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World War I
1914–1918

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DATE
July 28, 1914 - November 11, 1918
PARTICIPANTS
Bulgaria
France
Germany
Italy
Japan
Ottoman Empire
Portugal
Russia
United Kingdom
United States
KEY PEOPLE
Kemal Atatürk
Winston Churchill
Georges Clemenceau
David Lloyd George
Woodrow Wilson
MAJOR EVENTS
Gallipoli Campaign
First Battle of the Somme
Battle of Verdun
Battle of Passchendaele
Battle of Cambrai
TOPICS
In Flanders Fields
U-boat
All Quiet on the Western Front
World War I, also called First World War or Great War, an international conflict that in 1914–18 embroiled most of the nations of Europe along with Russia, the United States, the Middle East, and other regions. The war pitted the Central Powers—mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey—against the Allies—mainly France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917, the United States. It ended with the defeat of the Central Powers. The war was virtually unprecedented in the slaughter, carnage, and destruction it caused.

World War I was one of the great watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history. It led to the fall of four great imperial dynasties (in Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey), resulted in the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and, in its destabilization of European society, laid the groundwork for World War II.