In 1914 Austria-Hungary was in control of land that Serbia believed it owned. On June 28, 1914, a Serbian nationalist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austria-Hungarian throne. (The word assassinate means to murder a political or important person. After the assassination, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
World War 1 began in Europe between the countries of Austria-Hungary and Serbia, but because of alliances, it soon grew into a global war of 32 nations. The fighting was fierce. Soldiers on each side dug a system of trenches, or ditches, that faced each other and cound extend hundreds of miles. Barbed-wire fences protected the front of each trench. A "no-man's land" - the area between trenches that neither side controlled - spread out between the opposing armies. Soldiers ate and slept in the trenches, which were often flooded or filled with rats. Trenches stayed damp, and many soldiers became ill. In the trenches, the sounds of war were constant.
Each side shot at the other's trenches or sent poison gases into them. Occasionally, troops on one side would go "over the top". They climbed out, crawled through the barbed wire, and raced across no-man's land to attack the enemy. Soldiers on both sides were becoming weary, and as casualties (deaths) climbed month after month, it seemed that the killing would never end!
