Lesson video

Hello there.

Welcome back to history here at Oak National Academy.

I'm Ms Barnett, and this is lesson four, our final lesson into our enquiry as to why World War I came to an end in November 1918.

Consequently, our final lesson is on The Armistice.

This is our title for today.

If you have not already done so, please write this onto your notes for today's lesson.

Pause here if you need a bit longer just to get that down.

If you're happy, then we will get started with our first task.

Before we look at the armistice today, we're going to begin today's lesson by recapping four key events that we've studied so far that help us understand why World War I came to an end in November 1918.

Now, you can see these on your slide there, the four events next to the bullet points on the right-hand side, but they're not in chronological order.

What I would like you to do for your task to start off today's lesson, activate that prior knowledge, is to put them into chronological order.

You're going to be thinking of these four, what came first, and then working down to the last event.

Pause the video here to complete that task.

Then when you're done, unpause the video and we'll go through the answers.

Okay.

Welcome back, everyone.

Let's look through these four correct answers then.

Our first event is America declaring war on Germany.

Although we studied this in our second lesson, this took place in April 1917.

Our second event is Russia signing an armistice with the Central Powers.

This was towards the end of 1917, once the Bolsheviks had taken control, and the armistice is the negotiations between Russia and Germany that brings fighting to an end.

It's not the formal peace treaty, but it is the negotiations that take place that temporarily stopped the fighting.

That is then followed by the peace treaty between the two sides, which is the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

This is what gives Germany a bit of a territorial advantage because they take quite a lot of land from Russia as part of this, but most significantly, it formally brings Russia's involvement in World War I to an end, and so they withdraw.

Then our final event is the Spring Offensive.

This begins in the spring of 1918, but it comes after the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

This is where Germany is trying to capitalise on not having to fight the Russians on the Eastern Front, but also the USA not having fully mobilised yet.

They're hoping to take advantage of a slightly weakened Allied Force at that particular time.

Pause the video here if you need a bit longer just to check if you've got all four of these in the correct order.

If any of them are incorrect, then just use a different colour pens to put them in the right order so then you got correct that.

However, if you're really happy and you've got four big ticks, then great job, and we are going to start looking at our content for today's lesson about the armistice.

So, let's do a quick recap then, and think about all of the events we've looked at so far.

We know that 1917 is when we see Russia's withdrawal from the war.

It has two revolutions.

One in February, one in October.

The major consequence of this is that the Bolsheviks take power, Russia becomes the world's first communist country, and the priority of Lenin leading Russia after this point is to withdraw from the war.

Now, in between these two things happening, we have the USA declaring war on Germany in April of 1917.

In the run-up to this, as you'll recall from lesson two, we have got the Zimmermann Telegram, we have got Germany declaring unrestricted submarine warfare, and so the United States felt very threatened by Germany's actions at this point hence their declaration of war on Germany in April 1917.

This, of course, doesn't relate to the revolutions in Russia, but it does seem to make things a bit easier, particularly as it does look like Russia will be withdrawing from the conflict.

That withdrawal is finalised by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918.

It gives Germany a territorial advantage, it gives them lots of natural resources in the form of coal, very important as an energy source for the army at this particular time, and as well as that it means that the Germans are no longer having to fight the Russians on the Eastern Front, and can put all of their attention on the Western Fronts.

As a result of that, we see the Spring Offensive launched.

This is where Germany decides to make the most of its advantage.

Remember, the USA still hasn't fully mobilised its troops yet.

They're still training, and only just starting to arrive in France.

The Spring Offensive is launched at a point where Germany feels like it's going to be able to capitalise on its advantage, and it does seem to have some success.

We see the Germans breakthrough the British and French frontlines in a couple of places, and at its most successful, Germany gains 64 kilometres of land which may not seem much, but if you think about the characteristics of the Western Fronts, the fact it's characterised by stalemates and not much movements, this shows that this was quite a significant breakthrough for the time.

