Transcript WWI EFFECTS

Social Effects During the War - Technology
and Disillusionment
• Arms races developed & arms manufacturers
became major enterprises
• Were too big and imperfect to end the stalemate
• Generals were reluctant to discard old ways of
thinking (importance of the machine gun and
trenches)
• All this caused the countries on the defensive to
have the advantage
• There were many deaths and little gains to be had
Social Effects – Class System
• The result of working together for a common
goal seemed to be unifying European societies:
– All belligerents had enacted some form of a
selective service which leveled classes
– Wartime scarcities made luxury an
impossibility and unfavorable
– Reflecting this, clothing became uniform.
Europeans would never again dress in fancy,
elaborate costumes
Social Effects – Women
• Became more of a part of society
than ever
• They undertook a variety of jobs
previously held by men
• They were now a part of clerical,
secretarial work, and teaching
• They were also more widely
employed in industrial jobs
Social Effects – Women
• Because of their efforts, it was only a matter
of time before women received the right to
vote in many belligerent countries
• Many restrictions on women disappeared
during the war. It became acceptable for
young, employed, single middle-class
women to:
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Have their own apartments
Go out without chaperones
Smoke in public
Women's skirts rose above the ankle
permanently
Social Effects - African Americans
• One week of Wilson’s declaration of war, the
War Department had to stop accepting black
volunteers because the quotas for African
Americans were filled
• Blacks could not serve in the Marines, and could
only serve limited and menial positions in the
Navy and the Coast Guard
• By the end of World War I, African Americans
served in cavalry, infantry, signal, medical,
engineer, and artillery units, as well as serving as
chaplains, surveyors, truck drivers, chemists, and
intelligence officers
• They introduced their culture, especially jazz, to
Europeans, but gained no civil rights
Social/Economic Effects – Labor Unions
• Employers fought to keep union organizers out of
their plants and armed force was often used
against striking workers
• The universal rallying of workers towards their
country at the beginning of the war led to wider
acceptance of unions
• A long war was not possible without complete
cooperation of the workers with respect to
putting in long hours and increasing productivity
Social Effects – Restriction of Rights
• Governments took on many new powers in
order to fight the total war. War governments
fought opposition by increasing police power
• Authoritarian regimes like tsarist Russia had
always depended on the threat of force, but
now even parliamentary governments felt the
necessity to expand police powers and control
public opinion
Social Effects – Restriction of Rights in Britain
• The Defense of the Realm Act authorized the public
authorities to arrest and punish dissidents under
martial law if necessary
• Later acts grew to include:
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Suspending newspapers
Use of lights at home
Food rationing
Bar hours limited
Strikes made illegal
Running of factories and railroads
• Police powers tended to grow as the war went on
and public opposition increased as well
Social Effects – Restriction of Rights in France
and Germany
• The government cracked down on:
– Anyone suspected of supporting a
compromise peace, giving military secrets,
or airing dangerous opinions
– Censorship of newspapers
– Censorship of personal mail
• In Germany, laws were passed requiring
males ages 17-60 to work in the factories
• They also imported workers from
occupied France and Belgium
Social Effects – Restrictions of Rights in the U.S.
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Espionage Act of 1917 – Made it illegal to
make any criticism of the government,
interfere with the draft, or to encourage
disloyalty
Red Scare of 1919-1920
A strike and 38 mail bombs set off the scare
June 1919 – Palmer’s home was bombed
Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer suspected
almost anyone of being communist; many
innocent people were deported
May 1920 – Palmer announced the threat of
large Communist riots on May 1st of 1920 (the
Socialist Labor Day), but none materialized. This
ended the scare
Social Effects - Propaganda
• Propaganda tries to force a doctrine on the
whole people. They influenced people:
– To enlist
– Support the war
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Plant gardens
Conserve
Join workforce
Buy bonds
– Instill fear
• Don’t tell secrets
• Ration or else
• Huns/barbarians
Social Effects During and After WWI - Armenian
Genocide
• In 1908, the Young Turks led a revolution
and seized power from the sultan
• The new rulers, who had promoted a
platform of equality and constitutionalism,
quickly turned to extreme nationalism
• They were afraid of conquest by another
nation or ethnic group, so they drummed
up support for an entirely ethnic Turkish
state
• The Armenians were seen as an obstacle to
their goal
Social Effects During and After WWI Armenian Genocide
• 1915-1923, 1.5 million Armenians were killed
• After WWI, 400 Young Turks were arrested and
tried
• Most were sentenced to death, but fled the
country – other countries, including the new
Turkish government, did not pursue them
• Killings resumed
• With the Ottoman Empire being renamed Turkey,
a new republic was declared and the TurkishArmenian issue was forgotten
• Encouraged Hitler to start the Holocaust
Social Effects During and After the War Influenza
• In 1918 and 1919, the so-called "Spanish flu"
killed an estimated 20-40 million people
worldwide
• The strain of influenza virus that caused the
1918 global epidemic ("pandemic") was
exceptionally aggressive
• It was brought back to the homefront by the
soldiers and was spread among civilians
• Life expectancy was lowered and caused
countries to have further economic problems
due to a lack of workers