End of World War I

Governments, troops, and civilians were weary as World War I

GUIDE TO READING continued through 1917. Shortly after the United States entered
The BIG Idea the war, Germany made its final military gamble on the Western
Order and Security After the defeat of Front and lost. The war finally ended on November 11, 1918. The
the Germans, peace settlements brought political peace treaties were particularly harsh on Germany. New nations
and territorial changes to Europe and created bitter-
ness and resentment in some nations. were formed, and a League of Nations was created to resolve
future international disputes.
Content Vocabulary
• armistice (p. 780) • mandates (p. 783)
• reparations (p. 781) The Last Year of the War
Academic Vocabulary The new German republic and the Allies signed an armistice, ending
• psychological (p. 778) • cooperation (p. 780) the war on November 11, 1918.
HISTORY & YOU Have you heard debates about how large the U.S. military bud-
People and Places get should be? Read to understand the role of U.S. army support in the Allied victory
• Erich Ludendorff • Georges Clemenceau of World War I.
(p. 778) (p. 781)
• Kiel (p. 780) • Alsace (p. 782)
• Friedrich Ebert • Lorraine (p. 782) The year 1917 had not been a good one for the Allies. Allied
(p. 780) • Poland (p. 782) offensives on the Western Front had been badly defeated. The
• David Lloyd George Russian Revolution, which began in November 1917, led to Rus-
(p. 781) sia’s withdrawal from the war a few months later. The cause of
the Central Powers looked favorable, although war weariness
Reading Strategy was beginning to take its toll.
Organizing Information At the Paris On the positive side, the entry of the United States into the war
Peace Conference, the leaders of France, Britain, in 1917 gave the Allies a much-needed psychological boost. The
and the United States were motivated by different United States also provided fresh troops and material. In 1918,
concerns. As you read, use a chart like the one American troops would prove crucial.
below to identify the national interests of each
country as it approached the peace deliberations.
France Britain United States
A New German Offensive
For Germany, the withdrawal of the Russians offered new hope
for a successful end to the war. Germany was now free to concen-
trate entirely on the Western Front. Erich Ludendorff, who guided
German military operations, decided to make one final military
gamble—a grand offensive in the west to break the military stale-
mate. In fact, the last of Germany’s strength went into making this
one great blow. The divisions were running low on provisions,
reserves of soldiers were nearly depleted, and the German home
front was tired of the war.
The German attack was launched in March 1918. By April, Ger-
man troops were within about 50 miles (80 km) of Paris. However,
the German advance was stopped at the Second Battle of the Marne
on July 18. French, Moroccan, and American troops (140,000 fresh
American troops had just arrived), supported by hundreds of
tanks, threw the Germans back over the Marne. On August 8, the

778
 EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST AFTER WORLD WAR I

1914 1920

60 ICELAND 60 ICELAND
°N Denmark °N Denmark

ATLANTIC ATLANTIC
OCEAN NORWAY OCEAN NORWAY FINLAND

SWEDEN SWEDEN ESTONIA

RUSSIA SOVIET
UNITED North DEN. Baltic UNITED North DEN. Baltic LATVIA
50° KINGDOM Sea 50° KINGDOM Sea UNION
N Sea N Sea LITHUANIA
E. PRUSSIA (Ger.)
NETH. NETH.
GERMANY POLAND
BELG. BELG. GERMANY
LUX. LUX.
FRANCE CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Ca FRANCE Ca
SWITZ. AUSTRIA- sp SWITZ. AUSTRIA sp
HUNGARY ia HUNGARY

ia
ROMANIA
n

n
40° ROMANIA 40° ITALY YUGOSLAVIA
ITALY Black Sea Black Sea
Sea

Sea
N SPAIN SERBIA N SPAIN
BULGARIA BULGARIA
PORT. MONT. PORT. MONT.
ALB. ALB.
TURKEY
GREECE GREECE
SYRIA
OTTOMAN 0° 20°E Fr. IRAQ
EMPIRE U.K.
30°N Mediterranean Sea 30°N Mediterranean Sea
0 600 kilometers 0 600 kilometers PALESTINE U.K.
TRANSJORDAN
U.K.
0 600 miles 0 600 miles
Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area projection Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area projection

20°N 30°E

20°N

1. Place Rank the countries and empires

on the map according to the amount of N
N
10°N lost territory, from largest loss to small-
W E est loss. 10°N W E

S 2. Regions What happened to Austria- S

0° 30°E 40°E
10°E 20°E Hungary after World War I? Based on
what you know about Austria-Hungary,
why do you think this happened?

