Chapter : 1. The Making of a Global World
Wartime Transformations
Wartime Transformations :
The First World War was fought between two power blocs. The Allies - Britain, France and Russia (later joined by the US) and the Central Powers - Germany, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Turkey.
(i) The fighting involved the world's leading industrial nations which now harnessed the vast powers of modern industry to inflict the greatest possible destruction on their enemies.
(ii) It was the first modern industrial war which saw the use of machine guns, tanks, aircraft, chemical weapons, etc. on a massive scale. The scale of death and destruction was unthinkable (9 million dead and 20 million injured). These deaths and injuries reduced the able-bodied workforce in Europe, household incomes declined after the war.
(iii) Industries were restructured to produce war-related goods. Entire societies were also reorganised for war - as men went to battle, women stepped in to undertake jobs that earlier only men were expected to do.
(iv) The war led to the snapping of economic links between some of the world's largest economic powers which were now fighting each other to pay for them. The war transformed the US from being an international debtor to an international creditor.
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