World War One

The Terrible Slaughter that Changed the World – Will Hutton

Europe before 1914

• No women voted

• Empires flourished

• Class distinctions were very important

• Servant class

Europe before 1914

• Women, foreigners, blacks seen as inferior

• Organized religion still powerful, especially among poor

• Industrialization had brought some examples of extreme wealth but poor working conditions

Europe/USA before 1914

• Life expectancy in cities half that in the shires

• However, labor was still very disorganized

• Workers still tended to vote for traditional parties through deference rather than nascent working class parties (e.g. Labour Party in GB)

• In America, Democrats incorporated organized labor – no new party emerging

• Huge amount of emigration to America

Harbingers of Change • Kaiser in Germany losing some power to

parliament

• Austria-Hungarian and Russian autocrats under increasing pressure to democratize

• Strikes more common

• Suffragette movement fighting for women to get the vote

• Old age pension in GB

• Freud

Consequences of the War

• End of Austria-Hungarian, Russian, Turkish and German empires

• Emergence of smaller, self-governing states

• Power with people rather than crowns and churches

Consequences of War - Secularism

• Communism

• Soviet Union

• 9 million dead

• Where was God?

Consequences of War – Working Class Solidarity

• Why didn’t the soldiers mutiny?

• Loyalty to each other

• Led to rise of trade unionism

• Start of support for w/c parties – why vote for the people that led you into the war?

Consequences of War

• Newspaper reading up

• Women at work

• Women and the vote

• Fairer taxation

• End of servant class

Consequences of War

• Fascism – counter-reaction to the progressivism of previous slide (Italy/Spain/Germany) as well as TOV

• End of mass emigration to USA – US becomes insular and isolationist