The Economy The Colonies






Social Implications



Before World War I broke out, the industrialized and industrializing nations of Europe were CLASS SOCIETIES. The lifestyles of the better-off, the landowning nobility, of the business elite (factory owners, bankers, merchants, engineers), of the intellectual elite, of the farmers and of the working class being very different.
Living conditions of the working classes had, as compared to the appalling conditions early in the century, improved; people were not starving any more. But working hours still were long, the chances of children of workers to get a good education limited; in most countries workers felt being treated as second class citizens.
There are reports that some soldiers in 1914 vomitted after having consumed army food - because they have eaten meat for the first time in their lives, their stomachs being not accustomed to it.

The outbreak of World War I required the belligerent nations to mobilise all their resources. The political factions postponed internal debates. Most of the men serving on the fronts were workers.
The governments, in order to assure the soldiers' families their basic subsistence, established price control and a system ensuring equal distribution of scarce consumer goods, based on COUPONS, to prevent the rich people buying up food while the poor were starving (WARTIME SOCIALISM).
The lifestyle of the rich also changed dramatically, as most of their male domestics served at the front.

The economy - industry, administration, agriculture - required a replacement for the workforce now serving in uniform. Governments in all belligerent countries assigned jobs to women and ordered them to take up work.
The war years were extremely burdensome, as for a working family the woman had to work over day, take care of family and household in the evening, all the time fearing for the life of her husband.
Families of the wealthy also had to adjust their lifestyle, as most of the female domestics now were working in the industry. They could not continue to live in luxury, as many items were in short supply.

When the war was over, the clock could not simply be turned back. Although most women returned to take care of their families as full-time housewives, now more jobs were open to women then before, especially in the administration. In many countries (Britain, Germany etc., not France) women were given the right to vote.
The workers' movement had matured, grown from a merely tolerated political outsider into a major political force. In many countries, Social Democrats took on political responsibility; the working day was regulated (8 HOUR DAY); sunday was declared a public holiday, as was LABOUR DAY (May first).

The wealthy resumed their affluent lifestyle. Yet the domestic staff they hired after the war was smaller in number than before (partially because now they had to pay higher wages), and in general the wealthy lived less opulent in the post-war years.


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This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on November 16th 2004

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