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World History 2

<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The final year of the war started auspiciously for <OpenstaxTerm>Germany</OpenstaxTerm>. In March, its troops began an offensive against the British and quickly took the advantage. Poor weather and fog created confusion, and the British may have retreated farther than they needed to. The Germans again moved toward Paris and resumed bombarding the city as they had in the early weeks of the war. Germany also worked out treaties with <OpenstaxTerm>Russia</OpenstaxTerm> and <OpenstaxTerm>Romania</OpenstaxTerm>, which exited the war and ceded territory in the process. By the summer of 1918, these successes meant that Germany held more territory than at any time in the past.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	In that same summer, however, the mass of U.S. troops finally arrived. After four long years of war, the French and British welcomed the aid. <OpenstaxTerm>China</OpenstaxTerm> and <OpenstaxTerm>Greece</OpenstaxTerm> also entered the war, as did <OpenstaxTerm>Brazil</OpenstaxTerm> in October 1917. (Haiti, Cuba, and most of the nations of Central America also declared war on the Central powers between the spring of 1917 and the summer of 1918, but none sent troops or played a decisive role in the fighting.) While the Central powers had been successful in the first half of 1918, the <OpenstaxTerm>Allies</OpenstaxTerm>’ sheer numbers gave them a nearly three to one advantage that the <OpenstaxTerm>Central powers</OpenstaxTerm> could not withstand for long.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The Allies began offensive maneuvers, gaining some victories and setting the stage for the events of the fall. The last major engagement of the war was the <OpenstaxTerm>Meuse-Argonne offensive</OpenstaxTerm> in <OpenstaxTerm>France</OpenstaxTerm>, which began in September 1918. This Allied counterattack had been planned for many months. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops joined the British and French forces, employing tactics that included infantry attack and the use of poison gas, tanks, and aircraft. The Allied armies quickly advanced several miles. The German armies held on, but over the next month, the tide turned against them.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The situation for Germany was bleak. Food shortages were causing widespread panic and despair. Troops began deserting, and civil unrest spread throughout Germany and <OpenstaxTerm>Austria-Hungary</OpenstaxTerm>. German naval commanders wanted to achieve one last moment of glory by sailing the fleet out in late October to engage the British. The German sailors, however, knew there was no chance of victory and had no wish to go on a suicide mission. About one thousand of them mutinied and refused to set sail. In Kiel, home to a major German naval base, both sailors and workers refused to follow orders. The revolt soon spread to other cities.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	In Berlin, the far-left <OpenstaxTerm>Socialist Party</OpenstaxTerm>’s politicians seized on the burgeoning revolt as a way to force a major change in the government and restore order. They called for the abdication of the Kaiser and the establishment of a republic. <OpenstaxTerm>Wilhelm II</OpenstaxTerm> abdicated on November 9, 1918, leaving the country for the Netherlands where he lived until his death in 1941. The civilian political leaders of the more moderate <OpenstaxTerm>Social Democrats</OpenstaxTerm> now proclaimed a provisional government, making Germany a republic. The German military agreed to work under this new civilian government. Political leaders then took up the negotiations that had already begun for an <OpenstaxTerm>armistice</OpenstaxTerm>, or cease-fire agreement, with the Allies. They believed Germany could not win the war and was best served by ending it. This maneuver helped isolate the socialist radicals.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Compounding the problems the Central powers faced in the final months of the war was the entrance on both the battlefield and the home front of another foe—<OpenstaxTerm>influenza</OpenstaxTerm>. By the fall of 1918, a flu <OpenstaxTerm>pandemic</OpenstaxTerm> was raging throughout Europe and the United States. The first cases had been reported in the United States earlier that year, and the mass movement of troops across the Atlantic Ocean had undoubtedly facilitated the virus’s spread. The flu proved quite deadly, especially among young adults. As the pandemic continued unabated, tens of millions of people around the world died before the virus burned itself out the next year.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxNote>
	<OpenstaxNoteTitle> Link to Learning </OpenstaxNoteTitle> 
	<OpenstaxParagraph>
		This website covers the <a href="https://openstax.org/l/77Influenza">influenza epidemic in the United States</a> in 1918 and 1919. You can search on any of the cities listed to see information about how the flu affected them. There is also an archive and image gallery through which you can search.
	</OpenstaxParagraph>
</OpenstaxNote>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	<OpenstaxTerm>Austria</OpenstaxTerm> came to terms on an <OpenstaxTerm>armistice</OpenstaxTerm> on November 3, 1918, and <OpenstaxTerm>Hungary</OpenstaxTerm> followed on November 13. For <OpenstaxTerm>Germany</OpenstaxTerm>, an armistice was set to go into effect on November 11 at 11:00 a.m., imposing a cease-fire on all units. The armies continued to fight up until the precise minute. Then, at the appointed time, the guns fell silent. Men climbed out of their trenches and came from behind their batteries. The decision by the Allies to request an armistice instead of a surrender was important. A surrender meant that one side had to accept defeat. This was not something Germany was prepared to do in 1918. The armistice, however, simply meant that a cease-fire would be imposed while formal negotiations occurred. Germany believed these negotiations would allow it to preserve some of its gains in the war and extract itself from the fighting with a measure of honor and dignity.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	Under the terms of the armistice, German troops had to withdraw from their occupation of parts of France and Belgium and return to Germany. (The fact that German troops were still in possession of foreign soil when the war ended was a point that later leaders such as Adolf Hitler exploited in the coming decade.) Germany also had to turn over its military equipment to the Allies, along with its navy. Most of the ships ended up at Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland, where their German crews scuttled them the following year rather than turn them over to the Allies intact.
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<OpenstaxParagraph>
	The casualties from the war were staggering. They included not only those who died or were wounded but also those who were taken prisoner or classified as missing. Russia had more than nine million casualties, France more than six million. Germany and Austria-Hungary topped seven million casualties each. In all, more than 8.5 million soldiers died in the war, and twenty-one million were wounded. The numbers of civilians who perished or were wounded were also in the millions.
</OpenstaxParagraph>
<OpenstaxNote>
	<OpenstaxNoteTitle> Link to Learning </OpenstaxNoteTitle> 
	<OpenstaxParagraph>
		This website covers the <a href="https://openstax.org/l/77Casualties">casualties of the countries</a> involved in the war. You can see how many troops were mobilized for each country, how many were killed, how many were wounded, and how many were taken prisoner or listed as missing.
	</OpenstaxParagraph>
</OpenstaxNote>
<OpenstaxParagraph>
	It was in this period, with countries still reeling from the aftermath of the carnage, that treaty negotiations began. They dragged on for six months following the armistice, and Germany was ultimately proven wrong in its expectations of what it could expect from the talks. There was still much damage and suffering from which to recover, but the war was over.
</OpenstaxParagraph>

