- While visiting Sarajevo on the 28th of June, Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assasinated by Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip. In a reaction Austria-Hungary sends an ultimatum to Serbia, whose contents are deliberately made unacceptable to the Serbs. Austria-Hungary declare war on Serbia shortly after receiving German backing. Russia in turn declares war on Austria-Hungary and Germany, dragging its ally France, waiting for an opportunity to reclaim Alsace-Lorraine, into the war too.
- When Germany invades neutral Belgium to execute the Schlieffen-plan the British Empire declares war on Germany. The German advance to Paris is halted at the Marne and a series of flanking attempts, known as the Race to the Sea, prove unsuccesful. The war in the West grinds down to a halt.
- The Germans are much more succesful in the East, repulsing the Russian invasion of East Prussia and defeating the Russians at the battles of the Mazurian Lakes and at Tannenberg. The architects of these victories, Field Marshall Hindenburg and general Ludendorff would play key roles in the final German victory.
- The Ottoman Empire joins the Central Powers later in the year, after a dispute with Britain about the confiscation of ships being built for the Empire.
- Almost all German colonies are occupied before the end of the year, besides German East-Africa. Here general Von Lettow-Vorbeck will play a game of cat and mouse with the allied forces until the end of the war.
- In the West the lines remain static, but the fighting increases in brutality, with chlorine gas being first used during the Second battle of Ypres on 22th of april.
- In the East Russia is being pushed back by the Germans, but manages to hold on to Galicia.
- Bulgaria joins the war on the side of the Central Powers and Serbia becomes the first allied nation to be defeated.
- Italy joins the war on the allied side, hoping to claim the Austro-Hungarian Illyrian provinces. The campaign bogs down to trench warfare.
- In an ill concieved effort to knock the Ottomans out of the War, allied troops land near Gallipoli, hoping to gain control of the vital Dardanelles. The whole campaign becomes a disaster and the allies will pull back their forces before the year ends. A British invasion on Mesopotamia is repelled and the remaining troops retreat to Kut, where the disastrous siege of Kut will start.
- A German submarine sinks the Lusitania. A severe backlash in the United States leads to Germany abandoning its unrestricted submarine warfare, which had hoped to strangle Britain into submission. Many speculated that a continuation of the unrestricted submarine warfare could have led to the entry of the United States into the war.
- The battle of Verdun starts, attempting to bleed the French army dry. In reality all sides bleed equally in a battle which soon loses its military objective. A similar attempt the the British forces at the Somme has the same outcome. 1916 also saw the first use of tanks at the battle of Cambrai.
- In the East the Brusilov offensive is launched. While very succesful at first, the offensive doesn’t manage to either knock the Austro-Hungarians out of the war, or drive Germany from Russian Poland.
- The British troops at Kut are forced to surrender, dealing a heavy blow to British prestige. The Ottomans are being pushed out of the Caucasus and Armenia by a succesful Russian campaign. The Sharif of Mecca starts of a general Arab revolt against the Turks.
- At sea the First Battle of Jutland ends in a tactical German victory, but a strategic British victory, as the Hochseeflotte will remain in port until late 1918.
- Romania tries to profit from Austrian setbacks and invades Transsylvania. German assistance would lead to a quick collapse of Romania, with Bucarest being taken by August von Mackensen within the year. Further south the allies have taken positions around Salonica.
- In Germany chancellor Von Bethmann-Hollweg is forced to resign, being replaced by Georg Michaelis. It was soon clear that Michaelis was little more than a puppet for Hindenburg and Ludendorff.
- On the Western front the heavy French casualties at Chemin des Dames lead to a strike among the French soldiers. This would paralyze the French Army until the end of the year, giving Germany a chance to recover from the Brusilov Offensive.
- Russia collapses into anarchy, with the Czar abdicating early 1917. A provisional government is formed under Alexandr Kerensky, but this government was overthrown by Lenins Bolshevists in november 1917, starting the Russian Civil War.
- In Italy the Caporetto Offensive beats the Italians back to the Piave river, where a last minute defence saves Venice in the nick of time.
