Key People of World War I

Ferdinand Foch (October 2, 1851- March 20, 1929) was a Marshal of France and commander of all Allied forces during the closing months of World War I. Foch served as a commander during the battle of the Marne and as Assistant Commander-in-Chief of France’s Northern Army under General Joseph Joffre during the Somme campaigns, but he was removed from command by Joffre for his aggressive tactics and high casualties. Joffre’s removal from command in 1916 led to Foch's recall and promotion to General Chief of Staff. In March 1918, a conference of British and French commanders and diplomats appointed Foch Generalissime, or Supreme Commander of Allied Armies, in order to facilitate better coordination between all forces on the Western Front. Foch, with British Marshal Douglas Haig, was responsible for planning the Grand Offensive, a series of overlapping offensive waves on the German lines, during the Hundred Days Offensive. This ultimately led to the breaking of the German Hindenburg Line and the Armistice on November 11, 1918. He is considered by some historians the leader most responsible for the Allied victory. 

Franz Ferdinand (December 18, 1863 – June 28, 1914) was an Archduke of Austria, Royal Prince of Hungary and Bohemia and, from 1896 until his death, heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was overextended and affected by nationalist agitation, especially in the ethnically and religiously-diverse Balkan region. In 1914, the Archduke visited Sarajevo, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to review the military and discuss nationalist tensions. He and his wife, Sophie, were assassinated while riding in their car by Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Serbian nationalist group the Black Hand. This event precipitated Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia. The military intervention of Russia on Serbia's behalf forced Germany to act on their military alliance with Austria-Hungary, setting off a series of diplomatic events which ultimately led to World War I. 

Douglas Haig (June 19, 1861 - January 29, 1928) was appointed commander in chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in 1915. In an attempt to break the stalemate on the Western Front and relieve the pressure on the French army at Verdun, Haig led the Somme offensive beginning on July 1, 1916. The British army suffered 60,000 casualties on the first day, the highest in British history, and Haig's tactics made him one of the most controversial figures of the war. The appointment of Ferdinand Foch as Commander-in-Chief of Allied Armies - a move strongly supported by Haig - brought the French and British armies (eventually joined by the American Expeditionary Forces) under more coordinated control. Foch and Haig collaborated on the Grand Offensive, a series of overlapping offensive waves on the German lines, during the Hundred Days Offensive. Between September and November 1918, Haig's BEF achieved a series of key victories against the German army, ultimately breaking the German Hindenburg Line and prompting the Armistice on November 11, 1918. After the war, Haig helped found the Royal British Legion and was made an earl in 1919. 

John Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948) was a United States Army general who led the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), in association with French and British forces, to victory over Germany in World War I. After his force arrived in Europe in 1917, he rejected British and French demands that American forces be integrated within their armies, and insisted that the AEF would operate as a single unit under his command. He ultimately led the AEF on to important victories at Cantigny, St. Mihiel, Chateau-Thierry, and the Meuse-Argonne. Pershing is the only American to be promoted in his own lifetime to General of the Armies, the highest possible rank in the army. His aggressive frontal assault tactics were criticized both by other commanders at the time and by modern historians for causing unnecessarily high American casualties. In addition to leading the AEF to victory in World War I, Pershing notably served as a mentor to many officers who would go on to serve as generals during World War II, including George C. Marshall, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, George S. Patton, and Douglas MacArthur. 

Vladimir Lenin (April 22, 1870 - January 21, 1924) was a politician and revolutionary who ultimately gained control of the Russian government in 1917. Lenin was decidedly opposed to World War I, seeing the war as an imperialist-capitalist conflict. In February 1917, the February Revolution broke out in St. Petersburg as industrial war workers went on strike over food shortages on the home front. Tsar Nicholas II abdicated and a Provisional Government began the conversion of the Empire into a new Russian Republic. Lenin played a leading role in the October Revolution of 1917, which overthrew the Provisional Government and established the new Communist Party. Upon taking power, Lenin believed his new government must withdraw from the World War and seek armistice with Germany. On March 3, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed. It resulted in massive territorial losses for Russia, with 26% of the population, 37% of its agricultural harvest area, 28% of its industry, 26% of its railways, and two-thirds of its coal and iron reserves being transferred to German control. This treaty demonstrated to the Allied Powers the punitive peace Germany would seek if victorious on the Western Front. 

Nicholas II (May 6, 1868 – July 16, 1918) was a member of the Romanov ruling family and the last Russian Emperor, from 1894 to 1917. As head of state, Nicholas approved the Russian mobilization in defense of Serbia against Austria-Hungary in late July 1914, which led to Germany declaring war on Russia on August 1. Ultimately, around 3.3 million Russians were killed in World War I. These staggering losses and Russian commanders’ ineffective tactics, along with food and supply shortages on the home front, were the leading causes of the fall of the Romanov dynasty. In 1915, Nicholas dismissed his most popular commander and assumed command of all armies himself. His departure, however, created an opportunity for Nicholas’ enemies – both the Bolsheviks and republicans – to plot his overthrow. Following the February Revolution of 1917, Nicholas abdicated and he and his family were imprisoned. The entire Royal Family was executed by the Bolsheviks on the night of July 16, 1918. 

Gavrilo Princip (July 25,1894 – April 28, 1918) was a Bosnian Serb who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and the archduke’s wife, Sophie, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. Princip was motivated by nationalistic, separatist ideals and sought to liberate the Southern Slavic peoples of the Balkans from Austrian rule. The murder of the heir to the Austrian throne drove Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia, triggering a flood of military alliances across Europe and beginning World War I. Princip and his accomplices from the nationalist organization, the Black Hand, were arrested, tried, and found guilty of murder. Princip was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but died almost four years later of tuberculosis. 

Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856 - February 3, 1924) was a professor at Princeton University (eventually becoming president of that institution in 1902) and Governor of New Jersey before being elected President in 1912. When Europe was thrust into war in 1914, Wilson fiercely maintained American neutrality. Running for re-election on the slogan "he kept us out of war," Wilson narrowly won a second term in 1916. Yet Germany’s resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare against American ships in the Atlantic, news of the Zimmermann telegram, and the Russian Revolution convinced Wilson that neutrality was no longer a viable option. In April 1917, Wilson asked Congress to declare war. Wilson created a number of new offices and commissions – including the Committee on Public Information and the US Food Administration – designed to mobilize both the military and the home front for war. Wilson proposed his "Fourteen Points," a series of diplomatic principles for world peace, to the Paris Peace Conference following the war's end. The final Treaty of Versailles included many of Wilson's ideas, though Republican-held US Congress did not support it. Wilson embarked on a national tour to mobilize public sentiment for the treaty, but, exhausted by his tour’s demanding schedule, he suffered a near-fatal stroke. In 1920, Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts towards world peace. 

Wilhelm II or William II (January 27, 1859 – June 4, 1941) was the last German Emperor or “Kaiser”, ruling from June 15, 1888 until his abdication on November 9, 1918. He was the eldest grandchild of Britain's Queen Victoria and related to many monarchs across Europe. After being crowned, he launched Germany on a "New Course" in politics that put more power in the hands of the Kaiser rather than seasoned advisors and diplomats, ultimately leading to a more unstable state. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary in July 1914 set off a series of diplomatic crises between Serbia, Russia, and Austria-Hungary. Russia's declaration of war against Germany's ally Austria-Hungary drove Wilhelm to honor that alliance and declare war on Russia and its ally, France. This series of events were the first steps of the world war. Eventually, Wilhelm II lost the support of the army, abdicated in November 1918 after the armistice was signed on the Western Front, and fled to exile in the Netherlands. He never returned to Germany until his death in 1941.