Chapter 7 details the final struggles of the war. In April of 1918 the Germans unleashed one last attempt to end the stalemate on the Western front. The Allied lines bent, but they did not break. The German troops were again stopped at the Marne, and when the Allied forces launched a series of successful counteroffensives, the GermanS asked for a cease-fire. Surprised by the sudden German collapse, Allied leaders did not have a ready response to this request. No Allied troops occupied any German territory at the time of the request, and the war councils were split on the question of whether they should continue their attacks onto German soil. However, both sides were thoroughly exhausted by this time, and the pressures to end the fighting produced an agreement on a cease-fire. Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire had already signed cease-fires with the British, the French, and the Italians, so the war that began in 1914 had finally ended. What remained was the task of rebuilding the national boundaries of Europe and establishing institutional arrangements to preserve the peace. That would take several more years.