THE YEAR OF 1914

* While visiting Sarajevo on the 28th of June, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie are assassinated by Serbian nationalist battlemage Gavrilo Princip. In reaction, Austria-Hungary sends an ultimatum to Serbia, whose contents are deliberately made unacceptable to the Serbs. Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia shortly after receiving German backing. Russia in turn declares war on Austria-Hungary and Germany. Germany, wanting to knock France out of the war before it can assist its Russian ally, declares war on France on August 3rd.

* When Germany invades neutral Belgium to execute the Schlieffen Plan, the British Empire declares war on Germany. The German advance to Paris is halted at the Marne and a series of flanking attempts, known as the Race to the Sea, prove unsuccessful. The war in the West grinds down to a halt.

* The Germans are much more successful with their more efficient, and more technically advanced battlemage units in the East, repulsing the Russian invasion of East Prussia and defeating the Russians at the battles of the Masurian Lakes and at Tannenberg. The architects of these victories, Field Marshal von Hindenburg and General Ludendorff, would play key roles in the final German victory.

* The Ottoman Empire joins the Central Powers in October, after a dispute with Britain about the confiscation of ships being built for the Empire.

* Almost all German colonies are occupied before the end of the year, besides German East-Africa. It is here that Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck will play a game of cat and mouse with the Allied forces until the end of the war.

* Japan joins the war in late August and occupies most of Germany's Pacific and Asian colonies, including Tsingtao and the Mariana, Caroline & Marshall Islands.

THE YEAR OF 1915

* In the West the lines remain static, but the fighting increases in brutality, with chlorine gas being first used during the Second Battle of Ypres on 22nd of April.

* In the East, Russia is being pushed back by the Germans despite the magical disadvantage, but manages to hold on to Galicia.

* Bulgaria joins the war on the side of the Central Powers, relieving the struggling Austrians in the Balkans.

* Italy joins the war on the Allied side, hoping to claim Austro-Hungary's Tyrolian and Illyrian provinces as well as Albania. The campaign bogs down into trench warfare, through which more battlemages in the Eastern front were pulled as they were the only conventional method of breaking trench stalemates.

* In an ill conceived effort to knock the Ottomans out of the war, Allied troops land near Gallipoli in February, hoping to gain control of the vital Dardanelles. It is the beginning of the Gallipoli Campaign. The whole campaign becomes a disaster and the Allies pull back their forces before the year ends. A British invasion of Mesopotamia is repelled and the remaining troops retreat to Kut, where a disastrous siege will start.

* The Fourth Invasion of Serbia between October and December 1915, a joint campaign by German, Austro-Hungarian & Bulgarian forces, leads to the Central Powers occupation of Serbia, Montenegro and most of Albania. The Serbian Army, trapped in no man's land, decides to retreat over the Albanian mountains with the goal to reach the Adriatic & evacuate to French-occupied Korfu. During this so-called Great Retreat, over 200,000 people die in the cold winter.

* A German submarine sinks the Lusitania. A severe backlash in the United States leads to Germany abandoning its unrestricted submarine warfare, which had hoped to strangle Britain into submission. Many speculated that a continuation of the unrestricted submarine warfare could have led to the entry of the United States into the war. (This is the First Decision that heavily impacted the outcome of the war.)

THE YEAR OF 1916

* The Battle of Verdun starts, attempting to bleed the French Army dry. In reality, all sides bleed equally in a battle which soon loses its military objective. A similar attempt against the British forces at the Somme has the same outcome. 1916 also sees the first use of tanks at the Battle of the Somme.

* Germany declares war on Portugal after Portuguese troops confiscate German ships interned in Portuguese ports.

* In the East, the Brusilov Offensive is launched. While very successful at first, the offensive doesn’t manage to either knock the Austro-Hungarians out of the war or drive Germany out of Russian Poland.

* The British troops at Kut are forced to surrender, dealing a heavy blow to British prestige. The Ottomans are being pushed out of the Caucasus and Armenia by a successful Russian campaign. The Sharif of Mecca starts off a general Arab revolt against the Turks.

* At sea, the Battle of Jutland ends in a tactical German victory, but a strategic British victory, as the Hochseeflotte will remain in port until late 1918.

* Romania tries to profit from Austrian setbacks and invades Transylvania. German assistance would lead to a quick collapse of Romania, with Bucharest being taken by August von Mackensen within the year. Further south the Allies have taken positions around Salonika.

THE YEAR OF 1917

* On January 8th, the Kaiser hears arguments from military leaders for reopening unrestricted submarine warfare, but ultimately decides against them. (This is the point where the Kaiserreich universe diverges from our own.)

* Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg is forced to resign and is replaced by Georg Michaelis. It is soon clear that Michaelis is little more than a puppet for Generals von Hindenburg and Ludendorff. Michaelis resigns still in the same year and is replaced by Georg von Hertling.

