The 23rd of August, 1918, was perhaps the blackest day for the nations of the Atlantic world. It was then that the French president Raymond Poincaré announced the surrender of France. At the city of Versailles, once the seat of France's greatest kings, was where the Germans decided to hold peace negotiations. The British and American publics, which had not lived the utter devastation that the French citizenry had, were utterly enraged; they had been convinced of their industrial and military superiority, and could not believe that the much economically smaller German Empire had bested them in an industrial war. However, they were petitioned by the French government to evacuate their armies, and had to comply, eventually joining the peace negotiations. Over the course of seven months the heads of state of these nations met numerous times in this city, eventually signing the Treaty of Versailles that would end WW1. The following points were made;
- French and British possessions in Africa (except Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, South Africa, Rhodesia and the Sahara) would be transferred to the German Empire to form the Imperial Domain of Mittelafrika, the largest colonial administration in history.
- French and British Indochina would be seized by Germany to form the Imperial Domain of Indochina.
- British New Guinea would be annexed by Germany to form the Imperial Domain of Kaiser-Willhelmsland.
- British India would be annexed by Germany to become the short-lived Imperial Domain of Hindustan.
- France would become a constitutional monarchy ruled by a Hohenzollern king.
- The Ottoman Empire would militarily occupy the nominally independent state of Greece.
- The Austro-Hungarian Empire would militarily occupy the nominally independent states of Serbia and Romania.
- Germany would take a number of islands which belonged to Japan in the Pacific.
- Italy would militarily occupy Dauphine, Provence and Corsica, while annexing Dalmatia.
The disproportionate peace deal stripped France and Britain of almost all of their colonial holdings, placing most of the world under the German heel.
This period is parallel to World War I - The Russian Civil War and Brest-Litovsk.
Next: The Red Orchestra or the Interwar Period