History · Unit 14

World War One

The Great War, 1914-1918

A war everyone expected to be over by Christmas, which instead killed around seventeen million people over four years - largely because the defensive technology of the period had outrun the offensive.

The unit covers the alliance system and the assassination that triggered it, the reality of trench warfare, the home fronts, and the peace settlement whose terms are impossible to separate from what happened twenty years later.

This unit breaks down into 20 short steps and 120 questions, starting at difficulty 1 and building to 3. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.

Steps: 20
Questions: 120
Difficulty: 1-3

What this unit covers

Key Events
The End and Aftermath
Trench Warfare
Causes of the War
The Home Front

Where this fits

Follows The Industrial Revolution, which supplied the industrial capacity that made the scale of it possible. Leads directly into World War Two.

Where people slip

The assassination in Sarajevo was the trigger, not the cause. The alliances, arms race and imperial rivalries were all in place well before it.

How the unit is structured

World War One runs as 20 short steps that unlock in order. 15 are practice rounds and 5 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 1 and climb to 3 as you progress.

Step 1 · easierStep 20 · harder

Challenge rounds

Example questions

30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 120 in the unit altogether.

Causes of the War

Guess the numberLevel 1
1. In what year did World War One begin?
Answer: 1914 CE
World War One began in 1914 and lasted until 1918.
Multiple choiceLevel 1
2. Which event in 1914 is often seen as the spark that started World War One?
- The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinandcorrect
- The building of the pyramids
- The fall of the Roman Empire
- The voyage of Christopher Columbus
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary set off a chain of events that led to war.
Build the sentenceLevel 2
3. Build a sentence describing one cause of the war.
Answer: a system of alliances divided Europe
A tangle of alliances meant that a conflict between two nations quickly drew in many others.
Fill the blankLevel 2
4. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in the city of ____ in 1914.
- Sarajevocorrect
- Paris
- London
- Rome
The assassination took place in Sarajevo, in the region of Bosnia.
Odd one outLevel 2
5. Which of these was NOT a main long-term cause of World War One?
- The invention of the telephonecorrect
- The system of alliances
- Militarism
- Imperialism
Alliances, militarism and imperialism were causes of the war, but the telephone was simply an invention of the time.
Put in orderLevel 3
6. Put these steps of the July Crisis of 1914 in the order they happened, earliest first.
Answer: Assassination of Franz Ferdinand -> Austria-Hungary sends Serbia an ultimatum -> Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia -> Russia begins mobilising its army -> Germany invades Belgium -> Britain declares war on Germany
A single assassination escalated step by step through ultimatums, mobilisations and alliance commitments into a general European war.

Key Events

Multiple choiceLevel 1
7. The Battle of the Somme and the Battle of Verdun were both fought on which front?
- The Western Frontcorrect
- The surface of the moon
- The Atlantic Ocean
- The Great Wall of China
Both the Somme and Verdun were major battles fought on the Western Front in 1916.
Guess the numberLevel 2
8. In what year was the Battle of the Somme fought?
Answer: 1916 CE
The Battle of the Somme was fought in 1916 and was one of the largest battles of the war.
Match the pairsLevel 2
9. Match each World War One event to the year it happened.
Answer: Assassination of Franz Ferdinand = 1914; The Gallipoli campaign begins = 1915; The Battle of the Somme = 1916; The armistice is signed = 1918
These key moments each fell in a different year of the war.
Build the sentenceLevel 3
10. Build a true sentence about the final Allied push of the war.
Answer: The Hundred Days Offensive ended the war in 1918
The Hundred Days Offensive was the series of Allied advances in late 1918 that brought the fighting to an end.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
11. Which events in 1917 helped bring the United States into the war? Select all that apply.
- Germany returning to unrestricted submarine warfarecorrect
- The Zimmermann Telegram, which proposed a German alliance against the United States
- The storming of the Bastille
- The fall of Constantinople
German submarine attacks and the intercepted Zimmermann Telegram, offering Mexico an alliance against the United States, pushed the USA to declare war in 1917.
Fact or fibLevel 3
12. The Second Battle of the Marne in 1918 helped begin the Allied advance that led to the end of the war.
Answer: True
After halting the German offensive at the Marne in mid-1918, the Allies counter-attacked and kept pushing forward until the armistice.

