Why Did the Stalemate End in 1918?
Why did the stalemate end in 1918?
By 1918 the western front was still in the middle of a stalemate, but now it looked like there might be a breakthrough that would lead to the end of the war. Even though defensive weapons had ben largely developed and were extremely dangerous offensive weapons had started to be developed largely. I believe the stalemate ended in 1918 due to several reason but mainly because of the entry of the USA into the war but there were other key factors such as the British Blockade, the German spring offensive and the tactics of the British generals. I will now discuss why these causes are influential to the end of the stalemate.
Firstly there was the British Blockade that was introduced in the beginning of the war on all German ports and lasted the duration of the war. Due to four years of German ports been blockaded its trade had gone from £5 million a year to just under £1 million (shown in a source from Ben Walsh’s GCSE Modern World History), meanwhile most resources were being sent to the fronts for the soldiers or spent on weapons and so very little money was spent on feeding the rest of the country and so the country starved while the army fought a losing fight. Due to this moral was extremely in the army and throughout the country realizing they needed to win the war very soon or else they will end up having to surrender before the country starved to death. Due to the fact all of Germanys fleet was stuck in their ports even after several sea battle which resulted in more German casualties but no break in the blockade, this meant the allies had control of the seas, therefore allowing trade and supplies to easily reach French and British troops and so there was very little risk of allied troops starving, this fact kept allied morale higher than the Germans.
But their was a glimmer of hope for Germany, in early 1918 Germany won on the eastern front and Russia was forced to sign a peace treaty, this meant one million German
By 1918 the western front was still in the middle of a stalemate, but now it looked like there might be a breakthrough that would lead to the end of the war. Even though defensive weapons had ben largely developed and were extremely dangerous offensive weapons had started to be developed largely. I believe the stalemate ended in 1918 due to several reason but mainly because of the entry of the USA into the war but there were other key factors such as the British Blockade, the German spring offensive and the tactics of the British generals. I will now discuss why these causes are influential to the end of the stalemate.
Firstly there was the British Blockade that was introduced in the beginning of the war on all German ports and lasted the duration of the war. Due to four years of German ports been blockaded its trade had gone from £5 million a year to just under £1 million (shown in a source from Ben Walsh’s GCSE Modern World History), meanwhile most resources were being sent to the fronts for the soldiers or spent on weapons and so very little money was spent on feeding the rest of the country and so the country starved while the army fought a losing fight. Due to this moral was extremely in the army and throughout the country realizing they needed to win the war very soon or else they will end up having to surrender before the country starved to death. Due to the fact all of Germanys fleet was stuck in their ports even after several sea battle which resulted in more German casualties but no break in the blockade, this meant the allies had control of the seas, therefore allowing trade and supplies to easily reach French and British troops and so there was very little risk of allied troops starving, this fact kept allied morale higher than the Germans.
But their was a glimmer of hope for Germany, in early 1918 Germany won on the eastern front and Russia was forced to sign a peace treaty, this meant one million German