Legacies of the Great War

Perhaps one of the most famous wars in world history was World War 1, otherwise known as the Great War.  This war began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and ended in 1919 with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.  WWI affected most of the world in very immediate ways, such as the deaths of many soldiers, expansion of the authority of government during wartime, and the idea that all people should contribute to the war effort in some way.  Women went to work to replace the men that were in battle and labor unions suspended their strikes so they could produce goods during wartime.  It is easy to think that these types of things happening as a result of the war, but there were many other long-term "legacies" left because of WWI.  

Before WWI, the citizens of European countries and America had been moved by the ideas of the Enlightenment to make changes in their government and in their personal lives.  Some of the values that came from this were progress, tolerance, and rationality.  After WWI, people felt that actions taken place during the war laughed in the face of these values and turned some of the Enlightenment ideas on their heads.  Previously, science and technology seemed to be only capable of generating good and helping the people evolve.  Now it had been seen that when science and technology are used against an opponent, the consequence was deadly.  The immense number of deaths and bloodshed showed that there was very little tolerance among the different countries, and how could one rationalize the slaughter of so many?  WWI left a bad taste in people's mouths and led then to become disillusioned with their societies and their governments.  

After a time when women worked in factories to support their families and the war effort, there was a government effort made to get society back to traditional family values.  This was very difficult for both men and women.  The soldiers returning from war had seen and experienced the unimaginable and it was hard for them to step right back in to their role as husband, father, and provider for their families.  Some governments set up housing projects to help ease these men back into family life.  The governments of America and Europe urged women to leave the workforce so that they would not be competing for men's jobs.  Many probably don't know this, but Mother's Day was created as a reaction to WWI.  Mother's Day is a holiday created by the French authorities to encourage women to have more children to replace all the people who died in the war.

Despite the the urging of people to return to more traditional gender-based roles, society had changed.  Women went back to fighting for the right to vote, and were granted this right in Britain, the U.S., Germany, the Soviet Union, Hungary, and Poland.  It is thought that this right was granted partially as a way to pay back women for their sacrifices during the war.  Women also began to step away from tradition by smoking, drinking, cutting their hair short, and being more open with their sexuality.  Also, consumerism exploded and people became more enamored with popular culture because they were able to hear music from other countries on the radio and movies made in Hollywood were shown across the world.  

WWI showed the world that the United States held a lot of resources with its manpower and financial holdings.  The United States had shown its power during WWI as the country had much to do with the defeat of Germany. 

 WWI may have also been a contributing factor to the start of WWII only 20 years after WWI ended.  In the Treaty of Versailles, Germany lost its colonies and %15 of its European territory.  Germany also was forced to take the responsibility for the outbreak of WWI, pay reparations, and had its military forces restricted.  One of WWI's German soldiers said in 1922, "It cannot be that two million Germans should have fallen in vain...No, we do not pardon, we demand-vengeance." (p 989)  That soldier was Adolf Hitler, and we all know what he did to enact that vengeance.  

It may sound cliche to say that if we do not learn from the past, we are bound to repeat it, but sometimes cliches hold some truth.  While World War III has never officially broken out, there are so many war-torn countries right now and the end result of these wars will be...what?  Power, money, oil? The ability to claim that, "our country is stronger than your country".  And the price of war seems to get bigger with each advancement of science and technology.  Now we live in fear of a nuclear holocaust-because it is a possibility.  In my humble opinion, it is time for the megalomaniacs of this world to take a step back a realize that war doesn't really solve anything.  It just creates more conflict and more battles to fight.  I would have thought that in this day and age we would have moved past the idea the idea of war, but maybe the desire to fight and the desire to win are part of the human condition.