World War One
History: In a nutshell.
Issue #1

World War One. It went from 1914 to 1918. It was the most devastating war that humanity would see. But how did it come about, and why? Well, World War One started with the death of a very important leader in this country at that time called Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary was not a very big country, and it certainly was not very important. Austria-Hungary was a rival with a nearby country called Serbia. Serbia was also very small, and was right next to its rival. These two countries did not get along and often had quarrels, just as children do when fighting over a toy. Austria-Hungary did not treat Serbians well, and the Serbians wanted revenge.

On June 28th, 1914, a group of Serbian nationalists called the Black Hand planned an assasination attempt on that important guy we talked about before, and his name was Archduke Franz Ferdinand. However, their attempt at murder failed, and the grenade that was tossed at his car missed, killing and injuring multiple people. The Archduke and his wife Sophie were unharmed, and he even decided to visit the hospital where the injured were being tended to. The assassins disbanded, trying to blend in with the crowd. One of them by the name of Gavrilo Princip traveled to a nearby restaurant for dinner. Meanwhile, the archduke’s driver made a wrong turn onto the exact street where Princip happened to be. Just as Princip was about to go into the restaurant he noticed Ferdinand and shot him and his wife Sophie.

This was an outrage to Austria-Hungary, and they declared war with Serbia a month later. This war would never have been very big if these two tiny countries were just going to fight it out with their tiny armies, but these two countries were each backed up by huge superpowers in the world, and once they called their allies to war, it was a bloodbath. Austria-Hungary’s allies included Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman empire. These countries formed the Central Powers. Serbia’s allies included pretty much everyone else, the Allied Powers. They had battle after battle on The Somme, and it was horrifying to all of the soldiers involved. Soldiers had to fight from horrible battle stations called The Trenches, where they would have to live in the mud and horrible conditions for long periods of time. Hearing was often damaged because of the amount of grenades that went off and gunshots. These soldiers experienced the worst scenario a person could place themself in, and they didn’t always have the stomach to fight. Plenty of soldiers injured themselves on purpose to escape, and plenty were shot for cowardice. The ones who fought well and lived had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and it is no wonder. 

The reason that these fighting conditions existed was because of the invention of the machine gun, a rapid-fire weapon that could be shot by just holding down the trigger. The difference with this is that it did not require precise aim, just shooting a few spurts in someone's direction could do the job. The only solution to this was to dig trenches that could not be shot through and could still reach machine guns up over and fire. Another revolutionary invention at the time was by the future British prime minister, Winston Churchill. He designed the tank, which was originally scoffed at and better appreciated in World War Two. However, it was still used, and was great for traveling rough terrain. Armies soon found a solution for that, too: digging deep holes for the tanks to fall into. Also, soldiers would keep enemies from crossing into their territories by setting up the new creation of barbed wire, something that could not be crossed by soldiers and sometimes tanks.

The United States of America did not join the war for a long time. President Woodrow Wilson had no desire for war in Europe, and wanted to stay out of any fights that may have been happening. This did not stop the people from sending soldiers and aid to the Allied side, and some even supported the Central Powers. There were many people of German heritage in America, and many reasoned that there was no reason why people should support Britain but not Germany. This was one of the key reasons that Woodrow Wilson chose to stay out of the war. About a year after the war had started Germany sunk a ship  on May 7 called The Lusitania carrying about 128 American citizens. This gave America a reason to join the war on the Allied side.

Germany formally surrendered on November 11th, 1918. The next year on June 28th, the Treaty of Versailles was signed, and all countries agreed to stop fighting. The allied powers had won. This officially ended the war, and though it was over, 4 and a half years of murder and bloodshed was still a stark reality. An estimated 15 to 22 million deaths from WW1, and an estimated 40 million military casualties. A human horror, if ever there was one. This may have been the end of the war, but there was more soon to come. World War Two brought more casualties and fighting, along with bravery and courage. World War One started with the death of one man, but a series of chain reactions led to the deaths of millions.