- The Ottomans receive blow after blow, with both Baghdad and Jeruzalem being lost to British forces.
- In early january the Peace of Brest-Litovsk is signed between the Germans and the Bolsheviks, freeing thouzands of German and Austrian troops. The Bolsheviks turn over Finland, the Baltics, Belarus and Ukraine to the Germans.
- A great allied spring offensive, designed at breaking the Germans before their reinforcements arrive, is being repulsed at great cost of life.
- Operation Teutoberg is launced, attempting to kick Greece out of the war. Instaed of assaulting the Salonica stronghold head on, the Central Powers make extensive use of specialized stormtroopers and so called infiltration tactics. The defenders at Salonica are pinned down while the rest of the Central forces sweep through Greece. Athens falls on july 3rd, causing the Greek government to surrender. The forces at Salonica are evacuated soon afterwards.
- General Allenby manages to pull of the last great allied victory of the war, encircling and destroying large parts of the Ottoman Army and conquering Damascus. Only the las minute arrival of two German divisions in Asia Minor prevent an invasion of Anatolia.
- The succesful allied tactics against the German u-boats and the bloccade of Germany itself leads to a desperate sally of the Hochseeflotte, now led by admiral Hipper. The Second Battle of Jutland ends in a tie, but the shock of being assaulted forces the Royal Navy to break their blocade. The end of the blocade and the influx of Ukranian grain ends all fears of Germany being starved into submission.
- On the second of march the Germans launch their Great Offensive at St. Mihiel, south of Verdun. The infiltration tactics prove to be succesfull, with Nancy falling on the 16th. The French organize an ad hoc defence, leving their flank exposed. An attack on Rheims on the 26th splits the allied forces in two. An attack on Chateau-Thierry meant the French couldn’t retreat back to the Marne. In effect the entire French army was forced to retreat south and Paris was now under siege.
- Operation Radowitz is launced on the 11th of march, attacking the Italian forces from Trento instead of Piave. Vicenza and Verona fall on the 24th pinning the Italians between two Central armies when Venice is reached on the 10th of april. The siege of Venice would last until July, but with most of the Italian army occupied the rest of Italy lay defenceless, with Rome falling on the firsth of August. Italy would surrender a few days later. The surrender of Italy meant the road to Southern France was now open, with Marseilles falling in september.
- Allied setbacks would lead to Allenby, and most of his troops, being redeployed to France. Allenby’s successor, Sir William Marshall, is forced to slowly retreat because of a lack of man.
- The retreat of the French army lead to the positions of the BEF becoming undefendable. Most of the British forces where evacuated at Dieppe in June, leaving the French on their own. At this point the French army, battered, war-weary and with little hope of victory was in open rebellion. With a second mutiny, a general uprising of the working classes imminent, the fall of Paris a certainty and Marseilles in German hands, the French government capitulated on the 4th of october, ending the war in Europe.
- The fall of France, Russia, Italy and its allies in the Balkans reduced the Entente to the British Empire, Japan and Portugal. While none of these countries was under direct German threat, none was able to pose a threat to Germany likewise. The battle between Germany and Britain continued for two more years at sea, with the Battle of Rockall of 20th of march 1920 being the last great engagement, best known for the fact a torpedo launched from an airplane from the aerodrome-ship Argus managed to cripple the German battlecruiser Würtemberg.
- Peace was being made on harsh terms with all former Entente nations.
- Serbia would secede Macedonia to Bulgaria and accept Austria-Hungary as its nominal overlord. Montenegro was annexed by Austria outright.
- Greece was forced to secede Greek Macedonia and Salonica to Bulgaria, while it had to accept a German lease on Crete for as long as the Kaiser deemed neccesary.
- Romania had to secede Oltenia to Hungary and the port of Constanza to Bulgaria. The oilfields of Ploesti where leased to Germany. Romania was allowed to annex Moldova however.
