Origin of World War 1

1879-: Bismarck helped forge an alliance between Germany and Austria Hungary.
1880: Italy joined this Alliance. 1889: France became an ally of Russia and came up as a joint force to challenge the supremacy of Germany

1889:The Czar of Russia showed up in Paris in the year 1889 to sign a military treaty in opposition to Germany.
1908: Hungary annexed the twin Balkan province of Bosnia- Herzingova. 1912-1913:In Balkan War, Serbia doubled territory threatening Hungarian supremacy. 1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria- Hungary and his wife was assassinated. This event triggered off the world war

Britain?
Britain entered the war for a number of reasons but the most basic reason was that in the years prior to the war Germany was emerging as a fast growing industrial giant.

Germany was making huge strides in steel production and Chemistry. They were making advanced battleship thus threatening Britains naval supremacy.
Britain did not want to loose control of the seas. Thus their entry into the war was inevitable. Additionally, Germany attacked France through Belgium violating Belgian neutrality and leaving Britain no option but to enter the war

Treaty of Versailles
1918: An Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918 signaling the end of war.
1919: the delegates of victorious nations got together in Paris for the peace conference to draw up the terms to be offered to Germany. 1919: German delegates were brought to the city of Versailles to sign the peace treaty. 1921: The allies were still discussing about the reparations and a figure of $6600m was arrived at. 1922: Germany fell back on its payments and France decided to take matter in their own hands. 1923: On January 11 , 1923 French troops entered the industrial heart of Germany, Ruhr.

1923: The German workers refused to comply and the country was stuck in the middle of the worst inflation it had ever faced.
1924: A new scaled down reparations plan was suggested by Charles Dawes, this was accepted by Germany in London 1926: Germany became a full member of the League of nations in September 1926 and life in Germany returned to relative normalcy.