Page 45 - World History Cover resized
P. 45

The End of the W 
In the spring of 1918, the Germans tried a last  eat offensive in an at­
tempt to win the war bfore the Americans a ved But though the Ger­ man tr   smashed throu  the  lied l e    they  ned w  the ru­ ined land that had  en  u t over for alm t four y  The exhausted  ldiers could not make the final decisive breakthroug 
Then in the summer of 1918,  ,  American  ldie   gan arriv­ ing in Euro . On August 8 the Allied tr   smashed the German line. On  ptem r 12 the Americans won another r und g victory. Bulgaria, Turkey and Austria  n afterw ds su ender  The Ha burg Empire was convulsed by re lutio  and Charl  and his family were  rced to flee. In Germany a re llion broke out, cau d mainly by the f  short­ ages which the English bl kade had pr uced The  lors in the German fleet mutinied On Novem r 9  r Wilhelm and the c wn prince fled to Holland, and a republic was pr laimed in  rlin On Novem r 11 an a stice was si ed and all fighting ceased World War I was over. In  ur yea  over eight and a half million men had died and another 21,000,000 had  en wounded
World War I was an unnece ry war, fou t for no g  reason But its effects on the future cour  of history were very  eat The young men of Euro  had  en slaughtered by the million  Euro  w  exhausted and disillusioned Three ruling  milies (Hapsburg, Romanov, Hohen­ zo e ) had  en overthrown, and revolution had spread throughout Eu­ rope.  e United States, virtually untouched by the war, was now a world  wer. And, m t im rt tly, a  mmunist dictatorship had  en esta  lished in Ru ia
e


































































































   43   44   45   46   47