T.E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") was instrumental in the final rollback of Central Powers forces in the Middle East. The Russian Revolution led to Russia's leaving the war, signing a peace treaty with the Ottoman Empire in March 1918. A series of back-and-forth maneuvers ended with a final Allied push in September, and the two sides signed an armistice the following month.

The German Army had launched a series of offensives in March 1918, driving strongly through a series of gaps in the line and coming as close to Paris as they had in the early days of the war. Those had ended in June. Whatever moderate success the German forces had secured ended, as Allied forces had been swelled by reinforcements from the United States, which had declared war on Germany only the year before. Fighting as well in this counteroffensive were troops from Italy. Allied forces then mounted a counterattack, which included the pivotal Battle of Soissons. French forces there disrupted German supply lines and pushed the German attackers backward. By early August, Allied forces reversed the progress that the German forces had made during their Spring Offensives.

The Hundred Days Offensive rolled through the Hindenburg Line and then into Germany itself. With the German Army reeling, the German government collapsed. Kaiser Wilhelm II fled, and the Reichstag (legislature) gained control of the armed forces. The new government, headed by Chancellor Max von Baden, began negotiations to end the war. As well, German soldiers revolted, in one case in a very large uprising in the port city of Kiel. It was on November 9 that Germany officially became the Weimar Republic. Two days later, the Armistice occurred, officially ending the war. The final war-ending settlement, the Treaty of Versailles, was signed on June 28, 1919.

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