Great War

The Great War, also known as the Iron Calamity, Seminal Catastrophe or initially in the United States as the European War, was a global conflict originating in Europe that lasted from the 28th of July, 1914 to the 23rd of January, 1920. More than 70 million combatants were mobilized globally, and great inventions made during the Second Industrial Revolution were modified and fielded for frontline combat. It is one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with at least 200 million soldier and civilian lives lost to combat, genocide, and the Yellow Death.

The Great War is marked as the end of the Second Industrial Revolution and the beginning of the Great Iron Harvest and Second Dark Age, plunging Europe and the rest of the world into chaos.

Prelude
On June 28th, a Serbian Yugoslav nationalist Gravilo Princip of the Black Hand Society assassinated the Austro-Hungarian archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Austro-Hungary immediately sent Serbia an ultimatum. Serbia declined, thus leading to mobilization of both nations. Russia, both an ally of Serbia and a member of the Triple Entente of Russia, France and Britain, then mobilized against Austro-Hungary. Germany, a member of the Triple Alliance between Italy, Austro-Hungary and the German Empire, declared war on Russia, and thus the rest of the Triple Entente, starting the war officially. Italy, though a member of the Triple Alliance, opted out of the war until 1915, when it joined the Entente.

1914
Austro-Hungary, by the end of 1914, had invaded Serbia after the month-long Siege of Belgrade, the Battle of Skopje and the Battle of Drina. Serbian resistance to imperial occupation carried on after the invasion.

Initially, the German implementation of the Schlieffen plan to bring France to capitulation was successful until the invasion of Belgium brought the United Kingdom into war against Germany and the Battle of the Marne in late 1914 halted the German advance. The Marne forced both sides into a war of attrition, and trenches were dug from Switzerland to the English Channel. Meanwhile on the Eastern Front, Russian soldiers had attempted to take Tannenburg but failed, and the Russian Second Army had been annihilated while the First Army, though suffering heavy casualties, made a hasty retreat across the Masurian Lakes as the German army pursued them.

In Asia, Commonwealth troops had taken and occupied German Samoa and parts of German New Guinea. The Japanese had entered the war on the side of the Entente and had captured German ports and colonies in China and Micronesia. By the end of 1914, German holdings in Asia had been captured by the allies, with the exception of most parts of New Guinea.

1915
Throughout 1915, both sides were locked in trench warfare in Europe. Poison gas was first used in the war during the Second Battle of Ypres; German soldiers fired 150 tons of chlorine gas at French soldiers. In the Middle East, the Gallipoli campaign begins. A day after the beginning of the Gallipoli campaign on April 26th, Italy leaves the Triple Alliance and joins the Entente.

1916
During 1916, the Germans had successfully funded the Easter Rising with arms and ammunition, thus leading to the 10-day conflict and the subsequent insurrection lead by the Irish Social Liberation Society in the western counties of Ireland.

After the Battle of the Somme in November, the German high command had been replaced by younger men who would gradually replace the strategy of trench warfare. These plans were accomplished with the implementation of lighter equipment and more offensive weaponry for regular soldiers. The western front had quickly been reverted to the same state that the eastern front was in; trenches were abandoned, and fighting was made more mobile by the end of 1916. It was initially successful.

1917
By mid-1917, the Entente had adapted and co-opted the German's strategies of mobile warfare and fielded their own lightweight and offensive equipment. With the introduction of the United States into the war, British officers began drilling the American soldiers headed to the front on these new strategies.

During and after 1917, random attacks on citizens at the hands of German soldiers intensified, starting with the Brussels Massacre in which 48 Belgian citizens were shot.

The Russian Revolution had also begun in 1917, which would lead to the Bolshevik insurrection, capture of Petrograd and the exit of Russia from the war with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in 1918. The revolution would also lead to the Russian Civil War.

1918
In the beginning of 1918, the Hundred Days' Offensive was launched by the Allies in a response to the Germans' own Spring Offensive and as an attempt to break the German war machine. It started with the Battle of Amiens, which ended in a bitter stalemate. More ground was made later in the offensive, however.

To counteract the Hundred Days' Offensive and other such attacks, Germany unveiled their mechanized walker models into combat, something that hadn't been done by any nation at war since 1864. The Allies were shocked, though eventually they adapted to this and unleashed their own walker designs.

In the Middle East, the Ottomans had managed to break the joint Australian-Arab Siege of Damascus and drove the attackers away from the city.

Mid-1918 brought the Yellow Death to combat on the battlefield in Europe. Soldiers who showed signs of the disease, particularly malnourished ones, were used as both cannon fodder and living biological weapons. Armed with nothing but their rifle, some rounds of ammunition and uniforms, infected soldiers were separated from their comrades and, when the time came, would charge enemy positions in droves. If any managed to reach the position, they were instructed to shoot, stab, cough, sneeze and vomit upon any enemy combatant. Soldiers convinced that they truly had nothing left to lose and were willing to do such an act would become inflicted by what was known then by, not only the disease itself, but also the Yellow Mercy.

1919
The Allies had managed to make considerable ground near the middle and end of 1919. This news would reach Brussels and would serve as a cataclysm to the Brussels Uprising. The uprising disrupted logistical lines for the German armies in the north of the front and forced them into retreat all the way across the border back into Germany, where the Battle of Aachen was fought beginning on the 17th of December.

The Ottoman Empire capitulated on the 20th of November and signed an armistice. Austro-Hungary did the same on the 22nd of November.

1920
During the Battle of Aachen, the German high command requested an armistice with the Allies. This was accepted, and on the 23rd of January, the war ended.