The drawbacks of this was that it was at the expense of 400,000 German casualties in the army.

We were looking, in lesson three, at conditions on the German home front, which means that the Germans just don't have the soldiers to replace those injured in the Spring Offensive.

Consequently, the advantages of the Spring Offensive gradually grinds to a halt, and they aren't able to really push on any further.

Now, this is where we pick up today.

We see the Allied push back now that the US troops have arrived in a bit more force.

This is known as the Hundred Days and begins in August of 1918.

It's the events of the Hundred Days that lead to the armistice of November 1918.

So these two are in pink because they are the focus of today's lesson.

The Hundred Days.

What was it? What did it entail? This is the name given to the Allied push back after the German Spring Offensive has come to a halt.

Now, it was a very successful push back for several different reasons.

Firstly, it's the speed with which they're able to push back.

Now, eight miles behind the German front line was a defensive line called the Hindenburg Line.

On this map, you can see it here in the bright red.

The point of the Hindenburg Line was to be a kind of second line of defence against the allies.

The Hindenburg Line was fortified, it had machine gunners there to try and prevent any breakthroughs.

However, the Allied troops are pushing through the Hindenburg Line in August and in September.

You can see here the blue arrows, the other side of the line showing where they are pushing back at certain points.

By October 1918, the German troops are pretty much in full retreat.

This means that they are fleeing from fighting the Allied Forces, returning to Germany as quickly as possible, and trying to avoid confrontation.

By October 1918, it does seem to be only a matter of time before Germany ends up surrendering.

This is also seen to be quite significant because during this push back, there are around 100,000 German deaths in the army, huge death toll for this pushback, and that's not including casualties, which are far higher as well.

So the German army is continuing to be depleted as a result of the Hundred Days.

As we know, from the Spring Offensive, which happened first, they do not have the soldiers to replace these lost fighters.

So it's very unlikely they're going to be able to mount any serious comeback.

The Allied push back is what turns the tide against the Spring Offensive and is able to push the Germans back to Germany.

Now, it's the Allied push back that ends up leading to armistice negotiations.

Hopefully, we remember this image from lesson one, which is how we began lesson one, and I narrated you through the process of the armistice.

On the 9th of November, 1918, German negotiators arrived in northern France to negotiate surrender terms, armistice terms, to bring the war to an end.

They are met predominantly by French negotiators, but other representatives from the Allied forces, too.

When they arrive, they are given the terms of their surrender, of the armistice, and negotiations began.

This ends up having more pressure applied to them when they discover, on the 10th of November, 1918, the following day, the Kaiser of Germany abdicated.

The Kaiser was the leader of Germany, and by the 10th of November, he realises that his army and navy are no longer following his instructions, and he no longer has control and authority over his own country.

So he decides to leave.

Without a clear leader in Germany, there is now more pressure to try and bring the war to an end.

We see this come to fruition in the very early hours of the 11th of November, 1918, when the terms were agreed by the German government standing in after the abdication of the Kaiser.

Once those terms are agreed, General Foch, who is the commander of the Allied Forces then sent out a message to all of the commanders on the Western Front, which said, "Hostilities will cease on the whole front as from November the 11th at 11 o'clock French time." It was this instruction that brought World War I to an end, specifically at 11:00 AM on the 11th of November.

So although the message is sent out at around 5:00 AM, fighting continues until 11:00 AM.

But at 11:00 AM, the fighting stops and World War I comes to an end.

Before we wrap up our enquiry, let's check our knowledge about the end of the war.

I'm going to give you six questions, and the answer to those six questions is one of the four options on the screen in front of you.

I'm going to read the question.

I'm going to give you a few seconds to think about the answer, you may wish to say it out loud, and then I'll tell you what the correct answer is.

We're going to see how many of these we get right out of six.

Question number one.

What name is given to the German attack on the Western Front in early 1918? The Spring Offensive.

Give yourself a tick or a thumbs up if you've got that one right.

Question two.

