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The last veteran who served in the trenches was Harry Patch (British Army), who died on 25 July 2009, aged 111. The last Central Powers veteran, Franz Künstler of Austria-Hungary, died on 27 May 2008 at the age of 107. The total number of participating personnel is estimated by the Encyclopædia Britannica at 65,038,810.
The last veteran who served in the trenches was Harry Patch who died on 25 July 2009, aged 111. The last Central Powers veteran was Franz Künstler from Austria-Hungary. He died on 27 May 2008 at the age of 107. The total number of people who took part in WWI is estimated by the Encyclopædia Britannica at 65,038,810.
German officials signed the Armistice at 5:00am on November 11, 1918, aboard a railroad sleeper car stopped in a clearing at the village of Le Francport near Compiègne. Germany was the last of the Central Powers to surrender. Its allies, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire, had already quit the war.
Leaders of the Central Powers of World War I. The three emperors: Kaiser Wilhelm II, Mehmed V, Franz Joseph. A postcard depicting the leaders of the Central Powers. The leaders of the Central Powers of World War I were the political or military figures who commanded or supported the Central Powers .
- Overview
- The outbreak of war
World War I began after the assassination of Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand by South Slav nationalist Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914.
Read more below: The outbreak of war
Balkan Wars
Read more about why the Balkans became the “powder keg of Europe.”
What countries fought in World War I?
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).
With Serbia already much aggrandized by the two Balkan Wars (1912–13, 1913), Serbian nationalists turned their attention back to the idea of “liberating” the South Slavs of Austria-Hungary. Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević, head of Serbia’s military intelligence, was also, under the alias “Apis,” head of the secret society Union or Death, pledged to the pursuit of this pan-Serbian ambition. Believing that the Serbs’ cause would be served by the death of the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph, and learning that the Archduke was about to visit Bosnia on a tour of military inspection, Apis plotted his assassination. Nikola Pašić, the Serbian prime minister and an enemy of Apis, heard of the plot and warned the Austrian government of it, but his message was too cautiously worded to be understood.
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At 11:15 am on June 28, 1914, in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, Franz Ferdinand and his morganatic wife, Sophie, duchess of Hohenberg, were shot dead by a Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Princip. The chief of the Austro-Hungarian general staff, Franz, Graf (count) Conrad von Hötzendorf, and the foreign minister, Leopold, Graf von Berchtold, saw the crime as the occasion for measures to humiliate Serbia and so to enhance Austria-Hungary’s prestige in the Balkans. Conrad had already (October 1913) been assured by William II of Germany’s support if Austria-Hungary should start a preventive war against Serbia. This assurance was confirmed in the week following the assassination, before William, on July 6, set off upon his annual cruise to the North Cape, off Norway.
The Austrians decided to present an unacceptable ultimatum to Serbia and then to declare war, relying on Germany to deter Russia from intervention. Though the terms of the ultimatum were finally approved on July 19, its delivery was postponed to the evening of July 23, since by that time the French president, Raymond Poincaré, and his premier, René Viviani, who had set off on a state visit to Russia on July 15, would be on their way home and therefore unable to concert an immediate reaction with their Russian allies. When the delivery was announced, on July 24, Russia declared that Austria-Hungary must not be allowed to crush Serbia.
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Emperor Charles’ Manifesto of 16 October represented the final push for independence of the soon-to-be new states created by the collapse of the Dual Monarchy. Battlefield defeat of the German army in 1918 also led to major changes to its government. Thus the two Central European Great Powers suffered defeat.
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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.
