Total War: WWI and its Devastating Impact
Total War and Its Consequences
The First World War was differentiated by its size and scope. It affected all major world powers, especially Europe. With its beginning came the era of total war: all the resources of a country were intended to obtain victory. The only objective was winning the war. The triumph was to be complete, achieving the unconditional surrender of the entire enemy population.
Social and Economic Consequences
Most countries resorted to a war economy, planned and directed by the state. Economic liberalism was abandoned because the war proved that capitalism could be organized by the government with the collaboration of companies and unions. Most of the male working population was at the front, forcing the use of scarce female labor. The result was an increase in the social influence of women and their work outside the home.
The financial cost of the war was enormous. European countries were ruined because they had used up their resources. There were evident possibilities in the defeated powers but also problems among the victors. Central banks made new issues of money, which led to an increase in loans to individuals and inflation. They asked for loans from foreign countries, benefiting enormously the United States. Its leadership as a global economic power was backed by possessing half the gold reserves of the entire world. In most of Europe, there was general economic chaos.
The Human Consequences
The human cost of World War I was incalculable. At the front, there were around 10 million dead, and numerous civilian casualties occurred in the rear because of hunger and disease. The psychological impact of the Great War on the European population was much higher as it meant the destruction of 20th-century society. The physical and psychological scars of the conflict were terrible. The figure of maimed war veterans became generalized; they often longed for war and were not integrated into society. Ethnic cleansing, genocide, and deportations of national or cultural minorities that were uncomfortable to the states began.
Ideological Consequences
The war was a major ideological crisis. Initial enthusiasm and persecution were used against those who expressed pacifist ideas or refused to collaborate with governments. Within the socialists, a split occurred:
- Those who remained faithful to the idea of a universal revolution against the bourgeois governments, thinking the war was a fight brewing between governments.
- Those who actively supported their respective national governments by voting for war credits in parliaments, persecuting dissidents, and even accepting ministerial portfolios.
The triumph of the Bolsheviks in Russia compounded the division in the socialist movement throughout Europe. There were numerous intellectuals who initially viewed the Great War with enthusiasm. They associated it with a romantic spirit of rebirth against bourgeois materialism and a triumph of patriotism.