Panchronia

World War I map: Europe in 1914 and after the war

What Europe looked like on the eve of World War I, where the fronts ran, who fought whom — and how the map of the world changed after 1918.

Updated

World War I (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918) changed the political map more than anything since the Napoleonic Wars. Four empires vanished, almost ten new states appeared in Europe, and borders were drawn across the Middle East that largely survive today.

Map of Europe in 1914

On the eve of the war Europe was dominated by great powers, most of them monarchies:

Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia did not yet exist. Europe in 1914

Who fought whom

Allies (Entente)Central Powers
Russia (until 1918)Germany
FranceAustria-Hungary
British EmpireOttoman Empire (from Nov 1914)
Serbia, Belgium, MontenegroBulgaria (from Oct 1915)
Japan (1914)
Italy (from 1915), Romania (from 1916)
United States (from 1917), Greece (from 1917)

The trigger was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. A month later Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and within a week the alliance system had pulled every European great power into the war.

The fronts of World War I

1917–1918: Russia leaves and the war ends

After the February Revolution and the October Revolution of 1917, Russia left the war: under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 it gave up Poland, the Baltic lands, Finland, Ukraine and part of Belarus. Germany's last offensive in the West in spring 1918 failed, and with American troops arriving the Allies counter-attacked. Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary surrendered in the autumn; on 11 November 1918 Germany signed the Armistice of Compiègne. Europe in 1918

Map of Europe after World War I

The Treaty of Versailles with Germany (1919) and the treaties with its allies — Saint-Germain, Trianon, Neuilly and Sèvres — changed the map:

Compare 1914 and 1920 on the globe: move the timeline and watch the empires disappear and new borders appear. Europe in 1920

Questions

Which countries fought in World War I?

The Allies — Russia, France, the British Empire and later Italy, Romania, the United States, Greece, Japan, Serbia, Belgium and others. The Central Powers — Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. In all, 38 states took part.

Which empires collapsed after World War I?

Four: the Russian (1917), the German and Austro-Hungarian (1918) and the Ottoman (finally in 1922). New states took their place.

Which countries were created after World War I?

Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Yugoslavia), Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria and Hungary as separate states, and later the Republic of Turkey and the USSR.

Pick a year and see the whole world at once: borders, rulers and events on every continent.

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