Why the First World War DID NOT end in 1918

What happened after World War One? What were the consequences of the First World War?
When the First World War ended, Europe did not return to peace. In fact, by some estimates, the 5 years following 1918 were deadlier than the 4 years of war preceding it.
In this week's episode of IWM Stories, Assistant Curator Geoffrey Spender takes a closer look at three of these conflicts: The Irish War of Independence, The Russian Revolution and The Greco-Turkish War.
Find out more about war in Europe after 1918:
www.iwm.org.uk/history/contin...
Find out more about Remembrance:
www.iwm.org.uk/learning/resou...
www.iwm.org.uk/history/why-we...
0:00 Intro
1:28 A different kind of conflict
2:26 The Irish War of Independence
4:09 The Russian Revolution
5:59 The Greco-Turkish War
7:55 Conclusion
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[@hughjass1044]

Some historians consider WW2 to be just a continuation of WW1 after a long ceasefire. In any case, WW1 is by far the most significant war of the 20th century since every major conflict and even many minor ones, has roots that can be traced directly back to WW1.

[@skychief7716]

I think your comment is faulty. If you say that WW2 was an extension of WW1, using your same thought pattern, you can now conclude the current Russo-Ukrainian war is an extension of WW1 also. I suggest you read this article, en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine. It’s a good starter. Respectfully,

[@Nerezza1]

@@skychief7716 Actually he is right in that WW1 laid the foundation for almost all military conflicts in Europe, Africa and Asia thereafter.

[@bigred9428]

@@skychief7716 , It goes back to the Crimean War. I believe that WW1 even goes back to that.

[@asinner9096]

Some people talk on the 2nd 100years war between great powers. From summer 1894 1st sino-japanese war right through to the summer 1994 russian withdrawal from Germany. Makes sense somehow..

[@Russia-bullies]

That’s just talk.Logic should trump talk.

[@kidmohair8151]

There is an argument to be made that WW1 never stopped. Although fighting came to an end in France in 1918, and the various treaties in successive years were signed that in theory ended that part of the war, it never completely ceased. There was fighting that had started both before WW1 did, and continued after, all the way up to WW2, and beyond. Future historians may very well call the 20th century, the 2nd Hundred Years War.

[@uioplkhj]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Hundred_Years%27_War Already taken

[@bloodyplebs]

The communists overthrew the Russian republic, not the Russian empire which was overthrown in February before the communist revolution.

[@milesjolly6173]

Yes you’re correct, I think Lenin was in Switzerland at the time.

[@disturbingdevelopment4308]

Really interesting. I thought I was a student of history, but wasn't aware of the scale and suffering these 'post-war' conflicts caused.

[@louisgiokas2206]

Distinguishing between different wars is a fool's game. Frankly, by these criteria, the Korean and Vietnam Wars were a continuation of WWII. Even at the beginning of the video, they consider the casualty counts and distribution (civilian vs military). The profile was different. These were different wars.

[@somefatbugger]

Enjoyed the video and have subscribed

[@jaimehyland2250]

Congratulations on an excellent video! I have one quibble though: the Irish Civil War had little or nothing to do with partition. The inevitability of the separation of a large part of Ulster from the rest of Ireland had been almost universally accepted for quite some time before the Civil War broke out. There were a number of quibbles, but by far the most important of them was the continuance of the British Crown as the symbolic Head of State and the associated Oath of Allegiance expected of members of the new Irish Free State Parliament. This may seem a small detail, but it is an important one in Ireland: many use the myth that the conflict was primarily over partition as a justification for their political commitments (and not infrequently their acts of violence). The Imperial War Museum should not even accidentally lend credence to such myth-based arguments.

[@ggoddkkiller1342]

The armistice was just a meaningless paper signed that many forces kept violating it. For example both British and French forces kept occupying territories after it both in Ottoman and Germany. Turkish garrison of Medina refused to surrender the holy city and kept fighting 3 more months so WW1 didn't even actually ended with armistice. Ottoman 5th army corps refused to disband their forces according the armistice and later became the backbone of Turkish forces during their independence war. The true end of WW1 would be treaty of Lausanne in 1923 at best..

[@sglenny001]

My great grandmother born In 1917 in Dublin and later moved to Nottingham

[@sdgvscrwogs2483]

Why not mention of the Polish-Soviet war?

