today we're looking at the first year of world war one 1914.
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you'll find more resources that go with many of the bell ringer videos after the assassination of
archduke franz ferdinand of austria-hungary in late june of 1914 very quickly years of
deteriorating relations and military growth in europe led to a flurry of declarations
of war between rival powers the allied powers which included great britain france and russia
faced off against the central powers which included germany austria-hungary and the ottoman
empire on august 4th of 1914 the united states declared neutrality and would not become involved
in the war on the side of the allied powers until april of 1917 but before the us entered the war
major fighting took place in europe fighting could basically be divided into two fronts
the western front involved battles in which the french and british fought off german attacks the
eastern front focused on fighting between germany austria-hungary against russian forces as the
fighting commenced there was confusion within the central powers as austria-hungary believed germany
was going to give most of their support to them in attacking serbia and russia however germany
had other plans germany's primary objective as the war began was to first invade france and eliminate
them from the war then turn their attention to russia germany committed 80 of its forces
to the french front as a result serbian forces were able to fend off attacks by austria-hungary
in august of 1914. the defeat of the 1914 invasion was the first major victory for the allied forces
during the war at the same time the german offensive end of france was getting underway
known as the schlefen plan the germans purposely made their left front appear to be weak in order
to lure french forces to attack there while at the same time the bulk of their forces would attack
the french left front and basically flank the french army and go all the way around their left
side and push them back to paris in order for this strategy to work the germans would first have to
invade belgium to establish their position for the attack on august 4th 1914 the german invasion of
belgium began germany believed they would easily march through belgium and prepare their army for
their invasion of france however belgian fighters stalled the german advance at the battle of liege
12 forts protected the city and belgian fighters put up a strong resistance but after over a week
of being shelled by german forces the belgians had to withdraw on the eastern front of the war
russia was attempting to push into germany but at the battle of tenenberg on august 26th german
forces were able to successfully fight off the invasion but took heavy casualties at the same
time german forces on the western front in france were successfully pushing allied forces back
the german army pushed within 15 miles of paris on september 5th 1914 the allied forces organized
a counter-attack to the german advanced at the battle of marne the battle would last for
seven days until september 12th but the allies were successful in stopping the german advance
and germany slowly withdrew the battle of marne was a great morale boost for the allied forces
but this early fighting came with a terrible cost french forces had experienced over 260 000
casualties that's killed wounded captured or missing in the first month of the war
and in one single day on august 27th there were 27 000 french soldiers killed the highest one day
total in the entire history of the french military by october of 1914 germany organized another
attack on the left side of the allied line at the battle of epra in belgium but french british and
belgian fighters were able to repel the attack as colder weather began to set in and and basically
a stalemate was forming on the western front both sides began to dig in and a close to 450
mile long line of defensive trenches marked the divide between the allied and central powers
for the remainder of the war trench warfare would be the defining strategy and come to symbolize the
fighting during world war one on the eastern front of the war german and austrian forces organized an
attack to capture warsaw poland throughout october and november of 1914 intense fighting took place
between russian forces and germany but neither side was able to gain any ground also there was
significant fighting taking place between allied and central power forces in africa as well as in
the south pacific as both sides fought to maintain control over several of their colonial holdings in
these regions 1914 had seen the opening shots of the war and both sides attempting to bring the war
quickly to an end by launching invasions on their enemies however both sides soon learned that the
war would not be easily won so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching