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On 28th June 1914, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire, was assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia. One month later Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. This was rapidly followed by other declarations of war, as the system of alliances which had formed in an effort to maintain the balance of power in Europe followed its inevitable course. Germany\'s decision to invade France through neutral Belgium led to the British declaration of war on Germany on the 4 August. The \'Great War\' which developed between the allied powers (led by France, Russia, Britain and, from 1917, the United States) and the Central Powers (led by Germany and Austria-Hungary) lasted until 1918. On the western front, the two sides rapidly became entrenched, and the technology of warfare at the time made it difficult to overcome the ensuing stalemate.Although a variety of strategies were employed, including poison gas from 1915 and tanks from 1916, World War One was remarkable for the extraordinary loss of life in these trenches.
Because of the importance of the European empires at this time, the war was fought on a global level. Ultimately, however, the loss of life and costs of supplying troops made this a war of attrition. This became evident in 1917, when the Russian Empire collapsed in revolution. Morale was also collapsing among the people of Germany.Although the German army was not defeated in the west, the Central Powers surrendered, signing an armistice on 11 November 1918. In June 1919 the Treaty of Versailles was signed with Germany. Its harsh terms, insisted upon by the French and Lloyd George, would prove to be the source of enormous bitterness in Germany after the war. An estimated 10,000,000 lives had been lost, of which some 750,000 were British. Twice that number were wounded
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