World War One was a massive conflict that changed the course of warfare for ever, fought from 1914 to 1918 by the great powers of Europe. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated on June 28, 1914. This was the immediate cause but there were a series of events which triggered the war. By 1914, the great powers of Europe were divided into two defensive coalitions: the Triple Entente—consisting of France, Russia and Britain—and the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. What this meant was that if one country declared war on another, the other countries would also have to enter the conflict because it was in the treaty they agreed. So, when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia all their allies were called into the war. Fighting quickly developed into a stalemate on the western front. The war saw many new inventions such as the tank, fighter and bomber planes, automatic weapons, machine gun, artillery, flamethrower, poison gas, tracer bullets, aircraft carriers, and most notably, massive trench systems. During World War One soldiers fought in muddy trenches and dugouts, living miserably until the next attack. Technological developments in engineering, chemistry, and optics had produced weapons deadlier than anything known before. The power of defensive weapons made winning the war on the western front all but impossible for either side. And this was largely from (as I mentioned before) trench warfare. Trench warfare was a sort of land warfare that compromised of battle lines which faced one another and were made up of military trenches, in these trenches’ troops are shielded from enemy rifle fire and for the most part artillery. Because of these trenches it was very hard to lead an assault on the enemy without losing all your soldiers because the trenches were so well defended. There was barbed wire in front of the trenches meaning it would be extremely difficult to get into the enemy trench once you reached it. Reaching the trench though would be the hardest part as enemy machine gun fire from large concrete bunkers would be mowing down soldiers. Artillery fire from kilometres behind the enemy trench would fire huge explosive shells at the advancing soldiers all while the enemy could be firing at you with rifles and trench mortars. If you were able to reach the trench and get past the barbed wire, you would be greeted by soldiers with bayonets, knifes and trench shotguns where bloody hand to hand combat would then take place. As you can see, it was very difficult to make any ground during trench