I'm in need of a short summary of what happened in WWI. I figure there must be some history buffs in this forum. I'd appreciate some help.
Well nevermind, a few quick links. http://http://history1900s.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.bbc.co.uk%2Fhi%2Fenglish%2Fspecial_report%2F1998%2F10%2F98%2Fworld_war_i%2Fnewsid_197000%2F197437.stm This is a pretty good synopsis, not to in depth, some extra links provided at the bottom for individual "battles". http://members.aol.com/sniper43/worldwar1.html Use this one at your own risk. While pitifully informal and occasionaly technically incorrect, it's a good read. Much farther from being a credible source than the other two links. http://history.searchbeat.com/worldwar1.htm I'd read this one last, doesn't provide much about what happened before the onset of the war but I'm assuming you don't need that anyway, this is an actual overview.
You know what, I got halfway through writing my own summary of the war and decided it would take too fucking long to document the whole thing. Here's a really good WWI website, I suggest you look at it: http://www.worldwar1.com/ I'm also working on a videogame (still in the brainstorming process though) about WWI, probablt a First person shooter. I think it'll be called 1917: A Soldier's Story, so if you need any additional information PM me. I'll post what I did get up to, since it would be a shame to just delete all that work. It's a very abridged version (and even then it would still be way too much to write), so don't expext much: ------------ Basically, by 1914 Europe was a powder keg. Between imperialism, the arms race and all the secret alliances, no European nation trusted another European nation. Militarism (propoganda glorifying war, and propoganda in general) was big, and with no UN or any other peacekeeping organization around to settle differences, there was no way to talk things over. The spark came when a Serbian seperatist (at the time Serbia was part of Austria-Hungary) assasinated Frans Ferdiand, the archduke of some place in Austria. On it's own the assasination was no big deal, but when Austria retaliated against Serbia, Russia stepped up and mobilized to defend it's ally Serbia. Big mistake. Germany saw this as an eminent threat (millions of Russian troops on your border isn't good news), so it declared war on Russia. Germany also declared war on France, since the pre-war plan had been that if war breaks out on one side (either Russia or France), then they would also declare war on the other side to block an inevitable suprise attack. Since Britain can't stand by and watch France fight a war on their own, they declare war on Germany. And WWI begins. The war in Russia is a disaster for czar Nicholas II, since Russia was using old rifles, there wan't enough food or equipment, and no efficient means of transporting anything. On top of that, Nicky had no fucking clue how to fight a war and no military experience, yet still decided to handle everything on his own. In a word: disaster. The Germans advance through Russia and before they could get to Moscow, civil war breaks out (czar vs. the people) and Nicholas is dethroned. After another civil war (this time it's the Reds vs. Whites), Lenin comes out on top and signs the treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1917, ending the war for Russia. In France, Germany got off to a good start. The French had massed their forces along the northern border with Germany (this was an offensive measure since they never thought William II would bring the war to them first), and in doing so left Southern France virtually undefended. --------------
MaxPower. A couple points about your analysis: The alliances were certainly not secret, although I think that there was some uncertainty on whether members would honour the arangements that had been made. As for the war between Russia and Germany. It was quite different than that of the Second World War. It was the Russians who eventually invaded German territory, where they were defeated at the Battle of Tannenberg. The defeat was so decisive, that the Germans felt confident enough to redeploy units to the Western Front. The Russians made peace with the Germans in 1917 after the Bolshevik revolution. Following this there was a civil war between royalists (Whites) who were supported by Russia's previous allies, and the Soviets. In France, the Germans invaded using the Schlieffen Plan, which had been devised over the course of the previous 20 years or so. This necessitated invading Belgium and the Netherlands, both of which were neutral. The plan was not properly carried out, however, and before the Germans could reach Paris, the war degenerated into a stalemate. From the beginning, the war in the south was much more stable, but southern France was by no means undefended.
