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Boston Public Library
34
Armistice
1918 Reg Grant
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1918
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Reg
(irant.
— (The World Wars)
huludis hihiiographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7 398-2753-7 Conference (1919-1920)
1.
Paris Peace
2.
World War. 19]
J.
World War.
National Sociali.sm
6. Hitler. .Adolf,
j
889-1945— Juvenile
Versailles (1919).
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Series.
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World War. 1914-191
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ioivr ph..,.Hir,rlu
ll.J.I.-,
literature.
literature.
(1919-1 920).
19^9-1945— Causes]
II
I
—
literature.
^juvenile literature.
Paris Peace C onfercnc e
W..rld War.
literature.
39-1945— Causes— Juvenile
5.
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Juvenile literature.
1914-1918- Hurope— Juwnile
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ihr
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Treaty of
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urope.
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D644 .678 200 Ix
3
Contents
A
4
Great War Ends
Elusive Peace
1
From Armageddon Building a
New
Erom One War
to Armistice
World
to the
Next
24 33 45
Remembrance
55
Date
60
List
Glossary
62
Resources
63
Sources
63
Index
64
A
Great In ihr i-arK
War Ends li()ur>
19 IS, a small
ot
ikaring
C'oinpii'ijnf, in i-asU-rn
olCiernian oHk
moderate darkness,
gniund
up
in
iais
}
stepped
Ritliondis
at
rancv.
Nownihcr 11, down troni a
in
Thev were
the
I
oresl ol
delegation
a
and oIlKers headed h\ the respected
politician tlu\
nnn
ol
ijr()U|)
railroad lar in a
nioniing of
tin-
filed
Matthias
on
to a paralKl track
hr/herger.
planks
across
In
wet,
the
muddy
where another car was drawn
the forest. This was the
command
train ot
Marshal
Icrdinand loch, the commander-in-chiet of the Allied armies
in
that the
—
a
Irance.
I
he
Germans were about
most destructi\e war
conflict
now known
simpK referred
as
to
in histor\ uji to
World War
to as "the Cjreat
War"
1.
—-was
concede
\ovcmhcr
1 1
,
191
S:
Marshal
hoch, second Jrom ri^bt,
is
photographed with the Allied
that time
dekfjation outside the railroad
hut then
cur in which the armistice
o\er.
was signed.
A
Great War Ends
World at war Along
a line stretching
from Belgium
Swiss border in the south,
confronted one another
done since the
Germany and
earlv
—
months
in
1914.
Initially,
the Central Powers
and
the Allies. 0\er the following four years, the into a
Ottoman Empire had come
many other United
lives
—
war
global
conflict.
Although
had dropped out, Bulgaria and the Turkish
Russia
Canadian troops advance
north to the
Britain, France, Russia, Belgium,
war had broadened
Allies.
of the
Austria- Hungary
had fought Great Serbia
in
in the
manv thousands ot soldiers armed conflict, as they had
in
on Germany's
countries, includinsj
States,
More
Italy,
had joined the war
side, while
Romania, and the in
support of the
than eight million soldiers had lost their
in the titanic struggle.
Battle
was
still
raging in
eastward across France,
many
pursuinij the rctrcatin^j
and Belgian troops pressed forward toward the German
Germans
border,
in the fall
sectors of the front. British Empire, French, U.S.,
liberating
German occupation
oj 1918.
ri^S'
territory
~»^
^m
-''^^'
t^m^
z^^
that
for four years.
-^i'r-.-:,.'
had been under
— .\mustuc 1^1 S
Siifnincj the armistice I
i/lHTijiT aiul his
Miilitarv
to the Ciermans. lar,
I
r/herger
German Government and
llu-
v\n\ thi- Hohtinu.
down
h.ul hiiii laid
orim mood. Ihcx
HeHin to accept an armistice
authorities in
agreement lo
.1/7
olli-a^iu's wi'iv in a
l)cin iiistriK ti-d In
h.ul
iM
I
In tluir
The armistice terms
enemies and
si-cnu-d harsh
(onlrontinu loth insidr
made
a
statement protesting
his railroad as^ainst
the
terms imposed on (Jermanv.
He
ended: "A peojile of
seventy million are suHrring,
Init
thev are not dead."
However, to
oi h
I
was uinielding;
negotiate terms,
v(M)
\.\i.,
1
Init
to
he
imjiose
was
ihere
them, just alter
r/herger and other delegation
igned the armistin.* agreement.
not
members
jrtist's
impression of the
scene inside Foch
's
railroad car
The leader of the German delecjation,
Matthias
Erzberijer,
Lonfronts Marshal Foch across the table on which the armistice will
he
siijned.
A
Great War Ends
An order went out to the forces under Foch's command: "Hostilities will cease at 11:00 A.M. todav. Defensive precautions will
Some commanders
be maintained."
ordered attacks that morning to seize bridges or high points before the armistice
came
into effect. At
British soldiers
years
four
who had
fought the entire
on the
fire
The timing of
Belo;ium, three
war were
the
of
machine-gun
Mons,
killed
bv
morning.
last
the cease-fire had been
deliberately chosen to be
memorable: the
eleyenth hour of the ele\enth day of the eleventh
month of 1918.
i\long the battle
and amid the shattered ruins of
lines
towns and
\
illa^es,
Celebration
the giJns
fell silent.
and mourning
There was curiously the \ictorious side.
little
4^,,
rejoicing
among the
Most took the news
ordered, simply stayed
at their posts.
troops on
quietly and, as In the cities of
Great Britain, France, and the United States, however, there were scenes of unbridled jubilation. French Prime
Minister Georges Clemenceau was hailed bv cheering
crowds, emerging onto the balcony of his Paris house to
acknowledge the applause. In London, work stopped for the day
on
leave
e\en
lit
once the news broke. Crowds of ser\icemen
and
joyful ci^ilians
packed Trafalgar Square and
a bonfire at the base of
Nelson's Column.
the same story on Broadway in
North American
New
York and
in
cities.
islSJ
On
Armistice Dav, French Prime Minister
Georges Clemenceau commented "We have won That
the
may prove
war
harder
Source: A. Palmer,
Sow
we
will
have
"
Victory
1918
privately:
to
win the peace.
It
\vas
other
^^„, havejalkn sikm,
,/,,
a U.S. soldier uTites a letter in the ruins
ofa
soldiers wrote
village.
.Many
home imnwdiatelv
ajter the armistice to let their
Janulies sunived.
know
that thev
had
The seenes
ofrejoiciriij
around TrafuUjor Square, I.onJon, on Armistice
were wild
and
Day
riotous.
Soldiers look the lead. relieyed that they
now
Out of control Aiross
world, as news of the armistice spread,
tlu-
crowds
celel)rating
took
to
the
tienionstrations of joy that often Nerged C hicago,
streets
on
in
In
riots.
according to one newspaper report,
some
people "wore in\erted waste baskets o\er their heads to proti-c anti
t
their hats
women
rewlers
Irom the
who
In the Australian citv of
out ot lontrol. trolley car
and
i
Our rashed
f
stealing fireworks that
terrilying
Jstrongiv to
it
were then
this riotous ..jliix-r,
response to the armistice.
liiutenant Ansell, wrote
in
A his
V
'>c
hcst
Ihiwijiwn ihcir • irhj
s
set off in the streets,
many passersby Many people objected
British arniN
Melbourne, crowds ran wildly
through the front window of looted Chine.se-owned shops,
an
Others
and stones of men
grouj) of revelers took over a
•
office.
sticks
lined the walls of buildings."
lives for this
hour unJ
rather f/jwn tomfoolery.
"
it
.
I I
would not
he sent to die in battle.
-4
But not tneryone was
in a
mood
for celebration. Millions
were mourning sons or brothers
The
lost at the front.
feared telegrams announcing a death in action continued to be delixered to families.
the
moment
of
\
ictory,
Many turned
to religion in
packing churches to pray '
thanksgi^^ng or in
memory
of the
lost.
in
Great War Ends
Children ,n a poor district of
London's East End arc treated to
a tea party in the
celehrate the
Then
street to
end of the uar
patriotic parents have
huncj flays from the ^ylndous.
— .
1*^1 S
Irni/.vfitv
Grief on Armistice
W iltiid
now
)\\tn,
(
roiiiciiilx'red
was
greatest poets of tlie war,
Noxeniher
1^18. In
4,
as
news
on Noveml)er
1
1
was greeted bv the prolonged church
rin^ini^ ot
hells.
hrouj^ji
1
the clamor ot celebration, parents,
Tom and
Owen's
Susan, heard the
gentler cliime of their front cKxjr bell.
was
It
messenger with an
a
telegram inlormino them
(jf
official
their son's
deatli.
Bitter defeat In iiuK h of the world, there
was no cause
for thank>gi\ing or rejoicing.
armiNtice
\\u-
—
who had had no
shot kid (H-rmaiis,
anm
idia thiir
Berlin
ia|)ital
lilies
powers.
was on
and
defi-at.
of
Win-
re\olutionar\
population si-M-re
by
dif I
far
sliorta^es,
British
urtlur
east,
as
win-
nrw
a
sought
I.enin,
land
war /()
its
rule
shattere
na\al in
Kussian
B«)lslu\ik govirnment, under Vladimir iKii h
imp
grip
of
was suffering
conditions
worse,
{hv
defeated
the
toi Mu-i
nipire,
ienna,
tlie
food a
I
thi' \eri'e of
upheaval. .Muih of
from
blotkadc.
\
in
tluit
lauM-d
The news of
surrender
\irtual
a
t.
on
.i
In
an
one
of
killed in action
hometown
iiis
of Shrew^hurv, Lnuland, the of the armistice
Day the
on
WiljreJ officer
Owen, wartime army
and
poet, died
before the armistice.
a week
Austrian children collect firewood. For the defeated countries, the armistice brought bitterness
and
The w orld was the
Great War Ends
also in the
^ip of one of
most destructiye epidemic
eyer.
hardship.
A
diseases
Influenza of an especially \irulent
kind was killing thousands of people a
Adolf
\yeek across the globe. This "Spanish flu"
Hitler, a corporal in the
German
\yould eyentually cause the deaths of an
armv, \vas a patient in a
He
hospital at Pasewalk, Pomerania.
had been temporarily blinded by gas in the trenches,
news of the :-
memoirs,
\\
hen he heard the
moment
Kampf he recalled moment:
when
armistice
the
was
announced, hundreds of thousands were seriously
armistice. In his
iMein
estimated 12 million worldwide. At the
ill
with this disease.
Uncertain future
the shock of that ". :
.
..even-thing went black before
tottered
my eyes;
and groped my way back
dormitory, threw myself on
to the
my bunk, and dug
my burning head into my blankets and pillow.
..
so
Source:
it
J.
had
all
been in vain..
Fest, Hitler
I
" .
With the end of the fighting, people's minds naturally turned to the future.
How
\\as a
new world
to be built
on the
War had created? explain how the armistice
ruins that the Great
This book will
came
about, and what happened to the
subsequent
efforts
to
construct
a
peaceful and prosperous world.
//
S
191
\rmistice
The desolate Id
.»
llu-
_
siuiih to annistkv,
tlu-
I
louse orCoinnioiis announcing
Brilisli |)rinH'
minister Da\icl
I.Ioycl
Gi'orgi" said:
"Thus
I
and most
/jcyv lu-
ma\
most destructive war
terrible
cume
to
an end the
war that has ever scourijeJ mankind.
all sav that thus, this fateful
morning, came to
"
an end
all wars.
Souav: M. Volume
I:
spectacle of a road
TIanders at the end of the
then, the world
01 eleven o'clock this morninij
cruellest
in
GillxMl,
.1
I lisior\
of the Twentieth
Century
1900-1933
^.
V :>
had
thai, until
ever seen.
Elusive Peace The major powers of Europe had stumbled conflict in
itself.
war would be
majority
people
of
they
aggression national
There was "all
were
a
widely held belief
o\er h\ Christmas." the
in
On
supported the war. belie\ed
armed
August 1914 with no clear aim except for
\ictorv
militar\
that the
into
both
combatant
The
vast
countries
they genuinely
sides,
defending themseKes
against
and doing what was necessary for their
honor and security
At the end of 1914, however, the war settled into
a
stalemate, and the prospect of victory for either side
became remote. The to
unprecedented
lexels, as
war
in
human
hundreds
of
li\es
rose
thousands of
died in unsuccessful attempts to break the
soldiers
enemy
cost of the
lines,
exchange
fcjr
leaders of the a basis for
which often resulted a few
in
huae losses
in
miles of mudd^• ground. Yet the
combatant countries were unable to find
peace negotiations.
