Paper On Social, Political, Economical, Etc. Effects Of WWI

Term Paper Title	Paper On Social, Political, Economical, Etc. Effects Of WWI
# of Words	2044
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	8.18

Paper on social, political, economical, etc. effects of WWI

        "Everywhere in the world was heard the sound of things breaking."
Advanced European societies could not support long wars or so many thought
prior to World War I.  They were right in a way.  The societies could not
support a long war unchanged.  The First World War left no aspect of
European civilization untouched as pre-war governments were transformed to
fight total war.  The war metamorphed Europe socially, politicaly,
economically, and intellectualy.
     European countries channeled all of their resources into total war
which resulted in enormous social change.  The result of working together
for a common goal seemed to be unifying European societies.  Death knocked
down all barriers between people.  All belligerents had enacted some form
of a selective service which levelled classes in many ways.  Wartime
scarcities made luxury an impossibility and unfavorable.  Reflecting this,
clothing became uniform and utilitarian.  Europeans would never again
dress in fancy, elaborate costumes.  Uniforms led the way in clothing
change.  The bright blue-and-red prewar French infantry uniforms had been
changed after the first few months of the war, since they made whoever
wore them into excellent targets for machine guns.  Women's skirts rose
above the ankle permanently and 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 te!
aching.  They were also more widely employed in industrial jobs.  By 1918,
37.6 percent of the work force in the Krupp armaments firm in Germany was
female.  In England the proportion of women works rose strikingly in
public transport (for example, from 18,000 to 117,000 bus conductors),
banking (9,500 to 63,700), and commerce (505,000 to 934,000).  Many
restrictions on women disappeared during the war.  It became acceptable
for young, employed, single middle-class women to have their own
apartments, to go out without chaperones, and to smoke in public.  It was
only a matter of time before women received the right to vote in many
belligerent countries.  Strong forces were shaping the power and legal
status of labor unions, too.  The right of workers to organize was
relatively new, about half a century.  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 flag at
!
the beginning of the war led to wider acceptance of unions.  It was more
of a bureaucratic route than a parliamentary route that integrated
organized labor into government, however.  A long war was not possible
without complete cooperation of the workers with respect to putting in
longers hours and increasing productivity.  Strike activity had reached
its highest levels in history just before the war.  There had been over
1,500 diffent work stoppages in France and 3,000 in Germany during 1910.
More than a million British workers stopped at one time or another in
1912.  In Britain, France, and Germany, deals were struck between unions
and government to eliminate strikes and less favorable work conditions in
exchange for immediate integration into the government process.  This
integration was at the cost of having to act more as managers of labor
than as the voice of the labor.  Suddenly, the strikes stopped during the
first year of the war.  Soon the enthusiasm died down, thou!
gh.  The revival of strike activity in 1916 shows that the social peace
was already wearing thin.  Work stoppages and the number of people on
strike in France quadrupled in 1916 compared to 1915.  In Germany, in May
1916, 50,000 Berlin works held a three-day walkout to protest the arrest
of the pacifist Karl Liebknecht.  By the end of the war most had rejected
the government offer of being integrated in the beaurocracy, but not
without playing an important public role and gaining some advantages such
as collective bargaini...

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