What marked the official end to World War I?
1 Answer
Fighting stopped with a wave of armistices, (with 11 November 1918 being the one with Germany), but the war didn't end until The Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919.
Explanation:
World War I, known also as "The Great War" and "The War to End all War", killing over 9 million soldiers and 7 million civilians, started as a result of the assassination of Austria-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbian assassins; the resulting belligerent responses and counter-responses by Austria-Hungary, Serbia, and their respective allies; and a lot of other very dysfunctional actions by the heads of several countries, several of whom were related - and so acted as only family members can act with each other.
The various alliances boiled down to two big ones: the Triple Entente with Great Britain, France, and the Russian Empire (these were the three that name refers to, but there were many others that fought on this side including Japan, the US, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Siam, and Portugal to name a few - joining in and leaving at different points in the war), and the Central Powers with Germany and Austria-Hungary (with the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria joining in later). Italy was originally allied to Germany and Austria-Hungary but because they were the aggressors, Italy flip-flopped and joined in with the other side.
The war devastated Europe but also dragged in Africa, Asia, and Australia.
The end of the war started with cease-fires, otherwise known as armistices. The most famous of these was the one with Germany that occurred on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Not that fighting actually stopped in all places - some commanders still wanted to capture more territory before peace broke out.
After the cease-fires, it took six months of negotiations to arrive at peace treaties, one for each of the Central Powers. Germany was held to be primarily responsible for the war and therefore made to pay reparations for all the destruction and loss experienced by the Triple Entente members - along with many other mandates and conditions. It has been argued that the treaty provisions were so severe against Germany that the Treaty itself led to World War 2.
Not all the countries involved ratified the peace treaties. The US for one never ratified the treaties and was officially at war until 1921. The UK was at war until 1924.
http://www.theweek.co.uk/world-news/first-world-war/59782/how-did-the-first-world-war-start
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Versailles
