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Armistice and Legacy
As American troops moved through the Meuse-Argonne, it became apparent that Germany had lost the war. An armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, effective at 11:00 a.m. -- the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
In January 1919 the Allies met in Paris to negotiate the peace. President Wilson sought a peace based on his "Fourteen Points," meant to foster international peace and cooperation. While some of the terms were included in the final treaty, including creation of a League of Nations, the pre-war colonial system remained in place. The Allies also compelled Germany to accept responsibility for starting the war, give up territory and colonies, and pay crippling war reparations. The formal Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, but the U.S. Senate refused to ratify the treaty.
World War I profoundly changed America and the world. The war ushered in the era of modern warfare; war was now waged in the air and under the sea, and new weapons and industrial capacity gave war an unprecedented scale and technological savagery.
The harsh penalties imposed on Germany contributed to the rise of the Nazi party, while other terms created resentments in Italy and Japan, setting the stage for World War II. The 1917 communist revolution in Russia gave rise to the Soviet Union, and the U.S.-Soviet Cold War after World War II led to "hot" wars in Korea and Vietnam. The destruction of four empires -- the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman -- led to a new world map and new conflicts. The creation of arbitrary nation-states in the Middle East and the British mandate in Palestine created ethnic and religious tensions that remain current one hundred years later.
But the aftermath of the war also saw the first attempt to establish international organizations to prevent war. While the League of Nations was ineffective, it led to the United Nations and greater international cooperation.
By 1918, America was the world's strongest industrial power, and a leading player on the world state. Two million Americans had gone to Europe, and America now looked at the world with new eyes -- as, too, the world looked at America.
"Their bodies return to dust but their work liveth for evermore. Let us strive on to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
-- From the Great Frieze at the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City |