When did Germany's Kaiser abdicate? 10th of November.

Good job, everyone.

Question three.

What name is given to that Allied push back that began in August 1918? The Hundred Days.

Question four.

The Germans gained 64 kilometres during which offensive? The Spring Offensive.

Two questions to go.

Question five.

Around 100,000 German soldiers were killed during which offensive? The Hundred Days.

Final question.

Let's see how many of us are going to get six out of six.

Final question.

When was the armistice signed? 11th of November, 1918.

Well done.

How many did we get out of six? Great job, everyone.

Okay.

We are going to look at our final set of questions connected to the end of World War I.

In a second, you're going to pause the video and you're going to work through the reading sheet answering these five questions including the question in your answer making sure they're full sentences.

Then when you're done, you're going to come back.

For the questions to the first one, I want to know, when did the Allied push back? Hmm, that should say, when did the Allied push back "the Hundred Days" begin? When did the Allied push back begin? I haven't said that very well.

Basically, when did it begin? For question two, why did the German government come under pressure from the military leaders to end the war? For three, why did Germany look close to collapse by the 10th of November, 1918? For question four, when was the armistice agreed and when did it begin? Then for question five, feeding into our enquiry question, according to the worksheet, what three facts can help explain the end of World War I? Pause the video here, complete those five questions in full answers.

Then when you're done, unpause the video, and we'll go through the answers together.

Okay.

Welcome back, everyone.

Last time, in terms of reminders of this, ideally, a pen in a different colour to give yourself a tick or to change anything you need to and a reminder that my wording will be different to yours.

So in your answers, you're just checking to make sure that you have got the correct detail.

The acceptable answer on the page is the simplest answer.

Good answer is the one that's a full answer, including the question, so we're going to go straight for those.

For question one, I wanted to know, when did the Allied push back begin? The good answer: the Allied push back began in August 1918, after the German Spring Offensive had come to a halt.

Give yourself a tick if you've got that correct.

Good job.

If you need a bit longer to add anything to your answer, then please pause here.

But if you are happy, let's look at question two.

Why did the German government come under pressure from military leaders to end the war? Good answer: the German government came under pressure from the leaders of the army and navy to end the war because by October 1918, it was clear Germany was losing.

The Allied forces had broken their lines, and the German Navy was refusing to fight.

If you've included some specific details there, including things like the Hindenburg and the Hindenburg Line being broken and the navy mutiny, then really great job, everyone.

Well done.

But the key bit here is about the fact that Germany was accepting that it was losing by that point.

If you're happy with your answer, then we're going to move on in a second.

If you need a bit longer, please pause here and edit accordingly.

Question three.

Why did Germany look close to collapse by the 10th of November, 1918? Good answer: Germany looked close to collapse by the 10th of November, 1918, for several reasons.

By this point, the German army had sustained 100,000 deaths during the Hundred Days push back, and the Kaiser had abdicated.

The morale of soldiers and civilians was low.

It was clear they weren't going to be able to hold on for much longer.

If you've got a couple of different specific details in this answer, then that's fantastic.

Well done.

If you don't have a specific example, you may wish to pause here and add one in.

However, if you're happy, let's go and look at question four.

When was the armistice agreed and when did it begin? The armistice was agreed in the early hours of the 11th of November, 1980, and came into force at 11:00 AM on the 11th of November, 1918, French time.

Now, just a kind of additional point here.

We say French time because there are a time difference between some of the countries.

When Foch says that it's at French time, everyone is doing it at the same time so you don't have it at 11:00 AM in one country and then maybe at 12:00 PM, lunchtime, in a different country because of the time difference.

That's why that bit is in there.

Let's look at question five.

According to the worksheet, what three factors can help explain the end of World War I? Good answer: the three factors in the worksheet that help explain the end of World War I are military reasons, political reasons, and economic reasons.

We're going to use that to seamlessly do our last visit to our enquiry question that we've been looking at these four lessons.

