EFFECTS OF WORLD
WAR I
1. Led to fall of empires:
Four empires disappeared from the map of Europe.
The Austro-Hungary, Turkish, Russian and German empire came to an end. As a
result of disintegration of these empires, new states emerged. I.e., Iraq,
Iran, Syria, Palestine, Jordan for the case of Turkish empire, then Romania,
Yugoslavia, Hungary, Czechoslovakia for the case of Austrian (Austro-Hungary).
2. Loss of human
lives:
Many people lost their lives both civilians and soldiers and
some people died on the battle field while others died of wounds afterwards,
other died of diseases that broke out e.g., influenza, typhoid. Russia lone lost 3 million people, German 2.3
million, France lost 1.3million people, Austria 1 million people.
3. Led to change of Government:
The problems created by the war made people to loose faith
in their government that led them into war.eg, Fascism in Italy and Nazism in German came
after world war. In Russia,
the government became unpopular leading to a revolution in 1917 which changed
the leadership.
4. League of Nation:
The First World War led to the creation of league of nation
in 1920 to try to prevent occurrence of another great war. This was because
European powers realized that lack of such organization was partly responsible
for the out break of First World War in 1914 and its disastrous consequences.
5. Versailles peace treaty:
World war led to the signing of the Versailles peace treaty that concluded the
war in 1919. i.e., the Versailles
peace treaty contributed to the out break of Second World War by laying its
foundation.
6. Exhausted European
economy:
Most European countries like German, Britain, and France left the war both
politically and economically exhausted. The war was too expensive to finance in
terms of resources. Countries lost infrastructures due to bombing which had
negative impact on their economy.
7. Emercency of
U.S.A:
The war led to emergency of USA as an economic and military
world power. This was because USA
entered the world war at alter stage, beside that the war was fought far away
from America.
That is why she became a super power.
8. Social changes
(emancipation):
There were a number of social changes as a result of the
war. Women liberation movement emerged to advocate for women’s rights
especially in Britain.
Men died in large numbers leading to sexual imbalance. Women had to take up
work earlier done by men.
9. Seeds for
decolonization:
To small extent, the war saw the seeds for the
decolonization. I.e., when great powers left the war, they were completely
exhausted as they lost their abilities to control and sustain their colonial
states and they were economically weak to finance their colonies.
10. Economic
depression:
The4 First World War conditioned Europe
for the 1929-1935 economic depression. Europeans diverted their energies resources
and money. This is true because the war left economies in shambles, infrastructures;
industries were destroyed during the war. It was characterized by unemployment,
inflation, steady fall in prices and collapse of banking institutions.
11. Destruction
property:
With exemption of USA,
and associated powers outside Europe, the
War led to the destruction of property and infrastructures.
Production assets like industries, mines, hospitals, clinics, educational
institutions, shops, hotels, administrative centres, agriculture,, livestock,
etc.