The End and Aftermath

Fill the blankLevel 1
13. The 1919 peace settlement with Germany was called the Treaty of ____.
- Versaillescorrect
- Rome
- Athens
- Cairo
The Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919, set out the peace terms with Germany.
Guess the numberLevel 1
14. In what year did World War One end?
Answer: 1918 CE
The fighting of World War One ended in 1918 with the armistice on 11 November.
Multiple choiceLevel 1
15. On what date did the armistice end the fighting of World War One?
- 11 November 1918correct
- 1 January 1900
- 25 December 1914
- 4 July 1920
The armistice took effect on 11 November 1918, ending the fighting on the Western Front.
Match the pairsLevel 2
16. Match each term from the end of the war to its meaning.
Answer: Armistice = An agreement to stop fighting; Treaty of Versailles = The 1919 peace treaty; Allies = Britain, France and their partners; Central Powers = Germany and its partners
These terms describe how the war ended and the two main sides that fought it.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
17. Which terms did the 1919 Treaty of Versailles impose on Germany? Select all that apply.
- Limiting the army to 100,000 mencorrect
- Paying reparations to the Alliescorrect
- Losing its overseas coloniescorrect
- Demilitarising the Rhinelandcorrect
- Gaining large new colonies in Africa
Versailles shrank Germany's army, demanded reparations, stripped away its colonies and demilitarised the Rhineland, a settlement widely resented in Germany.
Odd one outLevel 3
18. Three of these states were newly created or restored from the collapse of empires after World War One. Which one had already existed as a country long before the war?
- Portugalcorrect
- Poland
- Czechoslovakia
- Yugoslavia
Poland was restored and Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were newly formed from fallen empires, while Portugal had been an independent country for centuries.

The Home Front

Build the sentenceLevel 1
19. Build a true sentence about the home front.
Answer: women worked in the factories
With men away at war, many women worked in factories to keep production going.
Choose all that applyLevel 1
20. Which of these happened on the home front during World War One? (Choose all that apply.)
- Women took on new jobscorrect
- Food was rationedcorrect
- Recruitment posters were printedcorrect
- The pyramids were built
On the home front women took on new jobs, food was rationed and recruitment posters were printed.
Fill the blankLevel 1
21. Posters that encouraged men to join the army were known as ____ posters.
- recruitmentcorrect
- holiday
- shopping
- weather
Recruitment posters were used to persuade men to volunteer to join the armed forces.
Multiple choiceLevel 1
22. On the home front, many women took on new jobs. What did large numbers of women make in factories?
- Weapons and shellscorrect
- Pyramids
- Medieval castles
- Roman roads
With many men away fighting, women took on jobs such as making shells and weapons in munitions factories.
Picture questionLevel 1
23. 🪧 This was displayed in public to encourage men to join the army. What is it?
- A recruitment postercorrect
- A cave painting
- A treasure map
- A royal crown
Recruitment posters were placed in public to persuade men to volunteer for the armed forces.
Fact or fibLevel 2
24. Britain introduced conscription in 1916 once the number of volunteers was no longer enough to keep the army supplied with men.
Answer: True
The Military Service Act of 1916 brought in conscription in Britain after voluntary recruitment could not meet the army's needs.

Trench Warfare

Choose all that applyLevel 1
25. Which of these were common hardships of trench life? (Choose all that apply.)
- Deep mudcorrect
- Ratscorrect
- Cold weathercorrect
- Warm, comfortable beds
Soldiers in the trenches dealt with mud, rats and cold weather; warm, comfortable beds were not part of trench life.
Fact or fibLevel 1
26. Soldiers living in the trenches often had to cope with mud, rain and cold.
Answer: True
Trenches were frequently wet and muddy, making life there very uncomfortable.
Fill the blankLevel 1
27. In France and Belgium, the long line of trenches was known as the ____ Front.
- Westerncorrect
- Eastern
- Northern
- Southern
The Western Front stretched across France and Belgium and became a stalemate of trenches.
Multiple choiceLevel 1
28. What was 'no man's land' in World War One?
- The open ground between the opposing trenchescorrect
- A safe town behind the lines
- A type of aeroplane
- A ship used to carry soldiers
No man's land was the open, dangerous ground between the opposing sides' trenches.
Picture questionLevel 1
29. ✈️ This machine was used in war for the first time in World War One, for scouting and fighting in the sky. What is it?
- An aircraftcorrect
- A castle
- A train
- A windmill
Aircraft were used in warfare for the first time in World War One, at first for scouting and later for fighting.
Match the pairsLevel 2
30. Match each new World War One weapon to what it did.
Answer: Tank = Crossed rough ground and trenches; Machine gun = Fired many bullets very quickly; Poison gas = Was released as a harmful cloud; Submarine = Attacked ships from underwater
Tanks, machine guns, poison gas and submarines were all new or newly important weapons of the war.

Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.

How you practise

This unit mixes 17 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.

Build the sentence
Choose all that apply
Fact or fib
Fill the blank
Guess the number
Listen and choose
Match the pairs
Multiple choice
Odd one out
Picture question
Put in order
Sequence recall
Sort into groups
Spell it
Tap the pairs
True or false
Type the answer

Practise World War One

120 questions across 20 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.

Play this unit

Read about World War One

Explainers from our blog on what this unit covers. Each one ends with real questions from the bank.

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