The timeline will briefly dive into the start of WWI, as it is crucial to understand the background of the war before diving into the individual battles. The war erupted due to varying factors that contributed before the 20th-century even began. The Great War was provoked by the events of the July Crisis when Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated. The timeline will then explore the decision-making in what led to the creation of the Somme offensive in 1916. Lastly, it will briefly examine the events of the Battle of the Somme and the aftermath. The timeline will stop at the end of 1916 since this project is about the Battle of the Somme.

 

Further Reading

  • Clark, Christopher. The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2013.
  • Gilbert, Martin. The Somme: Heroism and Horror in the First World War. New York: H. Holt,  2006. 
  • Herrmann, David G. “The European Armies in 1904.” In The Arming of Europe and the Making of the First World War, Princeton University Press, 1996.
  • Mason, David S. A Concise History of Modern Europe: Liberty, Equality, Solidarity. Lanham:  Rowman & Littlefield, 2019. 
  • Liddle, Peter. The 1916 Battle of the Somme Reconsidered. Yorkshire: Pen & Sword, 2016.
  • Verhey, Jeffrey. The Spirit of 1914 : Militarism, Myth and Mobilization in Germany. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.