WWI Lesson 12: Ending the Fighting

After more than two years of exhausting fighting that gave neither side a significant advantage, teh war finally approached its turning point in 1917.  The collapse of Russia's monarchy early that year gave Germany hope that Russia would drop out of the war.  When that happened, Germany would be able to move nearly one million troops from the east to the western front.  America's entry into the war in April increased Germany's desire for Russia to quit fighting.  Germany's strategy in 1917 was to close down it's eastern front and then end the war in the west before American forces could make a difference.  It did not expect the Americans to be ready to fight quickly.  Meanwhile, German submarines continued to sink Allied ships as fast as they could as part of  Germany's strategy to starve the Allies into submission.

Russia did drop out of the war as Germany hoped, and the Americans were as slow to get involved in fighting as it expected.  Nevertheless, Germany failed to defeat France and Great Britain in 1917.  By early 1918, Germany itself was in a desperate situation: by that point, its leaders knew that if they did not win the war quickly, they stood no chance of winning.  So, for the first time since the opening of the war, Germany switched from a primarily defensive strategy to an offensive one.  Even so, the war would drag on through most of the year.

Without Germany's reinforcements from the eastern front, the Allies might have won the war sooner.  Instead, as spring opened in 1918, German troops on the western front outnumbered those of the Allies for the first time since early in the war.  With fresh American troops arriving in France at a rate of about 10,000 a day, Germany had to act quickly to keep its numerical advantage.  Ultimately, it was unsuccesful and a stalemate ensued again.

While American troops were helping defeat the Germans through the summer of 1918, mounting troubles within Germany and Austria-Hungary were ensuring the Central Powers' doom.  Citizens of both countries were fed up with war and their political leaders.  

Early in the morning of November 11, 1918 the German representatives signed an armistice agreement.  Its terms called for cease-fire at 11:00 AM on the same day - the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year.    Many countires still celebrate November 11th as Armistice day, and we consider it Veteran's day here in the US.

• Read Book 9 Chapters 1 and 2 on the end of war and Treaty of Versailles.  
• Look at this summary of Wilson's Fourteen Points

(NOTE:  While Wilson tried to create the League of  Nations, the United States never joined because the US Senate refused to ratify the treaty.  The league eventually failed because of its inability to prevent another world war.  In 1946, after the second world war ended, it was replaced by the United Nations.  The league's failure was almost guaranteed by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.  The harsh economic conditions imposed on Germany caused a negative backlash that made the treaty itself the object of German hostility.  As early as 1922, Adolf Hitler gave a speech against the Treaty.  During the late 1920s, the Nationalist Society, or Nazi, Party rose in Germany on the issue of the treaty.  In 1933, Hitler, the leader of the party, became chancellor of Germany.  Under his rule, Germany systematically undid all the restrictions the treaty had placed on it and went to start another world war.)