What's covered
Key facts
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914, triggering the chain of events that led to WW1.
WW1 fighting ended with the armistice at 11:00 on 11 November 1918.
Poison gas was first used as a major weapon during the First World War.
After WW1 Germany was forced to drastically reduce the size of its army and navy under the Treaty of Versailles.
Poison gas was used by both sides during the First World War.
No man's land was the muddy, wire-strewn, cratered strip between opposing front-line trenches.
Germany first used poison gas as a major weapon at the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915.
At the Battle of the Somme (1916) British forces suffered roughly 57,000 casualties on the first day, including nearly 20,000 killed.
Machine guns and barbed wire made infantry attacks extremely costly and produced the Western Front stalemate.
Trenches were wet, cold and dangerous, and were infested with rats and lice.
Sample questions
A taste of the 30 questions in this topic — answers marked. Sign up to practise the full set with spaced repetition.
Whose assassination in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 triggered the war?
- ✓Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary
- •Kaiser Wilhelm II, ruler of imperial Germany
- •King George V of Britain and the dominions
- •Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the eastern emperor
Which 1916 Western Front battle saw nearly 60,000 British casualties on day one?
- •Battle of Passchendaele
- ✓Battle of the Somme
- •Battle of Verdun
- •Battle of Ypres
Which two alliance systems faced off in 1914?
- •Dual Entente and the Allied Powers
- •Triple Alliance and the Central Powers
- •Triple Entente and the Ottoman Empire
- ✓Triple Entente and Triple Alliance
What stretched between the front-line trenches and was full of mud, wire and craters?
- ✓No man's land
- •The communications trench
- •The fire step
- •The reserve trench
How did machine guns and barbed wire change Western Front warfare?
- •They allowed trench raids without casualties
- ✓They made attacking infantry costly, leading to stalemate
- •They made cavalry attacks the main tactic
- •They sped up advances across no-man's-land
Why did the Treaty of Versailles cause anger in Germany?
- ✓It blamed Germany solely and demanded huge reparations
- •It forbade Germans from celebrating Christmas
- •It required Germany to invade Russia in 1920
- •It rewarded Germany with new colonies in Africa
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