German Awards - World War I

1. World War

World War I lasted from 1914 to 1918. The starting point was the Sarajevo attempt on
On June 28, 1914, the heir to the Austrian throne, Franz Ferdinand, and his wife were killed. After Austria's ultimatum to Serbia, Austria declared war on 28 July 1914. On July 30, Russia announced a mobilization in support of Serbia. Germany entered the war on the basis of an alliance with Austria-Hungary on August 1 and declared war on Russia.
On the one hand, the German Empire and Austria-Hungary fought, later the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria joined them, and on the other - Serbia, Russia, France and Great Britain. They were later supported by Japan, Italy, Romania, Portugal, Greece and the United States.
What was new about this war was that it was fought with a huge use of materials and for the first time using weapons of mass destruction such as poison gas. The war became known not least for endless positional battles, as in Verdun, where hundreds of thousands of people on both sides were forced to give their lives without any significant change at the front.
The consequences of the end of the war and the defeat of the Central Powers (the German Empire and Austria-Hungary) are still valid. Therefore, many historians call World War 1 a primitive catastrophe of the 20th century.