Five key causes of World War I

How WWI began with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

World War I started for several reasons—imperialism, militarism, nationalism, and more—but the catalyst was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, the Duchess of Hohenberg by the young assassin Gavrilo Princip. Read this article ton see how the assassination sparked the chain reaction that led to the Great War.

Who started WWI?

World War I started with the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg. That's certainly one of the biggest catalysts for the war, but who started it? Ten historians offer their interpretations of which nations bore the brunt of the responsibility. As this article unsurprisingly discovers, it's complicated.

World War I causes

World War I was, as the name says, truly war on the global scale. Fought between the French, Russian, British, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman, and Russian Empires, it was in part, a battle for territory. And after the war ended, several of these empires collapsed. Explore the different causes of World War II in this article.

Everything you need to know about WWI

Summarizing World War I seems like an impossible task, but this article makes a great effort at providing a easily digested survey of the Great War. Read about WWI from the first shots fired by assassin Gavrilo Princip at the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, to the various campaigns waged by the war's participants, to the equipment provided to the various fighting forces.

Illustrating the beginning and end of WWI through maps

In August of 1914, Germany invaded an ostensibly neutral Belgium, kick-starting World War I. The war became one of the deadliest conflicts in human history, decimating Europe and reshaping global politics for the next century. It also brought forward sweeping and terrifying new military technologies, a product of the Industrial Revolution. Explore 40 maps explaining the Great War in detail.

A visual summary of WWI

This animated video summarizes the "Great War"—World War I—tracing its progression through Europe, detailing the rise of nationalism in the middle of the 19th century until the signing of the peace treaties after 1918. This 18-minute provides a year-to-year accounting of the war with various helpful insights along the way.

How the Great Depression and end of WWI paved the way for Hitler’s rise to power

The end of WWI was triggered by an armistice that blamed the conflict on Germany and required the financially struggling country to pay reparations. This outraged nationalists and ignited conspiracies that Hitler was able to capitalize on, according to this six-minute video. It was during this financial strain that the Great Depression hit.

The Concert of Europe's collapse contributed to World War I

The 19th-century great power system gradually unraveled due to rising nationalism, imperial rivalry, and shifting alliances—leading to its collapse in 1914 and the outbreak of the deadliest war the world had yet seen.

The 1915 sinking of the Lusitania precipitated World War I

In 1915, the British RMS Lusitania sank after being torpedoed by a German submarine. The Germans claimed the ocean liner was transporting munitions. Almost 1,200 civilians were killed in the disaster, which became a symbol of German aggression in the lead-up to World War I.

Was WWI really the first world war?

Was World War I the first true international conflict? This article thoroughly explores the meaning of the term world war. It also suggests a few previous conflicts, some of which involved battles in the Americas as well as Europe, that might have been more accurately described as a "world wars."

Who was impacted by the first world war, and how?

This interactive map from the National Archives in the UK details the global impact of World War I. Countries and territories from Aden to New Zealand were impacted by the Great War, which started in 1914 and lasted until 1918. By selecting various locations on the map, viewers can access articles and evidence on how the war's influence traveled far beyond the front lines.

Should the US have entered into World War I?

America entered World War I in 1917, but had remained neutral until that point. President Woodrow Wilson addressed Congress, further underlining the USA's neutrality. Eleven weeks later, he asked for a declaration of war. With attacks by German saboteurs on an American munitions depot, it seemed he had no choice. But did he? This article asks what might have happened if the US stayed out of WWI.

Exploring World War I technology on the battlefield

Industrialization brought massive changes to warfare during the Great War. Newly-invented killing machines begat novel defense mechanisms, which, in turn spurred the development of even deadlier technologies. Nearly every aspect of what we would consider modern warfare debuted on World War I battlefields. Starting with soldiers on horseback carrying lances and ending in poison gas, machine guns, and aerial battles, this gallery shows the first tools of modern warfare.

Why wasn't German emperor Kaiser Wilhelm punished for starting WWI?

