The Western Front on Armistice Day 11 November 1918

The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was, understandably, a stop-gap solution directed towards achieving an instant cessation of hostilities, rather than reflecting faithfully events on the ground. That considered reflection would emerge from the Treaty of Versailles, concluded on 28 June 1919. The Armistice formally renounced the Treaties of Brest–Litovsk and Bucharest, which the Central Powers had previously imposed on, respectively, Russia and Romania. In so doing, the makeshift network of satellite protectorates that Germany had begun to create in annexed eastern European territories was dissolved, but not yet replaced. Austria-Hungary was in the process of dissolution in a bonfire of nationalist aspirations, and a Polish uprising was already in process, carving land from the German empire; these movements would find dramatic expression in Versailles. The Armistice ordained Allied occupation of the Rhineland, which would become a source of post-war contention.