EFFECTS OF WWI ON WORLD REGIONS
WESTERN EUROPE (Including Germany):
At the end of WWI, it became questionable whether or not W.E. was powerful enough to continue its
domination as world power. Britain’s empire was under attack by nationalist movements and many other European
nations’ colonies were pushing for independence after promises of moves toward self-governance and independence
were ignored. However, independence for most colonies would not come until after World War II (later 1940s1960s). France experienced massive casualties and suffered immense property damage because most of the battles
along the Western Front were fought on French soil. As a result, France and Britain hoped to prevent the aggressors
of WWI from waging another war – especially Germany.
Germany was in a fine mess at the end of the First World War. After the Treaty of Versailles was signed as
an end result of the Paris Peace Conference (1919), Germany was forced to pay massive reparations to France and
Britain. Also because of this treaty, Germany had to admit war guilt, had limited military and naval powers, and lost
its empire in Europe and overseas. Japan was the big winner of Germany’s lost colonies in Asia. In order to regain
their former glory and solve the terrible economic crises that gripped their nations after WWI, totalitarian leaders
like Hitler and Mussolini came to power. Their goal was to unite their people under nationalism making a strong
power, without “impurities.” Revenge on the Allied Powers was a major goal. They would seek this revenge in
WWII.
OTTOMANS, EGYPT, & THE MIDDLE EAST
The Allied powers promised the Arab people that if they gave the Allies support during WWI to fight the
Ottomans, they would be free to form independent Arab nations. As a result of their loss to the Allied Powers and
the decisions of the Paris Peace Conference, the Ottoman Empire was dissolved. Out of the Ottoman Empire came
the Republic of Turkey (established by reform-minded Ataturk) and the Middle Eastern core was divided by Britain
and France into mandates (ex. Iraq, Syria, Palestine) that they oversaw on behalf of the League of Nations. The
promise was that these mandates would receive independence once functioning democracies were established in
each. In addition, during the war, Britain promised with the Balfour Declaration that the Jews would return to their
homeland in the Middle East. This would fulfill one of the key goals of the Zionist Movement that had gained in
strength before WWI of Jews receiving their homeland once again in Palestine (Israel). This promise would bring
Arabs, the British, and Jews into conflict once Arabs realized that British promises of independence before the war
would not be met and that Arabs would be forced to give up control of areas of their homeland to Jewish outsiders.
Jews began to immigrate to Palestine after WWI.
In Egypt, the war caused inflation, food shortages, and starvation. When Egyptian representatives’ call for
a hearing at the Paris Peace Conference was ignored by the Allied Powers, revolts against British authority were
sparked in Egypt. The revolts were suppressed, but at high costs. The Wafd Party encouraged Egyptian
nationalists to unify Egypt and gain independence. The British finally began to withdraw in 1922; however the
Khedival Regime was preserved and Britain promised to intervene in Egypt if it ever faced foreign threats. The
Suez Canal was still of strategic importance to Britain’s empire. The khedives continued to ignore the needs of
Egypt’s peasantry. In 1952, Gamal Abdul Nasser, an Egyptian nationalist, carried out a coup against the Khedives
and established a new government. Nasser seized the Suez Canal for Egypt alone.
SOUTHEAST ASIA (including Vietnam [French Indochina])
At the start of World War I, Indochina, or what is now Vietnam, was under French control. It was
originally intended to be a source of raw materials and natural resources; but as the war gained momentum, the
Southeast Asians were used as troops. The British recruited troops from Burma, while the French used Vietnamese
troops. Throughout the war, Indochina was promised independence at the end of the war as long as they continued
to support the war effort. Ho Chi Minh, a western-educated nationalist leader in Indochina, traveled to the Paris
Peace Conference, hoping to gain support of the Allied Powers so there would be pressure on France to grant
Indochina (Vietnam) its independence. His requests were ignored and felt further outrage toward the Western
world. The failure of Western European rulers to address Ho Chi Minh’s complaints would prove a mistake when
he later rose to become the leader of the communist troops during the Vietnam War in which he fought against both
the French and the USA.
