World War I ended 108 years ago today

The thing that the French did not necessarily want to admit was that many of the same problems facing Germany internally and with the armed forces was already starting to happen to them. There were more and more mutinies amongst various units of the French army as well. But the internal problems inside Germany were far more critical. They had unleashed the communists by using Lenin as a pawn to get Nicholas out the War and the communists sewed a lot of anarchy in the cities and factories. Mass protests and strikes. You had Liebnecht and Luxemburg going around encouraging revolution. Add to it the blockade by the British was having the desired effect as well.

But, I think what really ended it was the collapse of the Austrians a few weeks before coupled with the quitting by the Bulgarians before that. When that happened, all that was left was for the Kaiser to find a retirement home.....that forced Ludendorff and Hindenburg to seek a negotiated peace that later they disowned.

I'm not sure the French generals and staff were all that happy to sign the Armistice . But they had an enemy coming to them saying they wanted to quit, so what can they do? Kind of like Ray Leonard when Duran walks out in the middle of the fight throws his hand up and says "No mas"

Yeah, you won, I guess. You probably were always going to win, but......this probably felt.......unsatifying?

I did some of that scary age math on my bday yesterday. What was going on 52 years before I was born? The Republicans lost 77 House seats and 6 senate seats, but they still retained power of note.

And literal fascism was underway as the Ottoman Empire crumbled.

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a lot of old generals using old tactics that got a lot of young men killed

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Unfortunately, that was just the way warfare was in the early-20th century. The technology had far outpaced the tactics and it was almost impossible to follow-up major breakthroughs with any type of success due to the lack of good communication.

Think about it. There were no portable radios in the First World War. Any report of a breakthrough in the line had to be sent back to HQ via runner or courier pigeon. By the time word got back to the rear and reinforcements were allocated to send into the breach, the opposing side had already recovered and sent in their own reserves to seal the breach in the line.

There were some genuinely incompetent generals who were in charge during the First World War - Austria's Franz Conrad von Hotzendorff and Italy's Luigi Cadorna spring to mind almost immediately - but most national commanders were doing their best in impossible circumstances.