<P> The Russian government collapsed in March 1917 with the February Revolution, and the October Revolution followed by a further military defeat brought the Russians to terms with the Central Powers via the Treaty of Brest - Litovsk, which granted the Germans a significant victory . After the stunning German Spring Offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allied Powers rallied and drove back the Germans in the successful Hundred Days Offensive . On 4 November 1918, the Austro - Hungarian empire agreed to the Armistice of Villa Giusti, and Germany, which had its own trouble with revolutionaries, agreed to an armistice on 11 November 1918, ending the war in victory for the Allied Powers . </P> <P> By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro - Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist . National borders were redrawn, with nine independent nations restored or created, and Germany's colonies were parcelled out among the victors . During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four powers (Britain, France, the United States and Italy) imposed their terms in a series of treaties . The League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict . This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation (particularly in Germany) eventually contributed to the start of World War II . </P> <P> The term "First World War" was first used in September 1914 by German biologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel, who claimed that "there is no doubt that the course and character of the feared' European War'...will become the first world war in the full sense of the word," citing a wire service report in The Indianapolis Star on 20 September 1914 . </P> <P> Prior to World War II, 1914 - 1918 was generally known as the World War or Great War . Contemporary Europeans also referred to it as "the war to end war" or "the war to end all wars" due to their perception of its then - unparalleled scale and devastation . After World War II began in 1939, the terms became more standard with British Empire historians, including Canadians, favouring' The First World War' and Americans' World War I .' </P>

When did they start calling world war 1