World War I: Key Battles and Turning Points (1914-1918)
World War I: Key Battles and Turning Points
1914: War of Movement
At the outset of the war, the Germans, to avoid war on two fronts, remained on the defensive in Russia and invaded Belgium to occupy and defeat France. The move paid off: the German armies reached 25 km from Paris, the French government moved to Bordeaux, and the French army, under Joffre, blocked the German advance on the Marne and repulsed the Germans to the Aisne and Vesle. On the Eastern Front, the Russians suffered a heavy defeat at the Battle of Tannenberg. In late 1914, the Germans had not achieved their goal of destroying France, but their territory had been free from invasion. France, although it managed to avoid the invasion of Germany, had a substantial part of its territory occupied and suffered severe loss of life. In the Pacific, the Japanese navy seized German possessions.
1915-1916: War of Position
In 1915, two countries entered the war: Italy, which finally broke the Triple Alliance to join the Entente, and Bulgaria, which joined the Central Powers, creating a difficult situation for the Allies in the Balkans. In the early months of 1915, Germany remained on the defensive on the Western Front, allowing the Allies to wear themselves out with attacks, and focused all its efforts on the Eastern Front, forcing the Russians to withdraw nearly 500 km. The defeat of the Allied troops in Gallipoli, the Dardanelles, left Turkey isolated from its Russian allies. Two more countries went to war in 1916: Romania and Portugal, joining the Allies.
The involvement of Romania, which was intended to serve as support for Russia after the conflict with Bulgaria, was a failure: its territory was quickly invaded by the Germans, who obtained abundant wheat and petroleum. In the spring of 1916, the important Battle of Verdun took place, where the Germans planned to break the French front. The German armies were commanded by General Erich von Falkenhayn, and the French by General Petain.
1917: War of Attrition
From January 1917, the Germans launched an indiscriminate submarine warfare campaign, which led to the collapse of many commercial vessels and caused the U.S. entry into the war. On April 2, the United States Congress decided to declare war on the Central Powers. That same year saw the Russian Revolution, which led to the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. The new communist government sought an armistice with the Central Powers to withdraw from the war and carry out internal social revolution. The armistice was ratified in 1918 with the signing of the Peace of Brest-Litovsk, which saw the end of the war for Russia and the independence of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine, a condition imposed by Germany to sign the armistice.
1918: Final Offensive
Following the signing of the Brest-Litovsk peace with the Russians and the peace with the Romanians in Bucharest, the Germans prepared a strong offensive on the Western Front. In October, the Italians suffered the great defeat of Caporetto. In France, the German army, commanded by Ludendorff, came back to the Marne. But the intervention of the United States was a major boost for the Allies. Franco-British-American troops, led by Foch, forced the Germans to retreat during the Second Battle of the Marne. In November, Emperor William II abdicated, and the Republic of Germany was proclaimed.