Visual Timeline: WW1

1914's

Assassination- June 28, 1914

Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, were on their wedding anniversary visiting Sarajevo in Bosnia. It was also an anniversary for the Serbians as it was the date of the 1389 battle of Kosovo where Serbians were crushed, it was said that "This has always been a day where Serbians renewed their ambition to throw off the yoke of a foreign Overlord" ("How the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Unfolded", 00:00:52- 00:00:59) On the day of the assassination, Ferdinand and his wife set off in a convoy of vehicles in a luxury open limousine to the town hall for a reception. Young men committed to freeing Bosnia of Austrian rule set up a plan and were armed with weapons provided by rogue members of Serbian government. They were all lined up waiting to assassinate. The first assassin froze up and did nothing. The second, Cabrona Vich, threw a bomb at the car, but it bounced off landing behind it injuring the people following the limousine and people around about 20 people were injured but not Ferdinand. Gavrilo Princip was the third assassin in line, he did nothing, perhaps thinking the bomb killed him. Franz goes to the reception shaken and gives his speech, they decide to visit the wounded bystanders and colleagues in the hospital. However no one told the driver about this plan so he

went on his way, back the way they came. After telling the driver

he made the wrong turn, the driver plans to turn around the vehicle. In that moment Sophie then Franz is shot with a

pistol by Gavrilo Princip who had still been there after not

killing Franz the first time.

Painting done by Clive Uptton who did many paintings and art during WW1, including propaganda posters.

1914

1915's

Battle of Ypres- April 22-

May 25 1915

The objective of this battle was to gain control of the strategic town Ypres located in western Belgium. This was the first battle in war using poison gas, this was used by the Germans; they released 160 tons of chlorine gas from cylinders. Allies wanted to protect Ypres because it offered a rail and road track that they were determined to keep out of German hands. Little land was gained from this war and many casualties were made. However, Canadians were known as heros in this battle as they were able to create makeshift gas masks after seeing the chlorine burning their throats and causing their lungs to fill with foam and mucus, causing men to drown in their fluids.

Image of the make-shift gas masks discovered by canadians for the battle of Ypres

1915

1916's

Battle of Somme-

November 18, 1916

The battle of the Somme is also known as the Somme defensive. The British launched the largest battle on the western front against German line in order to relieve the French fighting at Verdun as well as weaken the German army. This battle turned out to be the bloodiest battle in history and the biggest disaster in british military history. Whenever british soldiers “went over the top” of their trenches tens of thousands were killed by machine guns. This battle presented little gain and works as a prime example of senseless slaughter; altogether more than 1.5 million were killed. In the end of this battle there was no decisive winner.

This painting is inspired by the battle of Somme as it left such a indelible impression on him. this painter specifically had been a known artist before war and was frustrated that so many lesser known artists were gaining money from their art

1916

1917's

Battle of Vimy Ridge- April 9-

April 12, 1917

Image of Canadians after their most defining battle

The Military Service Act was proposed and later enforced by Prime Minister Bordon. Prime Minister Borden promised more reinforcements then he could offer, and due to all the casualties we didn't have enough recruiters to make up for the lost soldiers. He also didn't want to let the soldiers down as he was 250 000 soldiers short; So, Prime Minister Bodon pitched the idea of conscription which made service compulsory for men between 25-40 years old. He said that if he won the election in December he would assume that the public wanted and supported conscription. However, in order to put the votes in his favour he unfairly extended and restricted who could vote. Prime Minister Borden extended the vote to women, specifically, female relatives of soldiers and nurses overseas. Many women were unhappy with this as they too were contributing to war yet, had no say in the vote. The french were also not happy about this since they didn't feel that they had any ties to Britain, however they did say if Canada was threatened they would go. Lastly the farmers were also not happy about conscription as they needed labour on the farm to produce food; women ended up taking over this role. After the December election, Prime Minister Borden was elected therefore, he enacted the military service act making conscription mandatory.

1917

1918's

The End of The Great War

The 100 days- August 8- November 11, 1918

The 100 days ended WW1. German General Erich Ludendorff described it as “the black day of the German army” due to the large numbers of soldiers who chose to surrender rather than fight to the death. The Germans had already feared the Americans' entry into the war. They wanted to knock France out of the fight with a massive offensive. The French and allied forces were pushed almost all the way back to Paris. However, at the second battle of the Marne the allies counterattacked, stalling the German advance. At the battle of Amiens in France, the first blow came, attacking side by side with the Australian corps. The Canadians punched a twelve kilometer hole in the German line in which they couldn't recover. Then Canadian and allied troops moved to the north Arras region of France for the final push against Germany and they captured the German position. Then at the battle of Canal Du Nor the Germans were again forced to retreat. There were many casualties in these last days but the victories demoralized the Germans; the soldiers' sacrifice was critical in ending the war against Germany.

This panting was made to commemorate the war effort at central Paris, they wanted to honor the greatest war with the greatest painting ever created. this painting took 4 years with the help of 150 artists.

Video showing what the final moments of war were thought to have looked like

1918

1919's

Treaty Of Versaille- June 28, 1919

The Treaty of Versaille is a peace treaty that ended World War One. The aime of the treaty was with Germany and them taking responsibility. They also had some punishments for starting the war. This had a huge impact on Germany's pride, economy, and military. The treaty terms were agreed upon by what is known as “The big three” The big three were the Prime Ministers from Britain, France, and USA. They each had different things in mind based on how badly they were impacted/ involved in and by this war. George Clemenceau was Prime Minister of France, he was impacted badly and had a lot of involvement in war; he wanted harsh punishment. Woodrew Wilson the Prime Minister of the USA, they didn't have much involvement in the war and was not impacted as badly, therefore he was opposed to harsh punishment and didn't want Germany to be blamed. Lasly, David Lloyd George was in between; he wanted enough punishment to satisfy those who wanted harsh punishment, but not too much so that Germany could still trade and wouldn't be destroyed. In the end the biggest punishments that were agreed upon were, they had to decrease the size of their military, pay a big fine (this fine didn't get fully paid off until 2010) and they had to take full responsibility for the war. Overall, this treaty was made in hopes that a war like this would never happen by making consequences that would deter other countries from doing something similar. However, this treaty contributed to Germany's resentment in the following war.

Image of the treaty Germany was forced to sign

1919