[@gavinmclaren9416]

Indeed, also the interventions of the Freicorps in the Baltic states, and the failed communist revolution in Germany.

[@richardmoss5934]

Interesting to note that memorials erected in the wake of the war are engraved with "The Great War 1914-1919"

[@wirehead1000]

Treaty of Versailles...the official end to the Armistice. The official peace.

[@skychief7716]

WW1, “The Great War”, was to be THE LAST WAR to end all wars. At that time I doubt anyone, except possibly Adolf Hitler, was making plans for WW2, let alone the possibilities of a WW3 that Russia is pushing our way since they attacked Ukraine.

[@skychief7716]

@IWM In my opinion, to say The Irish War of Independence had its beginning in WW1 is shaky at best, to being completely inaccurate, which is more the fact. I am an American with English and Welch ancestry. I have lived in Ireland and Northern Ireland. And I have studied Irish history as a hobby. You are the professional historians, not l. Nevertheless, if you review Irish history more closely, perhaps back as far as a King Henry VIII, and possibly more, you will understand that for multiple generations England treated the Irish as vassals - second class people. Additionally, Home Rule for Ireland had been considered by the British parliament several times - as early as 1886. It’s my belief that it was pure coincidence in time that the Easter Rising took place when it did. The roots of the Rising started well before WW1 began.

[@adamjd7645]

Playing semantics here. As the curator himself said in the opening minute, the end of the First World War sparked a lot of minor (& some not so minor) conflicts throughout Europe. Fighting in WWI ended at the Armistice & the war officially ended with the treaty of Versailles. To pretend otherwise is a fool's errand as EVERY event in history is the result of what's come before.

[@bigred9428]

Well, WW2 was a continuation of WW2 (at least in Europe), but I agree, just because there are other wars going on around the globe, does not mean they are the same war. (I hate to tell them this, but the Irish were fighting against English rule looooong before WW1.)

[@kidmohair8151]

It is good to see that the subscriber total has surpassed 50k and is on its way to 55! you must be doing something right

[@wendyHew]

The fact that people tried to launch an attack in Ireland whilst people were in europe dying in the war is disgusting, you cant get much lower than that

[@Winward87]

Good video! Still, I was surprised there wasn’t even a mention of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Poland.

[@_by-us]

true, yet there was so many conflicts in the inter war era, so many

[@wojteks8887]

You did not mention Polish-Bolshevik war, when in 1920 Bolsheviks were stopped and pushed back. We believe in Poland that if the Red Army managed to enter Germany and spread the revolution there, the Europe would look completely different today

[@douglasfur3808]

To some degree the Imperial war, between the colonial super powers GB, France, Nederland etc and the colonial have nots Germany, Japan, Italy continued through WW2 and didn't "end" but segued into economic imperialism. History isn't tidy so that the shift from controlling people and territories as a means of maintaining access to natural resources to economic control is a vague line. The on going oil war lingers in the remains of the former Ottoman, Dutch, Russian and Spanish Empires. Again not a tidy set but interesting.

[@paulmicheldenverco1]

Those conflicts are not generally considered to be part of World War I, though I can concede they in large parts were unresolved issues that were not settled, just like The Second World War in large part has roots in WWI for the issues that were still unresolved, such as a lingering resentment in Germany over the war and in the East Japan using the war to expand its empire the Second World War would see as ravenous Japan looking to conquer all of the Southwest Pacific (I suppose from the Western point of view) and they attacked the U.S. because they wanted raw materials and we had stopped sending scrap iron and oil to them. They looked at America and saw a land of soft playboys who had no stomach for war and thus they made one of the great miscalculations in the 20th Century because the U.S. did have stomach for war and would in Churchill's words "grind Japan into powder." You can't get more close to the truth than Churchill did as primarily America rolled Japan back steadily and by the time of VJ Day Japan had no navy to speak of when four years earlier it may have had the second most powerful navy in the World, plus two nukes made Japan submit.

[@bigred9428]

I don't think that Japan was any more imperialistic than the rest of us. I do think, that in the beginning, since the U.S. had been on friendly terms with them, that we would leave them alone. It was after we began to thwart them, that the fever started to grow against, not just the U.S., but everyone.

