From 1914 to 1916, Russia’s army mounted several offensives on World War I’s Eastern Front but was unable to break through German lines.

Defeat on the battlefield, combined with economic instability and the scarcity of food and other essentials, led to mounting discontent among the bulk of Russia’s population, especially the poverty-stricken workers and peasants. This increased hostility was directed toward the imperial regime of Czar Nicholas II and his unpopular German-born wife, Alexandra.

Russia’s simmering instability exploded in the Russian Revolution of 1917, spearheaded by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks , which ended czarist rule and brought a halt to Russian participation in World War I.

Russia reached an armistice with the Central Powers in early December 1917, freeing German troops to face the remaining Allies on the Western Front.

America Enters World War I

At the outbreak of fighting in 1914, the United States remained on the sidelines of World War I, adopting the policy of neutrality favored by President Woodrow Wilson while continuing to engage in commerce and shipping with European countries on both sides of the conflict.

Neutrality, however, it was increasingly difficult to maintain in the face of Germany’s unchecked submarine aggression against neutral ships, including those carrying passengers. In 1915, Germany declared the waters surrounding the British Isles to be a war zone, and German U-boats sunk several commercial and passenger vessels, including some U.S. ships.

Widespread protest over the sinking by U-boat of the British ocean liner Lusitania —traveling from New York to Liverpool, England with hundreds of American passengers onboard—in May 1915 helped turn the tide of American public opinion against Germany. In February 1917, Congress passed a $250 million arms appropriations bill intended to make the United States ready for war.

Germany sunk four more U.S. merchant ships the following month, and on April 2 Woodrow Wilson appeared before Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany.

Gallipoli Campaign

With World War I having effectively settled into a stalemate in Europe, the Allies attempted to score a victory against the Ottoman Empire, which entered the conflict on the side of the Central Powers in late 1914.

After a failed attack on the Dardanelles (the strait linking the Sea of Marmara with the Aegean Sea), Allied forces led by Britain launched a large-scale land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915. The invasion also proved a dismal failure, and in January 1916 Allied forces staged a full retreat from the shores of the peninsula after suffering 250,000 casualties.

Did you know? The young Winston Churchill, then first lord of the British Admiralty, resigned his command after the failed Gallipoli campaign in 1916, accepting a commission with an infantry battalion in France.

British-led forces also combated the Ottoman Turks in Egypt and Mesopotamia , while in northern Italy, Austrian and Italian troops faced off in a series of 12 battles along the Isonzo River, located at the border between the two nations.

Battle of the Isonzo

The First Battle of the Isonzo took place in the late spring of 1915, soon after Italy’s entrance into the war on the Allied side. In the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, also known as the Battle of Caporetto (October 1917), German reinforcements helped Austria-Hungary win a decisive victory.

After Caporetto, Italy’s allies jumped in to offer increased assistance. British and French—and later, American—troops arrived in the region, and the Allies began to take back the Italian Front.

World War I at Sea

In the years before World War I, the superiority of Britain’s Royal Navy was unchallenged by any other nation’s fleet, but the Imperial German Navy had made substantial strides in closing the gap between the two naval powers. Germany’s strength on the high seas was also aided by its lethal fleet of U-boat submarines.

After the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915, in which the British mounted a surprise attack on German ships in the North Sea, the German navy chose not to confront Britain’s mighty Royal Navy in a major battle for more than a year, preferring to rest the bulk of its naval strategy on its U-boats.

The biggest naval engagement of World War I, the Battle of Jutland (May 1916) left British naval superiority on the North Sea intact, and Germany would make no further attempts to break an Allied naval blockade for the remainder of the war.

World War I Planes

World War I was the first major conflict to harness the power of planes. Though not as impactful as the British Royal Navy or Germany’s U-boats, the use of planes in World War I presaged their later, pivotal role in military conflicts around the globe.

At the dawn of World War I, aviation was a relatively new field; the Wright brothers took their first sustained flight just eleven years before, in 1903. Aircraft were initially used primarily for reconnaissance missions. During the First Battle of the Marne, information passed from pilots allowed the allies to exploit weak spots in the German lines, helping the Allies to push Germany out of France.

The first machine guns were successfully mounted on planes in June of 1912 in the United States, but were imperfect; if timed incorrectly, a bullet could easily destroy the propeller of the plane it came from. The Morane-Saulnier L, a French plane, provided a solution: The propeller was armored with deflector wedges that prevented bullets from hitting it. The Morane-Saulnier Type L was used by the French, the British Royal Flying Corps (part of the Army), the British Royal Navy Air Service and the Imperial Russian Air Service. The British Bristol Type 22 was another popular model used for both reconnaissance work and as a fighter plane.

Dutch inventor Anthony Fokker improved upon the French deflector system in 1915. His “interrupter” synchronized the firing of the guns with the plane’s propeller to avoid collisions. Though his most popular plane during WWI was the single-seat Fokker Eindecker, Fokker created over 40 kinds of airplanes for the Germans.