Stretcher-bearers knee-Jeep in
mud
Jurini] the
I
9
1
7 battle of
Passchendaele
—
which about
300,000
a battle in
from Great Britain and
troops its
empire were killed or wounded
Jor nunimaUjains.
Armisiuc
I 'f I
Barriers to peace ll
In
lar iMsii
li\rs, |)c()|)lr c\|)rt
peaie
—
rniuirrment
piaee was
it
was
war
riu-
safe
thai
make the a minimum
enemies should be
from
a future attack.
impossible for both sides to achieve
logic allv
this objecti\e at
lelt
that their
would be
weakened, so thev
would
il
BoUi sides
lutile.
But
the most obvious basis for a
— because
saeritii.es sei-m
ol
Oner massive
were reluctant to return to the
war
situation hetore the
i()m|)romise
it.
led tangible gains to justiK the deaths
Hun
hardslii|)v
anil
end
lo
niadr, iiu liuling a huge satriticv ot
Inrii
hail
rlloils
war than
to ^l.ul a
r
onee.
The British and French,
also ucnerated hatred.
tor example, had denounced the Ciermans as barbarians which because ot atrocities committed in Belgium
—
were and
e\en
real,
at
if
exaggerated
lions siu h as the sinking ot the British
U-boat
iusitania b\ a hostilitv to
change
in
l*^-*!
5.
ocean liner
In (ireat Britain,
popular
German torced the roval tamilv name Irom Saxe-Coburg-Gotha attitudes made compromise difficult.
things
all
their
Windsor. Sue h
poster usiruj the sinkiuij of
the Lusitania to encouruijc
propaganda
in Allied
.1
men
to
those
enhst
and
nho had
"avenije"
died.
to to
AVENGE HUE
The Lusitania News ot the sinkiui" German submarine pajH'rs
on
drowned
.\lav 7,
ot the
191
5.
Popular outrage swilled States,
in
manv
ocean
ajij^caicul
in
liner Lusitania
bv
a
the British evening
.More than 1,000 people were
the disaster,
in
riots
12S of them U.S.
in (Jreat Britain
British
lollowing weekend, shops
towns and
citizen.s.
and the United cities
over the
owned bv Ciermans, or bv
^^^£' ^^
—
-
ro
-
-^fc-n-r-^
A
pfople with German-sonnding names, were attacked
and looted. Workers ilemonstrated to
strength of |)opular feeling against f\j)lain |.
14
aijainst
work alongside Ciernian emplovees
why arguments
nn>st liritish
beino forced
in factories.
The
Germanv, shown by the
for a conijiromise j>eace
met with
and .American people throughout the war.
Lusitania riots, helps
a ho.stile
response from
Elusive Peace
Secret ambitions Each side
CTraduallv
put together specific war aims as the
Often written down
dragged on.
conflict
these
treaties,
made
intentions
The French,
impossible.
thev had ceded to the Germans
War
wanted
and Lorraine, which
after their defeat in the
1871, but also to detach the
of
Rhineland from Germany. unacceptable to any
virtually
for example, not only
to recover the provinces of Alsace
Franco-Prussian
peace
secret
in
This \yould
be totally
German go\ernment.
In order to
brin^ Italy into the war on their side in 1915, Great Britain
and France secretly agreed that the
take territory
Italians
could
from Austria-Hungary. This made peace
with Austria-Hungary hard to achieve. Another secret
promised Russia control of Constantinople
treatv'
(Istanbul), the capital of
Ottoman
Turkey.
German ambitions also stood in the way of peace. German leaders were determined to keep the control of Belgium they had \von at the start of the w ar. But Great Britain
was
totally
independence.
dominance given
it
committed
Germany
in eastern
also
to
defending Belgian
wanted
to
maintain
Europe, where early victories had
control of large areas of the Russian Empire.
This ruled out a compromise peace with Russia.
Georges Clemenceau, an elderly but
fiery radical,
was appointed French prime minister
in
1917. Addressing the French
he
November
Chamber of Deputies,
said:
"You ask what are
my war aims.
Gentlemen, they are very
"
simple: Victory.
Source: A.j.R Taylor, The
First
World War
Peace without victory
One
idealist believed that
slaughter.
This was
he could find
a
way
to
end the
Thomas Woodro\\ Wilson,
the
president of neutral United States. Reelected president
15
Armistice
19 IS
\c\\
U.S. recruits follow the
on
bund
after the United States'
forward
a p<.'atc-
platform
in
Xoxcnilx-r
he put
1'-)1C-),
entry into the war The
calhn^ tor "jjeace without \ictorv." But
Americans had a verv small
peacemaker soon found himself
peacetime army;
it
took a /o/n/
time to train draftees
and
States
into
liinisclt
mediator between the warring powers,
as a
the
war.
United
the
leadint^
A combination
would-he
tlie
(jerman\
of
's
decision to launch luilimited U-boat warfare, including
on U.S. ships bound
transport ihem to theji^htin^
attacks
in irance.
re\c'lation of a foolish
in\asion
the
of
declare war on
United
German\
to
1917.
become
i.uropean power conflict.
I
le
for
part\
lor
and
Power with
Irance, full
instead
indej^endence of action.
himself as an advocate of
.1
just
pi'onounccments refining
notabK
in his
remaining an
peace and
his \iew of
lourlei-n Points of Januar\
lie-
to a that
which the
world must be made
democracA." lie refused to become an alK
Britain
of
a
announced
democracA was the fundamental cause United States would
Congress to
forcecf
in .April
tiolu: "the-
Mexican
plot to back a
States,
Wilson was determined not c\nical
and the
for Great Britain,
German
safe
of (jreat
Associate-
prc-sented
made
a sericvs
war aims, most 19)8.
El,usive
Peace
Woodrow Wilson Born
Staunton, Virginia, in IS 56, Thomas
in
Woodrow
1912
Wilson was elected president of the United States in
winning a second term Jour years
minded
university professor
political decisions based
war and could
on moral
make
it
a
of the
thincj
righteous, but in
1
Wilson was a hiyh-
ideals.
and
believed that democracy-
him thought him cold and
I
later
and lanrer who wanted
past.
He
to see
bated
proijress
Many who
met
insufferably self-
**^
9 1 8 he was \iewed by millions
as their best hope for a future of peace
and
Jreedom.
On January
8,
1918,
in a speech to Congress,
Wilson announced Fourteen Points that he believed :
would provide the basis Jor a just and lasting peace. There were to be
no more
secret deals
between diplomats, hut "open covenants of peace \
'
openly arrived
at.
"
Freedom of the seas andjree
trade were to be sacred.
Arms
cuts
would be made
"to the lowest point consistent with domestic scifety. it
[
"
Germany would have
had occupied during
France,
and
the
to give
war
back
territory
in Belcjium,
Stand by
Russia, as well as .Alsace-Lorraine,
seized from France in
1
87 1
Poland, which
.
had
I
.been carved up between Russia, the Prussias, and .Austria in the eighteenth century,
restored as
an independent
state.
HE President
would be Other national
groups in the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman President
Empires would have the right
autonomous development"
—
to "thejreest opportunity
of
Woodrow Wilson
appealed for the support of
meaning they would not be patriotic .Americans, as he led
;
independent, but would have a large say in running their
I
affairs.
own them into a war that he said
Finally, all countries
would get together
in
an would make the world
international organization that would guarantee the
new
"
democracy. borders, bringing "international
anarchy"
Wilson suffered a series of strokes during ^physically
and mentally
incapacitated.
to
an end.
1919
He
that
died in
I
left
him
924.
"safe for
1918
Armistice
and
Wc2r-vyearine55
revolution
Bv the time the United 1917,
looked as
it
it
States entered the conflict in
the fighting might end through the
war-weariness of ordinary people in Europe after years
Popular disillusionment with
of slaughter.
way
the
goxernments were running the war and with the hardships The
chief Luigi Cadorna, was
let
brought
in
its
wake was widespread.
More than 100,000 men were
yo
obey orders.
after Italj's disastrous defeat at
refusing to
Caporetto.
discipline, but
knew
that
if
Jp
r:".
ceased
,._
M
^
-
r
'^"
J KfcC '
^B! ^^Pffi^-^
i't-'--:-^ ''
^^
It
i-^
>-
would probably refuse
fight
in the
only,
to
army
practically
after
defeat
at
fall.
or even primarily, in the
front line that disillusionment spread.
fs^
All
^^1 ^^^^1
combatant
the
experienced
^^ \jf^jmk .._
was not
for
restored
they ordered an offensive
Italian
to
Caporetto
Pi \M ...^Hi '-
The
fi^ht.
court-martialed
France's generals
their soldiers
•'J^^^'-^"^
In
1917, mutiny swept through the French army.
April
commander-in-
Italian
it
sharp
before the war.
w as
iCTj^^^e^^^^^^a ^Btev.,
^P^^^^^^^BfiS ^I^i^^
a
In
social all
of
conflicts
them there
wide gap between rich and poor.
Most had strong
^s^^l^^*--
had
countries
socialist
that ad\ocated the
mo\ements
oxerthrow of the
traditional ruling class.
By 1917, many
workers were con\inced that wealthy profiteers for
..Y
were benefiting from
a
war
which ordinary people were paying
with their
lives.
Strikes
were widespread Britain
in
and France
and food
riots
Germany. Great also
experienced
labor disputes and popular discontent.
Voices for peace Ner\()usly aware of the need to maintain the will to ttght,
combatant countries dealt harshly with those who
spoke out against the war. In Germany, the independent socialist Karl
hard
labor
United
Licbknecht was sentenced to four years for
organizing antiwar
States, the socialist
to ten years in prison for
/8
protests.
In
the
Eugene Debs was sentenced
making antiwar speeches.
Elusive Peace
In Julv
1917, the Reichstag, Germany's parliament,
voted lor
bv
a
compromise peace, the
Erzber2;er,
luture
a
proposal put lorward
leader
delegation. But the Reichstag had
German
go\
Labour
Part\-
ernment and called
the
armistice
as ignored.
tor a ta\orable
When the
British
response to the
House of Commons And when socialists from
These shops in the capital, Berhn,
German
have been looted
Reichstag Peace Resolution, the
hv a huncjn mob. Popular
voted
unrest
heavily
a2;ainst
Germany, Great
I
\\
ol
no power over the
it.
Britain,
and France tried to meet tor
a
made Germanv's
fear there
peace conterence in Stockholm, most were refused
if thev did
permission to travel bv their governments.
quicklv
rulers
would be a revolution not win the war
Armistice
I
9
/
S
Sic^hied Sassoon was a British poet
winning the MiHtary Cross for
\alor.
who became
an army officer and war hero,
Bv 1917, however, he had become
con\ inced that the war should be ended by negotiation. Risking court martial,
he
made
a
public appeal for peace:
"/ believe that the
a
soldier,
war
/vimy Jeliberatclv prolonged bv those who have the power to end
is
convinced that
I
am
entered as a war of defence I
actinij
and
have seen and endured the
on behalf of soldiers.
liberation,
has
I believe
now become
sujferincj of the troops,
these sufjeriiujs for ends which I believe to be evil
and
and
upon which
that this war,
I
a war of aggression and conquest
can no louijer he a party
I
to
am
I
it.
....
prolomj
"
unjust.
Sassoon might ha\e been imprisoned, but instead his protest was attributed to shell shock,
and he was sent to
He
a military hospital.
e\entuallv returned to
the front.
Source:
J.
Stallworthv, Wilfred
Owen
Empires and nationalists
Yd some
such
rulers,
voung
the
as
limperor Charles of Austria- Hunj^arv and
Czar Nicholas
11
of Russia,
would ha\e
been glad to make peace. The\ feared that the
of
strain
empires.
war woukl destroy
their
Austria-Hun^arx,
Russia,
Ottoman Turkey were
and
under
especialK
threat
because thev were multinational
states,
held together b\ a (Knastic
rhe\ were
menaced not onK h\ but
revolution
bv
also
ruler.
socialist
nationalist
mowments. in
Januar\
themsehes
1917,
the
in laxor of a
Allies
deinee
declared
of sell-rule
for .some subject jx*oj)Ies ol the .Austro-
liunoarian l.mperor Charles came to the throne of .\u.\ina-
llumjory
in
November /^^/6.