forces met at the Second Battle of the A million American troops poured into
Somme. Ludendorff wrote of this battle: France, and the Allies began an advance
“August 8 was the black day of the German toward Germany. On September 29, 1918,
army in the history of this war.” Luden- General Ludendorff told German leaders
dorff admitted that his gamble had failed: that the war was lost. He demanded the
government ask for peace at once.
PRIMARY SOURCE
“The 8th of August put the decline of [our] Collapse and Armistice
fighting power beyond all doubt, and in such a
German officials soon found that the Allies
situation as regards reserves, I had no hope of
finding a strategic expedient whereby to turn the were unwilling to make peace with the auto-
situation to our advantage.” cratic imperial government of Germany.
—Erich Ludendorff, in The Great War, Correlli Reforms for a liberal government came too
Barnett, 1980 late for the tired, angry German people.

CHAPTER 23 War and Revolution 779

 On November 3, 1918, sailors in the
northern German town of Kiel mutinied.
The Peace Settlements
Within days, councils of workers and sol- The Treaty of Versailles punished
diers formed throughout northern Ger- Germany, established new nations, and created a
many and took over civilian and military League of Nations to solve international problems.
offices. Emperor William II gave in to pub- HISTORY & YOU What is the purpose of the United
lic pressure and left the country on Nov- Nations today? Read to learn why the U.S. president
ember 9. After William II’s departure, the wanted a League of Nations after World War I.
Social Democrats under Friedrich Ebert
announced the creation of a democratic
republic. Two days later, on November 11, In January 1919, representatives of 27
1918, the new German government signed victorious Allied nations met in Paris to
an armistice (a truce, an agreement to end make a final settlement of World War I.
the fighting). Over a period of years, the reasons for
fighting World War I had changed dramat-
Revolutionary Forces ically. When European nations had gone to
war in 1914, they sought territorial gains.
The war was over, but the revolutionary
By the beginning of 1918, however, they
forces set in motion in Germany were not
were also expressing more idealistic rea-
yet exhausted. A group of radical social-
sons for the war.
ists, unhappy with the Social Democrats’
moderate policies, formed the German
Communist Party in December 1918. A Wilson’s Proposals
month later, the Communists tried to seize No one expressed these idealistic rea-
power in Berlin. sons better than the president of the United
The new Social Democratic government, States, Woodrow Wilson. Even before the
backed by regular army troops, crushed end of the war, Wilson outlined “Fourteen
the rebels and murdered Rosa Luxemburg Points” to the United States Congress—his
and Karl Liebknecht (LEEP•KNEHKT), basis for a peace settlement that he believed
leaders of the German Communists. A justified the enormous military struggle
similar attempt at Communist revolution being waged.
in the city of Munich, in southern Ger- Wilson’s proposals for a truly just and
many, was also crushed. lasting peace included reaching the peace
The new German republic had been agreements openly rather than through
saved. The attempt at revolution, however, secret diplomacy. His proposals also
left the German middle class with a deep included reducing armaments (military
fear of communism. forces or weapons) to a “point consistent
Austria-Hungary, too, experienced dis- with domestic safety” and ensuring self-
integration and revolution. As war weari- determination (the right of each people to
ness took hold of the empire, ethnic groups have their own nation).
increasingly sought to achieve their inde- Wilson portrayed World War I as a peo-
pendence. By the time World War I ended, ple’s war against “absolutism and milita-
the Austro-Hungarian Empire had ceased rism.” These two enemies of liberty, he
to exist. argued, could be eliminated only by creat-
The empire had been replaced by the ing democratic governments and a “gen-
independent republics of Austria, Hun- eral association of nations.” This association
gary, and Czechoslovakia, along with the would guarantee “political independence
large monarchical state called Yugoslavia. and territorial integrity to great and small
Rivalries among the nations that succeeded states alike.”
Austria-Hungary would weaken eastern Wilson became the spokesperson for a
Europe for the next 80 years. new world order based on democracy and
international cooperation. When he arrived
✓Reading Check Describing What happened in Europe for the peace conference, Wilson
within Germany after the armistice? was enthusiastically cheered by many

