World War l started in 1914, it had different causes, reasons and different opinions but it still happened in the end. While it was happening it changed many things, after it ended, the outcomes caused a great impact on society. The end of World War l led to several changes which were political, economic, and social changes. According to World War l Opposing Viewpoints by William Dudley, this war caused the government to make many decisions, and this impacted how American society saw the American government. Some agreed with this war happening and were enthusiastic that moment because they were fighting for their rights, others disagreed yet they still fought with the rest.
William Dudley stated that this war started by Archduke Franz Ferdinand being assassinated by a Serbian nationalist, leading Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia, then Germany declaring war on Russia and on France. Great Britain then declared war on Germany and the following day Wilson, president, claimed America being neutral in the war. Russia is defeated by Germany in the Battle of Tannenberg, after that Belgium City is burnt by Germans and this started the Rape of Belgium. The North Sea then becomes a war zone by the British government. The British does a blockade of German posts and it began a protest by Wilson about it. Italy then declared war against Austria-Hungary, American firms were allowed to lend money to allies. In the United States an expansion of army and navy happened, The United States also stops diplomatic relations with Germany.
Since Germany was using unrestricted warfare Wilson asked to declare war on Germany once again and after being able to go to war with Germany a resolution ends the war with them, stated by William Dudley. The war happening led to several acts and treaties being passed. One of these acts was the National Defense Act, this leads to the expansion of the American army which also gives training programs given in universities. Then comes the Naval Act of 1916 providing peacetime military appropriation. The Liberty Loan Act is also passed which helped economy during the war and after that came the Selective Service Act. Passed by Congress, the Espionage Act which would give penalties to spies that are accused of being guilty of helping the opposing side. An act that also helps in the war was The Lever Food and Fuel Act which helped us socially, and then we were helped economically by the War Revenue Act which was tax given for government revenue. Something changed politically was The Federal government can now control all foreign trade because of the Trading with the Enemy Act. Another political change was the Overman Act which helped the president because now it was easier to organize and switch up executive agencies. Socially, women were helped since an amendment was passed to enfranchise women. The treaty of Versailles was signed which brought World War l to an end. It was signed by Germany and the allies.
According to William Dudley, a social and political cause, as I have mentioned before, was the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary saw this as a chance to attack Serbia, take control of it since they “attacked a future emperor”, Russians protected Serbia meaning they were against Austria-Hungary and its ally, Germany, considering this Russia mobilized its armies, which hinted war, leading Germany to declare war on Russia. After this happened France mobilized its armies as well and Germany answered by declaring war on them. Other cause of war are the competition for colonies, the political conflict there was, and a main problem was nationalism, it created competition between empires. All countries had a reason to go into the war which was either because they were already being attacked or losing territory. America did not participate in the war for either of these reasons.
William Dudley had said Americans came into the war because the legal rights of Americans were being violated, he said this since Americans were not safe anymore, also because Germany was using unrestricted warfare even though they had agreed not to do so and they took this as an act of war, because this was happening around them even though they were neutral. The nations developing policies made war have more chance of happening. Nations looked for protection and they did this by getting political agreements as well as military agreements. America had made no alliances with European powers which were divided into two, the Triple Alliance including Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. There was also the Triple Entente including, Russia, France and Great Britain. The fighting of this war was actually started when Belgium was attacked by Germany and this made Britain get into the problem. The United States tried hard to keep being neutral but then Germany claimed they would keep using unrestricted submarine warfare, this cause the president to stop diplomatic relations with them and ask to arm American merchant ships. The United States said they were going into the war to “protect its freedoms.” After the United States declared war on Germany, they proceeded to declare war on Austria-Hungary as well.
Dudley stated that going into this war because the other nations fighting would affect the citizens freedom. The president saw the war as to keep the democracy safe. The United States also joined the war because they thought they would be able to change things within society and impact them. The United States got involved with the mindset of protecting and taking care of their values and rights, and their peace. According to the website, History on the Net, distrust was also a reason this war was happening, since nations were mobilizing their armies, others were increasing in weapons and amount of soldiers, this led to all nations distrusting each other, which led to suspicions, leading to declaring war. A different cause of this was alliances, this was because if a country declared war on another one, the allies of those countries had to help them with that declaration of war. Imperialism was also one of the reasons, this was a reason because other countries were taking more lands than others could and this led to competition for land. A factor that had to do with the start of this war was militarism, this led to an arms race happening leading to more competition and rivalry, since one country brought up the amount of soldiers and weapons and increased their power the rest followed as well and did the same thing, competition and rivalry was also created by nationalism.
