1. The End of the War

2. Right before the end… President Wilson issues the Fourteen Points

3. President Wilson issues the Fourteen Points  Jan. 1918  First five points:  End to secret agreements between nations  Freedom of the seas  Removal of trade barriers  Arms reductions  Fair settlement of colonial disputes

4. Fourteen Points  Next 8 points:  Dealt with specific territorial issues in Europe and the Ottoman Empire.  Based on the principal of self- determination : the right of nations and peoples to control their own fate and decide what form of government they will have.

5. Fourteen Points  Last point: called for “a general association of nations”  League of Nations  Members would work together to keep world peace. * collective security – joint action by member nations against an aggressor to keep peace.  *Other Allies don’t like his plan, but keep quiet because they needed America’s help to win the war.

6. The End  Russia – withdraws in 1917 – Germans can move all troops to Western Front  March 1918- launch a massive attack on the British – Second Battle of the Somme  2 months of heavy fighting, both sides lost about 500,000 men; German army gets within artillery range of Paris!  American forces save the Allies and push Germans back beyond their own border.

7. The End  Between Sept and Nov 1918:  Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire, and Austria- Hungary surrender  German military starts to mutiny once they know they can’t win; revolts throughout German cities  Nov 9: Kaiser abdicates  Armistice signed on Nov. 11 at 11 am

8. The Cost  65 million men fought  8.5 million died  21 million wounded  Civilian deaths/flu pandemic put death tolls over 20 million  $200 billion – cost of fighting the war  $37 billion in estimated damages

9. The Paris Peace Conference  Jan. 1919  27 nations represented, but it was dominated by the “Big Four”  Woodrow Wilson – US  David Lloyd George – GB  Georges Clemenceau – France  Vittorio Orlando – Italy  Defeated Central Powers and Russia (Communist) not included

12. Conflicting Goals  President Wilson wanted to spread democracy and promoted “peace without victory.”  Clemenceau wanted to crush Germany and limit their future power  David Lloyd George – somewhere in between  Orlando – just wanted the land Italy had been promised; walked out when he discovered the Allies had lied to him

13. The Treaty of Versailles  Required Germany to accept full responsibility for starting the war and pay the Allies reparations  $33 billion (about $402 billion today)  Reduced Germany’s size and population by about 10%  Returned Alsace-Lorraine to France (Franco-Prussian War 1871)

14. Treaty of Versailles  Limited Germany’s military to a small navy and a 100,000 man army with no offensive weapons.  German troops banned from the Rhineland – region along the French border  Germany stripped of all overseas colonies  These harsh, unfair reparations sew seeds of future conflict; leave Germany wanting revenge. Explains why Hitler is appealing.

15. Old Empires Collapse; New Countries Form  The old multi-national empires were broken up:  Poland was created out of land from Germany and Russia;  Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania out of Russia.  Other nations: Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia

18. Post-War  The League of Nations was formed to oversee and settle disputes between nations.  Relied on collective security – joint action by member nations against an aggressor to keep peace.  US Senate didn’t ratify it because of fear of obligation in future conflicts – left the LON powerless to keep peace.