The General Armistice (August 1918)
The General Armistice
August 1918
Having been defeated in France, defeated in the Balkans and without any serious prospect of defeating the Austrians, by August the allied combined force was all but destroyed. The ‘general armistice’ refers to the armistice terms between Greece and Albania with the central powers, but also with the United States, Montenegro and Serbia, who collectively sought terms led by President Wilson on August 2nd.
By August 1st, the vast majority of the European-orientated allied powers had concluded that with France no longer involved in the conflict, the interests of all parties would be best served by seeking terms prior to German intervention in their respective states. For Britain, this was never a concern as it being an island nation it would be able to maintain a naval blockade, while the US had continued the war largely in order to transport their troop ships home with protection from US naval vessels and to allow the US fleet to detain as many German warships destroy as many submarines as possible.
A whole month after France threw in the towel, the Allies had attempted repeated negotiations with various other parties to try and open new fronts - even the Bolsheviks, with plans being drawn up to defeat the Ottomans and continue the war in the Balkans. Yet with the failure of the Macedonian front, the Italian withdrawal from the war and the Greek coup, this was now at an end as well.
The United States, much like Britain being not actually compelled to give up, saw their role in the conflict as essentially at an end and sought to do what Wilson had wanted all along - to be the face of the new order. Re-issuing his 14 points, Wilson made clear that the armistice with Germany was conditional on the Germans providing ‘fair’ terms to the allied powers and following through with Germany’s vague and tentative political commitment to respect the right of self determination.
For Germany this proved both a blessing and a curse. Able to dictate terms to the Allies while equally facing the issue of needing to appear ‘reasonable’ and also wrap the conflict up quickly to quell the starving German people, the German Government had to press on with peace negotiations more or less immediately with all parties in multiple locations. Further, they had to negotiate with the assumption that if they did not satisfy the US, then America would continue in the war alongside the British - creating a continental blockade that would doom the German economy and influence in the long run and isolate her politically.
For the French, Belgians and United States, this would mean negotiating in the Belgian royal palace at Laeken, chosen by Germany for its size and relative isolation from the Brussels urban centre, but equally as a symbol of German suzerainty over Belgium. For the Italians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Greeks and Albanians it would mean negotiating in Vienna, chosen by the Germans at Austrian insistence and in respect to the city’s cultural and historical influence over the Balkans. China, Portugal, Brazil, Japan and the United Kingdom meanwhile remained out of the negotiations, largely waiting to see what Britain did.
The armistice itself was signed in multiple locations. The French had been forced to surrender at Compiegne where the Germans had met them in a rail car on July 1st. The Italians meanwhile signed their truce in the city of Gorizia in the Strassoldo Palace, the home of the Bourbon family in exile, directly on the frontline between the Austrian and Italian lines. The Greeks meanwhile surrendered in Tirana to Austrian forces, and the remaining allies signed armistice terms aboard an Ottoman run and German built battleship Yavuz Sultan Selim in Kavala.
Coming into effect at 11:00am Berlin time in each instance respectively, fighting had largely ceased on the Balkan front regardless, while fighting on the Italian front continued right up until the deadline. Thus at 11:00am Berlin time on August 4nd 1918 the Great War ended - or at least it did for everyone except Britain and global allies.
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