8th January - Woodrow Wilson outlines his Fourteen Points in a speech to the United States Congress.
The Fourteen Points of Woodrow Wilson were a statement of principles for peace that Wilson regarded as the only possible basis of an enduring peace. They included the self-determination of the nations, the liberation of occupied territories and the formation of a general association of nations. The Central Powers soon refused the Fourteen Points and the Entente countries were anyway skeptical of the applicability of the Wilsonian idealism, but Woodrow Wilson was still awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his peace-making efforts.
25th January - The Ukrainian People's Republic declares its independence from Russia.
1st February - Beginning of the Cattaro Mutiny
The SMS Sankt Georg was an armoured cruiser of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. On 1st February 1918 the Cattaro Mutiny began on this ship, that was later joined by sailors from around 40 other Austro-Hungarian ships in the Cattaro naval base. The sailors had grown weary of the war and the long periods of inactivity and demanded a better treatment, political change and an imminent peace, but already on 3rd February the mutiny was suppressed. The SMS Sankt Georg was decommissioned after the mutiny and awarded to Britain as a war prize after the war. In 1920 it was scrapped.
9th February - The Ukrainian People's Republic and the Central Powers sign the "Brotfrieden" (peace for bread), which secured food-supply support for the Austro-Hungarian and the German Empire in return for providing military protection for the Ukrainian People's Republic.
10th February - Leon Trotsky stops the peace negotiations in Brest-Litovsk. The Central Powers answer with a quite successful offensive against Russia, which forces Trotsky to continue the negotiations on the 26th February.
3rd March - Russia and the Central Powers sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ended Russia's participation in World War I. The treaty, which was extraordinarily harsh, also renounced all Russian territorial claims in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bessarabia (which became a part of Romania), Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. Doing so Russia hoped to get some relief from further invasion to protect the "success" of the revolution.
21st March - Beginning of Operation Michael, the first major German military offensive as part of the Spring Offensive of 1918 on the Western Front
30th March - Around 12000 Azerbaijanis are killed by Armenian and Bolshevik forces during the March Events until the 2nd April.
1st April - Formation of the Royal Air Force
Although the air plane was both quite young when World War I broke out, it played an important role during the war. The main tasks of the aircrafts were recce flights, air combats and sometimes also the bombing of enemy positions or cities. On 1st April 1918 the United Kingdom became the first country in the World with an independent air force, when the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service were merged to create the Royal Air Force. Earlier the Royal Flying Corps was under army and the Royal Naval Air Service under navy control. At that time it was also the World's largest air force.
6th April - The city of Van comes again under Ottoman rule.
In 1915 the city of Van was one of the few places where Armenians with the support of the Imperial Russian Army fought against the Ottoman Empire's armed forces during the Armenian Genocide. The city was afterwards under Armenian control, but the Russian Revolution of 1917 changed the situation in the region. In April 1918 the Ottoman Army started to attack again and on 6th April Van was again under Ottoman control.
9th April - Beginning of the Battle of the Lys
The Battle of the Lys, which is also known as Operation Georgette or Fourth Battle of Flanders, was the second part of the German Spring Offensive. It was fought between the 9th and 29th April. In the battle the German Empire tried to capture Ypres, but that failed and the battle ended with an Entente victory.
7th May - Romania and the Central Powers sign the Peace Treaty of Bucharest.
22nd May - Beginning of the Battle of Sardarabad, which stopped the Ottoman advance into Armenia and which is also considered to have prevented the complete destruction of the Armenian nation
27th May - Beginning of the Third Battle of the Aisne, the again unsuccessful third part of the German Spring Offensive
4th June - The Ottoman Empire and the newly independent countries Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia sign the Treaty of Batum, which grants big territorial gains to the Ottoman Empire.
10th June - The SMS Szent István, the most modern Austro-Hungarian battleship, is sunk during an attempt to break through Otranto Barrage, which prohibited the Austro-Hungarian Navy from leaving the Adriatic Sea.
15th June - Beginning of the Second Battle of the Piave River, the last Austro-Hungarian attempt to defeat Italy, but which instead resulted in a decisive Italian victory
3rd July - The Ottoman Sultan Mehmed V dies.
