Why did World War 1 start and why did it end?

Answer 1

The war started in the summer of 1914 when the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was murdered by a Bosnian man. The Bosnian was part of a rebel group that was helped by Serbian intelligence agents; Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia because of this. The war spread because of the alliances involved- Serbia was allied with Russia, so Russia joined in. But Austria-Hungary was allied with Germany, so Germany joined too. Germany knew that Russia and France were allies, so Germany also declared war on France. And so on, until just about everyone was involved.

The war ended in November 1918 when Germany surrendered. To make a long story short-ish:

Both sides were exhausted after four years of brutal warfare. Although Russia had been forced to quit the war when they had a pair of revolutions in 1917, fresh American troops helped tip the balance in favor of the Allies. Countries like the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary could no longer sustain the war, and their governments collapsed, forcing them to quit fighting too.

In the end, Germany was left fighting the war almost on their own. The Allies were beating the Germans, and were close to invading Germany. When Germany's emperor ordered his navy to make a suicidal attack on the British navy, the German navy instead mutinied. The mutiny grew and spread until Germany had its own revolution, and the emperor was forced to flee the country. The emperor was quickly replaced by a president, who sent a representative to France to surrender, thus ending the war.