- http://www.historyonthenet.com/world-war-one-causes-2/
Another cause of this war, stated by ThoughtCo, the cause that led to this happening was the assassination of Ferdinand, this led to everything else happening, which gave an opportunity to Austria-Hungary to attack Serbia, they took this chance. Russia being an ally of Serbia mobilized its army, Germany an ally of Austria-Hungary took the mobilization as a threat and declared war on Russia, since France was an ally of Russia it was at war with Germany and their allies, Austria-Hungary, then since Great Britain was France’s ally they declared war on Germany, another reason Britain went into war was to protect Belgium which was supposed to be neutral, the United States was planning on staying neutral throughput the war but then Germany resumed the unrestricted submarine warfare which cause the United States to declare war on Germany and enter the war. One country declaring war on another led to more countries getting involved which led to their allies getting involved having different reasons to.
- https://www.thoughtco.com/causes-that-led-to-world-war-i-105515
As well as there being certain causes of World War l, there is also certain outcomes. According to Wikepedia, the war had made changes within the empire, some were destroyed and some were created. According to American Historama the production in the United States had gone up, and so did manufacturing. The economy was going up as well as profits. Even though good changes were happening, there were bad changes too like inflation was high, wages were decreasing, because of this workers decided to protest leading to strikes happening, the powers of the unions had increased. There was racial unrest, this happened because since not many people were being employed, there was rivalry and competition for employment. Prohibition started happening too and it led to the amount of crime, gangs and violence related things, as well as political corruption increasing. World War l had an impact on women too, the role they had changed, this happened because they aided and helped with working while the men were away at war. The fact that their roles had changed also started leading to them having the right to vote.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftermath_of_World_War_I
- http://www.american-historama.org/1913-1928-ww1-prohibition-era/impact-ww1-on-america.htm
Some complications caused by World War l, according to ThoughtCo in Europe, the economy went down, this was because they had invested so much on the war. Stated by English Online, as well as Europe having their economy do bad, a lot of more countries lost money as well. To fix this, the taxes of countries went up, it as also said they had to get some money from their people. Since economy in Europe wasn’t doing good, companies stopped working, the outcome of this war led to the government having more control. Since the United States didn’t join the war as early as the other countries did, it had less severe damage than the rest. As well as there being economical consequences, there were also political consequences, as a result of World War l, empires were ended as well as monarchies. It was said that from this, new countries were formed, independent states were formed. New values and ideologies were now being considered, one of them being communism. This website says World War l decreased birth rate, because so many deaths had happened. Citizens moved away to other places because some did not have jobs, or money, or shelter. Women could now work in factories and industries which is something only men could do before, and as i mentioned before they could now vote. Upper classes which had control before and led more, changed as they couldn’t have that role anymore.
- http://www.english-online.at/history/world-war-1/consequences-of-the-war.htm
According to BBC, the war aided in making Britain more democratic, that it caused many deaths within soldiers and citizens. Another source called Slideshare, also states that an effect of World War l was the start of the League of Nations. The economy of the United States increased. According to The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, World War l started revolts, some resources became unavailable, population decreased. That there were some resources that were not available affected the people, economically. ThoughtCo stated that World War l caused more conflict and ti also helped in developing better technology that was more advanced. As well as helping create more advanced weapons, which helped in wars after that. The League of Nations came as a result of World War l to try to prevent future wars. Another effect of World War l was stronger navy’s, some nations collapsed, others became weaker, it caused distrust even though that was one of the reasons the war happened. Another effect was the loss of land, some nations went through this and there was also the gain of land. Since there were so many deaths there was an increase in unemployment and that led to people not having homes, food, which led to them moving somewhere else leading to population decrease. Also famine started as a result of the loss of land, because that led to there being no food. Production was also slow because the economy was as well.
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/history/20th_century/first_world_war/revision/6/
- https://www.slideshare.net/llfrye11/outcome-of-world-war-i
In conclusion, the war that happened in 1914, World War l, had a big impact on many countries. It had many causes and effects. As I have mentioned before some causes were militarism, imperialism, the tension between all the countries, that there was no trust, allies since if on country went to war the ally had to help them, rights being violated as the president of the United States said, an assassination, nationalism, the loss of territory which led to another cause, competition, economy which came from competition. All of these were factors that led to this war that had many effects, that destroyed many things and had caused a great impact in many nations. As I mentioned also the effects of this were destruction, destruction of empires, nations, monarchies ended. Many lives were lost and many empires broke down into independent states, economy collapsed, there was unemployment which led to people leaving countries since they had no food or shelter, and for other, economy was boosting which was good for that certain country. Better technology was developed which was good and helped in future conflict. Roles that societies had changed including that of women who now had the right to vote and had different jobs they were not able to work in before the war this was because they helped while this disaster was happening and that impacted their role. In the end, this war was caused by many things which led to several other things that impacted countries greatly.
Bibliography
- http://www.historyonthenet.com/world-war-one-causes-2/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftermath_of_World_War_I
- http://www.american-historama.org/1913-1928-ww1-prohibition-era/impact-ww1-on-america.htm
- https://www.thoughtco.com/causes-that-led-to-world-war-i-105515
- http://www.english-online.at/history/world-war-1/consequences-of-the-war.htm
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/history/20th_century/first_world_war/revision/6/
- https://www.slideshare.net/llfrye11/outcome-of-world-war-i