[@bim-ska-la-bim4433]

Well done 👍

[@xtheshadow_yt]

Ww1 1914-present Ww2 1939-1945 BUT YOU DIDNT HAVE TO CUT ME OFF

[@PaulSmith-pl7fo]

Hmmm...I'm no historian, but I'm struggling to consider these conflicts as part of WW1. I concede (aren't I generous) that there are links between these conflicts are possibly consequences of WW!, but I still consider them to be separate from the Great War.

[@joshuadesautels]

What about the Polish-Soviet War?

[@extragoogleaccount6061]

Yea that was the big one they missed. That's the reason communism was stopped and not exported to other European countries. There were significant amounts of communists in Germany - and even France - if the red army had broken through. So big thanks to the Polish!

[@diannegooding8733]

There are historians who date WW1 started in the first Sino Japanese war of 1894 and the Cold War ending in 1994. Clearly these end dates need to be revisited at some time in the future.

[@NmpK24]

Could even argue is started after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1.

[@bigred9428]

Well, I'd say more like the Russo-Japanese war.

[@bigred9428]

@@NmpK24 , I'd argue the Crimean War.

[@glps6167]

War continued, the question rather would be if world war continued. The most substantial footage provided in this video to argue this point cover the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War , and the Graeco-Turkish war. This video limits itself to covering military events. It does not mention the Allied non-recognition of revolutionary Russia, and the intended partition of Anatolia (Treaty of Sevres). The French and Italians backed out of Anatolia in the face of determined Turkish opposition. Another point not brought up is the British Blockade of Germany, which continued until the Treaty of Versailles was signed. But this video does not provide sufficient incentive to have world history textbooks changed; after November 1918 it was no longer a war affecting the history of the world.

[@extragoogleaccount6061]

I was with you until the last sentence.

[@NmpK24]

Yes, some conflicts came after but they werent really part of WW1. For Irish Republicans the War of Independence started long before 1914 and WW1 gave them an opportunity to capitalize on it. Also there had been wars between Greece and Turkey in 1897, and Bulgaria and Turkey in 1912 so the region was already unstable. And Russia had a failed revolution in 1905.

[@KupiecKorzenny_EmhyrVarEmreis]

The Russian revolution started in 1917 which was still during The Great War Poland also was doing some uprisings during The Great War which concluded in Poland's independence And then the entire Eastern Europe was still fighting for few years

[@petefluffy7420]

They were wars, certainly, but they were not part of the Great War, they were, as he said himself, regional wars, civil wars, ethnic wars.

[@JonathanRedden-wh6un]

The war between Russia and Poland was also very significant as it stopped the Westward advance of Communism

[@anthonyruby2668]

Gotta draw the line somewhere, so I reluctantly agree to Armistice Day. If you go pass Versailles, you can keep pushing the line to WWII, Fall of Berlin Wall, even The Ukraine War!

[@ggoddkkiller1342]

The armistice was just a paper signed that many forces kept violating it. For example both British and French forces kept occupying territories after it both in Ottoman and Germany. Turkish garrison of Medina refused to surrender the holy city and kept fighting 3 more months so WW1 didn't even actually ended with armistice. Ottoman 5th army corps refused to disband their forces according the armistice and later became the backbone of Turkish forces during their independence war. I agree we gotta draw a line but even then true end of WW1 would be treaty of Lausanne in 1923 at best..

[@anthonyruby2668]

@ggoddkkiller1342 kinda makes the post Armistice era WAY more interesting than the War itself

[@anthonyruby2668]

@ggoddkkiller1342 ironically I didn't REALLY addicted to The Great War Channel to after The Armistice when they went over all the dozens of shenanigans all over the world. You can even argue when the Russian Civil War ended. I go by December of 1922 when The Soviet Union was officially formed. Felt like Soviet Russia felt confident enough that any fighting after that were insurrections that they could handle

[@leonpaelinck]

The War to end All Wars has to be the biggest joke name ever

[@superyamky]

No comments here

[@hugoflores5806]

Who did you summon?

[@joecurran2811]

There is now.

[@wendyHew]

Did your mum fight in WW1?

