Holocaust Encyclopedia | United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Scene of destruction during World War I: panoramic view of the battlefield at Guillemont, September 1916, during the Battle of the Somme © IWM (Q 1281)

World War I and its Aftermath: Key Dates

November 2018 marks the centenary of the end of World War I (1914–18), the first great international conflict of the twentieth century. After almost 100 years of relative peace, the major European nations went into a war that left millions dead, empires toppled, and a continent devastated. The conflict and its divisive peace left a legacy that helped give rise to totalitarian ideologies, like Communism, Fascism, and Nazism, and paved the way for World War II and the Holocaust.