These states consisted of kingdoms, grand duchies, duchies, principalities, free Hanseatic cities and one imperial territory. Quickly invading Belgium and Luxembourg, the German advance was stopped at the Marne and in Russian Poland, creating the stalemate that would define the war. Lenin is sent back to Saint Peterburg to start an internal crisis in Russia, and the civil war begins.

The population had been pushed to the brink of starvation by the British blockade, which had only truly ended in 1919, and the economy was in a similarly dire state.