The fatal year of 1918 describes the imploding home front, with the beginnings in earnest of ethnic groups bent on destroying the empire in October. Food and fuel shortages and resulting strikes led to further turmoil. The Habsburg Army’s last major offensive launched on June 15, 1918. It was an offensive that should never have occurred and proved disastrous for Austria-Hungary. The Italians launched an offensive to knock Austria-Hungary out of the war. The Austro-Hungarian troops suffered from lack of food, equipment, supplies and modern weaponry. Negotiations for an armistice commence proved disastrous.

The Paris Peace Conference convened in January 1919 and did not officially close until one year later, after Germany formally ratified the Treaty of Versailles, but Wilson, Lloyd George, and the leading foreign dignitaries left for home in late June, as soon as the Germans signed their treaty. The Allies designated ambassadors or under-secretaries to represent them in the conclusion of the treaties for Austria (St. Germain), Bulgaria (Neuilly), Hungary (Trianon), and the Ottoman Empire (Sèvres), the latter two not signed until 1920. As the US secretary of state, Lansing, had feared, Wilson’s direct involvement at the conference reduced him to the level of just another negotiator and his Fourteen Points to mere bargaining chips, most of which were sacrificed in whole or in part to achieve the fourteenth: the creation of the League of Nations. While the provisions regarding Germany (reparations, war guilt, near-disarmament, and loss of territory and colonies) received the most attention, outcomes haunting the world into a second great war (and in some cases, beyond it) included the borders drawn in the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, as well as the decision of the conference to disregard the interests of Russia and, to a lesser extent, Italy.