RUSSIA
The effects that World War I had on Russia were intense. From changes in governmental structure to
realizing their backwardness from the modern world, it is evident that Russia changed drastically from WWI.
Attempts of social reform, including eventual demands by Lenin and his Bolsheviks for communism, caused an
unstable government structure that eventually led to a civil war in 1917. Before and during early WWI, Russia
lacked in weapon advancements and modern technology (despite their recent, rapid industrialization process since
1861) which led to the highest number of casualties in the world as a result of the war. Nicholas II’s leadership
which was already in question due to his unwillingness to give up absolute power, was further undermined when he
proved to be a weak military leader on the Eastern Front. This, along with false reforms from Russia’s government,
caused peasant revolt and labor protest. The end result was the forced abdication of the last czar, failed attempts at a
unpopular parliamentary structure (largely because it insisted on continuing the war against Germany), and the
eventual creation of a communist regime. After WWI, Russia was faced with international problems (fears of
communist influence) which led to their being banned from attending the League of Nations and the development of
the Soviet Union (USSR) under Vladimir Lenin.
CHINA
The effects of WWI were devastating and humiliating for China. This is mainly because Japan took land
from China in the Shandong Peninsula and other territories in China that were formally under the influence of
Germany, as a result of the Paris Peace Conference’s Treaty of Versailles. These loses caused China’s people to
form nationalistic ideals to unite together to remove the Japanese and oppose other Western domination. This led to
the May 4th Movement (1919), a mass protest movement amongst mainly western-educated students who attempted
to transform China’s government into a liberal democracy, to revolt against China’s old ways (such as
Confucianism), and to protest Japanese occupation and the injustice of the Treaty of Versailles. China felt that they
had been ignored by the Allied Powers despite the fact that China had thrown its support behind them during the war
Japan, however, had beneficial effects as an outcome of WWI. . Japan was the true winner in the region of
East Asia. Japan’s decision to ally with the Allied Powers allowed them to become a greater imperial power from
the land that was granted to them by the Treaty of Versailles. Since they only mainly fought with Germany in WWI,
their casualties were not of the great quantities of other major powers. Japan continued to grow in might and
marched further down the path of imperialism.
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
As African colonizers, the Europeans entered the world war without knowing the future of their colonies.
Forcible recruitments of the Africans and their extraction of raw materials (such as oil, jute, and cotton) for war
supplies further fueled the African independence movements. Also, Africa began to see all of the European
mistakes of the war and started to wonder if the Europeans were truly the supreme race. This led to nationalism and
anti-colonial settlements throughout Africa. However, like most other European colonies, African colonies would
not gain independence until after WWII (1950s-1960s, for most).
The British and other Europeans made promises to their colonies that all would be well after the war.
These promises were not kept and more independent movements paired with nationalistic ideals were rampant. The
idea of Pan-Africanism (the hopes of uniting ALL Africans for the sake of opposing European domination) became
popular, but had limited success. African-American civil rights activists like Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. DuBois
encouraged these ideas and influenced elite African nationalist leaders. Also, the Negritude Movement, a literary
movement amongst western-education African writers, sought to glorify African culture and race (“Black is
beautiful”) in opposition to the popular European view of white racial superiority. It would take a while longer
before African colonies were able to unite on a large scale to resist European colonial rule.
USA
Like Japan, the US was taken even more seriously on the global stage as a result of their economic and
military might in support of the Allied Powers. The war effort proved a boom to the US economy, military
successes beginning in 1917 pushed the once mighty Germany Empire to the point of surrender, and the US
attempted to lead the peace settlements that followed WWI (President Woodrow Wilson). However, despite the US
suggestion of the development of the League of Nations and hopes of self-determination (allowing a group of people
determine for themselves the form of gov’t they wish and without the influence of outside nations), the Paris Peace
Conference exposed Europe’s (esp. Britain’s and France’s) plans to maintain their superiority. The US never joined
the League of Nations. The US retreated into a foreign policy of isolationism until war broke out between Germany
and its American allies. This began a gradual process of opening up again, until the US became fully involved in
the war upon Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor (Dec. 1941). The 1920s was a period of economic prosperity for the
US, but this was shattered by a global depression that began in 1929 and lasted until the outbreak of WWII.