- Italy was split apart in a number of weak republics, duchies and principalties, with Tuscany, the Papal States and the Kingdom of the Sicilies returning on the map of Europe. The Kingdom of the Sicilies was ravaged by revolution soon afterwards and the Northern states united themselves as the Italian Federation, under the symbolic and spiritual leadership of the Pope. The Veneto was annexed by Austria outright. Libya became a kingdom under Ottoman protection while Germanies last minute ally Ethiopia was allowed to annex most of Somalia, mainly because neither Germany nor Austria had any interest in it.
- France was poised to secede the French Congo, Madagascar and the French Pacific colonies, in addition tot the occupation of parts of French Lorraine. The revolution prevented the ratification of the treaty, causing Germany to simply occupy these colonies.
- Belgium was changed into the Kingdom of Flander-Wallonia, with the Kaisers son Adalbert becoming the new king. The Belgian Congo was given to Germany and Wallonia east of the Meuse, the location of most Belgian industry would be occupied as long as the German government deemed neccesary. The Grand-Duchy of Luxemburg would become a constituent state of the German Empire.
- In the East the acquisitions of the Brest-Litovsk treaty where organized into a series of puppetstates. The Baltics where united into the United Baltic Duchy, with Adolf Friedrich von Mecklemburg becoming its first Grand Duke. The Kaisers brother Heinrich became king Genrikh I of White Ruthenia (Belarus). Poland and Finland became independent states under German protection, with the Kaisers brother-in-law Friedrich-Karl von Hessen becoming king of Finland. Lithuania became independent with Wilhelm von Urach, Duke of Urach, becoming King Mindaugas. The Austrians where allowed to put Archduke Wilhelm Franz on the Ukranian throne in exchange for guarantees about Ukranians rich supplies of coals and grain.
- the war between the Entente and the Central Powers dragged on in 1920 and 1921, with the Royal Navy and Hochseeflotte occasionally butting heads and Central troops trying to break through the British lines at the Suez channel. With no chance of either side breaking the stalemate, and with Russia, France and Southern Italy engulfed by revolution, general Ludendorff proposed a ‘Peace with Honour’ to the Entente. The remaining Entente members would acknowledge the peace treaties between Germany and the former Entente members and return Germanies colonies in exchange a status-quo peace. The peace itself was signed on November 11th 1921, ending the Weltkrieg after seven long years.
- The Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT), led by anarcho-syndicalist Emile Pouget, declares a general strike in reaction to the bloody defeat of the French army during the German Great Offensive and the second mutiny. Its main aim was an immediate end to the war. After the fall of Paris the government of Georges Clemenceau was replaced by a Provisional Government under Aristide Briand.
- Jacobin radicals, inspired by their Russian brethren and Lenins theories about a revolutionary vanguard start a series of attacks on government officials and public buildings, ending achance of the CGT and Provisional Goverbnment reaching an agreement. An attempt of the government to use demobilized soldiers to restore order ends in many soldiers joining the revolutionaries. France in engulfed in a short but bloody war, ending in a victory for the revolutionaries. Emile Pouget starts with the difficult task of changring the French Republic into the Commune of France.
- The remains of the French establishment flee to Algiers, setting up a government-in-exile, led by Maréchal Foch.
- The White generals agree to coordinate their efforts with Kerensky’s provisional government to fight the Red Army at the Congress of Omsk. Trotsky decides to focus his efforts on defending Moscow, allowing the White armies to retake St. Petersburg.
- Baron Ungern von Sternberg and his ‘Wild division’ take the Mongolian capital of Urga, with Sternberg declaring himself Mongolia's supreme ruler.
- The threat of becoming surrounded by syndicalist states, es well as the presence of Makhno’s Black Army in Eastern Ukraine makes Germany intervene in the Russian Civil War. General Wilhelm Groener is ordered to support the White generals in their fight. Groener manages to drive Makhno out of the Ukraine, but fails to rally the Cossacks in support of the Kerensky government. The Cossacks would soon form their own state, just as Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Alash Orda and Turkestan would secede. Georgia quickly fell to the so called Menshevist remnants in the Caucasus.