I
le desperately
—
Poles,
C/echs,
Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, and Romanians.
President
WiUited to end the war, which he correcth belie\ed
|)i'inc
would lead
With
to the brciikup oj his empire.
l'm|)ire
Wilson
iple of national
this
national
also
adopted
encouragement,
sj^roups
the
"sell-determination."
intreased
the
various
their
political
I
Elusive Peace
were outbreaks
a^tation. There
mutiny bv national
of
minorities in the Austro- Hungarian army.
The Ottoman Empire was
also threatened
Arab
particulark- h\ a British-backed
by nationalism,
re\olt that
began
in
1916.
The Ottomans took
against
one prominent national group, the Armenians,
deportations
whom
were
exterminated
in
provoked bv their alleged support
lor
million
several
preempti\e action
brutal
ot
Turkey's enemies.
Revolution in Russia The
first
Russia,
empire to crack under the
which had suffered
strain of
war was
a string of costly defeats since
1914. In March 1917, protests against bread shortages in Petrograd turned into a popular rexolution. Czar Nicholas II
was forced to abdicate, and
a pro\isional
began to organize democratic elections. Through Russia, effectixe po\\er
pro\isional
—
catastrophic defeat.
summer
of
Lenin,
1917
Thev uere
revolution.
later shot
bv the
1917 that ended
Meanwhile, with the aid of
Ilvich
after the
Bolsheviks.
The Russian army began
Germany, an exiled revolutionary Vladimir
his family in exile in Siberia,
to pursue the war,
apart through mass desertions and lack of discipline.
of
the so\iets.
goxernment continued
ordering an offensive in the in
much
was exercised by re\olutionar\-
councils of workers and soldiers
The
Russian Czar Nicholas II and
go\ernment
to
^j^.^^.^
fall
^,
:,
ji**^^
.socialist,
returned
to
Petrograd and proclaimed a policy offering the
Russian people "Bread, Peace, and
Land." In No\ember, Lenin's Bolsheviks seized
power
in the
name
of the Soviets.
Lenin immediately launched a ringing
call
for a general peace "without annexations
On December
or indemnities."
armistice was agreed
15,
an
upon betw een Russia
and German\.
Many
The weakness nationalists
Ukraine,
in
of
the
Bolshevik go\ernment allowed
Finland,
Belarus,
Estonia,
Moldova,
Lithuania,
Poland,
Russian troops fomjht
bravelv in the failed offensive of
Latvia,
the
summer of 19
Armenia,
the
army quickly
17. but then
fell apart.
21
Armistice
1918
Azerbaijan, and Georgia to assert their independence.
Germany backed these nationalists to achieve the dismemberment of the Russian Empire. On March 3, 1918,
the
Bolsheviks
humiliating peace
The Rolsbevik leader Vladimir
llyich
Lenin inspired
treats'
manj
were forced
accept
to
the
of Brest- Litovsk, which signed
workers
and
soldiers with
a belief that
thev could build a new world.
H ^3n
Lenin 's peace appeal November
8,
1917, the day after the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia,
Lenin addressed representatives of soldiers, workers, and peasants Irom throughout the Russian Empire.
He
read out a proclamation to "the Peoples of All the
Belligerent Nations," proposing a "just
or indemnities. tidi- ol
An American
i-motion sweeping the
and democratic peace" v\ithout annexations
eyewitne.ss, hall as
John Reed, described an overwhelming
delegates belie\ed the
war was over
Ixnin did not expect goxernments to respond favorably to his appeal.
at last.
He
believed
the war would turn into a world revolution as socialist workers of different nations sl()|)|)ed
22
fighting
one another and attacked
their cajiitalist bosses instead.
ELusive Peace
awav
a large part of the
former Russian Empire. The
new would-be independent
national
immediately subject to close control
were
states
and intense
economic exploitation by Germany and AustriaHungarv.
No compromise The
first
Russian revolutionaries, on the
peace of the war had
come through
the victory
right
oj the
table,
arejorced
to
of one side and the collapse of the other, with absolutely
accept humihating peace terms
no compromise.
would
at Brest-Lnovsk.
The Germans
happen on the Western Front. There was an
were merciless in
victory.
also
It
was increasingly
outbreak of antiwar strikes in
clear that this
German
factories
in
With
January 1918, but these were
easily suppressed.
victory complete in the East, in
March 1918 Germany's Hindenburg
military leaders
—
Field Marshal Paul von
—planned
and General Erich von Ludendorff
gamble on the Western Front, seeking
total
a
last
victory
before U.S. troops could enter the war in force.
The
Germans' spring offensive was to prove the decisive
moment the war.
of the conflict and the beginning of the end of
From Armageddon On March II,
^ranlcnl ll
li()li(la\.
launched Michael
all
—on
sthook
Cicrniaii
was two a
Cicrnianx's ruler. Kaiser Williclni
I'-McS,
2 3,
i^reat
(la\s sintc
ottensixe
the Western
Kaiser conHclent that
hrouuh April and
it
'Mtlorx
iiildrcn a
Front.
The
initial
war
vital
situation
was
oftensi\e
made
the
would.
.\la\,
the (ierman forces continued
communication
centers.
among
Frenc h,
Allied
Operation
results
lo |)ress forward in fierce battles, edging
and
(la\
the Cjcrman arm\ had
—code-named
intended to win the war, and
I
Armistice
to
British,
toward
The
\
Paris
iew of
the-
and .American
leaders w.is grim. In the beginning of June, the British c-\en
discussed
troops from
24
I
the
i.incc-
possibility
of
withdrawing
altogether, to pre\ent
beinniiit oil ,ind destrovc-d bv the
their
them from
enenn adxance.
Ccmuinv's //.
Kaiser Wilhclm
nilci;
the cousin ofdrcat Britain's
Knuj Gcoiyc
V,
tied his personal
jvestiije to the success
March
offensive.
It
of the
was known
as the Kaisersc hlac lu
l.mperor's
fiattle.
the
From ArmLKjcddon
~''^-'
•>><:>
l'>\
'^*y
German
troops attack
duriuij the
I
9
1
S
hvnch
to Armistice
defensive positions
sprinij offensive. It
many
soldiers at the time that the
about
to
appeared
to
Germans were
nin the war
Turn of the
tide
But the Germans \\ere suffering massi\e casualties
— 348,000 men
in the first six
weeks of the spring oHensi\e alone. In the early
summer, thev were
bv
beg^innin^
the
epidemic, their
of
men. Meanwhile,
month, suffered
the
which disabled
were arriving
by
of
fresh U.S. troops
replacing the casualties
the
German acKance
influenza
500,000
the rate of 250,000 a
at
raj^idly
also struck
Allies.
In
July,
j^^round to a halt.
the
Wounded
soldiers
from both sides help one
another thromih the
German mounted bv the
streets
offensive ran out in the face
oj St. Qucntin. The
of steam as casualties
of a determined fyht-back
:\llics.
25
1918
Armistice
The
following month, the Allies took the offensive.
Massed
British
and French tanks led Australian and
Canadian infantry into
heaw
defeat
battle at
on the German
Amiens,
forces.
inflicting a
Ludendorff called
August 8 the "black day of the German army." The British
in
particular
had by
now become
technically
superior to the Germans, inventing a new
mobile warfare using tanks and
were
U.S. troops
also bringing a fresh spirit to the front. In early
September,
under the command of General John
Pershing, they inflicted a setback St.
aircraft.
form of
on the Germans
Mihiel salient. Noteworthy of
St.
at the
Mihiel was the
—
number of German troops who surrendered more than 13,000. The German soldiers had been promised final
victory in 1918. Disillusionment was the ine\itable
result of being
German the
soldiers retreat across
Marne
River underfire in
mid-July 1918. From point onward,
who took
26
it
this
ivas the Allies
the offensive.
thrown back once more on the defensive.
From Armaijeddon
Demoralization was as
On
August 10, 1918, Ludendorff
gave Kaiser
Wilhelm
account of the
state
of the
army on the Western
Summing up
gloomv
a
German
Front.
the situation, the
The war must he brought
Source: A. Palmer,
to
of our strength. an end.
Victor,-
1918
allies
September
as in the ranks.
1918, Ludendorff and
worsened
15, an Allied
Germany could
rapidlv.
On
armv based
in
Salonika, Greece, launched an offensive against
Bulgaria.
put up
little
\vav Mihiel sahent
U.S. soldier in action at the
in
September 1918. The Americans lacked
battlefield experience,
the
"
.4
determination.
in
month, the situation of the Germans and
butjought with courage and
The
Bulgarian
resistance and,
forces
two weeks
Bulgaria surrendered. This left the
later,
St.
command
the Kaiser accepted that
their
the limits
high
In earlv August
severe
not win the war. During the following
Kaiser admitted:
"We have reached
German
to Armistice
open
for the Allied forces to attack
Austria-Hungary from the south. At the
same time, the
Allies
had launched
another massive offensive on the Western Front.
1918
Armisncc
The search for a
On
cease-fire begins
September 29, l.udendorH
Kaiser
had
(K-rniain
that
immediate end to the
were
there
German to
win
territorx
President
Wilson's
satisfy-
"The enemy action
desire
to
cease-
a
Baden,
^i\in^
He
chancellor
as
plav
to
peacemaker and
at first
laNorabK to the
German
Max
(head
of
the
of
role
responded quite j^roposal for a
be followed bv negotiations.
But the British and French political and leaders,
and
own
America's
military chiefs, soon persuaded that tough
Wilson
terms had to be imposed on
Germany. Otherwise, the Germans might use a cease-fire as a chance to regroup their
ready for
forces
a
new war.
On
October 20, the (ierman aovernment reluctantly have- to
terms
accepted
that
there
would
be an armistice agreement with
laid
down
b\
its
enemies.
Empires Jail Austria-Hungary
was
Ui,
more Germany On even
desperate for peace than
October
Iniperor Charles tried to
appease the United States by urantinu
autonomy was too
to national minorities.
little,
I
is
reayuard
fi^htin^ a clever
do not sec how we can hope
^et him movincj an\ faster anticipate another six
....
months
We
to
{
all
ofjiijhtinfj
"
at least.
Source: N. Ferguson, The
Admiral Reinhard
too
late.
But
it
Poles, C/echs,
Scheer, the
German naw, was opposed armistice.
Wilson wanted
military
and
I
Pity
of War
appointed
go\ernment).
cease-fire, to
Julian
line,
democracA,
liberal-minded aristocrat, Prince
von
front
powers and accepting
autocratic
his
lor
parliamentar\ g(^\ernment. a
decided
h)r
the
in
Bickersteth, wrote:
power
annoimced he was
Kaiser
the
chaplain
lea\e their
Wilson
1918, four davs
7,
before the armistice, a British army
hoped
Thev
intact.
On November
leaders
ignoring the French and British. To
fire,
lip
would
a deal that
ask
an
Beeause
Hglitiiig.
German
the
and
seek
to
no foreign troops on
still
soil,
told the
commander
of the
to accepting an
From Armageddon
and other
Sla\ s
were bv now
fighting alongside the Allies
now be denied
that the subject nationalities could not
independence. Bv the time Austria-Hungary was
November 3, The different
granted an armistice on \irtuallv
had
ceased to
effectivelv
exist.
Ottoman Turkev October,
the empire had national groups
assumed power and were struggling borders
the
establish
new
of
surrendered
also
Germanv
leaxin^
independent at
onlv
the
as
end
the
to
states.
power
of still .1
fighting the Allies.
contemporary cartoon
sho\vin(j
In late October, as
stubborn
German
offensive,
German
rejecting
troops on the
British
terms
resistance
the
to
death.
and
pursuing
But when
and Hindenbur^ ordered all army commanders to fight to the finish, they
were disowned bv the
Kaiser,
a
Woodrou Wilson emharkina on
policy
the "Armistice Road.
Ludendorff
-.-y -----:
Prime Minister David
Lloyd George, and President
military leaders indulged fantasies of
armistice
Marshal hoch, French
Premier Geor(jes Clemenceau,
Western Front continued to hold up the Allied
of
Armistice
freedom. President Wilson told the emperor
for their
full
to
"
.
and
Ludendorff was dismissed.
Germany's
naxal
Scheer, also
commander. Admiral
On
opposed an armistice.
October 28, he ordered the German the North Sea for a final
fleet to sail into
with the British naw.
battle
sailors refused to go.
