Quick Facts about World War I
Major Participating Countries
Allies: France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, United States (starting 1917)
Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria
Abbreviated List of Important Dates
1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Sophie the Duchess of Hohenburg are assassinated, leading to Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia
1918: Germany signs armistice with the Allied powers, signaling end of war on Western Front
1919: Treaty of Versailles signed: Peace terms between Germany and Allied Powers
1920: Treaty of Sevres divides the Middle East into English territories, French territories, and the independent Kingdom of Hejaz (Saudi Arabia)
Source for Quick Facts: The National WWI Museum and Memorial: Interactive Timeline and Britannica's Timeline of World War I.
Catalog Tips for Finding Maps at the Map Division
When searching the Online Research Catalog, in the Advanced Search, checkmark "Cartographic" under Format and type the following into the Keyword Field or Subject Field for most results:
- [country, town, associated continent] Maps
- World War, 1914-1918
As the United States Military was creating maps while fighting overseas, we highly recommend also filling the following into the Author Field (to learn more, please click our tab titled US Armed Forces Maps)
- American Expeditionary Forces
For more specific results, please feel free to combine the above search terms with any of the terms listed in the "Terms to Search in the Online Research Catalog" portion of this guide's Using Our Catalogs page.
For holdings of other items that are not in the Online Research Catalog, please search in the printed Dictionary Catalog of the Map Division (available online via HathiTrust), by:
- [Town/Village/City Name] + associated year
- [Country Name] + associated year
- [Continent Name] + associated year
- European War, 1914-1918 (Volume 3 page 836-855)
A Selection of WWI Maps and Atlases at the Map Division
- Europe : showing international boundaries as they were at the beginning of the war of the nations. 1914
- Map Div. 22-1924
Philip's large scale strategical war map of Europe : central and eastern area with complete index / compiled from official sources. [1914]
- Map Div. 22-1926
- Memâlik-i Osmaniye : [Osmanlı İmparatorluğu Haritası]. / [Map of the Ottoman Empire : showing the boundaries after the Balkan War and before the Treaty of Sévres] 1918
- Map Div. 19-779
- Philips' contoured map of the European Battle Fronts, showing the New Europe. [1919]
- Map Div. 22-1956
- Political map of the new states of Europe in 1919 : according to Treaties of Paris the old states of 1914 and the new of 1919. 1919
- Map Div. 22-1952
- The Rand McNally Map of new Europe. [1919]
- Map Div. 22-1950
- Financial War Map of Europe and Asia, showing relative areas of belligerent and neutral countries, also financial statistics of resources, etc. before the war and at the present time
- Dictionary Catalog: Volume 3 pg. 800
- Europe and Asia Minor, with inserts of Africa and Oceanica, January 15, 1921. 1921
- Map Div. 22-1960
- [Maps and plans of the border battles of the First World War for the Liberation of East Prussia]. [between 1927 and 1980]
- Map Div. 19-1845
- Topography of Armageddon : a British trench map atlas of the Western Front 1914-1918. 1991
- Map Div. 92-8433
Digital Map Collections
Animated Map Shows How World War I Changed Europe's Borders
- Released by Business Insider, in collaboration with the National WWI Museum and Memorial
- Visualization of how the war would change the boundaries of various countries during and after the end of the conflict.
- Has a large collection of maps in their institution, including those pertaining to World War I.
- When searching, make sure that the dropdown menu by the search bar says "Maps." In the results page, make sure to utilize the "Refine Your Search" section on the left, to get the best results.
- If you are searching "World War I," make sure you use the "Refine Your Search" function to narrow down the dates that you are looking for (otherwise, you will also get World War II results).
- You can also search by area, and utilize the date function to narrow down your search to years pertaining to World War I.
National WWI Museum and Memorial
- Hosts a large number of materials related to this war, including an expansive map collection.
- To access their map collection:
- Go to their Collections & Research page
- Click Begin Your Search under Online Collections Database
- Click Advanced Search
- In the row for Collection, make sure that the 2 dropdown menus in that row say Exact and Maps. From there, you can either click Search to find all the maps in their collection, or you can add in keyword searches in the Description row, to narrow your search.
-
To Conquer or Submit? America Views the Great War: Click "Exhibit Navigations" to see maps pertaining to World War I and their historical context, organized thematically.
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
- Summary of Operations in the World War - Maps
- "These are the supplementary folding maps from the book series "Summary of Operations in the World War" published in 1944 by the American Battle Monuments Commission."
United States Military Academy West Point: Campaign Atlas to the Great War
- Contains digitized maps of WWI, demonstrating campaign routes, battles, and advances
Additional Recommended Books and Documents at NYPL
- Grasping Gallipoli : terrain, maps and failure at the Dardanelles, 1915.
- JFE 05-11120
- International relations since the peace treaties, by E. H. Carr. 1937
- 1410.239
- Courtesy of Princeton University Library
- Mapping the First World War / Peter Chasseaud.
