The First World War began as a diplomatic crisis between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914. It soon grew into a conflict that engaged all of the worlds major powers. On one side was a group of nations known as the Central Powers, including Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire. They waged war against the Allied Powers, including France, Britain, Russia, Italy, and eventually the United States. New developments in modern warfare, such as the machine gun, the tank, aerial bombardments, and poisonous gas, resulted in wide-scale destruction and the deaths of more than 15 million people. This book in the MAJOR U.S. HISTORICAL WARS series examines the events that led up to World War I. It discusses the political and military strategies that the Allies and the Central Powers employed, and provides information about key people, battles, and events. The most devastating conflict to that point in history, the First World War helped shape our modern world. Each title in this series contains color photos, maps, chronology and back matter including: an index, further reading lists for books and internet resources, and a series glossary. Mason Crests editorial team has placed Key Icons to Look for throughout the books in this series in an effort to encourage library readers to build knowledge, gain awareness, explore possibilities and expand their viewpoints through our content rich non-fiction books. Key Icons are as follows: Words to Understand are shown at the front of each chapter with definitions. These words are then used in the prose throughout that chapter, and are emboldened, so that the reader is able to reference back to the definitions- building their vocabulary and enhancing their reading comprehension