[@kingjoe3rd]

I guess it did end in 1918 for all the whiny German Army soldiers that claimed they were stabbed in the back. Yes, they were stabbed in the back, but they were stabbed in the back by the Imperial German Navy who kept attacking United States ships with their U-boats, which caused the US to join the war and tip the balance against them with a fresh Army who were fit, motivated, and were excellent marksmen.

[@spaceman081447]

So, why did the Turks commit genocide against the Armenians during that time period?

[@kamilfatihpehlivan8124]

With the dream of independence and Russian support, Armenians burned Turkish villages and killed many Turks. That's why they were deported to the south of Anatolia in 1915. The exile was bad due to the conditions of the time, and for this reason, some Armenians also died. This is what they refer to as genocide and compare to holocaust.

[@enrimurg4103]

Yes but the global conflict was over in 1918

[@davidnewland2461]

It's a pity all European have not learned war is a waste.

[@SentEmFlying]

Damn thats xrazy didnt ask

[@wirehead1000]

Add in English, Belgian, Dutch and French 'colonial police actions' in Africa, the Far East but especially the Middle East as a result of Sykes-Picot duplicity, Balfour Declaration and oil politics. The belligerents were returned to their primary task of absorbing vast new colonies and 'mandates' with a bracing shot of powder to settle inconvenient obstructions.

[@alexmccrorie4195]

You mean the British Empire because i for the life of me never seen or heard of the english empire so kindly get your facts right .

[@douglascharnley8249]

The Irish war had NOTHING to do with WW1.

[@zapre2284]

Rothschilds ...that's all I'm gonna say

[@eyreland]

Newsletter // Issue 780-Addendum, Tuesday September 8, 2021 Wave#2 Slow Mo The big New Madrid rupture can be expected by the end of 2021 or very early in 2022. They stated that preliminary ruptures would occur in waves, coming up from the Gulf. They stated that these waves would come up from Mexico where the New Madrid Fault Line starts. Wave#1 emerged in early May when the Colonial Pipeline was suddenly closed and the I-40 bridge into Memphis snapped a truss. Those watching the New Madrid have been anticipating Wave#2, which seemed to be occurring in slow motion, having started in late August. Prediction 5/31/2021: The New Madrid will start unzipping at the Gulf, then up the Mississippi River. Then following this first wave, another. A second wave will proceed up from the Gulf, this time tearing some bridges. This will be an iterative pattern. Prediction 7/31/2021: If one examines the subterranean relief map of the Gulf one can envision the next step as the N American Continent is torn apart. The Yucatan Peninsula will side with the Caribbean Plate and Florida and Alabama. Solid rock all around. There is a ridge under the Gulf, with the deepest parts of the Gulf on either side of this ridge. Note that the Mexican fault line running up from Mexico City has a nexus at the Ku Maloob Zaap pipelines. The N American Continent is being torn apart there, parts going East, and parts going West. Prediction 8/31/2021: This massive quake south of Alaska and on the border of the N American Plate carries great meaning. The buoys were set to throbbing and bobbing. What does this adjustment mean for the pending New Madrid Adjustment that we have predicted to occur by the end of 2021 or shortly thereafter in early 2022? Wave#2 cleared its throat on August 19 to cause a train derailment in the Wabash Seismic Zone in southern Indiana where the New Madrid Fault Line passes through. Then on August 22 there was activity up from the start of the Fault Line at the tip of Mexico. Another Pemex gas field explosion, accompanied by seemingly endless quake swarms at the tip of Mexico. On August 23 a buoy over the deep Gulf waters above the Yucatan Peninsula throbbed for days, the Raspberry EQ site reported a magnitude 6.1 quake at New Orleans, and a sympathetic train derailment occurred along the Fault Line in W Virginia. The Gulf buoy was still throbbing on August 25 when Wave#2 traveled up the Mississippi River to destabilize Oklahoma on the West side of the Fault Line. The Oklahoma quakes registered for almost a week. Then Wave#2 traveled all the way up the Mississippi to destabilize the Seaway, where numerous quakes had been popping off. This resulted in the expanding Seaway pulling open the rip point at the end of Lake Superior. A bean field inexplicably tore open there on August 26, puzzling experts. These New Madrid waves do indeed outline the entire vulnerable SE Portion of the US, where the grip is weakening.