The armistice – or agreement to stop fighting – that ended the conflict on the Western Front of World War One was signed in a railway carriage in northern France on November 11, 1918.
The armistice - or agreement to stop fighting - that ended the conflict on the Western Front of World War One was signed in a railway carriage in northern France on November 11, 1918.
Although the opposing Allied and German sides signed it at 5am it did not come into operation until 11am.
This has led to the well-known, if not completely accurate, claim that the war ended on the “11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month".
In fact fighting in some other regions had already ended - while in the former Ottoman and Russian empires it continued for some time.
But November 11 is accepted as the symbolic date for the war's end and on Remembrance Day, as it is known in Britain, we annually honour the sacrifice of the millions who died. Remembrance Day is also known as Poppy Day because of the red poppies that are its symbol.
The armistice itself bought to an end four years of trench warfare in which the front line, from the Belgian North Sea coast to France’s border with Switzerland, barely moved.
In that time repeated frontal assaults by both Allied and German armies led to unimaginable casualties - with more than 13 million killed, wounded or missing.
The process that led to peace had begun in September 1918 when the German high command warned ruler Kaiser Wilhelm II that defeat was inevitable.
Germany's exhausted soldiers were surrendering in large numbers and the addition of American forces to the French and British front line meant it was now significantly outgunned.
In October, Germany made clear it was willing to seek a peace agreement on grounds already suggested by US President Woodrow Wilson.
Britain and France objected, believing Wilson’s terms too moderate. But he threatened to sign a separate peace treaty and withdraw US troops unless they agreed. They reluctantly did so.
Initially, Wilson’s central demand that the Kaiser abdicate in favour of a more democratic government appeared to be a sticking point. But in early November a mutiny among German sailors grew into a full-scale rebellion against the Kaiser’s rule.
The moderate Social Democrats, fearing a Russian-style Bolshevik revolution, did a deal with the military and took over the government.
A German republic was declared on November 9, along with a new parliamentary-style system. The Kaiser abdicated and went into exile in Holland.
An Allied military team led by overall commander Ferdinand Foch met a German delegation to begin negotiations for an armistice.
It was initially to run for a month but the armistice deadline was later repeatedly extended until the formal peace treaty was agreed. That was signed at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris in June 1919.
Under its terms the long-disputed border region of Alsace-Lorraine, rich in coal, was handed to France. France was also given control of German coal fields in the Saar basin.
An independent Poland was created using land taken from both Germany and Russia.
The German army was limited to 100,000 and it was banned from having an air force or navy.
Germany was also ordered to pay “reparations” - compensation to those it fought. These payments were eventually set at an impossibly-high £6.6billion, harsh terms intended to ensure Germany could never again threaten her neighbours.
But they helped to bankrupt Germany, creating the political turmoil that allowed Hitler’s Nazi Party (founded in 1920) to rise to power within a few years, then plunge the world into another catastrophic war two decades later.
November 11 became a national holiday in many countries. It is known as Veterans Day in America.
The traditional two-minute silence is held at 11am in Britain. During World War Two, it was moved to the Sunday nearest to November 11.
Today both Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day are officially commemorated.
The tradition of wearing a poppy to commemorate the fallen was started in 1918 by an American poet, Moira Michael.
It had been a symbol of hope to soldiers in the trenches. They noticed that, despite the devastation, poppies still bloomed each spring.
Britain’s first Poppy Day was held on November 11, 1921.