But the
The north German
port of Kiel was taken o\ er bv mutinous sailors
and striking workers. Soon
major German of
cities
were
revolutionary
servicemen.
In
workers
Bavaria,
Germany, the left-wing
in the
in
1
hands
and
southern
politician Kurt
Eisner set up a socialist republic.
Endgame Meanwhile, Allied
at the
end of October, the
Supreme War Council met
to
SOLDIER AND CIVILIAN.
decide what armistice terms should be Uaosiiai.
offered to
Germany Thev
all
accepted
Foch
(10
Ucssrs.
CLsunscma,
Wti.son aitd
Lr^iD
Geohoi:).
THAT EOAD. GENTLEMEN, LOOK OUT FOE BOOBY-TRAPS.''
"
IF
YOU EE GOING UP
29
Armistice
1918
\\ ilson's
Fourteen Points
but with
a
number
as the basis for
of mochfications.
strongest na\al power, Great Britain that there should be
very
an armistice,
As the world's
would not accept
"freedom of the seas"
—
at that
moment, the Roval Na\T was blockading German The French were insistent that Germany be made
ports.
to pav lor the
damage caused by the
by the Americans.
accepted
Germans were
told
of
arrangements began for
a
the
war, and this was
On Noyember armistice
German
5,
terms,
the
and
delegation to cross
the battle lines.
Meanwhile, Germany was drifting out Friedrkb Ebert, center, the head
of the new
German
was forced
to rely
to keep
him
in
Republic,
on the army
power
control
as
the
power
of
of the Kaiser's
reyolutionary
councils
of
workers and soldiers spread. The Kaiser \yanted to use the
army
to
crush
the
resolution
by force, but
Ludendorff 's replacement. General Wilhelm Groener,
From Armageddon
wore By November
8,
1918, most
revolutionaries. Kaiser
told
him
German
loyalty' were, in the hands of left-wing
cities
Wilhelm summoned the army
to send frontline troops to put
to Armistice
down
chief,
General Groener, and
the revolution. But
when Groener
consulted other officers, he found that few believed their soldiers would obev an
order to march on
German
The
cities.
"The army will march home
bluntly:
in
peace and order under
under the command of your majesty:" insisted that the soldiers
would
following day Groener told the Kaiser
When
stay loyal to their oath to
Groener told him: "Today oaths of loyalty count
was gone
him
told
soldiers
leaders,
but not
obey their emperor,
for nothing."
The
Kaiser's
power
forever.
it
simply could not be done, because the
would not obey
Democrats,
Friedrich
orders.
The
Ebert,
took over
government on November a republic.
its
one of the Kaiser's entourage
The
9,
leader of the Social as
head of
and Germany was declared
Kaiser fled to exile in the Netherlands.
Surrender The overthrow of
the
German
delegation
armistice
Kaiser took place while the
was
the
in
Forest of
Compiegne. Thev had arrived there on November 8 expecting to negotiate the best deal they could for their country. Instead, they were simply presented with terms
which, they were told, must be accepted within three days.
On
They
sent the terms to Berlin for consideration.
the evening of
November
10, the reply
came back
from the German government and military leaders that the armistice was to be signed.
The terms of the armistice seemed harsh to the Germans. They were to withdraw their troops from all enemy territory they occupied. German territory on the west bank of the Rhine was to be occupied by Allied forces.
The Germans were
to
hand over
large quantities
of military equipment, including most of their battle fleet.
They were
also
at
some
future
date to pay
31
S Armistice
I '^ I
com|:)ensation tor war damage. Bui most ot l)\
^Thc- U.S.
(.oiiinianclor
General John
Persliino lx"lie\e
eonie too soon.
"What
I
JrcuJ
know that she
is
is
had
He commented:
fhu!
Gcrmunv docsn
hckcd.
I
(jerman\ escaped miHtar\ occupation its
cMiemies, and the Cjerman
front
in
This would later
Germans
to arin.ie that thev
had ne\er been militarih deleated.
lad thc\ ijiwn us "
another week, we'd have taiujht them.
General John Pershing
commanded
txpeditionarv Force in France.
Source: M. Cii!hert,
.1
History of the
Twentieth Century Volume I:
1900-1933
}2
the
order.
t^ood
allow nianv 't
armv
home from
was allowed to march
hostile stance
He
the U.S.
took a far more
toward the Germans than his
pohtical master, President UooJroir Wilson.
I
New World
Building a The
No\ ember
armistice of
silenced the guns
1918
11,
on the Western Front,
much of Europe remained in turmoil. Manv Europeans were menaced but
hunger and disease tollowing the
bv
disruption ot war and re\()lution.
American
rushed
Relief Association
emergency food supplies
The
to
in
prexent
people from star\ing.
The
iew of the defeat of
\
many people
held by
Germany
in the Allied
countries vyas expressed in the inscription
on the monument
that
was put up on the spot where the
The
armistice was signed. inscription read:
"Here on the II ISovember 19 1 8
succumbed the criminal pride of the German
The
end the
Reich
confrontation
between the \ictorious
which
powers
Germany.
e\en
not
did
armistice
The
British
maintained a nayal blockade of
German
ports,
and
and the armies stood ready to
resume the war
at
return
among to
home
caused
U.S.
life.
and
There
British
Wales were
their mutiny.
vanquished by the free peoples "
it
tried to enslave.
Source: A. Bullock,
Hitler,
a Study in
Tyranny
much
killed in the
were
Empire
troops. Six Canadian soldiers at a in
.
drafted soldiers eager to
cixilian
mutinies by
.
any time. The failure
to send the troops
unrest
.
camp
suppression of
The winter of
I
9
1
8— I 9 was
a time of areat
hardship in Germany because, despite the armistice, the Allies kept tlerc,
German women
up
their naval blockade,
search for scraps offood in
a daily stru^^jlejor survival.
S Armistice 19
1
The peace conference Against this unsettled background, in
1919 the
held
victors
peace conference
in Paris. It
Born
great
a
was
a
1
1
United
the
as
taxed the rich
Latin
absentees.
Nor were
to send a representative.
the
defeated
Hungarv,
A German
Germanv.
delegation was
allowed to attend, but take
part
it
was not to
anv discussions
in
negotiations.
and
Turkey,
Bulgaria,
or
was simplv to
role
Its
be told what peace terms the victors
had decided to impose.
1
he
conference was
peace
poorlv
organized
diplomat, that
cannot
"\()u
shambles, practice,
—
the
were made
French
a
imagine
the
chaos...."
major
all
erv
\
Cambon, wrote
Paul
In
In
decisions
British
Prime
Minister l)a\id I.lovd George,
rench
Premier
Georges o
Clemenceau, and
President
1
Woodrow
Wilson,
Italian
Niltorio
on
Prime-
that
concerned
Wilson
Minister
specifkallv
his countrv.
and
GKinenceau,
had
particular,
34
with
Orlando included
issues
\erv
attitudes
to
the
creating
a
peaceful
m
in
different
problem
of
future.
wh
the power of the
and "Make
the
Germans
Pav.
his best to soften French revenge
£ Germany.
W
cost.
In
election during
"
"Hang But
Lloyd George privatelyfavored a moderate peace
and did
Austria,
countries:
and challenged
which the British public cheered the slogans the Kaiser"
was not invited
Russia
Bolshexik
o fiery Liberal politician
November 1918, he won a general '
important
ho\\e\er,
I as
dedicated to winning the war at any
There were,
countries.
l-Airopean
War
minister at the head of a coalition cabinet,
and
States
863, David Lloyd George was famous
Llouse of Lords. In 1916, he became prime
Anieritan countries taking part, as well
1
before World
[
worldwide event, with China, Japan, Siam (now Thailand), and
in
He
on
was a supporter of the League of
Nations and the rights of small nationalities.
New
Building a
World
V Clemenceau was obsessed with the
Clemenceau
need
Georges Clemenceau was 16 years old when he was
asked to become France's wartime prime minister in
1917. Known
as "the Tiger, " he
brought a
passionate intensity to the business of winning the
war
He had
witnessed the humiliating defeat of
France by Prussia in
1
87 1 andfelt
both fear and
hatred of the Germans. At the peace conference in
1919, he was determined
Germany
to invade
to
make
France again.
it
impossible for
weaken
to
strengthen France.
onlv way
the
country by the
the
in
wanted
to create a
would
settle
that
The
Wilson
had
this \iew.
He
new order
that
sympathy with
Europe's problems
once and for
justly
future.
President
ideahstic little
another
avoid
to
of his
invasion
Germans
Germany and He saw this as
He
all.
believed
nations were granted
it
self-
determination under democratic governments, they would have no
more reason If
to attack
country
any
and
militarism
one another.
returned
to
aggression,
would
be
League
of
national
organization
stopped Nations,
by the
it
the inter-
Wilson
that
planned to uphold the peace.
The
A
Versailles Treaty
whole
series
of peace
treaties
were concluded with the deteated countries: the Neuilly Treatv with Bulgaria, the Treat)' of St.
Germain
with Austria, the Trianon with Hungary, and the Se\Tes
w ith
Versailles
that
Turkey. But
Treat)'
was most
with
crucial.
Treat)'
Treat\' it
of
was the
Germany Under the
peace terms eventually presented
The "big four " at the conference.
From
Paris peace
left to right,
British
Prime Minister David Llovd George, Italian Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando,
French Premier Georges Clemenceau,
and
President
Woodrow
Wilson.
35
.Irni/sf/cv
19 IS
5
1
slatril that
of
tlu" \ci>.iillcs Treat)'
Alsace-Lorraine and
the war had been
and her
ofGermam
"the Uij^jrcssion
who were
alhcs, "
occupied bv Allied soldiers for
therefore I
responsible tor "causing
all the loss
Junicicyc to
which the Allied and
Associated Powers .
•
and
have been subjected.
known
as the
"
"war
tanks
their nationals
This
Source: A. Shaq), The
been
make
had
to
u|) for
the
''rej^arations"
pa\
damage
the\'
Settlement: Peaccrnakimj in Paris
1919
ships
amount
of
Scuttling at Seapa
to
and Belgium to
Italv,
— merchant example — and monev kind
clearlv
of starting the
These reparations consisted
Versailles
vears.
5
to be limited to
^uilt^
France, Great Britain,
treatv.
1
Germany was
aircraft.
and
war,
clause,
offended Ciermans more than anv other aspect of the
of
men, and thev would have no
or
stated to ha\e
article,
ijuilt"
German arm\ was
he
100, ()()()
I
and
amount
certain
a
lose
other territor\, and the Rhineland was to be
I
caused bv
was to
Germans, Cjerman\
the
to Article- 2
had suffered.
of
pavments
and
in
for
coal,
j:)avments, the exact
which would
l')e
decided
later.
Flow
At the end of the war, the 74 surface warships of the (jerman High Seas Fleet the British naval base of Scapa Flow, in the Orkneys off north-
were interned
at
east Scotland.
On
June 21, 1919
the Versailles peace terms officers to sink their Britain.
M
the great
own
fleet,
the original deadline for
—German
a startled part)'
including
1
5
Germany
to accept
Admiral Ludwi^ von Renter ordered
ships, so that they
noon, watched bv
German
—
his
could not be handed over to Great of schoolchildren on an e.xcursion,
of the largest battleships e\er
built,
began to
The news of this defiant gesture was greeted with Germany. It made Great Britain even more determined to
sink beneath the waves. patriotic enthusiasm in
force the
Germans
to
sijjn
the treats.
\
.1
(icrmun warship, the Dcrtflingcr, disappears
beneath the waves at Scapa blow, sunk by crew in
an
act of defiance.
its
own
a \'c\v World
Biiildiriij
\\
hen the peace terms were presented to the German
delegation in
Mav
Most Germans did not causing the
teel their
made them
basis
go\ernment
of
e\en-handed
at first
wanted
accept the terms. But the the politicians that
it
to
Robert Lansing,
on
wrote:
German
The
justice.
Secretary of State
would be
treated not as a defeated povyer to be punished, but
the
Versailles Treats; U.S.
Points and his other
belieye that they
resume the war rather than
German
was impossible
"It
military leaders told for the
army
was as
if
men
were
being called upon to sign
to resist
their
the Allied forces. There was no alternati\e but to sign the treat\',
eyewitness of
the signing of the
country was guiltv of
war Wilson's Fourteen
statements had
One
1919, there was uproar in Germany.
own death
warrants.