The big question we've been thinking about throughout is, why did World War I end in November 1918? We have been revisiting this at the end of every lesson, constantly thinking about what we've learned in that lesson, and how it helps us answer this question.

We've been basing our enquiry around these three key reasons.

We've been thinking about how military reasons contributed to the end of World War I, and how political reasons and economic reasons contributed towards the end of World War I.

At the end of each lesson, we have been revisiting our notes page that we set up at the beginning of lesson one and we've been adding key examples from each lesson into this.

We are going to do that for the final time.

We are going to pause the video here in a second.

You're going to find your notes; some of you will have mind maps, some of you will have tables, some of you will have lists.

They are all fine.

I want you to pause the video.

Thinking about today's content, so the Hundred Days and the armistice itself, I want you to add some examples into these three headings about how they contributed.

What, from today, is a military reason why World War I ended? What, from today, is a political reason why World War I ended? What, from today, is an economic reason why World War I ended? Pause here to complete that and then when you're done, unpause the video and we will move on.

Okay.

Now we've got our collected notes.

We are going to have a go at answering this question, and we're going to have a go answering it in the form of an essay.

Our essay is going to be made up of five paragraphs.

This slide, which I'm going to walk you through, is going to take you through what should be in each paragraph.

When you are writing, in a second, please feel free to rewind and pause here to have this as a prompt on your screen to help you.

Your first paragraph is going to be an introduction, and it will probably be a shorter paragraph than the others.

In your introduction, you're going to explain, what was the armistice and when was it signed? Really nice link back to our enquiry question in the introduction straightaway.

You're then going to do a paragraph on each of the three reasons we've been looking at at the end of each lesson.

This is where your notes page is going to come in really helpful.

You're going to write one paragraph that explained how military reasons led to the end of World War I.

You're then going to do a second paragraph, which explains how political reasons led to the end of World War I.

Then you're going to do a paragraph explaining how economic reasons led to the end of World War I.

So it's really important in each of these paragraphs, that you're focusing on two to three examples, but really clearly explaining how they led to the end of the war.

You're then going to finish your essay with a conclusion and you are going to reach an opinion on which set of reasons is most important in explaining why World War I came to an end.

I would recommend if you don't have an opinion yet on which of those three was most important, then you pause the video here and have a think about that.

Because it's always easier to write an extended piece of writing if you have got an opinion first.

If you're happy that you've got an opinion, and you know which one you think was the most important in contributing to the end of World War I, then we are ready to get started.

Rather than leave you to worry about how to get started, this slide here includes some sentence starters to help you.

You can pause here and use these sentence starters.

You will see that there is a sentence starter for each of your paragraphs.

In pink, I've put where they relate to each paragraph.

The only one I haven't put in pink is the first one, because we don't start an introduction with an introduction to this question, okay? That first sentence starter is our introduction.

Underneath each sentence starter is for one of our paragraphs.

I've also included a list of keywords that you may wish to use in your answer, which just shows your subject knowledge and the key bits of information you've learned from this enquiry.

You may, however, choose to not use any of the information on this slide.

That's completely fine.

This is just here for those people who are a bit stuck and not sure how to get started.

I would like you to pause the video here.

I would like you to complete your essay.

Please remember that you can rewind this video to go back to the previous slide.

Do use your notes from across the four lessons so far because this isn't a test.

It's designed to pull all of your knowledge together.

So use those notes to help you.

When you're done with your essay and you're happy with it, then please unpause the video.

Okay, everyone.

Welcome back.

We are at the end of the lesson.

If you're really happy with your essay, and I'm sure they're fantastic and I would love to read some of them, then I would like to invite you to share your work with Oak National.

If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.

Then it should find its way to me so I can have a look at it and give it some comments back.

Thank you for your hard work on this enquiry.

We should all now have an opinion on why World War I come to an end, and the most important reason, and we should all have a really high-standard essay completed too.

Thank you for all your hard work and effort, everyone.