The First World War or the Great War, as the contemporaries described it, was a world conflict that began in early August 1914 as a European war. It engulfed the whole world as European powers used the resources of their empires and colonies while further, Japan and America entered the War. It was a total bloody war in which all sections of people participated and all national resources were directed towards the battlefront. Four empires – German, Austrian, Tsarist and Ottoman disintegrated during or after this War. Its immediate consequences – the Russian Revolution, the political and social upheavals of l 918-22 and redrawing of the map of Europe, have determined the course of the twentieth century. It destroyed forever the hopes and the self-confidence with which the century had begun. Contemporaries called it ‘a war to end all wars’.
The Great War ends
On November 3, 1918, Germany’s partner, Austria-Hungary, surrendered to the Allies. That same day, German sailors mutinied against their government. Other revolts followed, and Germany was too exhausted to continue. So at the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day, of the eleventh month of 1918, Germany signed a truce ending the Great War.
The Cost of War-
The state mobilised all human, material, ideological, and even spiritual resources to win the War. Modern nationalism infused the soldiers and civilians with the determination to inflict total defeat on the enemy. The result was that the War turned virtually into a mutual slaughter that lasted over four years. Heavy and light artillery, machine-guns, and flame throwers ripped bodies open and poisoned them with gas. Aerial bombardment and chemical warfare were resorted to. It had great psychological impact.
More than twice the number were wounded, some of them crippled for life. The British war-dead amounted to 1.5 percent of their population, while in France the share was 3.5 per cent. After the War, as soldiers returned to their own countries, a flu epidemic spread which killed at least 20 million people in Europe alone.
The Redrawal of the political map-
The First World War ripped apart the contemporary system of states and Empires. The Treaty took a harsh toll on Germany and its allies. The Treaty further disappointed nations like Italy, Japan and China by not allotting them the control over territories that had been promised. Italy was given no control over the Balkan and Ottoman regions while Japan was opposed the transfer of Jiaozhou. Its proposal for racial equality, too, was dismissed by Australia. China wanted restoration of its sovereign rights over all Chinese territories. China was so disappointed by the terms of the Treaty that it refused to sign it.
Russia was made to surrender most of the territories that it had promised to Germany in March 1918 in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. New states – Finland and the Baltic Republic of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia -were created largely from the region belonging to the Russian empire. At the Paris Conference, a new state of Poland was created out of the ruins of the Russian, Austrian, and German Empires. No battle was fought on American soil but, immediately after the War, businesses that had flourished because of the War, were reduced to bankruptcy which led to unemployment, economic discontent, and a wave of strikes.
Economic Impact-
The economic structure of northern France and part of Belgium had been chewed up in the fighting. The German economy, which was devastated by the war, would be further crippled by the terms of the peace treaty. The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace calculated the war’s actual cost, coining up with a figure of $338 billion dollars after establishing a rough value for property and even lives lost.
Food shortages became critical in 1915 and, by 1916. The economic situation became extremely bad. Coal, shoes, soap, oil, textile, eggs, and meat were hardly available. Lakhs of women worked in industrial plants and people had to bear burdens over daily negotiation over food, fuel and other items because of the rising costs and non-availability of goods.
Social and Cultural Impact-
The First World War had a revolutionary impact on societies and cultures of all European countries. The governments came to control every aspect of social activity on a quite unprecedented scale. The greatest effect of the First World War on the African American population was that it accelerated the Great Migration. The Great Migration was the large scale population shift for hundreds of thousands of blacks from the south to Northern cities.
The experiences of this War made thinkers in all domains question not only the heritage of Enlightenment but also the very foundations of Western civilisation. The War had a deep impact on the ways of thinking, visual arts, music, literature, and philosophy. Expressionists were depicting an atmosphere of unease, fear, guilt, and foreboding in which the experiences of contemporary bourgeois life were transfused with a sense of dread. By questioning the established norms and rationality of the human mind, this War brought them together into a tidal wave of fascism.
Impact on women
Many women were called upon to take on jobs previously held by men who were serving in the war. They became railroad workers, cooks, dockworkers, factory workers, and miners. Many women served as volunteers in organizations such as the Red Cross. Women who lost their husbands often survived on meagre government pensions. In Germany alone. There were two million war-widows. Their service hastened the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 giving women the right to vote
Impact on the colonised world
Colonies were used as a reservoir of manpower and material resources. The French raised army units in their colonies in different pans of Africa. The British used the Indian army as an imperial fire-brigade. European powers also acquired essential war materials from colonies and, and for this purpose, tended to treat colonies as an extension of their home front. They drafted labour and procured materials forcibly in Egypt. China, and Vietnam, strengthening the anti-British feeling there.
The wartime demand also boosted the local industry by creating a massive demand for goods. A small class of indigenous capitalists also began to emerge who wanted a state that could defend their interests against foreign competition. The War galvanised liberation movements in India, China, Vietnam, Egypt, Algeria and many other countries.
Conclusion-
The Great War had several causes, with none alone standing as a sufficient cause. The entangling alliances of the European great powers were undeniably a principal factor in the outbreak of hostilities. Aggressive nationalism spilled out of the opposing alliances during this period. Military planners in Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, and, to a lesser extent, Russia, all considered war not only inevitable but desirable. Soldiers returned home to find skyrocketing prices and unemployment awaiting them. For those who had been lucky enough to survive, how much greater the disappointment, disillusionment, and bitterness that would follow.