At the start of the 20th century, Europe was sitting on a bunch of bombs that only needed one spark to go off. In Europe, things had been going so badly for the past fifty years that peace could no longer be kept.
More than one hundred battles were engaged during World War I. The four-year conflict lasted from July 28, 1914 to November 11, 1918. It commenced on that date. Over nine million combatants and seven million civilians participated in some capacity, either directly or indirectly.