The Anglo-Irish agreement that ended the war - and British rule in most of the island of Ireland - would be signed three weeks later. Those that had survived, many of them injured and facing high unemployment and economic turmoil, were increasingly despondent about the future of the country to which they had returned. France, meanwhile, had been the main theatre of conflict for four years and faced widespread destruction.
The loss of 1. Across Europe, fear of Communism was widespread as the Bolsheviks tightened their grip on power in Russia. On the right, Italy was already seeing the rise of far-right politics and Benito Mussolini had founded the National Fascist Party in In , British author H. Wells wrote that the Great War would be the "The war that will end war", believing that the conflict would create a new world order that would make future conflict impossible.
We are resolved. The German delegation was given 72 hours to accept the terms, which were purposefully severe to prevent Germany from resuming fighting. These included complete demilitarization, the evacuation of France, Belgium and Alsace-Lorraine a territory that had been annexed by Germany in following the Franco-Prussian War , and the immediate release of Allied prisoners of war and interned civilians.
The Allied troops will not go beyond the line reached at that hour on that date until further orders. Though one of several armistices signed in , it is the armistice of Nov. In three hours the war will be over. It seems incredible even as I write it. I suppose I ought to be thrilled and cheering.
Instead I am merely apathetic and incredulous … There is some cheering across the river—occasional bursts of it as the news is carried to the advanced lines. For months we have slept under the guns … We cannot comprehend the stillness. For the most part, the people of Europe greeted the outbreak of war with jubilation. Most patriotically assumed that their country would be victorious within months. Russia, slow to mobilize, was to be kept occupied by Austro-Hungarian forces while Germany attacked France.
The Schlieffen Plan was nearly successful, but in early September the French rallied and halted the German advance at the bloody Battle of the Marne near Paris. By the end of , well over a million soldiers of various nationalities had been killed on the battlefields of Europe, and neither for the Allies nor the Central Powers was a final victory in sight. On the western front—the battle line that stretched across northern France and Belgium—the combatants settled down in the trenches for a terrible war of attrition.
In , the Allies attempted to break the stalemate with an amphibious invasion of Turkey, which had joined the Central Powers in October , but after heavy bloodshed the Allies were forced to retreat in early The year saw great offensives by Germany and Britain along the western front, but neither side accomplished a decisive victory.
In the east, Germany was more successful, and the disorganized Russian army suffered terrible losses, spurring the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in By the end of , the Bolsheviks had seized power in Russia and immediately set about negotiating peace with Germany. Germany signed an armistice agreement with the Allies on November 11, Unfortunately, the peace treaty that officially ended the conflict—the Treaty of Versailles of —forced punitive terms on Germany that destabilized Europe and laid the groundwork for World War II.
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