In 1871 northern Germany was unified as the German Empire (German: Deutsches Reich), also known as the Second Reich, under the direction of Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Wilhelm II, King of Prussia, was declared German Emperor (German: Deutscher Kaiser).
Germany became entangled in World War I by supporting the Austro-Hungarian Empire against Serbia (which was backed by Imperial Russia.) France, a Russian ally, declared war on Germany, as did France's ally, the United Kingdom. Germany's armed forces achieved a decisive military victory over the Russian Empire in 1917 and concluded hostilities in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. In western Europe, Anglo-French forces battled the Germans until 1918, with both sides suffering heavy losses and neither making substantial territorial gains.
In 1918, the German Communist Party and the Spartacist League tried to overthrow the government of Kaiser Wilhelm II to establish a socialist government on German soil (similar to what the Bolsheviks had accomplished in Russia), but the revolution was put down by the Freikorps. However, the government was severely weakened, and Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated power in 1919 and went into exile in the Netherlands. A German provisional government signed an armistice with the United Kingdom and France, and Germany was afterward forced to sign the harsh and humiliating Treaty of Versailles.
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