15th July - Beginning of the Second Battle of the Marne, the last part of the German Spring Offensive
16th July - The Russian Imperial Romanov family is executed on the night of the 16th July.
8th August - Beginning of the Battle of Amiens and the Hundred Days Offensive
The Battle of Amiens was fought by the British Empire, France and the USA against the German Empire between the 8th and the 12th August 1918. The battle ended with a decisive Allied victory. It is notable for its effects on both sides' morale and the war's tempo. After the Battle of Amiens the Entente saw a rapid series of victories against the German Empire, which are now known as Hundred Days Offensive. This became the beginning of the end of the Western Front. Erich Ludendorff later described the 8th August as "the black day of the German Army".
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| John Monash was an Australian civil engineer and military commander of World War I. He was a meticulous planner and brilliant tactician and among others planned the Battle of Amiens. |
15th September - As part of the Vardar Offensive French, Greek and Serbian forces begin their Breakthrough at Dobro Pole leading to a collapse of the Macedonian Front.
19th September - Beginning of the Battle of Megiddo, the last battle of the war in the Middle East that would later lead to a complete collapse of the Ottoman front
29th September - Bulgaria and the Allied Powers sign the Armistice of Salonica.
1st October - The British capture Damascus.
10th October - RMS Leinster is sunk by a German submarine.
RMS Leinster was an Irish ship that was used for Royal Mail service. On 10th October 1918, when she was on her way between Ireland and Wales, she was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine. Over 500 people lost their lives. Still today this is the greatest single loss of life in the Irish Sea.
24th October - Beginning of the Battle of Vittorio Veneto
The Battle of Vittorio Veneto was fought between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy between the 24th October and the 3rd November 1918. It ended with a disastrous Austro-Hungarian defeat and thus marked the end of the war on the Italian Front, secured the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and sealed the end of the Italian unification.
29th October - Beginning of the Mutinies in Wilhelmshaven and Kiel
The German Fleet was nearly not used during World War I and when the war was actually already lost, the imperial naval command planned a final battle against the Royal Navy in the English Channel. The preparations triggered a mutiny among the affected sailors in Wilhemshaven, which was actually suppressed shortly after, but when the commander believed that he was again master of his crews, another mutiny broke out in Kiel. The Kiel Mutiny turned into a revolution and soon spred across Germany.
1st November - As a main event of the Allied Liberation of Albania, Montenegro and Albania Belgrade comes again under Serbian control.
3rd November - The Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Allied Powers sign the Armistice of Villa Giusti.
9th November - Philipp Scheidemann proclaims the German Republic.
The German Revolution that began in Kiel soon swept away the monarchy in Germany. On 9th November the abdication of the Emperor was declared and Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed the German Republic from one of the balconies of the Reichstag building. Scheidemann proclaimed the republic just a few hours before a planned proclamation of a Soviet Republic by Karl Liebknecht, which would later lead to some leftist uprisings. One day later an interim government was formed, which planned the elections for a constituent National Assembly. In 1919 the Weimar Republic arose from this event, which was the first modern democratic republic in Germany.
10th November - Romania re-enters the war.
11th November - The German Empire and the Allied Powers sign the Armistice of Compiègne.
At least since the Battle of Amiens everyone in the higher ranks of the German military knew that there was no chance left for a German victory. Erich Ludendorff, although he later changed his mind, demanded a request to be given to the Entente for an immediate ceasefire already on the 29th September, but still it needed the German Revolution to bring an end to the war. A German delegation headed by Matthias Erzberger finally signed an armistice at Compiègne on the 11th November 1918. Although they formally protested at the harshness of Allied terms, they were in no position to refuse to sign. Among others the Allies demanded the termination of hostilities on the Western Front, the immediate evacuation of the occupied territories, the surrender of military materiel, the release of Allied prisoners of war and the renunciation of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The fact that the republicans signed the armistice later created the stab-in-the-back myth (Dolchstoßlegende), a notion that the German Army did not lose World War I on the battlefield but was instead betrayed by the civilians on the home front and the republicans who overthrew the monarchy in the German Revolution.
After over four years of fighting the war was finally over. More than 15million people lost their lives, big parts of Europe were destroyed and new countries arose. To find a new order for the continent the Allied powers came together in Paris in 1919, but the peace was short-lived and just twenty years later an even more horrible war began.
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