- Republican candidate Leonard Wood defeats his democratic opponent William McAdoo, replacing president Woodrow Wilson. Wilsons deteriorating heath prevented him from running for another term.
- Wood would become known for his strong crackdown on socialism and syndicalism alike and a policy of strict isolationism, jailing Eugene V. Debs, but was unable to prevent the Zapatista from gaining control in Mexico.
- The combined forces of Marshall Denikin and Groeners expeditionary corps defeat the forces of Trotsky and Tukhachevsky at Tsaritsyn on the 21th of february after weeks of bitter street fighting. With the road to Moscow open, Baron Wrangel takes the city in september. Trotsky uses the confusion to flee the country, but the civil war is at an end.
- after the Easter Uprising in 1916 and five years of war, a peace treaty is concluded between UK and Irish rebels that leads to the creation of a new Free Irish State on Jan. 1 1922. Negotiations with German ambassador Franz von Papen convinced Michael Collins to offer the crown of King of Ireland to Prince Joachim, but German delays and reluctance to let the Prince depart to Ireland led to the declaration of the Republic in October. Marshall Collins becomes the head of the Irish state. The whole affair was deeply embarrasing to the Ludendorff/Hindenburg junta and was quickly swept under the carpet.
- South Rhodesia joins South Africa, nervous of potential German expantionism in its region.
- thrown into depression after his short reign as King of Ireland and his unhappy marriage, Prince Joachim attempts suicide. The scandal is initially covered but leads to speculation.
- President Wood gets reelected, defeating his democrat opponent Albert Smith.
- Admiral Kolchak attempts to coup the Russian government but fails to secure the vital support of Denikin and Wrangel. He quickly flees to Vladivostock, where the Japanese set him up as president of Transamur.
- The German press, dominated by DVP supporter Alfred Hugenberg, finds out the thruth behind Prince Joachims suicide attempt and accuses Ludendorff of mishandling the Irish crisis. Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, now the leader of the DVP, manages to gain the Kaisers support to force de facto dictator Erich Ludendorff to step down. Tirpitz then replaces feeble Michaelis as chancellor. The old and respectable Field Marshall Hindenburg was made minister of war in Tirpitz cabinet,suggesting some kind of behind-the-screen dealings between Tirpitz, Hindenburg and the Kaiser.
- A coalminers strike in Wales quickly escalates into a general strike when the government threatens to send in the army. The strike was quickly followed by a mutiny of parts of the navy and ended with the king and the government fleeing to Canada. A coalition of syndicalists, Labour, Welsh and Scottish nationalists and suffragettes take over the government under the charismatic John McLean.
The fall of Britain itself lead to a massive landgrab by many of its longtime enemies. Gibraltar finally fell into Spanish hands once again, while Argentina quickly seazed the Falklands, Egypt gained sole authority over the Sudan and the Ottoman Empire regained control over Cyprus. The German Empire managed to secure most of the British African Empire as well as the strategic colonies of Malta, Suez, Aden, Ceylon, the Strait Colonies, Brunei and Sarawak.
- Australia and New Zealand seize the British part of New Guinea and Fiji. Later in the year both nations would form the Australasian Confederation for mutual protection.
- India, once the pearl in the British crown breaks down into three new states. The Princes of Kashmir and the Punjab unite with the remaints of the Raj to create British friendly Delhi while a revolt in Bengal leads to the establishment of a syndicalist state there. The Princes of the South form their own, independent Princely Federation. Birma becomes an independent kingdom once again.
- South Africa manages to secure the Bechuana Protectorate and Nyassaland. Tension between pro-Entente Smuts and pro-republic Hertzog grows.
- The only thing left for Canada and the Royal Navies caribean squadron is to secure the British colonies in the region. These colonies, together with the former French colonies inthe region would form the Caribean Federation.
- In Canada the senate is replaced by a House of Lords, members of the British aristocracy who fled to Canada.
