The world in 1914

Why this year has a page

The historical-basemaps atlas drew a world sheet for this year.

Names on the map

As the map labels them, largest first by the area of the outline drawn. Areas are of the drawn outline, rounded, and approximate. The record column says which record draws the outline; a Wikidata item is given where the record links one.

What changed since 1900

Names counted are those the records date to the year or the day (CShapes, OpenHistoricalMap, Cliopatria). Outlines filled from the nearest historical-basemaps sheet are counted only when both years are years that sheet was drawn for — otherwise the change would be the switch between two sheets, not a change in the world. Names are compared as written, so a polity a record names differently in the two years (Carthaginian Empire, then Carthage) is in both lists.

← Earlier: 1900Later: 1917 →

Events dated to 1914

Every record of IntMap’s one index of dated events whose date falls in this year: what the border record (CShapes 2.0) states about its own outlines, IntMap’s war record, and the world events Wikidata dates — each with its source and the precision of its date.

1. 1914

   The map begins drawing Nigeria (UK); the map stops drawing Northern Nigeria (UK), Southern Nigeria (UK)

   the border record (CShapes 2.0) · 1914-01-01

   On this day →
2. 1914

   New borders for Russian Empire, Republic of China

   the border record (CShapes 2.0) · 1914-04-17

   On this day →
3. 1914

   Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

   IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-06-28

   On this day →
4. 1914

   New borders for British Raj (British India), Tibet

   the border record (CShapes 2.0) · 1914-07-03

   On this day →
5. 1914

   Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia — the July Crisis ends and the war begins

   IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-07-28

   On this day →
6. 1914

   The East African campaign — four years of pursuit across four colonies; von Lettow-Vorbeck surrenders a fortnight after the armistice

   IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-03 – 1918-11-25

   On this day →
7. 1914

   Battle of Liège

   IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-04 – 1914-08-16

   On this day →
8. 1914

   The Rape of Belgium — mass shootings of civilians during the invasion, and four years of forced labour after it

   IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-04 – 1918-11-11

   On this day →
9. 1914

   The Togoland campaign — three weeks to reach the wireless station at Kamina, the first Allied conquest of the war

   IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-06 – 1914-08-26

   On this day →
10. 1914

    The Kamerun campaign — nineteen months of bush marching before the last German column crosses into neutral Spanish territory

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-06 – 1916-03-10

    On this day →
11. 1914

    Battle of the Frontiers — the French plan of attack fails in a month

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-07 – 1914-09-06

    On this day →
12. 1914

    Battle of Mulhouse — the first French attack of the war, into Alsace

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-07 – 1914-08-26

    On this day →
13. 1914

    Battle of Cer — the first Allied victory of the war

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-12 – 1914-08-24

    On this day →
14. 1914

    Battle of Lorraine — the French Second Army is thrown back from Morhange and Sarrebourg

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-14 – 1914-08-25

    On this day →
15. 1914

    Panama Canal

    large canal in Panama

    opened 1914-08-15 · Wikidata Q7350

16. 1914

    Brussels is occupied

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-20

    On this day →
17. 1914

    Siege of Namur — the last Belgian fortress on the Meuse falls in five days

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-20 – 1914-08-25

    On this day →
18. 1914

    Battle of the Ardennes — two French armies walk into the German centre in fog

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-21 – 1914-08-23

    On this day →
19. 1914

    Battle of Charleroi — the French Fifth Army is driven off the Sambre

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-21 – 1914-08-23

    On this day →
20. 1914

    Battle of Mons — the British Army’s first action of the war

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-23

    On this day →
21. 1914

    Battle of Galicia — Austria-Hungary loses a third of its army in three weeks

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-23 – 1914-09-11

    On this day →
22. 1914

    The sack of Louvain — 248 civilians killed and the university library burned with its 300,000 books

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-25

    On this day →
23. 1914

    Battle of Tannenberg

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-26 – 1914-08-30

    On this day →
24. 1914

    Le Cateau — the British stand and fight to break contact during the retreat

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-26

    On this day →
25. 1914

    The siege of Tsingtao — Japan and Britain take Germany’s naval base in China

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-27 – 1914-11-07

    On this day →
26. 1914

    First Heligoland Bight — a British raid into German home waters in the first month of the war

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-28

    On this day →
27. 1914

    The occupation of German Samoa — a New Zealand force lands unopposed, the second Allied conquest of the war

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-08-29 – 1914-08-30

    On this day →
28. 1914

    First Masurian Lakes — the second Russian army is driven out of East Prussia

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-09-02 – 1914-09-16

    On this day →
29. 1914

    First Battle of the Marne

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-09-06 – 1914-09-12

    On this day →
30. 1914

    Battle of the Drina — six weeks of trench fighting on the Serbian river frontier

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-09-07 – 1914-09-24

    On this day →
31. 1914

    Bita Paka — Australia’s first action of the war, fought for a wireless station in New Britain

