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Summary
Germany was well-beaten by October 1918, but wanted to make
peace according to the generous terms in Wilson's 14 Points.
On 29 October, however, here was a revolution, and the
new government had no choice but to seek an Armistice.
The terms the Armistice imposed were harsh, and included reparations, loss
of territory and disarmament; this caused shock and resentment in Germany
from the very start of peace negotiations. At the same
time, the Armistice did not disband the German Army, allowing the myth to
grow up that it had not been defeated.
The Armistice of 11 November 1918
Background
As early as 29 September German General Ludendorff decided that the war had to be ended.
Germany was exhausted, its armies defeated, its citizens starving, and its
allies collapsing.
The German government approached the United States with a request for an armistice along the lines of Wilson’s Fourteen Points – a request which Britain and France
opposed. On 29 October, however, discussions were interrupted by a
socialist revolution in Berlin, the Kaiser fled and the new German government
sought an immediate end to the war.
The armistice negotiations were not in fact conducted by the Allied governments, but by their commander-in-chief, Ferdinand Foch.
His primary aim was to make sure that it was impossible for the German Army to
recommence fighting.
Terms of the Armistice
• Germany was required to evacuate all occupied territories everywhere.
Prisoners of war in German hands were to be freed without reciprocity.
• Germany was to surrender 5,000 pieces of artillery,
25,000 machine guns, 1,700 airplanes, 5,000 trains and 5,000 lorries.
• All submarines were to be surrendered, together with 10 battleships,
and 64 other warships. The remaining naval vessels were to be disarmed. [The Allies,
however, mintained the naval blockade until the final peace treaty.]
• [See map, below.] All territory on the left bank of
the Rhine was to be occupied by the allied armies; three bridgeheads were to be
established at Mainz, Coblenz, and Cologne, each with a radius of eighteen
miles; a trip of territory 10 kilometres wide on the right bank of the Rhine was
to be demilitarised as a neutral zone.
• The Germans agreed to pay “reparation for damage
done” and pledged “to cover reparation for war losses”.
• The treaty of Brest-Litovsk [the very harsh treaty
Germany had imposed on Russia] was annulled.
• [You can read the full terms of the Armistice
here.]
Results of the Armistice
The Armistice created significant problems for the
negotiation of the Treaty of Versailles. It:
1. Set a precedent for a diktat
- the Armistice was not a negotiated settlement but a dictated surrender; the
fact that the Armistice was signed on Allied terms meant that the Treaty
negotiations followed the same pattern.
2. Set a precedent for harsh terms – the harsh terms of the Armistice created an expectation that the final peace would also be punitive, reinforcing the French demand for severe reparations and territorial losses.
This shocked the Germans, who had been hoping to end the war on Wilson’s
Fourteen Points.
3. Set a precedent for high reparations
– to cover all damage and Allies losses.
4. Set a precedent for reducing Germany’s military forces
– including demiitarising the Rhineland.
5. Yet at the same time, it did not disband the German army, but allowed it to return to Germany intact … leading to the
Dolchstoßlegende that the German Army had not been defeated, but had
been ‘stabbed in the back’ by the politicians.
Map of the Armistice.
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