Consequences of the First World War

1. Social Consequences

1.1. Women became more consistently involved in the workforce (United States and Great Britain).

1.1.1. - Women earned the right to vote in the US (1919) with the passing of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution. -Suffragettes earned the right to vote in Great Britain in 1918

1.1.1.1. After the war there was a shift away from domestic service towards white collar employment.

1.1.1.2. Women saw their employment as a source of freedom which began more women's rights movements.

1.1.2. Women employment gave rise to social and gender equality, however, women still received lower wages than men.

1.1.3. France did no enfranchise women until 1944.

1.1.4. Europe had the a very notable amount of women employed.

1.2. All countries suffered a tremendous amount of casualties leaving behind broken families.

1.2.1. The allied powers suffered the loss of around 17 million men and the Central powers lost around 12 million men. In addition to war casualties, the Spanish influenza caused the deaths of millions all around the world.

1.2.1.1. Many civilians on the home-front were killed as collateral damage and other diseases and famine. Russia had the most civilian deaths at 500,000.

1.2.2. Russia had the most number of civilian casualties due to the large acts of mobilization in the country during the war.

2. Political Consequences

2.1. Versailles Peace settlement (Treaty of Versailles) shaped the balance of power in Europe

2.1.1. 1. Germany lost African colonies and surrounding territories 2. War Gulf Clause 3. Reparations 4. Limiting of armed forces

2.2. Treaty of Trianon- One of the Paris peace treaties between Hungary and the Allied Powers:

2.2.1. 1. Hungary lost over 2/3's of it's territory and 2/3's of its pre-war population. 2. Limiting of Hungary armed forces- Army reduced to 20,000 men, no air force, navy greatly reduced.

2.3. Treaties of the Paris Peace Conference

2.4. Treaty of St. Germain- officially ended World War One

2.4.1. 1. Limited Austrian armed forces- 30,000 men and broke up the Austro-Hungarian navy 2. Austria was made liable for reparations however these were never paid.

2.5. Treaty of Neuilly- signed in order to give reparations to Bulgaria, one of the Central powers

2.5.1. 1. Bulgaria was forced to cede territories 2. Limiting of Armed forces 3. Reparations

2.6. Treaty of Sevres- Final treaty of the Paris Peace Conference

2.6.1. 1. Abolished the Ottoman Empire 2. Forced to to renounce rights over Arab Asia and North Africa.

2.7. Changes in the governments + Political unrest

2.7.1. Russia: February 1917- revolution forced the reimplementation of the autocratic system. The gov. worked to alleviate food shortages caused by the war.

2.7.2. Italy: A communist revolution began after the war. Also, Italy was denied some of the land previously promised to it. Benito Mussolini came into power and declared dictatorship from 1922-43.

2.7.3. Germany: Became a republic at the end of 1918. The republic stabilized and prospered with multi-party elections after 1924, however later on they suffered from the great depression.

2.7.4. Europe: Austria-Hungary was dismantled into a series of new republics.

3. Economic Consequences

3.1. USA: The united stated benefitted from the war time economy adding women to the workforce and aided in the war time production for allied powers (i.e. Britain, France, Russia, etc.)

3.2. Germany: Impacted greatly by the treaty of versailles causing them so go bankrupt, losing 132 billion gold marks. This caused many economic difficulties such as hyper inflation as its currency lost value and prices skyrocketed.

3.3. France: In France, lots of factories, villages, railroads, etc. were destroyed. There was also a loss of overseas markets. They recovered slowly by creating high rates of taxation to pay off their debts as well as borrowing money from the USA and Britain.

3.4. Britain: They borrowed huge sums of money from the USA during the war, leaving them in a large debt. Some of the British territories overseas became more economically self-sufficient leading to a decrease in demand for British goods.

3.5. Russia: Left the war in March 1918 after signing a treaty, but descended into civil war in which the Bolsheviks and fought various anti-communist groups. Millions starved as a result of either having food seized by government forces or peasants refusing to grow grain that might be seized. People stopped working in many industries from lack of pay, food and things to purchase. All leading to the creation of New Economic Policy in 1921.

3.6. Austria-Hungary: Produced 500% more farm products than it could consume in the years after the war due to losing population. Hyperinflation destroyed savings and prevented economic recovery.