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Signing an Armistice is not a victory. The French and Germans both signed, after French soil was occupied for years and many of its best farmland destroyed duri

by vonnik 11y ago

Signing an Armistice is not a victory. The French and Germans both signed, after French soil was occupied for years and many of its best farmland destroyed during the war. The Germans were outmaneuvered during the negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles, because their government had been destabilized. The French were resting on their laurels every time the Germans invaded, all through the 19th century and the 20th. It's a national pass time.

georgeecollins 11y ago
The Germans signed an armistice because they were beaten. By mid 1918 they didn't have the capacity to keep fighting. The allies accepted surrender in 1918 because fighting to total victory would have been costly for them as well. The destabilization started in 1918 because of the economic impact of the war, and the hopelessness of it.
- restalis 11y ago
  "The Germans signed an armistice because they were beaten. By mid 1918 they didn't have the capacity to keep fighting." Hitler in his "Mein Kampf" disagrees with you. Like in WW2, in WW1 Germans were forced to fight on two fronts, but unlike the events of WW2 where Germany suffered the most of its defeats, in WW1 on the eastern front they were victorious and ready to transfer their forces to the western front. In Hitler's words - "the sword from the east should have been ready to strike in the west, which was hold only by a shield". Was he too detached from reality?
  - cafard 11y ago
    Yes. Ludendorff threw the responsibility for the armistice on the politicians. But Austria-Hungary and Turkey were collapsing even faster, and America was shipping fresh divisions to Europe. By September 1918, Ludendorff said that the government would have to seek terms for peace. He held a somewhat higher position in the German Army than Hitler did.
  - alricb 11y ago
    That "sword" was the spring offensive of 1918, and it didn't work. Germany had fought on three fronts: East, West, and the Sea, and they were badly beaten at sea, resulting in the suffocation of their economy (see: food shortages of 1918) and the arrival of the US, which would have really come online in 1919.
  - georgeecollins 11y ago
    <quote>Hitler in his "Mein Kampf" disagrees with you.</quote> One of the best complements I have ever gotten.

by vonnik 11y ago

georgeecollins 11y ago

The Germans signed an armistice because they were beaten. By mid 1918 they didn't have the capacity to keep fighting. The allies accepted surrender in 1918 because fighting to total victory would have been costly for them as well. The destabilization started in 1918 because of the economic impact of the war, and the hopelessness of it.

restalis 11y ago
"The Germans signed an armistice because they were beaten. By mid 1918 they didn't have the capacity to keep fighting." Hitler in his "Mein Kampf" disagrees with you. Like in WW2, in WW1 Germans were forced to fight on two fronts, but unlike the events of WW2 where Germany suffered the most of its defeats, in WW1 on the eastern front they were victorious and ready to transfer their forces to the western front. In Hitler's words - "the sword from the east should have been ready to strike in the west, which was hold only by a shield". Was he too detached from reality?
- cafard 11y ago
  Yes. Ludendorff threw the responsibility for the armistice on the politicians. But Austria-Hungary and Turkey were collapsing even faster, and America was shipping fresh divisions to Europe. By September 1918, Ludendorff said that the government would have to seek terms for peace. He held a somewhat higher position in the German Army than Hitler did.
- alricb 11y ago
  That "sword" was the spring offensive of 1918, and it didn't work. Germany had fought on three fronts: East, West, and the Sea, and they were badly beaten at sea, resulting in the suffocation of their economy (see: food shortages of 1918) and the arrival of the US, which would have really come online in 1919.
- georgeecollins 11y ago
  <quote>Hitler in his "Mein Kampf" disagrees with you.</quote> One of the best complements I have ever gotten.