780 SECTION 4 End of World War I

Europeans. President Wilson soon found, made it possible to achieve a peace
however, that more practical motives settlement.
guided other states. Wilson’s wish that the creation of an
international peacekeeping organization
be the first order of business was granted.
The Paris Peace Conference On January 25, 1919, the conference accepted
Delegates met in Paris in early 1919 to the idea of a League of Nations. In return,
determine the peace settlement. At the Wilson agreed to make compromises on
Paris Peace Conference, complications territorial arrangements. He did so because
became obvious. For one thing, secret trea- he believed that the League could later fix
ties and agreements that had been made any unfair settlements.
before the war had raised the hopes of Clemenceau also compromised to obtain
European nations for territorial gains. some guarantees for French security. He
These hopes could not be ignored, even if gave up France’s wish for a separate Rhine-
they did conflict with the principle of self- land and instead accepted a defensive alli-
determination put forth by Wilson. ance with Great Britain and the United
National interests also complicated the States. However, the U.S. Senate refused to
deliberations of the Paris Peace Confer- ratify this agreement, which weakened the
ence. David Lloyd George, prime minister Versailles peace settlement.
of Great Britain, had won a decisive vic-
tory in elections in December 1918. His
platform was simple: make the Germans
pay for this dreadful war.
France’s approach to peace was chiefly
guided by its desire for national security.
To Georges Clemenceau (kleh•muhn•
SOH), the premier of France, the French Georges Clemenceau
people had suffered the most from Ger- 1841–1929 French Premier
man aggression. The French desired
revenge and security against future Ger- Georges Clemenceau, premier of France during
man attacks. Clemenceau wanted Ger- World War I, had a long history in French-German diplo-
many stripped of all weapons, vast German macy. During his early political career, Clemenceau had
payments—reparations—to cover the been involved in the 1871 peace treaty ending the
costs of the war, and a separate Rhineland Franco-Prussian War. The treaty imposed harsh terms
as a buffer state between France and on France while strengthening the new German
Germany. republic, and Clemenceau vowed to bring France back
from this “shameful humiliation.” After
The most important decisions at the
World War I, he had his opportunity.
Paris Peace Conference were made by Wil- The Treaty of Versailles was shaped
son, Clemenceau, and Lloyd George. Italy, by Clemenceau’s dislike and dis-
as one of the Allies, was considered one of trust of the Germans. “For the
the Big Four powers. However, it played a catastrophe of 1914 only the
smaller role than the other key powers— Germans are responsible,”
the United States, France, and Great Brit- he said. “Only a profes-
ain, who were called the Big Three. sional liar would deny
Germany was not invited to attend, and this.” How did
Russia could not be present because of its Clemenceau’s
civil war. early political
In view of the many conflicting demands career affect his
position at the
at the peace conference, it was no surprise
Paris Peace
that the Big Three quarreled. Wilson wanted Conference?
to create a world organization, the League
of Nations, to prevent future wars. Clem-
enceau and Lloyd George wanted to pun-
ish Germany. In the end, only compromise

Lebrecht Music & Arts/The Image Works

 The Treaty of Versailles

A German nationalist responded to the terms of the treaty:

“People and government have, during the most recent days, unambiguously made clear
that we cannot sign the document which our enemies call a peace. One thing is certain,
that any government which, by its signature, would confer upon this work of the devil . . .
the halo of right, would, sooner or later, be driven out. . . . [N]othing is left but to remain cold-
blooded, offer passive resistance wherever possible, and show contempt and pride.”
—Alfred von Wegerer, May 28, 1919

❶ ❷ ❸ The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors,

Versailles, 28th June 1919 by Sir William
Orpen depicts the major powers at Versailles.
❶ Woodrow Wilson (United States)
1. Analyzing Why is it significant that the
❷ Georges Clemenceau (France) ❺ German delegate sits on the opposite side
❸ David Lloyd George (Britain)
❹ Vittorio Orlando (Italy) of the table from the other delegates?
❺ Dr. Johannes Bell (Germany) 2. Evaluating Were the issues that caused
World War I resolved in the Treaty of
Versailles? Explain.

