World War One

A group of Weimar German delegates (including Ferdinand Foch) arrived in France by train and were brought to a secluded location inthe woods of Compiegne, France. The delegates met in an old railway car to negotiate an armistice (which will be important again inWorld War Two). Hostilities officially ended at 11 am on November 11 th (the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month) of 1918.It took seven more months before the formal peace treaties and all the arrangements were finalized. During that time, Germany wassurrounded by a naval blockade. Germany had to withdraw all troops from all borders, all sides had to preserve infrastructure,prisoners were exchanged, and the issue of war reparations had to be decided. All the Allied powers agreed that Germany must not beable to make war again.POWs: Let My People GoThe most dangerous moment in a war, is often the surrender, when helpless soldiers are sometimes gunneddown as they give up. Germans had 260,000 men wounded, missing, or dead. The British Empire had 300,000 (36,500 Australians, 3600 New Zealand, 16,000 Canadians, 90,000British subjects never identified, 42,000 never recovered). 1.4 million Allies were taken as prisoners of war (POWs). Austria 32%, Italy 26%, France 12%, Germany 9%, Britain 7% Russia had 2.5 - 3.5 million taken as prisoners of war. Central Powers had 3.3 million taken as POWs. Germany held 2.5 million prisoners. Russia held 2.9 million. Great Britain and France held 720,000. America held 48,000. The Ottoman Empire treated the POWs the worst. 12,000 Indian sepoys representing Great Britain were held after the Siegeof Kut (April 1916). 4000 died in captivity from starvation. “We were driven along like beasts to drop out and to die.”Results of the War 9 million soldiers, 10 million civilians died. 7 million soldiers were permanently disabled. Europe was no longer the center of the world. It was a scarred battleground. Physicaldevastation in Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Russia, and Serbia.o France: vineyards and wheat fields were destroyed, trenches scarred the land,stray landmines and grenades.o Europe: piles of rubble that used to be churches, schools, hospitals ruined, famous art, libraries, and museumsdestroyed, piles of dead, wounded, mass graves Economic collapse in Europe. Europe had not planned for a long war. No one had the finances for a long, 4 year stalemate.The war costs totaled: $337 billion (more than 4.5 trillion today). Economic conditions were horrible. The major world powerswere financially devastated and faced bankruptcy. The nations were financially exhausted and produced more paper money topay back the war debt which caused inflation. Monarchies collapsed: Germany, Ottoman, Austria-Hungary, and Russia (Hohenzollern, Habsburg, Romanov, Ottoman). Thisalso created a power vacuum in the Middle East. Influenced the outbreak of WW2: dissatisfaction of Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan New countries established: Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (Oct 14, 1918). Austria, Hungary (divorced) became separate countries (Oct 25, 1918). America was now a global economic power—and the center of international finance.America invested in European loans ($3.7 billion invested in Europe).29