Editing Western Front (World War I) (section)

== Aftermath ==
{{Main|Aftermath of World War I}}

{| class="wikitable floatright"
|+Military Casualties<br /><small>Western Front 1914–1918</small>{{sfn|Ellis|2001|p=270}}{{sfn|Churchill|1938|p=558}}{{sfn|Jones|2019|p={{page needed|date=May 2021}}}}{{efn|German casualties from "Reichsarchiv 1918". Appendix F additionally breaks down the German killed figures (per the Reichsarchiv) as: 829,400 killed in action; 300,000 died of wounds; 364,000 missing reclassified as dead.{{sfn|Churchill|1938|p=558}}}}
|-
! Nationality !! Killed!! Wounded!! [[Prisoner of war|POW]]
|-
| France ||align="right"|1,395,000|| align="right"|{{circa| 6,000,000}}|| align="right" | 508,000
|-
| United Kingdom ||align="right"| 700,600 || align="right" | {{circa| 3,000,500}}|| align="right" |223,600
|-
| Canada || align="right" | 56,400 || align="right" | 259,700 || align="right" | —
|-
| United States || align="right" | 117,000 || align="right" | 330,100|| align="right" | 4,430
|-
| Australia || align="right" |48,900|| align="right" |175,900 || align="right" | —
|-
| Belgium ||align="right"| 80,200 || align="right" | 144,700 || align="right" | 10,200
|-
| New Zealand ||align="right"| 12,900 ||align="right"| 34,800 ||align="right"| —
|-
| India || align="right" | 6,670|| align="right" | 15,750 || align="right" | 1,090
|-
| Pakistan || align="right" | 6,670|| align="right" | 15,750 || align="right" | 1,090
|-
| Russia || align="right" | 7,542{{efn|Including soldiers killed, wounded or missing}} || align="right" | 20,000 || align="right" | —
|-
| Italy || align="right" | 4,500{{efn|plus another 3,500 missing}} || align="right" | 10,500 || align="right" | —
|-
| South Africa ||align="right"|3,250 ||align="right"| 8,720 ||align="right"| 2,220
|-
| Portugal || align="right"|1,290|| align="right" | 13,750 ||align="right"| 6,680
|-
| Siam ||align="right"| 19 ||align="right"| — ||align="right"| —
|-
| Entente || align="right" |'''2,440,941''' ||align="right"|'''{{circa|10,029,670}}''' || align="right"|'''c. 757,310'''
|-
| Germany ||align="right"| 1,593,000 || align="right" | 5,116,000 || align="right" | 774,000
|-
| Austro-Hungary ||align="right"| 779 ||align="right"| 13,113 ||align="right"| 5,403
|-
| '''Central Powers''' ||align="right"| '''1,593,779''' || align="right"|'''{{circa|5,129,113}}''' || align="right"|'''{{circa| 779,403}}'''
|-
| '''Grand Total''' ||align="right"| '''c. 4.034,720'''|| align="right" | '''{{circa|15,158,783}}''' || align="right"|'''c. 1,536,710'''
|}
The war along the Western Front led the German government and its allies to sue for peace in spite of German success elsewhere. As a result, the terms of the peace were dictated by France, Britain and the United States, during the 1919 [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]]. The result was the [[Treaty of Versailles]], signed in June 1919 by a delegation of the new German government.{{sfn|Carlyon|2006|pp=743 & 760}} The terms of the treaty constrained Germany as an economic and military power. The Versailles treaty returned the border provinces of Alsace-Lorraine to France, thus limiting the quantity of coal available to German industry. The [[Saar (League of Nations)|Saar]], which formed the west bank of the Rhine, would be demilitarized and controlled by Britain and France, while the [[Kiel Canal]] opened to international traffic. The treaty also drastically reshaped Eastern Europe. It severely limited the German armed forces by restricting the size of the army to 100,000 and prohibiting a navy or air force. The navy was sailed to [[Scapa Flow]] under the terms of surrender but was later [[Scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow|scuttled]] as a reaction to the treaty.{{sfn|Massie|2004|p=787}}

=== Casualties ===
{{Main|Casualties of World War I}}

The war in the trenches of the Western Front left tens of thousands of maimed soldiers and war widows. The unprecedented loss of life had a lasting effect on popular attitudes toward war, resulting later in an entente reluctance to pursue an aggressive policy toward [[Adolf Hitler]].{{sfn|Adamthwaite|1989|pp=25–26}} Belgium suffered 30,000 civilian dead and France 40,000 (including 3,000 merchant sailors).{{sfn|Gray|1991|p=292}} The British lost {{nowrap|16,829}} civilian dead; {{nowrap|1,260 civilians}} were killed in air and naval attacks, {{nowrap|908 civilians}} were killed at sea and there were {{nowrap|14,661 merchant}} marine deaths.{{sfn|ASB|1922|p=100}}{{sfn|Ellis|1993|p=269}} Another 62,000 Belgian, 107,000 British and 300,000 French civilians died due to war-related causes.{{sfn|Hersch|1927|pp=47–61}}

=== Economic costs ===
{{See also|French war planning 1920–1940}}

Germany in 1919 was bankrupt, the people living in a state of semi-starvation and having no commerce with the remainder of the world. The entente occupied the Rhine cities of Cologne, Koblenz and Mainz, with restoration dependent on payment of reparations. In Germany a [[Stab-in-the-back myth]] (''Dolchstoßlegende'') was propagated by Hindenburg, Ludendorff and other defeated generals, that the defeat was not the fault of the 'good core' of the army but due to certain left-wing groups within Germany who signed a disastrous armistice; this would later be exploited by nationalists and the [[Nazism|Nazi]] party propaganda to excuse the overthrow of the [[Weimar Republic]] in 1930 and the imposition of the Nazi dictatorship after March 1933.{{sfn|Herwig|1996|pp=87–127}}

France suffered more casualties relative to its population than any other great power and the industrial north-east of the country was devastated by the war. The provinces overrun by Germany had produced 40 percent of French coal and 58 percent of its steel output.{{sfn|Chickering|Förster|2000|p=297}} Once it was clear that Germany was going to be defeated, Ludendorff had ordered the destruction of the mines in France and Belgium.{{sfn|Marshall|1964|p=460}} His goal was to cripple the industries of Germany's main European rival. To prevent similar German attacks in the future, France later built a massive series of fortifications along the German border known as the [[Maginot Line]].{{sfn|Alexander|2003|p=180}}