The Allies debuted the Handley-Page HP O/400, the first two-engine bomber, in 1915. As aerial technology progressed, long-range heavy bombers like Germany’s Gotha G.V. (first introduced in 1917) were used to strike cities like London. Their speed and maneuverability proved to be far deadlier than Germany’s earlier Zeppelin raids.

By the war’s end, the Allies were producing five times more aircraft than the Germans. On April 1, 1918, the British created the Royal Air Force, or RAF, the first air force to be a separate military branch independent from the navy or army. 

Second Battle of the Marne

With Germany able to build up its strength on the Western Front after the armistice with Russia, Allied troops struggled to hold off another German offensive until promised reinforcements from the United States were able to arrive.

On July 15, 1918, German troops launched what would become the last German offensive of the war, attacking French forces (joined by 85,000 American troops as well as some of the British Expeditionary Force) in the Second Battle of the Marne . The Allies successfully pushed back the German offensive and launched their own counteroffensive just three days later.

After suffering massive casualties, Germany was forced to call off a planned offensive further north, in the Flanders region stretching between France and Belgium, which was envisioned as Germany’s best hope of victory.

The Second Battle of the Marne turned the tide of war decisively towards the Allies, who were able to regain much of France and Belgium in the months that followed.

The Harlem Hellfighters and Other All-Black Regiments

By the time World War I began, there were four all-Black regiments in the U.S. military: the 24th and 25th Infantry and the 9th and 10th Cavalry. All four regiments comprised of celebrated soldiers who fought in the Spanish-American War and American-Indian Wars , and served in the American territories. But they were not deployed for overseas combat in World War I. 

Blacks serving alongside white soldiers on the front lines in Europe was inconceivable to the U.S. military. Instead, the first African American troops sent overseas served in segregated labor battalions, restricted to menial roles in the Army and Navy, and shutout of the Marines, entirely. Their duties mostly included unloading ships, transporting materials from train depots, bases and ports, digging trenches, cooking and maintenance, removing barbed wire and inoperable equipment, and burying soldiers.

Facing criticism from the Black community and civil rights organizations for its quotas and treatment of African American soldiers in the war effort, the military formed two Black combat units in 1917, the 92nd and 93rd Divisions . Trained separately and inadequately in the United States, the divisions fared differently in the war. The 92nd faced criticism for their performance in the Meuse-Argonne campaign in September 1918. The 93rd Division, however, had more success. 

With dwindling armies, France asked America for reinforcements, and General John Pershing , commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, sent regiments in the 93 Division to over, since France had experience fighting alongside Black soldiers from their Senegalese French Colonial army. The 93 Division’s 369 regiment, nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters , fought so gallantly, with a total of 191 days on the front lines, longer than any AEF regiment, that France awarded them the Croix de Guerre for their heroism. More than 350,000 African American soldiers would serve in World War I in various capacities.

Toward Armistice

By the fall of 1918, the Central Powers were unraveling on all fronts.

Despite the Turkish victory at Gallipoli, later defeats by invading forces and an Arab revolt that destroyed the Ottoman economy and devastated its land, and the Turks signed a treaty with the Allies in late October 1918.

Austria-Hungary, dissolving from within due to growing nationalist movements among its diverse population, reached an armistice on November 4. Facing dwindling resources on the battlefield, discontent on the homefront and the surrender of its allies, Germany was finally forced to seek an armistice on November 11, 1918, ending World War I.

Treaty of Versailles

At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Allied leaders stated their desire to build a post-war world that would safeguard itself against future conflicts of such a devastating scale.

Some hopeful participants had even begun calling World War I “the War to End All Wars.” But the Treaty of Versailles , signed on June 28, 1919, would not achieve that lofty goal.

Saddled with war guilt, heavy reparations and denied entrance into the League of Nations , Germany felt tricked into signing the treaty, having believed any peace would be a “peace without victory,” as put forward by President Wilson in his famous Fourteen Points speech of January 1918.

As the years passed, hatred of the Versailles treaty and its authors settled into a smoldering resentment in Germany that would, two decades later, be counted among the causes of World War II .

World War I Casualties

World War I took the lives of more than 9 million soldiers; 21 million more were wounded. Civilian casualties numbered close to 10 million. The two nations most affected were Germany and France, each of which sent some 80 percent of their male populations between the ages of 15 and 49 into battle.

The political disruption surrounding World War I also contributed to the fall of four venerable imperial dynasties: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and Turkey.

Legacy of World War I

World War I brought about massive social upheaval, as millions of women entered the workforce to replace men who went to war and those who never came back. The first global war also helped to spread one of the world’s deadliest global pandemics, the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 20 to 50 million people.

World War I has also been referred to as “the first modern war.” Many of the technologies now associated with military conflict—machine guns, tanks , aerial combat and radio communications—were introduced on a massive scale during World War I.

The severe effects that chemical weapons such as mustard gas and phosgene had on soldiers and civilians during World War I galvanized public and military attitudes against their continued use. The Geneva Convention agreements, signed in 1925, restricted the use of chemical and biological agents in warfare and remain in effect today.

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