Political Effects
Political Aftermath
GermanyGermany, who was found to be the primary scapegoat for WWI conflict suffered the most in their forced acceptance of the war guilt clause. They were made to disband their army, surrender their naval ships, forfeit all of their colonial territories, as well as giving up their important Saar and Rhineland territories. The German and Austrian empires were both well on their way to failure prior to the peace treaties that ended the Great War. In their wake, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia both declared their independence, and revolutions in Berlin led to the Kaiser’s abdication as Ebert became Chancellor of the new German Republic before the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler came into power.
|
RUSSIA
Russia lost control of Poland, Ukraine, Georgia, Finland, and the Baltic States after the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and their government collapsed near the end of the war as the Bolshevik party came to power. Soviet Russia also shouldered a lot of the blame for WWI, was shunned by much of the world in the period following, and then proceeded to encourage outside socialist movements in the power vacuum left behind by the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations.
|
AUSTRIA-HUNGARYFollowing the conclusion of the Great War, Austro-Hungarian boundaries and borders were quickly reorganized by peace treaties on more of an ethnic basis. Austria and Hungary both became separate republics, and the Hapsburg family was exiled. Hungarian leaders preferred a return to monarchy after their communist revolution and 1919 Romanian intervention, but without a rightful king, they were led by a naval hero by the name of Miklos Horvy. Lands previously controlled by the Hapsburg came to be the independent Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Serbia, and Poland in the wake of WWI.
|
France
The French population and economy were both decimated by WWI, and it wasn’t until the late 1920’s that they began to flourish once more. In the meantime, the French government relied on laissez-faire economics and spent their time instead squashing socialist uprisings. A party known as Bloc National represented rightist interests during this time, and they fueled the blame and hatred for Germany throughout the interwar period. They spent much of the 1920’s chasing after the impossible war reparations owed by Germany, once even going so far as to occupy their Ruhr territory in protest of their defaulting payments.
|
Great BritainLiberal prime minister David Lloyd George remained in his position after the war, and ran things primarily as he had during the conflict, much to the chagrin of his conservative majority. Immediately following WWI, workers in many key industries began striking and demanding better conditions and wages, however their socialist movement never came to existence as it had in other countries. Following George’s resignation in 1922, the conservative party remained in control for the majority of the interwar period.
|
United StatesFollowing WWI, Woodrow Wilson was disappointed by the prospects of the newly formed League of Nations, and elected not to participate. The US returned to it’s pseudo-isolationist policies of the pre-war period, but was soon gripped by the same “Red Scare” that took hold of Europe. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer headed the movement, which included raids and deportations of American citizens, but no socialist group ever came into power. As the 1920’s began, the US experienced an almost unprecedented era of economic prosperity and political progression, as the 19th Amendment was ratified, allowing women the right to vote. As the decade wound down however, America along with many other world powers slid into a Great Depression that only WWII would scoop them out of.
|
References
Austria-Hungary - New World Encyclopedia. (2016, May 2). Retrieved from http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Austria- Hungary Describe the social, political and economic effects of WWI - A-Level
History - Marked by Teachers.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.markedbyteachers.com/as-and-a-level/history/describe-the- social-political-and-economic-effects-of-wwi.html
The Interwar United States. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/USA1.html
Austria-Hungary - New World Encyclopedia. (2016, May 2). Retrieved from http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Austria- Hungary Describe the social, political and economic effects of WWI - A-Level
History - Marked by Teachers.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.markedbyteachers.com/as-and-a-level/history/describe-the- social-political-and-economic-effects-of-wwi.html
The Interwar United States. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/USA1.html