With pallid faces and
which they reluctantly did on June 28, 1919.
trembling hands thev wrote their
names quickly and
were then conducted back
A German
Mirrors at the Palace of
Versailles,
"
Hall of
representative signs the peace treaty in the
to their places.
watched by Wilson, Qemenceau,
Source: R Johnson,
and Lluvd George.
A
Histor\'
of the Modern
World
>.
/ 1
i
•
i >Mlii'«nii.li
wt L
-U
_L
1
F 1
IB
mI
1
it'
i^\
X«
- 1
3^
lUitiir^^
TlIV'*:
r
ry
Armistice
1918
Whether
the peace terms imposed
on Germany were
unreasonablv severe has been a subject ot argument e\er since.
Man\ people
in the \ictorious countries
German\- had gotten
oii Hghtly.
example, had applauded a
calls for
The
the Kaiser to be tried as
war criminal and hanged. Reparations, one
contro\ersial parts of the treaty,
Germany had imposed heavy
were not
of the
most
new
idea.
a
reparation pa\Tnents
France after the Franco-Prussian
War
in
187
1
—and
French had paid up. But, rightly or wrongly, the people were united
in their
and consequently
Treats;
resentment of the
it
was
a direct
outbreak of the next European war
Europe
in
thought
British public, for
in
on the
German Versailles
cause of the
1939.
1914
(Left
and
ri^ht)
The collapse oj
Austria- Hungary, the defeat of
Germany, and revolution
in
Russia hrouLjht major chanties to
Europe's borders. As the
Russian Empire changed into UNITED
the Soviet Union, Poland, the
KINGDOM
Baltic states,
and Finland were
ahic to assert their
independence. lost territory to
Gcrmanv
also
Poland. The
Slav peoples of central Europe
and
the Balkans created the
new
.states
and
)uijosIavia. .iustria,
of Czechoslovakia
formerh the huh of a multinational empire, dwindled re)
National boundaries In addition
lo being
blamed
for treating
Germany too
emakers have often been criticized for tlie way the new borders of Europe were drawn, histead of harshly, the peac
dividing the continent into clear-cut "nation states," the pi-acc-
38
settlement created new countries that contained a
jumble of ethnic groups, some of them minorities that had no desire to be under their new rulers.
a small landlocked
state.
Euildincj a .Veiv
Europe
1926
c.
.4
The Russian Bv
far
civil
war
War
of World
The "White"
I
\\as the
ci\il
war.
mostly headed bv
armies,
who had
Russian
Bolshevik poster urges workers to fight
in defense
the largest conflict in the aftermath
generals
World
of the revolution. Millions died
in war, massacre,
and famine
in the
former Russian Empire in the Jour years after the
end of the Great War
served under the Czar,
fought the "Red" Army, organized bv the
1I4K0IM.IU^
revolutionary Bolshevik government. Great Britain,
France,
the
United
States,
and
Japan were among the countries that intervened in support of the Whites. Both sides in the cixdl
war used extreme
terror,
including torture and massacre. E\ the time the Bolshe\ iks emerged victorious in 1921,
the
former
wasteland.
Russian
Empire
was
The disruption caused bv
a
the
fighting led directlv to the Volga famine of
1921—22,
in
which an estimated three
million people died. ffadoiax peSoAwifun
goAMHa coigamb
Ai0iyufecm6eHnyn) xpacHyK noHHUiiy
39
1918
Armistice
But
peacemakers had ()\er
the
practice,
in
little
happened
what
i'aris
control
the
to
tornier territory of Austria-
Hungary
Russian
or the
Empire. The new states ot Poland,
and
C/.ech()sl()\akia,
Yuaoslaxia
Kingdom and
(the
of Serbs, Croats,
were
Sloyenes)
created by national leaders
themselws. The borders ot the
new
largely
wars
—
lost
a
were
countries
decided
by
local
Hungary, for example, larae
of
propc:)rtion
after
territ()r\
its
was defeated h\
it
Czech and Romanian armies
B\ far the hea\iest
1919.
in
was
f^i^hting^
the former Russian
in
Ihe \ictorious powers interxened somewhat
Empire.
half-heartedK
in
Russia bet\Neen
support of Russians
who wanted
1918 and 1921,
in
to oxerthrow Lenin's
won the cixil of much of the
Holshexik ^oxcrnment. But the F^olsheyiks
war and succeeded
in
regaining control
former Russian Hmjiire. They
lost a
war with Poland
in
1920, howexer, alloxxing the Poles to establish their
border
far to the east of
peacemakers
as
Cur/on
the
the eastern limit of
Line, set bx the Polish
territorx.
Belarus and Ukraine xxere dixided betxxeen Poland and Russia. linland, Latxia, Lithuania,
and Estonia retained
their independence.
I
he
Paris
happened Sexres,
emakers
also
Under
sultan,
the .Middle
in Anatoli.i.
Turkey
L!asl
The
back against
to
a laroi- |)art of its
lion's share
would on
its
empire
heartland
to Cireecc-. But,
ol Kinial Atatiirk, the Turks
this jilan to
\xhat
dictate
xxas to lose not only
but also
under the leadership
failed
the terms of the Treats of
by the ^oxernment of the
reluctantly signed
Ottoman in
peat
to lurkex'.
fought
carxe up their countrx.
The
Mustafa Kcnial, known as Atatiirk (the father of the
Turks), in
made Turkey a repubhc
1923 and
turned the
country into a stroni] national state.
He
alphabet script
introduced the in place of
and banned
Muslim
dress.
Roman
Arabic
traditional
BuiUintj o .Veir World
triumph
arm\ led to
ot Atatiirk's
the expulsion of about one million
Irom
Greeks
in
and
TurkeN
establishment of
the
Turkish Republic
a
1923.
Imperial ambitions Despite talk of "self-determination,"
Europeans continued to dispose
of
peoples in the non-European \\orld
without
opinion
asking, their
or
consent. Shantung, a part of China
formerly
bv
controlled
Germany,
was handed to Japan, despite the fact
China
that
had
supplied
100,000 laborers to work on the
Western
Front.
Former German
colonies in .Africa and the Pacific
were snapped up or
its
Great Britain
l^y
Dominions, under the ^ise
League
mandates.
Nations'
of
of
Indian soldiers had fought for their
numbers, but
British rulers in lar^e
only
India
recei\ed
^oxernment
in
self-
return and was soon
with
seething
limited
for
agitation
independence.
The League of Nations
.In artist's impression of
The one major triumph
action durinij the nxir in which
approach
world
to
affairs
approxed
conference
for President Wilson's idealistic
was
the
that
League
the of
Paris
peace
Nations,
the
forerunner to the current United Nations. Fiowe\er, by the time the president
was
and facing
ill
Congress. States in hostilit\-
Isolationist
the
wake
to the LInited States, he
Republican
hostile
sentiment soared
of the war.
in
majority-
the
peace
into existence in
taking part.
It
was
a
bad
treats;
and the League
ViLiona Cross. India received little
felt
n
reward for huviini
helped Great Britain defeat
Germany.
United
Congress
of Nations
1920 without the United
omen
in
two Indian soldiers iicn the
There was widespread
to any further entansjlements in Europe.
failed to ratif\ the
came
went home
a
an
States
for the future.
41
Armistice
1918
Criticizing the peace
One
of the
first
people to
attack the Versailles Treat)- was
the British economist John
Maynard Kevnes. His famous J J
book, The Economic Consequences of the Peace, was published at
the end of 1919. that the
demand
He ar^ed for
reparation payments from
Germany was
impractical and
disastrous.
He
instead the
Germans should
believed that
be given every help and
encouragement to become prosperous again, since
would
this
also bring prosperity to
the rest of Europe. Keynes's
book was verv 1
the United States, where
i
helped turn people against the
I
John MuvnarJ Kevnes, seen
Winners and
here with his wife, was one of
In general,
the
mostjamous
Versailles Treaty.
critics
of the
Europe
influential in it
peace settlement.
losers
the jDcace conference did
not lead to
a
reflecting Wilson's ideal of self-determination.
He had hoped
that state borders
would correspond
to
borders between areas inhabited bv different nations.
But the peoples of Europe were
far
too mixed up
such a wav In anv case,
together to be easiK separated
in
there were se\ere diffkuhies
in a|:)plving
Strictly applied,
country
than
unacceptable
it
would ha\e
before
result,
the
k'ft
the principle.
Germany
war.
To
a far larger
prevent
(Jerman Austria was banned from
uniting with Cierniain, and (nriiiaii minorities \\ere in
nian\
borders.
42
ol
the
this
new
countries
aroinid
left
Ciermanv's
Building a
The new
states
New
World
Kingdom of
of Czechoslovakia and the
the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later called Yugoslavia)
were not only based on an nationalities,
alliance
between
different
but also had large minorities that were not
part of the ruling nations
at all
Muslims
and
Yugoslavia
in
Czechoslovakia. After
its
—
for example, Bosnian
Sudeten
Germans
in
victory over Bolshevik Russia in
1920, Poland ended up with a population consisting of less
than two-thirds of ethnic Poles.
The predominantly
German-populated port of Danzig (Gdansk) was made "Free City" so that Poland could have access to the
a
sea.
The peace settlement gave Great Britain a
Hungary
vvas
settlement, Yugoslavia,
one of the big
giving
up
and Romania.
territory Italy
went
to
in
the
peace
Czechoslovakia,
and Yugoslavia struggled
for control of the Croatian port of
eventually
losers
Fiume
to the Italians in 1924.
(Rijeka),
which
mandate
to rule
Palestine, with the result that
Great Britain became responsible for Jemsh settlers
such as these, building a
new
homeland.
1
\ 19 IS
Armisiicc
Durin^^
Middle Last
The collapse of ihc Ottonidn
I
transformed the
Middle
of World War
end
i.mpirc ui the
map
East. Turkey
republic. France
of the
mandate
Leaaue
of Sations
control
Lebanon and
freedom when the
their
deteated. In the j^eace settlement,
ho\\e\er, Great Britain
and France
The
and
up
set
ided the Middle Hast
di\
lett
and Lebanon.
with .Arabia, althouj^h .Arab princes
homeland
the Jews a
Sxria
Iraq,
Jordan and Iraq under o\erall British
in
During the war. Great
control.
Hija/ and Yemen became
were
.Arabs
were
Great Britain uas mandated to
Iraq.
Palestine.
in
had
Britain
The
also
first
promised
Palestinian
independent kimfdoms. thomjh
Arab protests against Jewish immitnation occurred
Hija/ nas soon token oyer by
1920.
Sajd
Armenian
to create
4 1 Q=^
Saudi \rabia. .
Wartime promises state in eastern
to
an
create
A^
TURKEY
CYPRUSc^hp
Turkey were tor^otten.
^
PALESTINE
\
^T
\\ EGYPT
J
V
\
r
\
\
kuwaitX
\
\
/
\^
VTTttKlALL
MAin ^^"^^
\
\y
yV QATAR yiV__^^_{__^^^
\
_A
L
"**''
\^
TRANSJORDAN^^
jl
v^^^
/
\
\
^^^ Y>r r"~:::Xr "^^
LEBANON
^
SYRIA
"^^
\STATES5^
X
X.
^^v^/muscat \
HIIAZ
^] AND /
/
OMAN^
-
/eRItL
SUDAN
1^ /
>
ETHIOPIA
WeT^^ \\
1
^-^"^
Old
y^^Zir^
y^
SOMALIA
Ottoman
Empire (1914)
j
in
independent
^-^-^^^^^m^^^ 1
the
Ottoman Hmjjire was
and France was mandated to control
to
Syria, nhile
rule Palestine, Transjordan,
in
League of Nations to control Palestine, Jordan, and
the
(.jivcn
would haw
that the\
promised Arabs
bet\Neen them. Great Britain was 0\en a mandate h\ the
became a
was
war, (iivat Britain had
tlu-
From One War World War "a
war
to
I
was described bv Allied
end wars." Thev hoped
li\es niiuht
he
justified
political leaders as
that the sacrifice of
h\ the creation of
War
But instead the Great
lasting peace.
world economy and the world's Tragically,
it
Next
to the
was destined to lead
a stable
and
destabilized the
political
systems.
directly to another,
e\en more destructi\e, world war 20 years
later.
Counting the cost
j^^.
Almost nine million soldiers died
War
Millions
I.
more were permanentK
o\er whelming majorit\' of those
men.
France
one
lost
population. In Germany,
bet\yeen 19 and 12
was one
in action in
in three.
in
ten
who of
World
disabled.