* On the Western Front, the heavy French casualties at Chemin des Dames lead to a strike among the French soldiers. This disaster discouraged the French high-command from continuing great offensives until the end of the year, giving Germany a chance to recover from the Brusilov Offensive.

* Russia collapses into anarchy, with the Tsar abdicating in March 1917 (O.S. February). A provisional government is formed under Alexander Kerensky, but this government is overthrown by Lenin's Bolsheviks in November (O.S. October), starting the Russian Civil War.

* Greece joins the war in June.

* In Italy, the Caporetto Offensive beats the Italians back to the Piave river, where only a last minute defense saves Venice from occupation.

* The Ottomans receive blow after blow, with both Baghdad and Jerusalem being lost to British forces along with the help of Lawrence of Arabia.

* A British submarine mistakenly torpedoes an American freighter carrying Christmas gifts to Germany, killing several US citizens. The public backlash forces a partial opening of the blockade, averting the looming spectre of famine in Central Europe.

THE YEAR OF 1918

* In early March, after a successful Operation Faustschlag, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is signed between the Germans and the Bolsheviks, freeing thousands of German and Austrian troops for other fronts. The Bolsheviks have to renounce all territorial claims in Finland, the Baltic states, most of Belarus, and Ukraine as well as in parts of the Caucasus.

* A great Allied spring offensive, called “Great Western Offensive”, is launched in mid-March. It is designed at breaking the German lines before their reinforcements arrive, but the Germans manage to repulse the offensive at great cost of life.

* In May, the Treaty of Bucharest is signed by the Central Powers and Romania, finally bringing the war on the Eastern Front to an end.

* In early June, the Treaty of Batum is signed, vastly expanding Ottoman influence in the Caucasus.

* Operation Teutoburg is launched, attempting to kick Greece out of the war and drive out the Entente forces out of Albania & Saloniki. Instead of assaulting the Salonika stronghold head on, the Central Powers make extensive use of specialized storm-troopers and so called "infiltration" tactics. The defenders at Salonika are pinned down while the rest of the German-Bulgarian forces sweep through Greece. Athens falls on July 3rd, causing the Greek government to surrender. The western forces at Salonika are evacuated soon afterwards.

* Anti-Bolshevik White Russian forces of the "Volunteer Army" under General Lavr Kornilov retreat south from Rostov across the frozen Kuban steppe from February to May. The famous "Ice March" campaign concludes with Kornilov narrowly escaping death from an artillery shell on his headquarters during the Battle of Yekaterinodar. The city's capture cements the Whites' control over the Kuban Cossack heartland.

* Devastating defeats in Palestine after the Battle of Megiddo in September lead to a mass retreat of Ottoman forces northwards. Jerusalem, Damascus and Aleppo fall to the British, but due to the cunning of the commander of the Ottoman Seventh Army, Mustafa Kemal Pasha, the British led by General Allenby are halted at Maraş, an event later to be known as the "Miracle at Maraş".

* Vladimir Lenin, the famous leader of the Russian Bolsheviks, is assassinated by Fanny Kaplan following the Bolsheviks' suppression of the Left SRs. Lev Kamenev quickly succeeds Lenin, but Bolshevik spirits are seriously shaken.

* After an unsuccessful socialist uprising in Germany in September, the so-called Enabling Act is passed by the Reichstag in November. It grants Reichskanzler Georg von Hertling (and indirectly Erich Ludendorff) the ability to pass laws without a vote, and bans all socialist parties in the German Empire (excluding the SPD). It is the beginning of the Ludendorff dictatorship.

* After almost a month of negotiations between the anti-Bolshevik Constituent Assembly and Siberian governments, Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak reluctantly launches a British-backed coup to unite the fractious Whites. The situation is salvaged by the arrival of Boris Savinkov, who convinces Kolchak to accept many of the SR's demands, and limit his power to only supreme command over military affairs.

* The United Baltic Duchy is proclaimed in late 1918 through the merger of the Duchy of Courland & German-occupied Livonia & Estonia. Adolf Friedrich von Mecklenburg is elected as its monarch.

* Reichskanzler Georg von Hertling resigns in December and is replaced with Paul von Hindenburg.

THE YEAR OF 1919

* The Irish War of Independence begins in late January.

* On March 2nd the Germans launch their Great Spring Offensive at St. Mihiel, south of Verdun. Their infiltration tactics prove to be successful, with Nancy falling on the 16th.

* Fearing the defeat of the German Empire, the Kaiser orders the recruitment standard for battlemages to be drastically lowered, even allowing children the age of 10 to be able to sign up as a battlemage as long as they were 'bodily able', which results in the protagonist, Elina Wiederlich.

* The French organize an ad hoc defense, leaving their flank exposed. An attack on Reims on the 26th splits the Allied forces in two, Amiens falls on the same day. A wedge is driven between the French and British armies and all pretense of joint-leadership ceases as both communications and supply lines are cut.

THE TIMELINE OF BITTER VICTORY STARTS AT March 25, 1919

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.