Germany's Loss in the First World War in 1918

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Germany's Loss in the First World War in 1918 There was great shock in Germany when they surrendered in 1918 and many of the soldiers who thought that Germany should not give in went on to join Hitler in his attempt to regain their national dignity. Germany had not suffered a major defeat in battle nor been overran, the government simply decided to finish the war due to the strains it was putting on their economy. While there were those who thought Germany should not surrender, there were a number of reasons for this decision, such as morale, economic and technological factors. The Germans were always severely disadvantaged throughout the war because of the fact that they had fewer resources; in particular they had less men and weapons and ultimately their access to fuel and food was more restricted. Germany initially put as many men into the War as possible through conscription. While this was advantageous at the start of the War, over time the Allies slowly brought greater numbers of better-trained troops into battle. Specifically, the Allies were able to draw on armies from many different countries. In fact by 1918 the Germans faced on the Western Front soldiers from more than 30 countries. This meant that the Germans slowly came under greater pressure as time passed and thus were bound to fall to the larger numbers eventually due to the fact that it was a war of attrition. The Americans joining the War in 1917 tipped the balance enormously in favour of the Allies. They were able to draw on significantly larger populations at a time when the losses on the Western Front were significant and when the Germans were also tryi... ... middle of paper ... ...ans joined was just unfair! It was unlikely the Germans would win before the Americans joined but after it was just unbelievably unfair as the difference in resources and manpower was incredible. When the Americans joined, it added to the huge economic might of the Allies. This caused the spring offensive to fail and thus the Germans became even weaker. This disheartened them and when their morale e started to fall, it was clear that their ability to fight would fall. The integration of new technologies on the Allied side inflicted heavy losses for the Germans and this caused their morale to drop further. Thus I can finally conclude that after consideration of these factors Germany would have been able to deal with any of these factors but when they had to face them all, they could not cope and had to surrender.

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