The
died were young its
among men
entire
male
„,^^^. /^,^^
/„„,^;^^,j, ^^j
thousands of men severely disabled.
These bhnded
German
e\-ser\kemen are bemij trained to
become
fruit farmers.
vyho were aged
when the war started, the death rate The disruption of the vyar and its
aftermath also created millions of refugees: Greeks fleeing Turke^, Turks fleeing Greece, Russians escaping
from the re\olution, and Germans quitting territory
handed
to Poland.
There were
\yho had to re-adapt to ciyilian
also millions of soldiers life
and
for
whom
jobs
needed to be found.
45
Armistice
1918
There was
relatively little physical destruction,
with World
War
II.
compared
Even the war zone of northeastern
France was rapidly restored. British losses of merchant ships,
A
British poster underlines the
Jate of so
many men who seneJ
their country- in the
returned
war but
home tojind
there
were no jobs.
sunk by U-boats, were quickly made up. But the
general economic disruption was profound. Great Britain
emerged from the war owing massive sums of money the United States in the
1
—
these debts were
by France and other wartime
allies.
being paid off
still
owed
960s. Great Britain was, in turn,
to
large
sums
Despite being one of
the principal victors. Great Britain
create
found
difficult to
it
"home
a
Mass
heroes" after the war.
unemployment
soon
areas
industrial
for
fit
hit
the
of
country and did not go away again until
World War
many other example,
countries
Italy
—economic
In
II.
—
for
and Hungary
disruption was
more extreme.
YESTERD&Y-T1IE TRENCHES
TODAY-UNEMPLOYED Deaths in action Germany
in
World War
1,800,000
Russian Empire
1,700,000
France
1,400,000
Austria-Hungary
1
Great Britain and
its
Empire
,300,000
947,000
Italy
615,000
Romania
335,000
Turkey
325,000
I ' Bulgaria
90,000
Serbia
55,000
United States
49,000
Total
f Source: M. Gilbert, A History Volume 1: 1900-1933
46
'
I
8,616,000 of the Twentieth Century,
From One War
to the
Next
Failure of democracy At the end of the that
possibiht\'
seemed
there
\\ar,
left-wing revolutions,
a
of
the kind that had occurred in Russia
would
1917,
in
manv
take
place
in
countries. Howexer, short-li\ed
aoxernments
re\olutionarv
in
Hungary and Ba\aria were soon defeated. In Berlin, an uprising bv
extreme
left-\\'ing
crushed
in
was
Spartacists
January 1919, and
leaders, Karl Liebknecht
its
and Rosa
Luxemburg, were murdered. Even in the
United
cracked
groups and
But
the
States, the authorities
down hard on left-\\
defeat
anarchist
ing trade unions.
of
left-wing
revol-
utionaries did not guarantee the future of
democracy, which soon began to collapse across Europe. In to
a
fascists.
Luxemburg was murdered Berlin in
1919
in
after leading
crushed
Mussolini
communists and,
German comnmnist Rosa
Italy,
postwar discontent led
takeover of power bv
in the
Benito
the
socialists
and
course of the 1920s, turned
Italy into a militaristic
right-wing dictatorship. Other
European countries
which democracs'
in
lost
out to
authoritarian or dictatorial regimes in the 1920s and
1930s included Spain,
Portugal,
Poland,
Romania, Austria, and, most important of
an attempted revolutionar\-
Mussolini's
all,
Hungary,
Germany.
uprising.
The fascist leader Benito Mussolini (second Jrom right)
came
to
power
after staging a
Rome.
in
hah
in
1
922
"march on
"
47
Mussolini Before the Great War,
Benito Mussolini was a
well-knonn Italian
His experience oj
journalist.
the war turned
him
He
into
an
and
extreme nationahst mihtarist.
socialist
heheved that war
"put the stamp of nobihtv on those nations that have the couracfe to face it.
"In 1919, hejormed
movement
He
in Italy.
the fascist
used his
black-shirted fi^htincj squads, mostly
former
power
in
1
and intimidate
soldiers, to attack
his political opponents.
After
comimj
to
922, he created a dictatorship
became a model for many other countries Europe.
:\
man
of
immense
vanity,
thai in
he
eventually led Italy into a disastrous
involvement in World
War
by Italian partisans in
Mussolini incil lo projcci a (oui.jh ima^jc,
wcaniuj
iiiilitar\
unifnms and adopiuuj wmhoh oj power, \uch us the caijlc.
1
He
II.
was executed
94 S.
Germany in chaos Germain remained I
\ears after the war.
in u|)hea\al for
he oxerthrow ot the Kaiser led lo the setlinu up
democratic Weimar Republic
was threatened k^tt
b\-
in
1*^^19.
\ioIence trom extremists both on
and on the nationalist
denounces! the \ersailles Cierman\\s problems.
ri^ht.
as
the source of
AUil
who had
tor
(ierman
was assassinated
48
lor the
crime
in
battletield,
the back" b\ soc
iaiists
agreed to humiliating pc-acc terms
oxerthrown the
lij^urc-s
all
Ihex created the nnth that the
but had instead been "stabbed Jews,
tiie
Ri^ht-win^ nationalists
IreatN
(ierman arnn had not been beaten on the
An(.\
of tlu"
But the republic
Kaisei'.
(Jc-ws
nationalists.)
wei'e
alwa\s hate
.Nkitthias
In extremists in 1921, as a
lir/.berger
punishment
ot haxin^ led the armistice delegation.
From One War
Germany
did everything in
its
power
to avoid
making
reparation payments to the AlHes. In 1923, the French
and Belgians sent
Ruhr
industrial
to enforce
in troops to
payment of
Next
French troops occupy the Ruhr retjion
of Germany
m
1923.
occupy the
Germany,
district of
to the
in
order
The
reparations.
local
population responded with strikes and passi\ e
The German government printed
resistance.
money a
recklessly, setting off hyperinflation
Bv the
scale never seen before or since.
summer
192
of
restaurant
could
3,
a
meal
cost
up
in
to
on
German
a
billion
1.5
Deutschmarks. By November, one U.S. dollar
was worth 4.2
Perhaps
surprisingly,
survived this
now
trillion
crisis. In
Deutschmarks.
German democrac\ Munich, Adolf
a right-wing agitator,
Hitler,
with the backing of
Ludendorff, attempted to launch
overthrow the regime, but
a
coup
to
failed ingloriouslv. propcujundu photo of the future German
E\entually a deal on reparations was agreed,
.1
French and Belgian troops were withdrawn,
dictator Adolf Hitler in prison after the failed
and during 1924 something close to normal
Munich coup
life
resumed
in
Germany.
of
1923.
lie was locked
up for
only nine months.
49
Armistice
1918
Crash and depression Between 1925 and 1929, there was was possible to believe
and prosperity An economic helped
a
joined the
a
period
when
in the illusion ot restored
boom
in the
it
peace
United States
worldwide economic recovery. Germany
Lea^e
of Nations in 1926, and two vears
later,
more than 60 countries signed the Kellogg— Bri and
Pact,
renouncing war
in the future.
But the economic recovery that underpinned
optimism was
built
on
stock market prices
shalcv foundations. In
plummeted
in the
this
1929, U.S.
Great Crash.
Facing financial ruin, American financiers withdrew their
monev from other
throwing them
unemplovment
in
countries, especially
turn into economic
ra\
aged
the
United
throughout the world slumped. Austria and Germany.
As mass
States,
trade
Banks collapsed
By 1932, one
workers was unemployed.
Germany,
crisis.
in four
in
German
German the
soldiers keep
Rhine
after
marching into
the demihtarized the spring
watch over
Rhineland
of 1936.
in
From One War
The
of Hitler
rise
Economic search
to the
collapse led to political
strong governments.
for
when
democrac\' ceased in 1930,
breakdown and
a
Germany, true
In
the government took
to ruling by emergencv' decree. Adolf Hitler, as leader of
the Nazi Partv,
created
came
to
ruthless
a
power
police
in
193
state
to
and quickly
3,
support
his
dictatorship.
Hitler
blamed Germany's hard times on the
Treat\'
and the influence of the Jews.
Versailles
He combined
measures to drive Jews out of German society with a relentless
by
campaign to undo the
step. In
1933, he took
Versailles settlement step
Germany out of the League of
Nations. In 1935, he formally announced that he was
breaking the limits imposed by the
armaments of the German armed
Treat)'
on
tlie size
and
forces. In 1936, his
troops marched into the Rhineland, in defiance of the Treaty that had declared
it
a demilitarized zone. In
March
1938 he annexed Austria, which had been expressly forbidden
to
unite
peacemakers. Later
with
in the
Germany by
same
year,
the
Paris
he absorbed the
Sudetenland area of Czechoslo\akia, which had primarily
German
population.
a
Hitler's troops
marching
throuijh Vienna after the
annexation of Austria
Next
:
1918
Armistice
Slide to B\
war
proved
jjowerless
to
the
in
in a
o\
rise
When
Manchuria
in\aded
Japanese
stop
worldwide.
mihtarism
n April 1939, jusmvin^TT^cnons
League ot Nations had
linic, llic
tliis
President Franklin D. Roosevelt,
the
Hitler expressed his hatred of the
1931,
Versailles Treat)
Japan was criticized h\ the League, but
no positive action was taken.
when
.Mussolini
In
19 35,
"I have
the
Lthiopia,
but to no
engaged
effect.
.
.
contains the
Bv 1937 Japan was
in a full-scale invasion
.
endeavoured
sheet the treatv which in
imposed economic sanctions on
Lea^nje ItaK;
invaded
speech addressed specifically to
vilest
put up with.
its
448
articles
ever been expected to
"
while ItaK and Cjermanx had sent tnjops Source:
to Spain to back the forces of General
Franco
in
J.
i
Fest, Hitler
the Spanish Civil War. As a
force for peacekeeping,
the
hy
oppression which peoples
and human beings have
of China,
to destroy sheet
League of
Nations was defunct.
As Hitler Great
unravc-lc-d the Versailles Treat^, the leaders
and
Britain
democracies kit thev tould stop
I
in
World War
1
two
ol
the
verv
I:urope, grew afraid. "Fhe onlv
litler
did not want to do, of
I-rance,
was bv
jiartlv
starting a war,
because the
had madi' them
learlul
and
tragic
of
Japanese
officers in
Manchuria.
few
The Japanese invasion of
wav
Munchuna was condemned
this thev
experience
of another armed
the
no
league effect.
by
of Sations, but to
1^
,
A
,
scene from the Spanish Civil War: both Iiah
and Germany sentjorces
General
to help
Germany's revenge
Francisco Franco to victory.
In conflict. Hitler
was
also
helped bv the
general acceptance of the principle of national self-determination at the
end
the
1940 Hitler succeeded
Germans had
German
the
armistice
German-speaking people, manv
spring
the
destroyed
1939,
of
Czechosloyakia.
Germany German
troops occupied the Czech areas of
Bohemia and Morayia. in
a
Slo\akia
became
theory independent, but in practice
German puppet
seized itself.
of
slice
a
Hungary
also
Czechosloyakia
for
state.
He demanded
control of the port of
Great
Britain
committed themsekes Poland
1939,
\N
as attacked.
German
Polish border. Britain
was Poland.
Hitler's next target
Danzig.
As
On
troops
Noyember
French delegation
Hitler In
and to
France
fighting
September crossed
if
1
the
June
2
1
delegation had signed the
of
eyen had the
which the
1918,
11,
\yas forced to sign
armistice imposed by
justified.
1914:
in
1940, on exactly the same spot where
expand Germany's borders to include thought he was
doing what
do
On
he conquered France.
of the pre\ ious war. As he pressed to
all
in
failed to
a
an
Germany. Adolf car
railroad
in
1918 armistice had been
signed brought from a to the Forest of
museum
in Paris
Compiegne
for the
same
seat that
occasion. Hitler sat in the
Marshal Foch had occupied
in
one of his generals read out
a
to the French delegation.
It
1918, as
statement
referred to
the "dishonor and humiliation" of the
German people place,
and
that
had begun
declared
profoundest disgrace of being wiped out. The for the armistice of
that all
in that
"the
times" was
German
re\enge
1918 was complete.
a consequence. Great
and France declared war on
Germany.
53
Gcrnnim invaded Poland
In essence, the
in
war of 1939—45 was
September 1939, starting
the war of 1914-18.
