The History of~World War 1 (Part 6: The End?)

As we left off from the last page (click here) the Western Alliance lost an ally in Russia as the country was suffering from defeats from Germany, famine, and economic problems. But gained another one in America after declaring neutrality early in the war, entered as they were persuaded by Germany on 2 separate occasions.

This will be the final part of this wiki page series about World War 1. Here, we will talk about how the war ended, and what happened after that.

## The End of the War

The year is now 1918, the war has been going on for 4 years now, and the war is now taking a toll on every nation fighting in this war. New weapons, ammunition, food, and other supplies are running short, and soldier morale is at an all-time low.

But things are about to change as the short supplies and the low soldier morale were an especially hard time on the Central Powers who are now beginning to lose the war.

The Germans led by General *Erich Ludendorff* tried to come up with a plan to break the stalemate on the Western Front, and on March 21 the Germans tried to invade the Belgian tone of Flanders in what would be known as the *"Spring Offensive"*. The fight would go on for 4 months and with over a million casualties, but it proved that Germany couldn't sustain these losses and the offensive failed when the offensive ended on July 18. This laid the groundwork for the Alliance's offensive on August 8 in which the Germans would lose all of the ground they have gained during the Spring Offensive.

As the year went on, and still suffering from low supplies and even lower morale among the soldiers. The Central Powers were feeling the pressure and by October the Central Power nations such as Bulgaria, Austria-Hungary, and The Ottoman Empire had no other choice but to surrender, leaving Germany the only Central Power nation left by Autumn.

Finally, on November 11 at 11 AM. The Leaders and high commands of the nations of the USA, Britain, France, and Germany have agreed to sign an armistice. Thus, all active fighting seized.

With this, people are now celebrating the end of nearly 4 years of fighting.

### The Treaty of Versailles

But, the actual war wouldn't end until June 28 in 1919. US President Woodrow Wilson, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and French Chancellor Georges Clemenceau along with other leaders gathered at the French Castle called *"Versailles"* to discuss a peace treaty with the Germans.

But, there was much debate on how the treaty should be interpreted. Chancellor Clemenceau wanted to punish the Germans severely for the war as the French suffered the most from the war. President Wilson wanted to be the mediator and go easy on the Germans, and George, well, he was the middle man so to say.

In the end, however, it was decided that Germany was to take full responsibility for the war as they had to pay around 130 Billion German Marks (adjusted for inflation, around $30 billion today) in war reparations. Reduce their military to no more than 100,000 soldiers and completely dismantle their airforce as well as get rid of their U-Boat fleet and have only 6 battleships.

Germany also had to get rid of a good amount of their territories as they had to give up the region of Alsace-Lorraine to France, demilitarize the Rhineland, and even give up a good amount of their territories to the new country of Poland.

But the treaty did have the input of Wilson as well as he introduced his *"14 Points"* to do what the treaty did and also form an organization known as the *"League of Nations"*, a precursor to the United Nations which would form after World War 2.

## After the War

World War 1 was a terrible global conflict as over 20 Million people died with 10 Million of those being civilians.

According to Wilson, this was dubbed as *"The War to end all wars."* Unfortunately, it wasn't. A series of wars would break out following WW1.

### Russian Civil War

A brutal civil war would erupt in Russia as the Red Army (the Bolsheviks) and the White Army (and Anti-Bolshevik force) would fight for control of Russia. The war would go on for 5 years and claim millions of Russian lives. The Red Army would gain the advantage in 1919, driving the White Army to the Siberian wilderness. But by 1924, the Red Army would win over the White Army and form the *"Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics"*.

### Romania's Mini-War

On November 10, 1918 (the day before the Armistice), Romania re-joined the war and took Transylvania from the now-debunked empire of Austria-Hungary. But still was fighting a war against the newly created republic of Hungary. Another treaty was also signed in 1919, recognizing Transylvania and other provinces to be a part of Romania.

### Wars of Independence

The newly created Republic of Turkey was fighting a war against the now-debunked Ottoman Empire. In 1919, a war broke out between the new republic (along with occupying western soldiers) against imperial forces. Fighting would go on for 3 years, eventually, an armistice was signed and then a peace treaty, recognizing the new Republic of Turkey.

Ireland also had a war of independence in 1919 as they try to push out their British occupiers. The fighting would go on for around 2 years. Eventually, the Irish and the British would agree to a peace treaty. But things wouldn't stay peaceful in Ireland as civil war would soon follow.

Starting in 1918, the Spanish Flu would hit the world, hard, as 500 million people would contract the disease, leading to around 50 million people dead.

There's also a huge debate regarding the Treaty of Versailles. Like treaties before it, a lot of it was pretty much left open for interpretation. Germany (or the Weimar Republic) was left very weak and fragile after the war. Minorities such as Jewish people were blamed by the public for the downfall of the German Empire, and when the depression hit in October of 1929, Germany was especially hit hard as economic and political problems became worse.

The combination of all of this is what not just led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and his Nazis, but also another global conflict: World War 2.

This will conclude my multi-part wiki series of World War 1. Don't forget to check out my Games and Movies wikis too. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.