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The blockade of Germany was a naval blockade conducted during World War I by the British Royal Navy from 1914 onwards, in an effort to restrict the maritime supply of raw materials and foodstuffs to Germany and its allies, and is considered one of the key elements in the eventual victory of the Allied Powers.
The blockade continued even after the Armistice of 11 November 1918, in order to force Germany to sign the controversial Treaty of Versailles in June 1919.
Over 750,000 German civilians are said to have died from starvation caused by the blockade during and after the War.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_Germany
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All these schemes enjoyed only limited success, and the average daily diet of 1,000 calories was insufficient to maintain a good standard of health, resulting by 1917 in widespread disorders caused by malnutrition such as scurvy, tuberculosis, and dysentery. Official German government statistics attributed nearly 763,000 wartime deaths in Germany to starvation caused by the blockade[1], but this excluded the approximately 150,000 German victims of the 1918 flu pandemic, whose effects were rendered worse by the population's malnutrition and related syndromes.
The blockade was maintained for eight months after the Armistice in November 1918, into the following year of 1919, in order to force Germany to sign the controversial Treaty of Versailles in June 1919.
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