*The Great War ended at 11:11 AM on 11 November, 1918, but creating the post-war world was much more complicated.

*Rebellions within the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire led to their collapse.  The German and Austrian Kaisers were forced to abdicate, and Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire disintegrated.  In 1923 the Turkish Sultan was overthrown and the Republic of Turkey was declared in the new capital of Ankara.  For the first time in 1593 years, Constantinople (now Istanbul) was not an imperial capital.

*All four Empires (including Bulgaria) had their borders reduced. 

*Bulgaria lost a little bit of land to Greece, Romania, and Serbia. 

*The Ottoman Empire lost its hold on the Middle East, most of which ended up under the control of the British, the French, or the new Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, all of which had supported Arab nationalist revolts in the Ottoman Empire.  The new country of Iraq was created out of three different Ottoman Provinces (Basra, Baghdad, and Mosul) which contained different ethnic and religious groups, who ended up dominated by the Sunni Arabs.

*There had also been Jewish nationalist revolts in Palestine.  To prevent a possible Armenian revolt, the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey may have killed several hundred thousand or even 1.5 million Armenians between 1914 and 1923, many of them in concentration camps.  Supposedly this was an inspiration for Adolph Hitler.

*Austria-Hungary broke into Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, and lost land to Romania, Serbia (which formed the basis for Yugoslavia), Ukraine, and Italy.  Part of Austria tried to join Switzerland and Austria as a whole voted to join Germany, (but neither was allowed) and Liechtenstein abandoned its old relationship with Austria and joined a customs and defence union with Switzerland.

*The most of the Allies planned to be especially hard on Germany.  Woodrow Wilson, however, felt otherwise.

*Woodrow Wilson wanted a ‘peace without victory,’ and had a plan for a post-war world, safe for democracy and without any more war.  His plan involved Fourteen Points.

*Wilson demanded an end to secret treaties, a reduction in weaponry for all nations, eventual freedom for Europe’s colonies, self-determination for ethnic groups in Europe, and a new way for the nations of the world to work together to preserve peace, stability, and freedom:  a League of Nations.

*Wilson went to Europe to promote his plan, become the first president to visit Europe while in office, and was greeted like a king when he arrived in France.  Streets were named for him, crowds cheered him wherever he went, and people across Europe expected a new age of peace and freedom.

*Wilson made mistakes, however.  He brought no Republicans with him, which made the Republicans at home, led by Henry Cabot Lodge, resent his work and try to turn Americans against him.  Furthermore, he misunderstood the nature of European politics and overestimated the power of his convictions.

*The major European leaders at the conference in Versailles were David Lloyd George (UK), Georges Clemenceau (France), and Vittorio Orlando (Italy).  They had little interest in freedom or justice, particularly for Germany. 

*The other Allied leaders were not impressed by Wilson’s plan.  Clemenceau said, ‘God only had Ten Commandments; Wilson has fourteen!’  Clemenceau had spent many years living in America as a young man, and he had seen how Congress handled Reconstruction, and he liked it.  After the devastation of the Great War, France in particular wanted revenge.  Wilson protested, but was told he had to accept it, or there might be no League of Nations.

*Germany ceded land to the new republics of Poland (creating a 'Polish Corridor' between most of Germany and East Prussia)  and Lithuania, to Denmark, and to France—notably the territory of Alsace-Lorraine (which France had won in the Thirty Years' War and consolidated control over during the Revolution, then lost to Germany during the Franco-Prussian War).

*The Rhineland was demilitarized, and the Saarland was occupied by France (who got to take out all the coal).  Germany also lost all her overseas colonies, mostly to the British, but also to France, Belgium, South Africa, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.  The addition of German East Africa to the British Empire completed the land route from the Cape to Cairo.  Wilson protested against this, but was told he had to accept it, or there might be no League of Nations.

*Germany officially ended the war in Louis XIV's Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.  The Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919, was designed by the Allies (mainly France) to humiliate and crush Germany.  Besides the loss of its European territories and its foreign colonies, Germany was forced to pay crippling reparations (in money, materials, and patents (Aspirin could not be patented in the US, UK, or France after the War)), reduce its army and navy drastically, maintain no air force, tanks, submarines, or artillery at all, and it was forced to sign a clause in the peace treaty (the Treaty of Versailles) admitting that the entire war was Germany’s fault—this is known as the War Guilt Clause.  Wilson protested, but was told he had to accept it, or there might be no League of Nations.

*This humiliating defeat, after a war in which almost no German territory was actually occupied, fuelled resentment at what was called the 'stab in the back,' a betrayal by German diplomats, which would lead to World War II. 

*No one else was especially satisfied, either.  Wilson did get the League of Nations, but when he got home and campaigned across the country for the acceptance of the Treaty of Versailles, it was rejected by the Senate, largely due to Republican opposition, particularly because the League of Nations required all its members to help defend any member state that was attacked or otherwise in danger of losing its independence.  Many Americans feared this would get America involved in another European War.  After all Wilson’s work and compromises to create the League of Nations, American never joined (which was one reason the League ended up being weak and ineffective).

*The President of France was voted out of office the next year because the French thought he had been too lenient on Germany.

*Between 8 and 10 million men were killed.  Over 16 million were crippled or otherwise badly wounded.  Many more suffered from shell shock or other psychological damage.  Some soldiers, however, had felt most alive while in combat, and adjusting to peacetime would be difficult for them.

*Following the War, the Spanish Flu killed between 50 and 100 million people worldwide, about 20% of those infected.

*All around the world, nationalistic ideas (including the new-found independence of the subject peoples of the Central Powers) encouraged colonial independence movements in Africa and Asia (and Ireland).  Even the winners of the Great War were facing the beginning of the end of their empires, even if they did not know it yet.

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