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-09-11

    On this day →
32. 1914

    First Battle of the Aisne — both sides dig in, and the trench line is born

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-09-13 – 1914-09-28

    On this day →
33. 1914

    The Maritz rebellion — South Africa has to put down a rising of its own before it can invade German South West Africa

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-09-15 – 1915-02-04

    On this day →
34. 1914

    The South West Africa campaign — the first German colony to surrender unconditionally

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-09-15 – 1915-07-09

    On this day →
35. 1914

    Siege of Przemyśl — the longest siege of the war ends with 120,000 prisoners

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-09-16 – 1915-03-22

    On this day →
36. 1914

    The Race to the Sea — each army tries to outflank the other northwards until the coast stops both

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-09-17 – 1914-10-19

    On this day →
37. 1914

    Battle of Sandfontein — the opening South African column is surrounded at a waterhole

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-09-26

    On this day →
38. 1914

    Siege of Antwerp

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-09-28 – 1914-10-10

    On this day →
39. 1914

    Battle of the Yser — the Belgians open the sluices and flood the last corner of their country

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-10-16 – 1914-10-31

    On this day →
40. 1914

    First Battle of Ypres

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-10-19 – 1914-11-22

    On this day →
41. 1914

    Battle of Penang — the raider Emden sinks a Russian cruiser and a French destroyer inside a neutral harbour approach

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-10-28

    On this day →
42. 1914

    The Ottoman Empire enters the war — its fleet shells the Russian Black Sea ports without a declaration

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-10-29

    On this day →
43. 1914

    Battle of Coronel — the Royal Navy’s first defeat in a century, off the coast of Chile

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-11-01

    On this day →
44. 1914

    New borders for Ottoman Empire

    the border record (CShapes 2.0) · 1914-11-03

    On this day →
45. 1914

    Battle of Tanga — an Indian brigade lands against a force a ninth its size and is driven back to the ships

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-11-03 – 1914-11-05

    On this day →
46. 1914

    Battle of Kilimanjaro — the second British column is stopped by bees and rifle fire at Longido

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-11-03

    On this day →
47. 1914

    The map begins drawing Cyprus

    the border record (CShapes 2.0) · 1914-11-05

    On this day →
48. 1914

    Battle of Cocos — HMAS Sydney runs the Emden aground and the last German raider in the Indian Ocean is gone

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-11-09

    On this day →
49. 1914

    Battle of Łódź — a German encirclement that has to break out of its own trap

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-11-11 – 1914-12-06

    On this day →
50. 1914

    The capture of Basra — an Indian Army division takes the head of the Persian Gulf

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-11-11 – 1914-11-22

    On this day →
51. 1914

    The Mesopotamian campaign opens at Basra and Qurna

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-11-22 – 1914-12-17

    On this day →
52. 1914

    Battle of Kolubara — Serbia retakes Belgrade and clears its territory

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-12-02 – 1914-12-15

    On this day →
53. 1914

    The Falkland Islands — the German East Asia Squadron is destroyed five weeks after Coronel

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-12-08

    On this day →
54. 1914

    The raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby — German battlecruisers shell three English towns

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-12-16

    On this day →
55. 1914

    First Battle of Champagne — the first attempt to break a continuous trench line, in winter

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-12-20 – 1915-03-17

    On this day →
56. 1914

    Battle of Sarikamish — the Ottoman Third Army is destroyed by the winter

    IntMap’s war record — World War I · 1914-12-22 – 1915-01-17

    On this day →

Sources and method

Borders and names: CShapes 2.0 (Schvitz et al. 2022, icr.ethz.ch/data/cshapes) · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 + OpenHistoricalMap (openhistoricalmap.org) · CC0 1.0 · adapted by IntMap: the admin_level=2 relations in force from 1886, less the ground CShapes states on its own dates + Cliopatria v0.2.1 (Seshat Global History Databank, github.com/Seshat-Global-History-Databank/cliopatria) · CC BY 4.0 · adapted by IntMap: simplified, BC years made astronomical, and the ground OpenHistoricalMap (1689–1885, and from 1886 where CShapes is silent) and CShapes (1886–2019) state removed on their own dates.

Which years have a page is worked out when the site is built, from three rules applied to the records themselves: every year the historical-basemaps atlas drew a world sheet for; every year whose change from the year before (names the dated records begin or stop drawing) is in the top 5% of all such year-to-year changes since the dated records begin, leaving out the years where one record hands over to another; and every year of a geopolitical, war or revolution event in the dated events index, up to the last year the border records cover (2019).

On each year the map is read on 1 July, the instant the app’s own year links open on. Names are the source’s own, translated where the source or IntMap’s name table has a translation. A name is what a record draws there, not a verdict of history.

World map in 1914 — the map, with the years it stays the same Historical maps by region Countries On this day

All data sources →