11.5.3 The Final Year

1 Understanding the Past

1.1 Developing a Global Perspective

1.1.1 World History as Preparation for Life After College

1.1.2 World History and Global Citizenship

1.1.3 Features of This Textbook

1.2 Primary Sources

1.2.1 Learning to Evaluate Documents and Images

1.2.2 Documentary Sources: Competing Narratives

1.2.3 Textual Sources: The Importance of Language

1.2.4 Hidden in History

1.3 Causation and Interpretation in History

1.3.1 Levels of Causation

1.3.2 Interpretation in History

2 Exchange in East Asia and the Indian Ocean

2.1 India and International Connections

2.1.1 The Mughal Empire

2.1.2 The Sultanate of Gujarat

2.1.3 The Rise of the Maratha Empire

2.1.4 European Colonialism

2.2 The Malacca Sultanate

2.2.1 The Rise of the Malacca Sultanate

2.2.2 European Malacca

2.3 Exchange in East Asia

2.3.1 Japan

2.3.2 China’s Dynastic Exchanges

2.3.3 Korea and Its Neighbors

3 Early Modern Africa and the Wider World

3.1 The Roots of African Trade

3.1.1 Saharan Trade Routes

3.1.2 The Spread of Islam

3.1.3 The Mali Empire

3.2 The Songhai Empire

3.2.1 The Rise of Imperial Songhai

3.2.2 The Reign of Askia the Great

3.2.3 The Decline of Songhai

3.3 The Swahili Coast

3.3.1 The Rise of the Swahili City-States

3.3.2 Slavery on the Swahili Coast

3.3.3 The Contest for the Swahili Coast

3.4 The Trans-Saharan Slave Trade

3.4.1 The Role of Kanem-Bornu

3.4.2 The Arrival of Europeans

3.4.3 The Later Trans-Saharan Slave Trade

4 The Islamic World

4.1 A Connected Islamic World

4.1.1 Politics and Religion in the Ummah

4.1.2 Islamic Trade Networks

4.1.3 Technology in the Islamic World

4.2 The Ottoman Empire

4.2.1 Culture and Society

4.2.2 Expansion, Revolutions, and Reform

4.2.3 Science and Technology

4.3 The Safavid Empire

4.3.1 The Rise of the Safavid Empire

4.3.2 Establishing Shi‘ism as the State Religion

4.3.3 Safavid Government and Culture

5 Foundations of the Atlantic World

5.1 The Protestant Reformation

5.1.1 The Origins of the Protestant Reformation

5.1.2 Calvinists, Anabaptists, and Anglicans

5.1.3 The Catholic Reformation and the Wars of Religion

5.2 Crossing the Atlantic

5.2.1 The Rise of Maritime Nations

5.2.2 The Columbian Exchange

5.3 The Mercantilist Economy

5.3.1 The Rise of Mercantilism

5.3.2 Mercantilism and the Expansion of Empire

5.3.3 Mercantilism and Its Critics

5.4 The Atlantic Slave Trade

5.4.1 Slavery and the Triangular Trade

5.4.2 African and North American Slavery

5.4.3 The Economics of Slavery

6 Colonization and Economic Expansion

6.1 European Colonization in the Americas

6.1.1 Spain’s Encomienda System

6.1.2 English Settlements in North America

6.1.3 French and Dutch Settlements

6.2 The Rise of a Global Economy

6.2.1 The Seven Years’ War

6.2.2 British Influence in India

6.2.3 China’s Dominance in Trade

6.2.4 Colonial Resistance and Revolution

6.3 Capitalism and the First Industrial Revolution

6.3.1 From Mercantilism to Capitalism

6.3.2 Mechanization

6.3.3 Marxism

7 Revolutions in Europe and North America

7.1 The Enlightenment

7.1.1 The Authority of Reason

7.1.2 Natural Rights

7.1.3 Social Contract Theory

7.2 The Exchange of Ideas in the Public Sphere

7.2.1 Public Debate and Dissent

7.2.2 The Republic of Letters

7.2.3 Academies, Universities, and Intellectuals

7.3 Revolutions: America, France, and Haiti

7.3.1 The American Revolution

7.3.2 The French Revolution

7.3.3 The Haitian Revolution