This year's Surface Line Week commemorates the centennial of the end of "The Great War." In 1914, World War I began after the political assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire were known as the Central Powers. The Central Powers fought against the Allied Forces of Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States. The United States formally joined the war in 1917 and the decision is credited for helping to turn the tide to an Allied victory.

World War I introduced modern society to unprecedented carnage with never seen before such as chemical warfare, large scale artillery and trench warfare. Finally, on 11 November 1918, the war ended and the Allied Powers were victorious. The cost of war resulted in a staggering 16 million soldiers and civilians dead. World War I bore witness to the fall of imperial dynasties of Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey. "The Great War" is thought to have laid the groundwork for World War II, through the destabilization of Europe, the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and the eruption of the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu that claimed nearly 20 million lives.