SOUTH ASIA
Before 1918, India’s nationalist movements were fragmented, but gained focus and intensity following the
conclusion of WWI. India was used by Britain as a source of raw materials (ex. cotton) for the war effort, troops,
and as a limited industrialized area (one of the few colonies that experienced industrialization). Despite promises by
the British for moves toward self-governing and, soon, independence, for India’s support in the war, these promises
were soon forgotten. British rule became ever more economically monopolistic and crushed Indian civil liberties
(Rowlatt Acts). The British oftentimes violently crushed protests against the continuation of the Raj and its unfair
restrictions on civil liberties (Amritsar Massacre). In response, western-educated nationalist leaders such as Nehru
and Gandhi (members of the Indian National Congress [INC]) and Jinnah (Muslim League) each pursued their own
strategies for independence. They built a mass base of support. Gandhi and Nehru sought to maintain India’s unity
with Hindus and Muslims while seeking independence from the British through actions of civil disobedience and
passive resistance (satyagraha). Jinnah and the Muslim League demanded independence from Britain that would
result in a separate nation for Muslims (Pakistan). To gain support for this demand, the Muslim League threw their
support behind Britain during WWII while Gandhi and Nehru continued their application of satyagraha. In 1947,
independence finally came, but the nation was partitioned into a secular India with a Hindu majority (led by the
Indian National Congress Party and Nehru as P.M.) and an Islamic Pakistan (led by the Muslim Leage and Jinnah as
P.M.). The partition of India led to devastating refugee migrations of Hindus and Muslims fleeing to their respective
nations. More than 500,000 were killed in religious fighting during these migrations. Tensions between India and
Pakistan remain tense, especially since both produced nuclear weapon arsenals by the later 20 th century.
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
Apart from the enormous costs of war for all involved both human and financial, WWI created fallout that
impacted nearly every region of the world. Attempts at resolving the causes of conflict at the Paris Peace
Conference (1919) in all reality heightened tensions and created new crises that would threaten the continued
powerful position of Western Europe in the world. The Treaty of Versailles (as part of the Paris Peace Conference)
guaranteed the development of a vengeful Germany and Italy in Europe and gave concessions to Japan in East Asia
and the Pacific. European imperialism continued despite many promises before the war of gradual moves toward
colonial self-rule. Colonial nationalists were ignored at the Paris Peace Conference. Nationalist movements,
usually led by native western-education elite pushed for independence using strategies such as civil disobedience
and violence. This meeting also saw the breakup of the Ottoman Empire and the division of the Middle East into
mandates. However, some cultural groups in Europe, however, did see their hopes of self-determination met (ex.
Slavs = Yugoslavia, Poles = Poland). An attempt at internationalism (the principle of cooperation among nations
through such actions as diplomacy for the promotion of the common good including the avoidance of war [vs.
nationalism]) was seen in the development of the League of Nations. Nonetheless, this international diplomatic
organization proved limited in its abilities to prevent aggression by other powers (ex. Hitler and Tojo). Russia
experienced revolutions in 1917 that ultimately led to the establishment of the communist Soviet Union under the
leadership of Vladimir Lenin. The US and Japan were taken even more seriously as global powers. Japan
proceeded on its course towards being the major imperialistic power in Asia and the Pacific.
STATUS OF WOMEN IN WESTERN EUROPE & THE USA
Due to labor shortages during WWI, women replaced men in many jobs. They assumed a greater role in
heavy industry for the sake of the war effort and to replace the great number of male workers whom had gone off to
fight. This challenged the “natural” gender roles of women as the homemaker. However, this trend did not last.
After the war, most women resumed their domestic duties while men returned to their jobs. Nonetheless, this aid by
women for the war effort infused many women with a sense of independence. This was shown in the 1920s by the
new modern woman: carefree and risqué. The women’s suffrage movement intensified. Many Western European
nations and America extended the right to vote (suffrage) to women (USA = 1919, Britain = 1923).