The Treaty of Versailles German land along the Rhine River

The final peace settlement of Paris con- became a demilitarized zone, stripped of
sisted of five separate treaties with the all weapons and fortifications. This, it was
defeated nations of Germany, Austria, hoped, would serve as a barrier to any
Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey. The Treaty future German moves against France.
of Versailles with Germany was by far the Although outraged by the “dictated peace,”
most important. Germany accepted the treaty.
The Germans considered it a harsh peace.
They were especially unhappy with Article The Legacies of the War
231, the so-called War Guilt Clause, which The war, the Treaty of Versailles, and the
declared that Germany (and Austria) were separate peace treaties made with the other
responsible for starting the war. The treaty Central Powers redrew the map of eastern
ordered Germany to pay reparations for Europe. The German and Russian empires
all damages that the Allied governments lost much territory. The Austro-Hungarian
and their people had sustained as a result Empire disappeared.
of the war. New nation-states emerged from the
The military and territorial provisions of lands of these three empires: Finland, Lat-
the Treaty of Versailles also angered the via, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Czecho-
Germans. Germany had to reduce its army slovakia, Austria, and Hungary. New
to 100,000 men, cut back its navy, and elimi- territorial arrangements were also made in
nate its air force. Alsace and Lorraine, taken the Balkans. Romania acquired additional
by the Germans from France in 1871, were lands. Serbia formed the nucleus of a new
now returned. Sections of eastern Germany state, called Yugoslavia, which combined
were awarded to a new Polish state. Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.

782 SECTION 4 End of World War I

Imperial War Museum/akg-images
 The principle of self-determination supposedly guided
the Paris Peace Conference. However, the mixtures of
peoples in eastern Europe made it impossible to draw
boundaries along strict ethnic lines. Compromises had to
be made, sometimes to satisfy the national interests of the
victors. France, for example, had lost Russia as its major Vocabulary
1. Explain the significance of: psychological,
ally on Germany’s eastern border. Thus, France wanted to
Erich Ludendorff, Kiel, Friedrich Ebert,
strengthen and expand Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugosla- armistice, cooperation, David Lloyd George,
via, and Romania as much as possible. Those states could Georges Clemenceau, reparations, Alsace,
then serve as barriers against Germany and Communist Lorraine, Poland, mandates.
Russia.
As a result of compromises, almost every eastern Euro-
Main Ideas
pean state was left with ethnic minorities: Germans in 2. Specify why Erich Ludendorff’s final
Poland; Hungarians, Poles, and Germans in Czechoslova- military gamble failed for Germany.
kia; Hungarians in Romania, and Serbs, Croats, Slovenes,
3. List some of President Wilson’s proposals
Macedonians, and Albanians in Yugoslavia. The problem
for creating peace. Use a chart like the one
of ethnic minorities within nations would lead to many below to make your list.
later conflicts.
President Wilson’s Proposals
Yet another centuries-old empire—the Ottoman Empire—
1.
was broken up by the peace settlement. To gain Arab sup-
2.
port against the Ottoman Turks during the war, the Western
Allies had promised to recognize the independence of
Arab states in the Ottoman Empire. Once the war was 4. Explain why the mandate system was
over, however, the Western nations changed their minds. created. Which countries became
France took control of Lebanon and Syria, and Britain mandates? Which countries governed
received Iraq and Palestine. them?
These acquisitions were officially called mandates.
Woodrow Wilson had opposed the outright annexation of Critical Thinking
colonial territories by the Allies. As a result, the peace set- 5. The BIG Idea Making Generalizations
tlement created the mandate system. According to this Although Woodrow Wilson came to the
system, a nation officially governed another nation as a Paris Peace Conference with high ideals,
mandate on behalf of the League of Nations but did not the other leaders had more practical
own the territory. concerns. Why do you think that was so?
World War I shattered the liberal, rational society that 6. Comparing and Contrasting Compare
had existed in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century and contrast Wilson’s Fourteen Points to
Europe. The deaths of nearly 10 million people, as well as the Treaty of Versailles.
the incredible destruction caused by the war, undermined 7. Analyzing Visuals Examine the painting
the whole idea of progress. Entire populations had partici- on page 782. What is the significance of
pated in a devastating slaughter. the setting?
World War I was a total war—one that involved a com-
plete mobilization of resources and people. As a result, the Writing About History
power of governments over the lives of their citizens 8. Informative Writing Suppose that you are
increased. Freedom of the press and speech were limited a reporter for a large newspaper. You are
in the name of national security. World War I made the sent to the Paris Peace Conference to
practice of strong central authority a way of life. interview one of the leaders of the Big
The turmoil created by the war also seemed to open the Three. Prepare a written set of questions
door to even greater insecurity. Revolutions broke up old you would like to ask the leader you have
empires and created new states, which led to new prob- selected.
lems. The hope that Europe and the rest of the world
would return to normalcy was, however, soon dashed.
(ISTORY /.,).%
For help with the concepts in this section of Glencoe World
✓Reading Check Identifying What clause in the Treaty of History, go to glencoe.com and click Study Central.
Versailles particularly angered the Germans?

783