Europe Before World War I Vs Today

When Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, on June 28, 1914, few could have known it would reverberate for four years of brutal war, leading to the fall of three European empires and revolution in what would become the Soviet Union. The past 100 years have seen another world war and the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, but much of present-day Europe is based on the lines drawn following the conflict sparked by Princip's bullet.

1914

2014

(Pull cursor to the right from 1914 to see 1914 map and to the left from 2014 to see the modern map)