- Map Div. 14-286
- Mapping the First World War : battlefields of the great conflict from above / Simon Forty.
- Map Div. 14-359
- German World War I photographic postcards in NYPL's Digital Collection
- Photography collection from The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs
- Collection note: German photographic postcards made during 1914-1918, primarily views of military operations, troop movements, and military life. Published by Paul Hoffmann & Co., each with censorship notice, publisher and caption (in German) in negative. Some views have photographer's name in negative. Photographers include Kilophot., Berger, Benninghoven, Klühlewindt, Lichte. Views are numbered.
- Rats Alley : trench names of the Western Front, 1914-1918
- JFE 06-5872
- Study and gazetteer of British trench names with extensive notes on French and German trench naming practices.
- Trench maps, a collectors' guide : a cartobibliography of maps printed at the Ordnance Survey, OBOS and by field survey companies/battalions in France, 1915-1918
- Map Div. 92-6
- World War I and propaganda. 2014
- JFE 14-2601
When searching your local neighborhood library for books that will provide more information about World War I, we recommend trying these keyword searches on the home page of NYPL.
- World War I
- First World War
- World War, 1914-1918
Please see below for a list of recommended books about World War I that can be found at your local branch:
Eyewitness World War I by ISBN: 9781465420589Publication Date: 2014-06-16Learn what life was like for soldiers, find out what weapons were used to fight, and discover how - after millions of people had died - "the Great War" finally ended. Eyewitness World War I is an easy-to-understand guide to the world's terrible Great War. Real-life photographs with clear explanations will give you a look into one of the worst conflicts in history. From the causes of the war to the challenges in battle and the consequences afterward, this book covers the intense four-year battle on land, at sea, and up in the sky. Discover life in the muddy trenches and see how the world was changed forever, and understand why WWI's victims must never be forgotten. Whether you need help on a school project or you just want to learn more about how this devastating conflict happened, Eyewitness World War I provides all the information you'll need accompanied by pictures, illustrations, facts, statistics, and timelines. Supports the Common Core State Standards.
The First World War by ISBN: 9780742541450Publication Date: 2009-10-15In a compact but comprehensive and clear narrative, this book explores the First World War from a genuinely global perspective. Putting a human face on the war, William Kelleher Storey takes into account individual decisions and experiences as well as environmental and technological factors such as food, geography, manpower, and weapons. He argues that the war profoundly changed the ways in which people imagined the landscape around them and thought about technology and the environment. Before the war, Europe and its colonies generally regarded industrial technology as an instrument of modernity; the landscape existed to be conquered, divided, and ruled. During and after the war, the costs of conquest became much higher, raising significant doubts about the value of progress. Soldiers experienced profound personal degradation, physical injuries, and mental collapse in the midst of nightmarish, technologically induced environmental conditions, which they vividly remembered when they formed new identities in the postwar world. Although people did not abandon thoughts of technological advance, after the war they had a keener sense of modernity's costs. Without neglecting traditional themes, Storey's deft interweaving of the role of environment and technology enriches our understanding of the social, political, and military history of the war, not only in Europe, but throughout the world.
World War I by ISBN: 9781465470010Publication Date: 2018-04-03Between 1914 and 1918, a conflict on an epic scale left an indelible mark on the memory of the world - World War I. World War I: The Definitive Visual History takes you from the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand to the Treaty of Versailles. Experience some of the most prominent battles, such as the Somme and Verdun, through compelling direct accounts from soldiers who fought as well as civilians who lived through the First World War. Get a close-up view of the impressive weaponry and equipment used throughout the war in photographic galleries and learn more about the key people, including David Lloyd George and Joseph Joffre. Each chapter begins with a map and visual timeline to set the scene for the events to follow, highlighting when, where, and why things happened and changed history as they did. A final section of the book features commemorations that took place 100 years after the war and memorials around the world built to honor those who died in the conflict. This is an engaging and visually stunning guide for anyone interested in learning more about the First World War, offering a true understanding of a war that changed the course of history.
The Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War by ISBN: 9780199663385Publication Date: 2014-05-19The First World War, now a century ago, still shapes the world in which we live, and its legacy lives on, in poetry, in prose, in collective memory and political culture. By the time the war ended in 1918, millions lay dead. Three major empires lay shattered by defeat, those of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottomans. A fourth, Russia, was in the throes of a revolution that helped define the rest of the twentieth century. The Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War brings together in one volume many of the most distinguished historians of the conflict, in an account that matches the scale of the events. From its causes to its consequences, from the Western Front to the Eastern, from the strategy of the politicians to the tactics of the generals, they chart the course of the war and assess its profound political and human consequences. Chapters on economic mobilization, the impact on women, the role of propaganda, and the rise of socialism establish the wider context of the fighting at sea and in the air, and which ranged on land from the trenches of Flanders to the mountains of the Balkans and the deserts of the Middle East. First published for the 90th anniversary of the 1918 Armistice, this highly illustrated revised edition contains significant new material to mark the 100th anniversary of the war.