The accusations were explosive: a head of state had not only begun an illegal war, but egged his troops on to a series of horrific atrocities that left

Why did the Ottoman Empire violently target Armenians during WWI?

In anticipation of threatened Allied landings at the strategically important Gallipoli peninsula, Ottoman authorities arrested 240 Armenian leaders in Constantinople on April 24, 1915, and deported them east. This roundup is commemorated today by Armenians as the beginning of the genocide, according to this article.

Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1941 speech framed World War II as a global fight for universal rights

Eleven months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt outlined four fundamental freedoms that, in his words, people "everywhere in the world" ought to enjoy—speech, worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

The 10 main elements of fascism

This 10-minute video explains the 10 main elements of fascism, which it describes as the "cult of the leader" who promises national restoration that stymies the tide of a country's takeover by various groups. The main elements of fascism include...

What led to the Vietnam War?

On the heels of gaining independence from colonizers, why did Vietnam fracture and begin its internal battle? Though the war took root during an independence movement against French colonial rule, it evolved into a Cold War confrontation with international support. This article explains six events that led to the conflict between North and South Vietnam.

Manhattan Project explained

Driven by fears of a Nazi nuclear bomb, the Manhattan Project united leading scientists to build the first atomic weapons. Its success ended World War II, caused catastrophic human loss, and launched the nuclear age that reshaped global politics and science.

NATO's Article 5 has been invoked once—after 9/11

The article was invoked the day after the attacks and launched a series of NATO campaigns to fight global terrorism. This page includes excerpts from a speech by then-NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg about the attacks and the organization’s response.

Autoimmune diseases affect between 5% and 10% of people worldwide, but their causes remain unknown

Autoantibodies—which attack the body—may be detectable in the body years before a patient develops symptoms, but some people may have detectable levels yet never go on to develop an autoimmune disease. This video discusses this and other unsolved mysteries with autoimmune disease.

10 items that could have saved your life in the trenches

Soldiers settled into trenches to defend themselves against shrapnel and bullets, but weapons such as mustard gas crawled along the ground and settled in these low-lying areas. Here are 10 items that could have helped you survive the trenches, according to this article.

Why the Gunpowder Plot failed, and other questions answered by historians

The 1605 Gunpowder Plot aimed to blow up the English Parliament and King James VI and I. Guy Fawkes, often associated with the plot, was not the mastermind; Robert Catesby and Thomas Wintour led it. They selected Parliament as their target due to...

10 controversial World Cup moments

If you're expecting a staid back-and-forth, then you'll be surprised by the World Cup, which is often filled with high drama and even higher tensions. This list highlights how controversy has been a constant on soccer's biggest stage, influencing outcomes, sparking debates, and sometimes leading to rule changes.

Why did Britian's intelligence agency hire Mussolini?

This article explains how and why Benito Mussolini worked for MI5, the British intelligence agency. Before Mussolini ever rose to power as a fascist dictator, he was a journalist who was willing to advocate for Italy to join the allies in World War...

Learn more about the history of fireworks, which dates back to an accidental invention during an alchemist's quest for information about immortality.

Abraham Lincoln was almost assassinated weeks before his inauguration as he traveled from Illinois to DC through Baltimore in 1861; it took two independent claims for Lincoln to be convinced the threat was real

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

In 1915, workers recovered a submarine-like vessel from the Chicago River, prompting fears of German espionage

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

Volcanic activity may have triggered the Black Death by spewing gases that led to crop failures in Europe, thus forcing the import of grain ships with plague-infested fleas.

View the ten deadliest tornadoes in US history.

Poison ivy's characteristic rash is caused by an allergic response to an oily compound in the plant called urushiol.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

About 12.5% of US adults experience a phobia in their lifetime, a diagnosis that hinges on the intense fear interfering with daily life and persisting for at least six months.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

All rainbows are 'raincircles' caused by water droplets separating white sunlight into a spectrum of colors, but Earth's surface blocks the bottom half of the circle from our line of sight.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution