A History of Europe, Key Battles Carl Rylett

The Paris Peace consisted of a group of distinct treaties, but the main concern of the delegates was the settlement with Germany, embodied in the Treaty of Versailles signed in June 1919.
Germany’s eastern frontiers presented far greater problems. 
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Music composed by Edward Elgar, Enigma variations, Variation IX (Adagio) Nimrod
Picture - Treaty of Versailles, Big Four
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In Spring 1918 a massive German offensive made significant territorial gains, but ultimately not the intended breakthrough, and the Allied forces stood firm. Exhausted and demoralised at the scale of casualties, the Germans were pushed back in a major counter-attack in the late Summer and Autumn. And on 26 September, the Allies launched a general offensive along the entire Western Front.
Meanwhile, the Habsburg empire was fast falling apart as various nationalities declared independence. 
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Music composed by Alexander Scriabin, Etude in C sharp minor. Courtesy of musopen.org
Picture - US 64th regiment celebrate the Armistice
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After the Russian withdrawal from the frontlines following the October revolution, the treaty of Brest-Litovsk is negotiated between Germany and Russia.
The Germans sought to conclude war on the Eastern Front as quickly as possible, while at the same time trying to establish an informal empire in east-central Europe, one composed of newly independent nation states on Russia’s western periphery. However, back on the German home front, after four harsh winters and widespread hunger, political unity was fraying, and riots and strikes occurred across the country. 
Everything now depended on the success or failure of a German Spring Offensive on the western front. 
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Picture - German Spring Offensive - British Lewis gun team at the Battle of Hazebrouck 1918

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While the nations of Europe fought each other to a bitter stalemate, the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, urged both sides to make peace. However, no agreement is made and the United States joined the war on the side of the Entente allies.
In the meantime, the Germans ordered a general withdrawal at the western front, abandoning the battlefields of the Somme in order to establish a shorter, straighter and more well-fortified line, the so-called ‘Hindenburg Line’. The eastern front is more volatile, seeing the collapse of the Russian army, a major defeat for the Italians at Caporetto and the fall of Jerusalem to the British
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Music composed by Vaughan Williams (Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis), courtesy of musopen.org
Picture - Allenby enters Jerusalem 1917
Theme tune for the podcast by Nico Vettese, www.wetalkofdreams.com


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As the year 1917 dawned, Europe had been at war for two and a half years, and pressures on the home fronts were becoming intolerable. Every participant nation came under huge strain.
In Russia the Tsarist regime falls in March, but the interim government is unstable and itself falls in the famous October Revolution, led by Vladimir Lenin, who promises to withdraw Russia from the war.
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Music composed by Frederich Chopin (The Polish Dancer)
Picture - Vladimir Lenin, 1 May 1920 by Isaak_Brodsky
Theme tune for the podcast by Nico Vettese, www.wetalkofdreams.com

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Europe entered the year 1916 exhausted by one and a half years of conflict of a scale hitherto unimaginable, with profound effects on citizens at home, as well as those on the front line.
The most intensive battles on the western front in 1916 are at Verdun and the Somme, with extraordinary numbers of casualties.
Meanwhile, on the eastern front the Russians launch a major attack, the Brusilov offensive.
Romania declared war on Austro-Hungary on 27 August 1916 and promptly invaded Transylvannia. 
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Music composed by Erik Satie (Gymnopédie no. 1), Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (Russian Easter Festival Overture, Op. 36)
Picture - Verdun - Gervais-Courtellemont_french_anti-aircraft_guns
Theme tune for the podcast by Nico Vettese, www.wetalkofdreams.com

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