The withdrawal of Bulgaria on September 27 and her unconditional surrender to the Allies was a distinct blow to Germany. The abdication of King Ferdinand in favor of Crown Prince Boris was shortly followed by the surrender and withdrawal of Turkey, which further weakened Germany's position, and peace offers were made by both Austria and by Germany.
Austria sought a separate peace, but Germany, seeing the handwriting on the wall, asked for an armistice through Prince Maximilian of Baden, who had succeeded Count Von Hertling as Chancellor. But while agreeing to accept as a basis of peace the points established by President Wilson as necessary to an agreement, Germany's military forces continued their ruthless and barbaric warfare.
President Wilson submitted a set of questions to the German Government to ascertain the sincerity and purpose of the request and finally brought the matter to an issue by declaring that nothing short of a complete surrender would suffice and that further negotiations must be taken up with the Allied command.
Meantime King Boris of Bulgaria abdicated and the Government was taken over by the people. This was followed by the surrender of Austria on November 8 and the abdication of the Emperor Charles.
THE END.
Austria in her surrender agreed to the immediate suspension of hostilities, the demobilization of the army of Austro-Hungary and the withdrawal of all forces from the North Sea to Switzerland, the evacuation of all territories invaded, the evacuation of all German troops from Austro-Hungarian territory and the Italian and Balkan fronts, as well as the surrender of fifteen submarines and all German submarines in Austro-Hungarian territorial waters, together with thirty-four warships, and also the repatriation of all prisoners of war.
With her forces demoralized and Bulgaria, Turkey and Austria out of the war and her power broken in Russia, Germany was driven to the necessity of accepting terms submitted by the Allies as the basis of peace as outlined by President Wilson.
SUMMARY.
Thus came peace after fifty-two continuous months of fighting, in which it is estimated that nearly 10,000,000 were killed and that there were about 27,000,000 casualties, while $200,000,000 were expended by the combined nations.
America's casualties were 236,117, divided as follows: Killed and died of wounds, 36,154; died of disease, 14,811; died from unassigned causes, 2,204; wounded, 179,625; missing, 1,160, and prisoners, 2,163.