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Hello class, today I am going to explain the final stage in the First World War.

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So let's start by looking why the year of 1917 was a decisive year for this war.

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At that moment the United States joined the war for three different reasons.

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As the Germans were not able to win this war on the land, on the western front and on the eastern front, they launched an attack against the Allies on the sea.

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This is the beginning of the submarine warfare when the Germans used their U-boats which were faster and had more room than the Allies because the German U-boats had room for 35 men.

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And for this reason the Germans were able to isolate Great Britain.

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They managed to cut off Great Britain from abroad because Great Britain at that moment was surrounded by U-boats, German U-boats.

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So for this reason the Germans were successful because in April 1917, pay attention to this important detail, Great Britain had only goods and raw materials for only six weeks.

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But there were many things at stake at that moment because the Americans gave a lot of loans to the French and to the British in order to fight against the Germans.

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And if the British and the French had lost this war, they would not have paid their money back to the Americans.

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So for this reason, this is the detail that convinced the public opinion in the United States to join this war.

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The second reason was the Lusitania affair, the sinking of the Lusitania which was provoked by German U-boats.

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The Lusitania was an American ocean liner and it was provoked by this sinking by German U-boats and this is another reason which convinced the public opinion in the United States to join this war.

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Because 1,200 passengers died and many of them were Americans.

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The third reason was the Zimmermann telegram when this man, Arthur Zimmermann, who was the German foreign minister of foreign affairs, basically sent a telegram to President Carranza who was the Mexican president in January 1917.

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This cipher telegram contained the following important information.

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If Mexico joined the war together with the Germans and if the Germans would win this war, the Mexicans would get the territories of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.

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But at that moment, Arthur Zimmermann was able to send the telegram because there was an electric cable from Europe to South America and the British code breakers deciphered the telegram.

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And for this reason, when the British code breakers deciphered the telegram, they leaked the telegram to the press.

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And this is the last straw which convinced the public opinion in the United States and President Woodrow Wilson to join the war in April 1917. This is the moment when the United States intervened in this war.

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The second important reason to the end of this war happened in Russia. Because if you remember, the Russian Empire had important defeats in 1915 and also in 1916, which prepared the ground for the Russian Revolution.

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The Germans used the revolution as a weapon of war because the Germans provoked a mutiny in Russia in March 1917. And at the same time, the Germans knew that the main leader of the Bolsheviks, who was Lenin, at that time was living in exile in Switzerland.

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So they convinced Lenin to travel towards Russia. And the Germans put him on a train. Lenin traveled from Switzerland to Russia.

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The Germans very carefully sealed the train because they were afraid that Lenin would get off the train in Germany and he would provoke a revolution in Germany because there were many, many communists in Germany at that moment.

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But finally, Lenin, without any stopover, he was finally smuggled into Russia. He was the main leader of the revolution in November 1917. The revolution succeeded and it began the republic in Russia because the Tsar lost his power.

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At the same time, one year later, in March 1918, the Bolsheviks signed, together with the Germans, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

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In this treaty, the Bolsheviks declared that they lost the war on the Eastern Front and for this reason the Germans won the war on the Eastern Front.

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They retained Lithuania and Poland and they captured Estonia, Belarus and the Ukraine. And for this reason, when the Germans won the war on the Eastern Front, they moved all their troops to the Western Front in order to win the war.

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So, the Germans and the Allies fought on the Western Front and the Germans launched an offensive in May 1918, again in the river Mar.

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At the beginning of the battle, the Germans used another type of soldier who were the stormtroopers. Pay attention to these soldiers because they became really important during the time of the Nazis.

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At the beginning of the battle, the Germans were the winners because they were conquering territory over the Allies, but this is the moment when the Americans intervened.

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Due to the intervention of the United States, the United States won the battle for the Allies.

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The United States had two things that the Germans didn't have at that moment.

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Basically, the Americans and the United States had more soldiers, so they could replace the soldiers that they died in huge numbers, more than the Germans.

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And also, the United States had better tanks to overcome the trenches.

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For this reason, due to the intervention of the United States, the Allies were the winners.

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At that moment, the atmosphere in Germany was so difficult.

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There were many revolts, communist revolts, far-right revolts, the state was pretty unstable, and also there were revolts in the German army and in the navy, as well as workers' demonstrations against the government.

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As a result of that, the Kaiser abdicated and Germany surrendered finally.

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An armistice was signed, a peace treaty was signed on the 11th of November 1918, bringing the war to an end.

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So this is the end of the First World War, and a new order, a new peace order started, which was created by President Wilson.

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It was called the 14 Points of President Wilson, who tried to impose a new war based on peace.

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But we will see the result of this peace conference in Paris, which created definitely a new order for the world.

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Thank you for your attention, and bye bye.