- Xu Shichang manages to become president of the divided Chinese Republic. In an effort to restore order, Xu asks the German Empire to help him restore order in China. In exchange he would accept the restoration of Pu Yi to the Chinese throne. The Guominjun accuses Xu of betraying the Republican principles of Sun Yat-Sen and declares war on him.
- In order to manage its many Imperial possesions in Africa,Germany creates the Freistaat Mittelafrika after the model of the British Raj. Field marshall Von Lettow-Vorbeck becomes its first Stadthalter.
- Governor Hans von Seeckt of German Indochina is ordered to intervene in the civil war in support of Xu. Within six months Germany manages to defeat the Guominjun and secure most major centers of industry and population. The opponents of the government retreat to the remote west, Yunnan or Manchuria Pu Yi is restored as Emperor, but has to accept a coglomerate of German enterprises, known as the AOG (Algemeiner Ostasien GmbH) taking economic control of the industrial south. Hans von Seeckt would become its first governor-general. In order to safeguard the economic interests of other major powers all the port cities are united as the Legation Cities and are put under joint control.
- Japan intervenes too in support of Zhang Zuolin, but isn't willing to risk conflict with Germany. The Fengtian Republic is set up in Manchuria.
- President Wood dies of a malignant brain tumor. His vice president Irvine Lenroot becomes the next president.
- The renegotiation of the Ausgleich between Austria and Hungary nearly leads to a splitup of the Dual Monarchy. Only German intervention prevents the split. The final outcome is a federalisation of the Empire, with Bohemia, Galicia-Lodomera, Croatia and Bosnia all gaining limited homerule. In the confusion Serbia manages to break out of the Austrian sphere of influence.
- Ukraine, which was part of the Austrian sphere of influence becomes part of Germanies alliance, as a 'reward' for Germanies mediation.
- Revolts sweep through Guatemala, toppling the government. British Honduras quickly falls to revolution too, joining the new syndicalist state.
- Republican Herbert Hoover defeats New York governor Al Smith.
- The Central American revolt spreads to El Salvador. Guatemala and El Salvador merge to form Centroamerica
- The inability of the Entente nations to pay off their enormous debts and Germanies heavy protectionism have hurt the American economy for years but in 1929 the New York stock exchange finally collapses, sending America into the Great Depression. The economic crisis remainslimited to the American continent, with the European economies now oriented on the Berlin stock exchange.
- The Iron Guard party coups the Romanian government, installing Corneliu Codreanu as the Conductare.
- Grand Admiral Afred von Tirpitz dies on the 6th of march. He is replaced by Fieldmarshall Oskar von Hutier, the man finalizing the encirclement of Paris during the Weltkrieg. He was the most succesful and popular chancellor in German history behind Otto von Bismarck himself.
- In a reaction to the growing threat of Centroamerica, Nicaragua and Costa Rica unite to form the United Provinces.
- Herbert Hoover narrowly defeats Franklin D. Roosevelt, mainly because the once Solid South voted for Gerald K. Smith, the candidate put forward by popular Louisiana governor Huey Long and his American First movement. The syndicalists, led by Alexander Berkman and John ‘Jack’ Reed manage to win the state of New York.
- In South Africa Barry Hertzog wins the elections and declares South Africa to be a republic. South Africa leaves the Entente.
- Chancellor Von Hutier dies and is replaced by Franz von Papen.
- A series of border skirmishes between Paraguay and Bolivia leads to Argentina and Bolivia go to war over the alledged Bolivian attempts to annex Paraguay.
- Argentina manages to drive the Bolivians out of the disputed Gran Chaco region. Brazil decides to intervene on Bolivia’s behals, sparking off the Great South American War. Small Uruguay is quickly overrun by Brazilian forces, having the misfortune to be in the way. The march towards the River Plate ended in trench warfare.
- Argentinian troops, fresh from defeating Bolivia counterattack the Brazilian lines along the River Plate. The tired Brazilian forces break and Brazil quickly seeks terms. Paraguay and Uruguay join Argentina in the newly created Federation of La Plata.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt is assasinated on the 12th of april by a radical American Firster.