World War 1: The Consequences
Fall of the Empires
FUN FACT
During WWI, France built a ‘Fake Paris’ near its capital city to confuse German pilots.
The fall of the Ottoman Empire
The fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
The fall of the German Empire
The fall of the russian empire
Germany was one of the empires that fell during world war 1, in 1919. It was on the losing side, the Central Powers because their ally, the Austro-Hungarian empire (which also fell) had entered the war.
Germany, unfortunately, was not ready for war. It’s government was controlled by Junkers, the name for german nobles. Wilhem II (above) was the German Kaiser that ruled during the first world war.
The German Empire was obviously not doing well in the war, they were almost out of resources and they hadn’t gained much land: it was obvious to the rest of Europe that the German Empire was not going to last much longer. Sure enough, it was replaced by the Weimar Republic from 1919 to 1933.
The Russian Empire fell on March 15 1917, during the first world war. The Czarist regime ruled for hundreds of years before it all came to an end during the February revolution of 1917. The abdication of Tsar Nicholas two (above) was really the end of the Russian Empire.
The main problems that led to this collapse were serfdom (slavery), their military defeat during the Crimean war (1853-1856) and their political and social instability. People also decided to revolt because in the middle of the war not many people were around so there was a shortage a farmers therefore a shortage a food too. People became mad and hungry.
The Austrian Hungarian Empire began on March 30 1867 with the signing of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. It fell in 1918, during world war 1.
The empire was enormous, it had been around for half a century, it occupated 261, 242 square miles, and about 50 million lived there. When the Austro-Hungarians were on the losing side of the war the Allies (the winners) wanted to punish them and so they were forced to sign treatys like the treaty of saint germain (above) which was signed on September 10th 1919 between the Allied Powers and Austria.
The treaty of trianon was signed on June 4th 1920 and was between the Allies and Hungary. These treatys seperated Austria from Hungary and made them into two small land-locked countries.
For a description, and interpretation of this photograph click on Fall of the Empires and then FOTE image.
The ottoman empire was gone by 1923. It was replaced by Turkey Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon etc. The main reasons it fell were because there were fundamental question over how to deal with the nationalities (since the Ottoman empire was very diverse) and the loss of territories in the Balkan Wars. The decline of the empire in general lead to the popularity of ultra-nationalist
movements like the young Turks.
The treaty of Sevres a treaty written by the allies to completely destroy the ottoman empire was signed on august 10th 1920.
FUN FACT
In WWI, Canadians survived the first chemical attack by urinating on their handkerchiefs and holding them over their faces as masks
The German Kaiser, Wilhem II Reign: 1888 - 1918
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia Reign: 1894 - 1917
See FOTE image page
Treaty of saint-germain in 1919. Above is the signing of the treaty.