MAPS OF HISTORY · ON THIS DAY · November 11 · 1918
ON THIS DAY · 11 NOVEMBER 1918
At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the…
At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the guns of the First World War fall silent.
THE MOMENT IN CONTEXT
The leaders of the German fleet ordered a final sortie in late October, and the sailors at Kiel refused to die in a battle that could no longer change the war. Their mutiny spread into revolution as workers’ and soldiers’ councils appeared across Germany, and the Kaiser abdicated on 9 November. A republic was proclaimed almost in passing.
From Chapter 11 — Armistice of The Great War, 1914–1918 (NOV 1918).
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TEACH THIS IN 5 MINUTES
- Why it happened — Collapse from the rear, forced from the front. Hold both truths against the myths: the German army was beaten in the field — retreating, surrendering in mass, its allies gone, its front weeks…
- The turn — The eleventh hour, 11 November 1918. Matthias Erzberger, Catholic politician, signs for Germany — because the generals arranged for civilians to own the defeat; he will be assassinated…
- What it changed — Four empires, one map of hatching. Scrub to 1919 and watch the successor world assemble: republics in Vienna and Berlin, Soviet power in the red east, new states from Helsinki to…
Then ask the room: Should the Allies have fought on to Berlin in 1919 instead of granting an armistice? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
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