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The End of the War
Conditions by 1917
• Supply lines stretched to limits
• Food and goods prices soared (nowhere more than in Russia)
• Russia had lost more men anyone except Germany
• Everyone becoming frustrated
• Two major events signaled beginning of the end for war.
Russian Revolution
• Starving citizens and war casualties
• Critical and frustrated with Tsar Nicholas II
▫ Forced him to abdicate (give up power)
• Oct 1917, Bolshevik revolutionaries (communists) led revolution against gov’t
▫ Promised people “peace and bread”
• Led by V.I. Lenin
• Began negotiations with Central Powers (Triple Alliance)
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
• Signed between Russia and Central Powers – March 3, 1917
• Ended war on Eastern Front
• Freed German troops to fight on Western Front
U.S. Joins the War
• U.S. tired of neutral ships being sunk
• Germany also promised support to Mexico if it attacked U.S.
• Declared war on Germany - April 2, 1917 (over 3 years after war started)
• First troops arrived 8 months later
German Advance
• German Eastern front troops rushed to Western Front
• Speed was Germany’s only chance
• Begin desperate offensive, March 1918
▫ Struck at allied weak points
▫ Drove deep into France
• Points like Ypres, the Somme, Passchendaele were lost within weeks
• By summer 1918, German troops were less than 75 km from Paris
Hundred Days Campaign
• Began in August 1918
• Series of Allied attacks meant to break German military
• Canadian troops took over most difficult objectives
▫ Task: dislodge German troops from positions
▫ Break defensive Hindenburg Line
Hundred Days Cont.
• Canadian troops led offensive
▫ Most successful
▫ defeating 47 crack German divisions which made up ¼ of entire German army
▫ advanced 130 kilometres and liberated more than 200 towns and cities
▫ captured 31,537 prisoners, 623 guns, 2,842 machine-guns and 336 mortars
▫ Canadian battle casualties totaled 45,830
• Broke through at Mons, Amiens, Arras, Cambrai, and Valenciennes
• Allies took back France, then Belgium.
• Stopped at German Border
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Central Powers Collapse
• Hundred Days Campaign exhausted Germans and other Central Powers
• No reserves; troops, food, and supplies were exhausted
• Central Powers collapsed one by one
• German Kaiser (monarch) abdicated and fled to Holland
• Austria-Hungary agreed to ceasefire
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Armistice Day, 1918
• Armistice – truce that ends war
• Signed in railway car in France at 5:00 am,
▫ Nov. 11, 1918
• War was to stop at 11:00 am.
• News was greeted by celebrations in Canada
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Canada’s Casualties
Paris Peace Conference
• 1919 - Palace of Versailles
• Allied countries met to discuss terms of peace
• Lasted for 6 months
• Germany and it’s allies, not allowed to participate
• Russia also left out
Treaty of Versailles and Wilson’s 14 Points
• The 14 Points were written by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in 1918
▫ Major idea was national self-determination
 give ethnic groups ability to have own nation
• Treaty of Versailles (Paris Peace Conference)
▫ Written document created by allied countries deciding what would happen to
defeated nations (primarily Germany)
▫ Contained punitive measures and rules
 Loss of territory, forbidden to unify with Austria, limited military to 100,000 men,
allowed small air force and navy, Rhineland (an area close to bordering France)
became a demilitarized zone
▫ War Guilt Clause: Stated Germany had to accept full responsibility for causing the
war.
 Had to pay reparations to allied nations
▫ Becomes one of the causes for WWII
Canada’s Participation
• PM Borden demanded Canada have it’s own seat at conference
▫ British PM Lloyd George supported this
• US President Woodrow Wilson opposed our participation
• Canada won it’s seat (thanks mostly to our outstanding war record)
• PM Borden also demanded he be allowed to sign the Treaty of Versailles
• Canada received international recognition as independent nation for the 1 st time
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• Read pg. 59-64
• Study for WWI Test Tomorrow
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