World War 11
About
imposed
was
lac
one
in Europe.
in five Polish citizens
die in the course of the
war
to
a \ictors'
ked the
had
tried
will to
Allies in
continuation oi
World War
uphold an
its
terms.
idealistic
The United
States
regimes.
and
failed to resist the rise of
When
new
Hitler defeated France in the
1940 and dro\e Europe, he saw
British it
as
a
forces
on
based
peace
democracN and heedoni, but had then withdrawn isolation
had
I
peace on Germany, but had then
create
to
The
a
into
militarist
summer
triumphant revenge for the
Cierman catastrophe of 1918. But he was eventually
54
of
out of continental
lead his countr\ to an e\en greater disaster in 1945.
to
Remembrance World War
had
I
a
impact on different
different
countries. For the defeated powers, especially
the
memory
remembering those who had
the 1920s,
was often an occasion for
demanding revenge the
In
defeat.
endlessly
Germany,
of the war was a source of bitterness. In fallen in battle
demonstrations
political
against those held responsible for
Russia,
the
revolution
commemorated, but
of 1917 was
the war that had brought
the revolution about was largely forgotten. Americans
had
tendency to turn their backs on the war, which
a
most soon came to regard want But
as a
mistake they did not
to repeat in the future.
in
Great Britain and France, from the end of the
war onward, people were determined
made by
the soldiers of the Great
forgotten.
War memorials
the dead were put up in
many had
that the sacrifice
War should not be
inscribed with the
most towns and
names of
villages.
schools, brass plaques listed former pupils
lost their lives.
armistice,
it
On
the
first
was decided to observe two minutes'
work stopped.
All
were interrupted
sentence. People stood stock
still
the
same
Day.
many
Great
erected
a
Cenotaph (meaning "empty tomb") in
London, designed by the architect
Edward Lut\ens, which became remembrance the focus for a Sir
ceremony every year from 1920 on. The wearing of artificial red poppies began the following
The Cenotaph
year.
in Whitehall, central
London, has been thejocus of
Remembrance Day since
I
in Great Britain
920. This ceremony was
photographed
in
1929.
in
mid-
was obserxed with
on each Armistice
Britain
its
in the street or in their
years, the silence
intensity'
and
Cars, buses, trolleys, and
trains halted. Conversations
houses. For
who
anniversary of the
silence at 11:00 A.M. throughout Great Britain
Empire.
In
A
service
A'lenin
Gate war memorial,
Ypres, in is
of remembrance at the
192S. The memorial
engraved with the names of
55,000 dead
British soldiers.
.[must ICC 19 IS
Buning All
the dead
countries taced ihc problem ot atteniptiiii^ to ^i\e a
who had
deceiU burial to those those
who had
died in battle. 0\er half
died either were never found or could not
he identified. France's largest Great
War monument,
ossuarv of Verdun, holds the bones of
and German
Most
soldiers.
dead ended up
Most
focus for arie\ing.
home
shipped
in
of the
for burial in the
30,000 French
German and
of the
mass gra\es on foreign
in
remembrance were erected
ot
1
the
soil,
Austrian
but walls
both countries as a
American dead were
United
States.
W
I 1
The Uimnown Soldier
After the Great War, there was a
strong
in
feelinjj
combatant
all
countries that the contribution of
P ordinary
soldiers,
airmen
L rather
should than
that
Day 1920, Great funeral
state
recognized,
of generals or
leaders.
political
and
sailors,
be
for
On
Armistice
Britain
held a
Unknown
an
Warrior,
who
who had
lost their lives in the war.
represented
The bodv of was selected
all
those
a
dead serviceman
at
random, brought
back bv warship from France, and buried r
f
a
similar
same day
at
ceremony
in
The
Paris.
in
The French
ceremony on the
the Arc de
Triomphe
following year, an
American serviceman was buried as
the
Unknown
Arlington
Washincton,
^6
great
Westmin.ster Abbey. held
''
with
National
D.C
Soldier
in
Cemetery,
The Tomb D.C.
of the
It carries
Unknown
Soldier in Washimjton,
the inscription: "Here Rests in
Honored Glory an .American
$oldier
Known But
to
— Remembrance
The
British,
their
men where
string
a
thev had
fallen,
creatine
cemeteries
militar\
of
decided to burv
ho\\e\er,
northeastern France. \\'here\er possible, the British dead were buried in indixidual gra\es.
the body could not be identified,
If
the headstone bore an inscription written
bv the poet Rud\ ard Kipling: "A Soldier of
War Known Unto God." Great monuments were erected at the Menin
the Great
Gate and Thiep\al, bearing the names of of the fallen. The War Gra\es Commission (now Commonwealth War Graves Com-
of thousands
tens
Unwanted men
across
In
receiNed sacrifice.
American
httle
the in
Leslie
mission) took on the task of creating these
cemeteries and maintaining them up to
return
from
soldiers felt
thev
for
their
voung
a
wrote
Chicago,
ironicallv that "a grateful
go\ernment from
gi\es us an honorable discharge
the
arm^ —-and
si\t\'
dollars
about enough money to buv
The
ci\ilian clothes."
soldiers
was
fate
.
.
.
manv
of
unemplovment.
Langille onicallv put
it:
just
a suit of
As
"Another and
different kind of battle faces us.
about
the present dav.
war
Langille,
Imperial the
manv
countries,
all
returning from
How
a job?"
Images of war The
official
—
\iew of the war
shared
b\' a
number of ordinarv people, including manv who had fought in the front line
large
was that
it
had been
a tragic experience,
but one also steeped with heroism and sense
of noble du^^
Britain,
fulfilled.
In
a
Great
Llo\d George had
for example,
spoken of "Honour, Dut\; Patriotism and .
.
.
Sacrifice"
as
"the great e\erlasting
things that matter for a nation." This \iew
did
not exclude
a
recognition
horrors suffered h\ the
men
of
the In the wars follow
at the front,
War
but saw the suffering as justified by a high puq^ose.
I,
manv
iuij
World
ex-servicemen were
forced to hci] or provide street
Even in the \ictorious nations, howe\er, disillusionment soon became the norm
who
returned
po\ert\, sacrifice
for
in
entertainment to earn monev.
the vears after the war. Soldiers
from the war to unemploMiient and
example, were bound to ask what the
had been
for.
In 192
1,
the British Armi.stice
Day
ceremonies were disrupted bv unemplo\ed ex-soldiers with placards reading: "The dead are remembered, are forgotten."
we
57
1918
Armistice
Many
came
ex-soldiers
back
to look
^
^B ^^4«|H PI »K 1^1 mM
ji
1
with nostalgia on the comradeship of trenches.
the
In
combatant
all
were
there
countries,
war
large
veterans' associations that helped
men
keep up the bonds thev had formed
Some
during the conflict. veterans'
i
[
1 % 1i ^^^^ fv .
of these war
1
^
^
^^^0
MgHr c
groups became centers of
nationalism and militarism. But
more
were devoted to the avoidance of
war and the memorv of the
future
^^
jhi
fallen.
Hi
The growth of pacifism By the
late
feeling
had begun to change the way the Great War was
1920s and early 1930s, a wave of antiwar
seen. Instead of an
was represented
example of heroic
sacrifice, the
war
slaughter. Heroism and condemned as lies that had led deaths. The work of British anti-war as
futile
Canadian veterans awards Jor valor
80jears
in
receive 1
998,
after their great but
costly victory at
Vimy Ridge.
patriotism were widely millions to their
Owen and Siegfried Sassoon When the antiwar no\el .4// Qiiict on
poets such as Wilfred
became the
well
known.
Western Front
Erich
1929,
by
German author
Remarque was published it
sold 2.5 million copies in
first
18 months.
The
militaristic dictators
Student pacijism
in its
In February 1933, the
University,
of the 1930s,
such as Adolf Hitler (who banned AH Quiet
on
promote
the
Western
tried
Front),
fighting spirit
attitude far
and
to
a warlike
more extreme even than
that prevailing before the Great War.
But when war broke out again
in
1939,
there were no cheering crowds in the
London,
as
there had been in 1914.
No amount
of
propaganda could
the lesson that
streets of Berlin, Paris, or
had been learned.
58
Oxford Union,
the student debating society of Oxford
era.se
voted overwhelmingly
favor of the proposal that "this
in
House
will
not fight for King and Country."
The
vote was inspired by rex-ulsion at
the patriotic enthusiasm that had led to
mass slaughter during the Great War. caused a sensation not only
in
It
Great
Britain but around the world, because
Oxford students were an Britain
Great
and were the sort of people who
would be expected class in
elite in
to
form the
time of war. However,
thev fought unhesitatingly.
in
officer
1939,
Remembrance
The Great War today Antiwar feeling tended for many years to undermine
War
In 1968, a Great
respect for the
veteran, C. E.
"Remembrance Day, to serve the
which
it
act as a
Many people
Dav.
Crutchlev, wrote:
remembrance
glorified war.
felt
that
associated with .Armistice
the
out. Yet the tragedy of
1914—18 continued
was created, must
warning
the tsventieth century, as the very
as well
Great
as a reminder of men's "
War were
actually rexived.
war graves were Source: H. Cecil and
P Liddle
seemed
as
to maintain
on the popular imagination. Toward the end of
a grip
past deeds of shame.
it
though the Remembrance Day observances might die
if it is
purpose Jor
—
ceremonies
official
During the 1960s and 1970s,
last
dying, interest in
The war memorials still
sign that the Great
tended and
War would be
sur\ivors of the
Remembrance Day still
xisited.
stood, and the
There was no
forgotten.
(eds), Out of
Gjntrol: At the Eleventh
Hour
Sanctuary Wood, one of the Great War cemeteries of northern France and Belgium. It is still well
tended and
much
\isited today.
Lines from Laurence Binyon's Fallen," written in
year on Great Britain's "They shall grow not
Age
poem
"For die
1914, are recited ever)-
Remembrance Day:
old, as
we that are
shall not weary them, nor the years
left
grow
old.
condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We
will
remember them.
"
59
Date
List
1914
.March 21
.\
The major powers of
August
I.urojX'
1915 Ma\ 7
massi\e
German
spring offensive on the
op to war.
Western Front drives the Allies back toward Paris.
A German U-boat
July 18
.Allies
sinks the hner Lusitania,
embark on
a
counteroffensi\ e.
provoking anti-German riots in
manv
August 8
countries.
launch
.Allied forces
a
successful offensive at
1916 June
.Amiens.
Arabs rexolt against the
5
September 29
Ottoman Empire. Noxember
Wbodrow Wilson
7
is
elected President.
1917 March
armistice.
September 30 1
Czar Nicholas
5
of
II
Bulgaria surrenders to the Allies
Russia abdicates.
and signs an
armi.stice.
U.S. Congress declares
April 6
Germany's military leaders say their go\ernment must seek an immediate
.Austria- Hungar\ grants
October 16
war on Germanv
self-rule to
its
natif)nal
groups.
NoNcnibcr 1
Cjreat Britain saNs
it
la\ors
the creation of a homeland
German
October 28
Palestine. This
triggers a revolutionary
is
called the
Balfour Declaration, after
uprising throughout
British foreign secretary
Germany.
.A.
The .Allies sign an armistice w ith lurkev. Czech
October 30 I.enin, .seize
power
nationalists in Prague
in
declare an independent
Russia.
state
Dccvmhcr
I
5
Russia and the Central
1918
.Austria-
Nowmber
2
President \\ ilson proposes hi.s
of C/echosloxakia,
breaking awav from
Powers sign an armistice.
January 8
1
lungarv.
Himgar\ declares
end
to tin- war.
N()\
ember
^
-Austria- Uungar\,
has already ^
itself
an
indepi'iident republic.
Fourteen Points as the
basis tor an
Marc h
in
Ballour.
The B()lshe\iks, led bv
/
mutiny
the port of Kiel. This
j.
Nownihcr
sailors
for Jewish people in
Ihe
treats' of
Brest- Lito\sk,
\
which
irtuallv
ceased
to exist, signs an armistice
imposed by (Jerman\ on
w ith
the Allies.
Bolshe\ik Russia, de|iri\es Ru.s.sia of \ast
eastern
I
areas of
uroj)e.
Nowmber 9
(iermanv
is
proclaimed
republic, and Kaiser
W ilhelm
flees to the
Netherlands.
a
No\(:' mber
1
1
Germany
si^is an
armistice
w ith
October 29
Turkev officialK becomes a
the Western
becomes leader
w ith Kemal
republic,
AlHes. Jozel Pilsudski
Ataturk as
president.
its first
ot an
November
independent Polish
8
republic.
