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How World War I Ended
After four years, World War I finally drew to a close in 1918 ending one of the worst military conflicts in history. Hi, I’m Rebecca Brayton and welcome to watchmojo.com. And today I’ll be looking at the final days of World War I and how it finally came to an end.
There were several key events, instrumental in ending the conflict. Great Britain’s naval blockade of Germany is considered crucial. Established in the first year of the year of the war, this blockade aimed to restrict Germany’s maritime access to raw materials and food. Germany attempted its own blockade of Great Britain and in 1917, adopted a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. These posed a great danger to commercial shipping between the U.S. and Europe. It was for this reason the United States finally declared war on Germany, April 6, 1917.
Meanwhile, war efforts in Russia were growing unpopular. Their economy was near collapsed and food shortages lead to protest from civilians. These protest resulted in the abdication of Czar Nicholas II and the employment of a provisional government. Seeing their army becoming increasingly ineffective on the eastern front, Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Party came to power, promising to pull Russia out of the war. On the 3rd of March, 1918, Russia agreed to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and seeded large portions of its land to Germany.
Now that the war was all but over in the eastern front, Germany could transfer their troops west. However, it was necessary to leave troops behind to occupy the large amount of acquired territory. On the western front, the allies were set to receive a massive boost of manpower and resources from the United States. In an attempt to end the war before this could happen, Germany pushed forward with the spring offensive of 1918. The Germans were initially successful and moved to within 75 miles of Paris. However, they were unable to solidify these gains adding insult to injury, Germany’s morale at home and on the front was quickly fading.
Starting August 8th, a series of offensives was launched by the allies, which effectively ended the First World War. Now known as the Hundred Days Offensive, this surge ended when an agreement was signed to seize fighting on November 11, 1918. The other central powers Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire had all signed their own armistices earlier in the year. Despite fighting being over, the war did not formally end until numerous treaties were signed between the nations’ involved. Most notable of these was the Treaty of Versailles which Germany signed on June 28, 1919. This treaty demanded the Germany accept sole responsibility for causing the war as well as paid billion of dollars in reparations. Ironically, the severe and controversial Treaty of Versailles is considered by many as a direct cause of the Second World War.
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