What marked the official end to World War I?

Question

Savannah Adams · Accepted Answer

Fighting stopped with a wave of armistices, (with 11 November 1918 being the one with Germany), but the war didn't end until The Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919.

The assassination of Austria-Hungary's Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbian assassins, as well as the belligerent reactions and counterreactions by Austria-Hungary, Serbia, and their respective allies, and numerous other extremely dysfunctional actions by the heads of several countries—many of whom were related—that resulted in the outbreak of World War I, also known as "The Great War" and "The War to End all War," which claimed the lives of over 9 million soldiers and 7 million civilians. All the various alliances came to a boil down to two main groups: the Central Powers, which included Germany and Austria-Hungary (with the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria joining later) and the Triple Entente, which included Great Britain, France, and the Russian Empire (these were the three that name refers to, but there were many others that fought on this side including Japan, the US, Italy, Greece, Belgium, Siam, and Portugal to name a few - joining and leaving at different points in the war). Italy was originally allied to Germany and Austria-Hungary but turned around and joined the other side because they were the aggressors. In addition to wreaking havoc on Europe, the war also affected Africa, Asia, and Australia. Armistices, or cease-fires, marked the beginning of the end of the war; the most well-known of these was the one with Germany on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. However, this did not mean that fighting had stopped everywhere; some commanders continued to seek more territory to be captured before peace could be established. Following the cease-fires, six months of negotiations resulted in peace treaties, one for each of the Central Powers; Germany was ordered to pay reparations for all the losses and destruction suffered by the Triple Entente members, along with a host of other mandates and conditions, because it was deemed to be the primary cause of the war; it has been suggested that the terms of the treaties were so harsh against Germany that they actually caused World War 2. The US, for example, never ratified the peace treaties and was formally at war until 1921; the UK was at war until 1924. Not all of the participating nations ratified the peace treaties. The starting point of the First World War can be found at https://tutor.hix.ai Additionally, the Assassination of Franz Ferdinand of Austria and the Treaty of Versailles can be found at https://tutor.hix.ai and Assassination of Franz Ferdinand of Austria.