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Who Won the Great War?

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by Miss_C_1982 (U2621579) on Monday, 5th December 2005

  Who won World War 1?
  
  (Questions I am posting at the moment are from the students in my Yr9 History class. Thanks in advance to all who take the time to reply).
  
  

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by OUNUPA (U2078829) on Monday, 5th December 2005

  None of the countries in Europe.

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• Message 3

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  Posted by Mark (U1347077) on Monday, 5th December 2005

  Short term, up until 1929, it was the Western Powers - chiefly Great Britain and France, who gained many of the colonies previously governed by Germany. Also, Germany was forced to pay reparations to France and Belgium.
  
  Also, a host of Eastern European countries were created out of the Austro-Hungarian Hapsburg Empire - Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia etc., so they can be seen to be winners. The 1919 Treaty of Versailles (plus the subsequent treaties - I forget their names) was harsh with the now Bolshevik Russia, which lost more land than Germany, creating Poland, Finland and - temporarily the Ukraine and Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - all of which can be seen as winners as they gained independence. Also Rumania, which gained territory by the treaty.
  
  Nations on the victorious side who gained relatively little and were therefore unhappy included Italy and Japan.
  
  In the 1920s it was relatively clear cut - Great Britain and France had suffered during the conflict but were clearly winners in terms of gaining territory, reparations and not having their military limited. Throw in nearly every Eastern European country from Finland to Greece, except Austria and Hungary. The US, Japan and Italy were on the winning side but got little from it.
  
  The losing 'team' was Germany, Austria-Hungary (disbanded) and Turkey (the Ottoman Empire was over as well). Russia, despite being on the Allied side until the Revolution, also lost as a punishment for becoming Bolshevik and a means of rewarding countries like Japan and Rumania.
  
  Long term, the resentment of the harshness of the treaty and badly thought out borders (2 million Germans living in Czechoslovakia and a diverse mix of races in Yugoslavia) contributed to the start of WW2. Germany was unable to continue payments and France and Belgium invaded the Ruhr region in 1923. Germany used loans from the US and then had an economic meltdown during the Wall Street Crash of 1929.
  
  Log term, even the winners fared badly - France and GB were close to bankrupt but had empires larger than ever that they could not afford. Their shock at the Great War led to disarmament and appeasement. By 1939, Russia was industrialising and had the largest military in the world, Germany had a small but professional and modern military machine while eastern Europe had become dictatorships or taken over by Germany. Japan had its Pacific empire and the third largest navy and Italy had conquered Abyssinia (Ethiopia).

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• Message 4

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  Posted by wyn8126 (U2577714) on Monday, 5th December 2005

  Surely it is not so much who won the war, but who lost the peace. The Treaty of Versailles sowed the seeds for WW2. A magnamimous peace would have ensured a more rapid economic recovery and prevented the rise of Hitler.
  US isolationist and anti British policies between 1920 and 1935 or so changed the balance of power in the world.
  The results of this awful war, the effects of which still reverberate in the 21st century, could (not for sure of course) have been quite changed by these factors.
  Good luck....

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• Message 5

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  Posted by OUNUPA (U2078829) on Monday, 5th December 2005

  In short,the most important things are....to be these outcomes of 'wins' for 'winners'.
  
  'Surely it is not so much who won the war, but who lost the peace.'

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• Message 6

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  Posted by WarFanatic (U2676733) on Wednesday, 7th December 2005

  Surely no-one actually won the war, yeh you can say certain nations ended the war better than others, but each nation that took part certainly lost the war with the amount of human lives lost:
  
  Casualties in WW1
  
  Germany 1,800,000
  Soviet Union 1,700,000
  France 1,385,000
  Austria 1,200,000
  Great Britain 947,000
  Japan 800,000
  Romania 750,000
  Serbia 708,000
  Italy 460,000
  Turkey 325,000
  Belgium 267,000
  Greece 230,000
  USA 137,000
  Portugal 100,000
  Canada 69,000
  Bulgaria 88,000
  Montenegro 50,000
  TOTAL 11,016,000
  
  
  
  
  Although what must be noted is that the second world war was much more signifcant with regards to the number of nations taking part and the overall much larger death rate.
  
  

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• Message 7

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  Posted by Elistan (U1872011) on Friday, 9th December 2005

  I have to say that posts like bring home the futility of the endeavour. And yet Churchill could still see the world in terms of pawns and great men in his analysis of WWII. Was it just that the powerful were not really effected by WWI?

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• Message 8

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  Posted by rufus_dawes (U2652570) on Friday, 9th December 2005

  or was it Churchill preferred to forget WW1 altogether...

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• Message 9

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  Posted by kennyr (U2647470) on Saturday, 10th December 2005

  the middle east problem hasnt been metioned either.

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• Message 10

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  Posted by DANNY-FRANKS (U2186615) on Sunday, 11th December 2005

  I think looking at it now, I would say USA.
  
  WW1 destroyed the empires and power of the European dynasties which allowed USA to fill the gap through it's economy and trade which put it on the world map.

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• Message 11

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  Posted by Mark (U2073932) on Sunday, 11th December 2005

  I believe no country really won ww1, yet one major contribution to Germanys downfall was the hunger and "famine" in Germany itself. So whilst the U-boats were trying to starve the British, the RN was effectively doing better to the Germans with their blockade.
  
  The German army could have continued to fight, but the homefront was on breaking point.

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