.An attempted coup by Adolf Hitler in Munich fails.
December 4
Nationalists create the
Kingdom
of the Serbs,
Croats, and Sloyenes, later
known
1928
The Kellogg— Briand Pact, renouncing w ar, is signed
.August 11
as Yugoslayia.
by 65
states.
1919 January
The
8
1
1929
Paris Peace
The Wall
October
Conference opens.
the
June 2
The German
1
German
Depression. representatiyes
sign the \'ersailles Treatv.
1933 January 30
.Adolf Hitler
1920
German The League of Nations comes into existence,
Januar\ 10
in the
States, starting the
era oi the Great
scuttled at .Scapa Flow.
June 28
economic boom
United
fleet is
Street Crash ends
becomes
chancellor,
dedicated to the complete ov erthrow of the Versailles
without the United States
Treat)'.
taking part.
The
August 10
1938 March
Treaty of Sevres
bet\yeen
and the
1
Germany
3
Ottoman Turkey
Allies giyes
takes ov er
.Austria in the .Anschluss.
Greece
a large part of .Anatolia.
September 30
Czechoslovakia
is
forced to
hand the Sudetenland Xo\ ember
1
1
Burial of the
Unknown
region to
Soldier in Great Britain
Germany
after
the .Munich Conference.
and France.
1939 March
1921
March
The
18
Treaty of Riga
1
Czechoslovakia ceases to
5
makes
exist after
peace between Bolshevik
march
German
troops
into Prague.
Russia and Poland.
September
1922
1
(krman
troops invade
bepinnint" \)land, 'olan
October
3
1
Fascist leader Benito
War
World
I
Mussolini becomes head of
goyernment
1940
in Italy.
France signs an armistice
1923 January
1
1
French and Belgian troops occup\ the
German
imposed by the Germans.
\
ictorious
Ruhr.
6/
Glossary annexation one country taking over or
all
part
League of Nations mandate
system of
a
disguised colonialism, under which
of the territory of another country.
countries such as Great Britain and France
armistice an agreement between two sides in a
war to stop
can negotiate
a
peace
were allowed to rule
fighting so that they treat\'.
Africa,
and the
Pacific as "trustees"
authorized by the League of Nations.
Austria-Hungary created in 1867, the Dual Monarchy of Austria- Hungary was
militarism an
ruled bv the Hapsburg emperors Francis
peaceful methods.
Joseph
The
(to
1
territories in Asia,
active preference for the
use of armed force and war, rather than
9 1 6) and Charles (1916-18).
Austrian half of the Dual
multinational state
Monarchy
country containing
a
was dominated by Germans and the
people of different ethnic groups speaking
Hungarian half by Hungarians, but many
different languages, held together
other nationalities lived there, including
obedience to a central
Czechs, Poles, Croats, Slovenes, and Serbs.
ruler, rather
by government or
than by a shared national
identity.
autonomy a degree of self-government falling short
oath of loyalty
of full independence.
and support
Bolsheviks
a Russian political party led
by
Vladimir llyich Lenin and dedicated to
communist revolution. The Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in November 1917 and eventually created the Soviet Union.
cede
to give
a
solemn promise to obey
a leader
or
state.
Ottoman Empire a Turkish-ruled empire that, in 1914, controlled much of the Middle East
as well as the
present-day area
of Turkey.
reparations paviments demanded of a
up
rights to or possession of a
defeated country by the victors to
country or region.
compensate
Dominion one of the
countries of the British Empire.
Dominions were
in a
self-governing
Australia,
The
New Zealand,
lor
damage
thev have suffered
wan
salient a point at which a country's defensive line stuck out into
enemy
South Africa, and Canada. territory.
dynastic ruler an emperor or monarch \\
ho rules by
right ot birth.
hyperinflation
a
self-determination the principle that people should be ruled by
rapid rise in prices that
their choice, especially
their
makes money almost worthless.
indemnity compensation for loss or damage in this context, the demand by
—
the winning side that the losers pay the
own
one
government of that represents
ethnic or national group.
socialism the belief that wealth should be equally shared bv everyone and that large factories
and businesses should not be
owned bv
cost ot the v\ar
a
rich individuals.
Some
socialists
believed in the revolutionary overthrow ol
isolationism
a
movement of opinion
in
the United States against American
involvement
in
European or world
existing society, while others, social
affairs.
democrats, believed
known
as
in gradual
change through parliamentary democracy.
Resources Books
Sources
to read
Brown, Gene.
Brook-Shepherd, Gordon. November 1918: The Last Act of the Great War. Collins, Europe and the
Conflict in
1981.
Great Depression: Wbrld War I
(1914_1940). Twenty
First Century,
Bullock, Allan.
Hitler, a
Study in TJTanny.
HarperCollins, 1994.
1995.
Dolan, Edward
F.
America in World War
I.
Millbrook, 1996.
Cecil,
Hugh and
Peter Liddle (eds). Out of
Control: At the Eleventh LLour.
Leo Cooper,
1998.
Hoehling, A. A. The Last Voyage of the Lusitania. Madison Books, 1996.
LowTy
Bullitt. Armistice
1918. Kent State
Dyer, Geoff. The Missing of the Somme. Hamish Hamilton, 1994.
University' Press, 1997.
Ferguson, Niall. The Ross, Stewart. Wbrld War
I:
Pity
of War. Basic
Books, 2000.
Causes and
Consequences. Raintree Steck-Vaughn, Fest,
1998. Wilder,
Amos
N. Armageddon
Ke\isited:
A
Joachim.
Hitler.
Martin, Gilbert.
A
Harcourt, 1992.
History of the Twentieth
World War I Journal. Yale Universit\^
Centuy, Volume
Press, 1994.
HarperCollins, 1997.
1900-1933.
1:
Johnson, Paul. .4 History of the Modem World. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1983. Keegan, John. The 1999. Palmer, Alan.
Monthly
Victory
Press,
Wbrld War. Knopf,
1918. Adantic
2000.
Sharp, Alan. The Peacemaking
Eirst
Versailles Settlement:
in Paris
19 19.
St.
Martins,
1991. Stallworthy, Jon. Wilfred Oiven.
Oxford
UniversitN' Press, 1993..
Stevenson, John. The Penguin Social Histon,of Britain: British Societ)' 1914-45. Penguin,
1984. Taylor, A.J.P The First World War. Paragee,
1972. Vansittart, Peter (ed.). Voicesfrom the Great Vfar.
Jonathan Cape, 1981.
63
—
1
1
4
1
,
Index It
a
nunihrr
there
is
bold
in
i^
pro|)osal tor cease-tire
l\pe,
photo or ^n
a
spring oltensive 2
ilkistration.
terms
6—7
war aims
terms'29-3(), 31-52
40-4
end
35-38
Poland 40, 4
5
1
20-2 empire 28—29
ot
5,
1
,
40
52,
39,44,46,
naval blockade
30,
1(J,
B()klieviks21-2
3.
3 3
22-2
Brest LitoNsk, rreat\()l
Bulgaria 27,
3 5
burial ot the
dead 56—57
easualties
celebration
3,
Charles,
Sassoon, Siegfried 20, 58
Scapa Flow 36 Scheer, Admiral Reinhanl 28, 29
49, 51, 52-54
5,40,4 3,47 h\perintlation 49 inlkien/a
socialism 18,
11,25
Italy 5, 15, 18, '
3,
51,53
surrender
disillusionment
8,
1
Turkey 15, 35,40-41
3,
Ottoman Empire
United States
57 ot
Nations
3
5,41, 50,
^51,52
3
economit disruption 46, 50 empires 20-2
27
1
36,46,47,48,
52
League Ibert, Friedrich 30,
3
Ke\nes, John Ma\iiard 42
47
16,
42,
19,21,22,47
Mihiel salient 26,
see also
demot rac\
1,
53
St.
34-35 Czechoslovakia 40, 4
sell-determination 20—2
3
Emperor 20, 28-29
Clemenceau, Georges 7,15,
War 59,40
Hindenburg, Field Marshal
Hungary
Cenotaph 55
34,40,46,47, 55
3,
hatred 14
Hitler, Adolt
7—8
17,20,
5, 10, 15,
Russian Civil
23,29
31-32
3,
30-31,47
21-2
\\ ilhelm
30-31
23
46
2 5, 4 5,
3,
1
cease-fire 7, 28,
Russia
Groener, General
\4
18,21-2
revolutions 10,
29,
Greece 40-41
39,40
5—59
5
reparations 36, 38, 42, 49
56, 57
5 3, 5 5,
Reichstag Peace Resolution 19
remembrance
Great Crasii 50
liorders, national 38
3, 5 3
5
18, 19, 30, 36, 1
5
32
Pershing, (Jeneral John 26,
Great Britain 5,7, 14, 15, 16,
Austria-Hungarv
terms 35-38 without \ictorv 15—16
peace conterence, Paris 34—3
global conflict
Austria 35, 42, 51
peace 13—23
ot the armistice
\ersailles Trear\
AtatiJrk (Mustafa Kenial) 40,
pacitism 58
24—25, 25
3,
31-32
armistice 28 signing
28
Reichstag Peace Resolution 19
50, 54, 56
10,21,22
Lenin, \'ladimirllyich
28-29
5, 7, 16, 17, 18,
25,26, 34, 39,42,46,47,
Unknown
Soldier 56
Liebknecht, Karl 18,47
tr/.berger, Matthias 4, 6, 19,
48
I.lovd
George, I)a\id 12,
35-38,48
\ersailles Ireatv
34-35, 57 Foch, Marshal
6,29,
5
1
erdin.uid 4,
I
udcndorll, (ieneral
von2 3,27,
3
Irance 15, 18, 30,44,45,52,5
3
Liisitania riots
war-weariness
rich
1
28, 29, 49
1
8
Wilhelmll, Kaiser 24, 27, 28,29, 30-31
1
Wilson, Woinlrow 15, 16, 17,
Cerman\ 5,6, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17,18, 19,21,22,23,24, 27,28,29,
30, 31, 32,
3 3,
34, 35, 36, 37,
38,41,42,
45,47,48,49,
50, 51, 52,
53,
54,55
armistice delegation 4,
Middle East 43, 44
20,28,29,
mournin" 9
42
48
Mussolini. Hinilo 47,
national boundaries 38
role in peace
—14
mo\ements 20-21,21-2 3
3
64
ot the Kaisir
5-16,
17,
48, 52-54, 58
©C.i|»rit;lii J(l(MI\\liii.-lliimi|>MHi I'uMUlirni;
Nicholas lI,C/ar20, 21
hatred ot 14
30-31
1
28,34-35 World War II 46.
35,41,
nationalist
chaos alter the war 48-49
ovtrthrow
30, 34,
(
)ttoman F.mpire
29,44 Dwen, Wiltrc-d
1
5,
20, 2
10, 58
1
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 9999
04040 311 3
%|o>
Upnams Corner Brancb 500 ColuiDt)ia Road Dorchester, Mass. 02129
'
^"T
War I: Armistice ^^
.'
.
c
ARS
signed in
November 1918 signaled the end of World War I. It can be regarded
as a
turning point in
the history of the 20th century.
71C
Why did Germany sign the armistice and agree to the
harsh terms imposed by the
How
VVrsailles Treaty?
of Europe?
political structure
fought an J died
did these agreements change the social and
How do we remember those who
m World War I? Armistice
these important questions
1918
carefully
and covers the consequences of World
War I on a global scale: the Russian revolution, the and economic hardship in Britain and Germany.
The and
author, Rli^ is
V II. nil, >.ii'»''"-'^'
ni^n'i)
n
rise
history.
TES Senior
Book Award.
consultant, M.ilcolm
specializing in historical
writing. For the
last
the Imperial War
War Museum
of Oxford
on modern
His recent book Tiie Holocaust was shortlisted for the
The
of fascism,
(f^ University
the author of more than a dozen books
Information
examines
Brown, was
a
BBC
television
producer
and miutary subjects before turning to
10 years he has been
a
freelance historian for
Museum. His many books
Eiock of the IVestern Front
and
include The Imperial
Tlie Imperial
War Museum
Book of the Somme. Titles in the series:
WorlJ War
I;
War in
Wcrki V7:ir
I.
Armistice 1918
Lea(' V/orlci '
\! \f-
the Trenches
War
II
nn.) ny anci
japan Attack
" IdWarii ' ^'^^
ISBN 0-7398-2753-7
90000
780739"827536
