WW1. Economy, society, post-war world and consequences (4º ESO)

WAR ECONOMY: 

• economic activity was directed towards military effort.
• new inventions: telegraph, telephone, aeroplanes, submarines, grenades, machine-guns, poison gas, etc. 
• no enough workers in factories -->  production decreased  --> shortages --> prices increased --> rationating systems --> black market.

                                  

SOCIETY

• men were conscripted or recruited into the armed forces (this kind of adverts were used): 

                                                           

• women replaced men in factories and offices. When war had finished, there were no enough jobs for everyone so women were fired or paid less than men. 
• Suffragette movement campaigned for women´s suffrage

                           


PEACE SETTLEMENT

• Representatives of the Allied Powers met at the Paris Peace Conference: 

                          
                             

• Wilson proposed a reconciliation between the participants; however, the Allies Powers rejected that idea: they wanted Central Powers to compensate them for their looses.

The peace treaties: 

• Five treaties were ratified
• Treaty of Versailles established severe terms for Germany
• No tanks or any air force.
• to return Alsace-Lorrane to France
• A corridor of land, that was given to Poland, divided East Prussia from the rest of the Country. 
• Pay reparations to the European Allies.
• Sing the war guilty-clause
• Because of this Treaty, German people felt humiliated by its harsh conditions. 

The League of Nations

International organisation that would guarantee peace and prevent future wars (previous UN). However, the Central Powers were not allowed to join the League. 


CONSEQUENCES OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR

• Death and injury (millions of casualties and less population and work-forced)
• Material destruction --> damage to the European economy
• Economic decline --> United States became the world´s leading economic power 
• New European states: the big empires disappeared and new states were created. 
• Colonial changes: Allied Powers controlled old Central Powers colonies; these were known as mandate territories.