Battle of Liege	Opened 05 August 1914
Battle of the Frontiers	Opened 05 August 1914
Battle of Mulhouse	Opened 07 August 1914
Battle of Haelen	Opened 12 August 1914
Invasion of Lorraine	Opened 14 August 1914
Battle of Stalluponen	Opened 17 August 1914
Battle of Gumbinnen	Opened 20 August 1914
Battle of the Ardennes	Opened 21 August 1914
Battle of Charleroi	Opened 21 August 1914
Siege of Namur	Opened 21 August 1914
Battle of Mons	Opened 23 August 1914
Capture of Dinant	Opened 23 August 1914
Siege of Maubeuge	Opened 25 August 1914
Destruction of Louvain	Opened 25 August 1914
Battle of Le Cateau	Opened 26 August 1914
Battle of Tannenberg	Opened 26 August 1914
Battle of Heligoland	Opened 28 August 1914
Battle of Guise	Opened 29 August 1914
Siege of Tsingtao	Opened 02 September 1914
First Battle of the Marne	Opened 06 September 1914
First Battle of the Masurian lakes	Opened 09 September 1914
Battle of Bita Paka	Opened 11 September 1914
First Battle of the Aisne	Opened 12 September 1914
First Battle of Albert	Opened 25 September 1914
Battle of Sandfontein	Opened 26 September 1914
Siege of Antwerp	Opened 28 September 1914
First Battle of Arras	Opened 01 October 1914
First Battle of Ypres	Opened 14 October 1914
Battle of the Yser	Opened 18 October 1914
Battle of Coronel	Opened 1 November 1914
Battle of Tanga	Opened 3 November 1914
Capture of Basra	Opened 5 November 1914
Battle of Qurna	Opened 03 December 1914
Battle of the Falkland Islands (SA)	Opened 08 December 1914
Raid on Scarborough and Hartlepool (UK)	Opened 16 December 1914
Battle of Givenchy	Opened 18 December 1914
First Battle of Champagne	Opened 20 December 1914

On 4 August, Britain declared war after Germany invaded neutral Belgium (Britain declared war on Austria-Hungary on 12 August). The British government had previously promised to defend Belgium and felt that German troops directly across the Channel were too close for comfort. On 7 August, four divisions making up a British Expeditionary Force crossed to France to attempt to halt the German advance. With French forces, they were successful in achieving their objective at the Battle of Mons (August) and the Battle of the Marne (September). As each side tried to outflank the other, a 'race to the sea' developed and this meant that huge trench systems took shape from the Swiss border through all of northern France. With these trench systems and weapons such as the machine gun, defending was considerably easier than attacking, and so within months of beginning, the war was already showing signs of stagnating.

Although the war in Europe was the main focus - as with the first battle of Ypres (October) - the conflict soon truly became a 'world war': Japan was allied to the Entente forces and the Ottoman Empire soon joined the Central Powers. Conflict between the imperial forces of these competing power-blocs in Africa and South America aggravated the situation.

Like previous continental wars, confrontation was not confined to land. Prior to the outbreak of war, there had been an arms race orientated towards the building of the most up-to-date battleships. Although the British fleet was still by far the largest in the world, the German fleet was new and well equipped. By December, German warships were regularly bombarding the English coast. Only after a naval skirmish at Dogger Bank (January 1915) did further German coastal bombardments cease..Source BBC History website