1918 the last year of war

The entry of the United States into the war gave the Allies a much-needed psychological boost. In 1918, fresh American troops would be crucial.

With Russia out of the war, Germany was free to concentrate entirely on the Western Front. Erich von Ludendorff, who guided German military operations, decided to make a grand offensive to break the stalemate. The German attack began in March 1918. The Germans were stopped at the Second Battle of the Marne on July 18. Allied forces, supported by hundreds of tanks, threw the Germans back over the Marne. The German offensive had failed. On September 29, 1918, General Ludendorff informed the German leaders that the war was lost.

 The exhausted German people were unwilling to wait more for peace:

•  Sailors in the town of Kiel mutinied
•  William II was forced to leave the country
•  The Social Democrats under Friedrich Ebert announced the creation of a democratic republic

New York Journal 1918

By the end of the war, the Austro- Hungarian Empire no longer existed. The independent republics of Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, along with the monarchical state called Yugoslavia, replaced it.