什么是第一次世界大战

World War I，亦作First World War。

1914～1918年发生的国际冲突，交战双方为同盟国（主要为德国、奥匈帝国和土耳其）与协约国（主要为法国、英国、俄国、义大利和日本，1917年还有美国）。1914年6月，一名塞尔维亚人民族主义分子刺杀了奥地利的法兰西斯.斐迪南大公。随即一连串的军事威胁与军事动员，终於使两联盟在8月中旬爆发了全面战争。德国长期以来准备在两条战线上进行陆地战，在西线，其军队迂回绕过法国主要防御部队，向西穿过比利时南下，直扑巴黎。法国得到增援，使巴黎幸免被占领。由於现代大炮和机枪的巨大火力，战争迅速转为消耗战，1916年索姆河战役与凡尔登战役以及1918年初德国的大规模反攻均未能打破这一局面。在东线，1914年俄国早期的反攻深入东普鲁士和德属波兰，但俄军被德奥部队截住。1915年在德军一次惊人的反击中俄军被赶回本国领土。虽然俄军又发动几次反攻，却无法突破德方防线。俄国作战不力，伤亡惨重，引起国内广泛不满，导致1917年俄国革命。其他战场虽包括加利波利和达达尼尔；高加索和波斯；美索不达米亚和埃及；的里雅斯特西北的伊松佐河谷。在海上，德国与英国的舰队间的日德兰半岛之战，但未分胜负。德国使用舰艇，以阻断英伦三岛的海上供应线。促使美国於1917年参战。1917年12月俄国与德国签订和约，退出战争。德军从东线撤往西线，但因美军抵达法国，将其力量抵销。1918年秋，德国对西线的大反攻遭到失败。协约国军队收复了德军占领的法国领土及比利时部分地区。11月德国与协约国签订停战协定，据估计战争中死亡人数为一千万，受伤人数为两千一百万，七百七十万人失踪或囚禁。亦请参阅Caporetto, Battle of、Fourteen Points、Lusitania、Paris Peace Conference、Brest-Litovsk, treaties of、Neuilly, Treaty of、Saint-Germain, Treaty of、Sevres, Treaty of、Trianon, Treaty of、Versailles, Treaty of、Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby、Foch, Ferdinand、French, John、Haig, Douglas、Hindenburg, Paul von、Joffre, Joseph-Jacques-Cesaire、Ludendorff, Erich、Pershing, John。

1914～1918年

World War I

International conflict between the Central Powers—Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey—and the Allied Powers—mainly France, Britain, Russia, Italy, and (from 1917) the U.S. After a Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria in June 1914, a chain of threats and mobilizations resulted in a general war between the antagonists by mid-August. Prepared to fight a war on two fronts, based on the Schlieffen Plan, Germany first swept through neutral Belgium and invaded France. After the First Battle of the Marne (1914), the Allied defensive lines were stabilized in France, and a war of attrition began. Fought from lines of trenches and supported by modern artillery and machine guns, infantry assaults gained little ground and were enormously costly in human life, especially at the Battles of Verdun and the Somme (1916). On the Eastern front, Russian forces initially drove deep into East Prussia and German Poland (1914), but were stopped by German and Austrian forces at the Battle of Tannenberg and forced back into Russia (1915). After several offensives, the Russian army failed to break through the German defensive lines. Russia's poor performance and enormous losses caused widespread domestic discontent that led to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Other fronts in the war included the Dardanelles Campaign, in which British and Dominion forces were unsuccessful against Turkey; the Caucasus and Persia, where Russia fought Turkey; Mesopotamia and Egypt, where British forces fought the Turks; and northern Italy, where Italian and Austrian troops fought the costly Battles of the Isonzo. At sea, the German and British fleets fought the inconclusive Battle of Jutland, and Germany's use of the submarine against neutral shipping eventually brought the U.S. into the war in 1917. Though Russia's armistice with Germany in December 1917 released German troops to fight on the Western Front, the Allies were reinforced by U.S. troops in early 1918. Germany's unsuccessful offensive in the Second Battle of the Marne was countered by the Allies' steady advance, which recovered most of France and Belgium by October 1918 and led to the November Armistice. Total casualties were estimated at 10 million dead, 21 million wounded, and 7.7 million missing or imprisoned. See also Battles of Caporetto, Vimy Ridge, and Ypres; Fourteen Points; Lusitania; Paris Peace Conference; Treaties of Brest-Litovsk, Neuilly, Saint-Germain, Sèvres, Trianon, and Versailles; Edmund H. H. Allenby, Ferdinand Foch, John French, Douglas Haig, Paul von Hindenburg, Joseph-Jacques-Cesaire Joffre, Erich Ludendorff, John Pershing.