Five Transformative Effects of World War One on the Modern Era
Exploring World War One’s Enduring Legacy
“War is a locomotive of history,” declared Leon Trotsky, one of the masterminds behind the Bolshevik Revolution.
And he was spot on.
Of course, Trotsky was thinking about how World War I turbocharged the progress of the Bolshevik Revolution — a cause he knew intimately.
But really, throughout recorded time, war has always had a knack for fast-tracking the course of history.
Trotsky’s insight finds a curious echo in the words of American political scientist Quincy Wright. In his volume A Study of War, Wright likened war to a fire that burns away what is no longer useful and releases energy for fresh creation. Yet, he wisely cautioned that, if not kept in check, war can become a destructive blaze, consuming the very foundations of society.
Looking back, even a pacifist like me might grudgingly admit that earlier wars often accelerated history without utterly wrecking it.
Think about it: the wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries helped sweep away feudalism and chipped away at the Holy Roman Empire. The Reformation’s religious conflicts reshaped European politics, ideologies, societies, and even faith itself. Fast forward to the nineteenth century, and the Napoleonic and revolutionary wars heralded the advent of democracy and the rising tide of liberalism.
But then came World War One, a conflict like no other.
(For those readers who would like to know more about the madness, futility and destructiveness of World War One, you can read my earlier article here: )
World War One wasn’t just another war; it was an unprecedented upheaval that left the world in shock and gasping for breath. Ten million men were killed on the battlefield and ten million more souls were lost as a result of starvation, disease and exposure to the elements.
The sheer scale, the unrelenting duration, and the ferocity of the battles were beyond anything anyone had ever experienced or prepared for.
And the aftermath? A world irrevocably changed, grappling with profound and lasting damage that reshaped society forever.
The Effects on Society, Culture and Contemporary Thought
I am always moved by the poetry of T.S. Eliot and W.B. Yeats who vividly captured the post-war world, barren and bewildered by the war’s devastation and a society overcome with a sense of disillusionment, fragmentation and fear.
In The Waste Land, Eliot asks, “What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow / Out of this stony rubbish?”
Similarly, Yeats, in his apocalyptic poem The Second Coming, writes: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, / The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned.”
These powerful words reflect the profound tragedy, horror, and disillusionment felt by society, echoed in new forms of art and culture.
Pablo Picasso’s fragmented forms and abstract representations in his Cubist works mirrored the fractured reality of the time.
In literature, Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway explored the deep scars left by the war on individuals and society, mirroring the era’s profound sense of chaos and loss.
Young people, disillusioned by an older generation that led them into a devastating conflict, rejected former societal norms. The carefree attitudes and riotous behavior of the ‘Roaring Twenties’ embodied a desire to break free from the rigid rules of the past and create a new world, almost living by the creed of “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” This reflected a focus on living for the present, given the uncertainty of the future.
However, not all the social consequences were negative!
If you remember the series Downton Abbey, you’ll recall the breakdown of social barriers that occurred following World War One.
Children from all social classes were evacuated from cities and lived together in close quarters, women from diverse backgrounds worked side by side in munitions factories, and soldiers from all walks of life fought together in the trenches.
Fashion and hairstyles also evolved dramatically post-war. Women discarded tight corsets and long, restrictive hairstyles for shorter, looser dresses and bobbed hair — much to the older generation’s horror. The modern woman openly smoked, drank, went to nightclubs, and danced.
Greater use of birth control, like the diaphragm, gave women more freedom from constant childbearing, allowing them to pursue more independent lives. As proof of women’s elevated position in society, they finally gained the right to vote on the same terms as men in Great Britain by the late 1920s!
In The Wake of World War One: The Russian Revolution
Did you know that without World War I, our political landscape today might look entirely different?
And it all began with the first Communist revolution in Russia.
Russia, already teetering on the edge with internal rebellions, military defeat, unrest, and a burgeoning working class, and the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II experienced a whirlwind revolution in 1917. This apocalyptic shift likely wouldn’t have happened so rapidly if not for the catalyst of World War I.
Here’s the thing: if Russia had emerged victorious from World War I, the Romanov Dynasty might have clung to power. Russia might have evolved into a constitutional monarchy.
When war broke out in 1914, a country ripe for upheaval actually rallied behind Tsar Nicholas II. Like their European counterparts, Russians cheered as their young men marched off, confident of a swift and glorious triumph.
But as the war slogged on, the brutal reality of attrition set in.
Food shortages became dire as more land-tilling peasants were conscripted into the Russian army. The country’s transportation system crumbled under the strain of delivering food and weapons. Riots and mutinies erupted, and the workers — whom Lenin dubbed the proletariat — turned away from the Tsar and embraced the revolution and all it promised with zeal.
When the Tsar abdicated, Russia briefly flirted with democracy under Alexander Kerensky, a man with high hopes for his beleaguered nation. However, Kerensky’s Provisional Government made the critical mistake of keeping Russia fighting in World War I, despite the desperate need for peace.
This decision turned the Russian army into a powder keg for a second revolution. The soldiers, much like their counterparts across Europe, were exhausted and disillusioned with the ongoing carnage. Mutinies became alarmingly frequent, with soldiers turning their guns on their commanders.
By 1917, when ordered to quash the uprisings in St. Petersburg, the troops did an about-face and joined the revolutionaries.
This dramatic shift led to the arrest and eventual execution of Tsar Nicholas and his family, paving the way for Lenin and the Bolsheviks to seize power in November 1917. Lenin, responding to the cries of the people, promptly pulled Russia out of the senseless bloodshed of World War I.
This was a groundbreaking moment — the first time Karl Marx’s Communist ideology took root in a political system.
From here, the idea spread to China, Vietnam, Korea, Cuba and other nations, and was directly responsible for subsequent terrible wars: including the Vietnam War, the Korean War, the 1980s Afghan War, and the brutal conflicts in Latin America like the Nicaraguan Revolution, the echoes of which still linger globally today.
The rise of communism in Russia also set the stage for the Cold War starting in 1946, (but that’s another story!)
I’m not saying that Communism would never have become established in Russia, but the question begs: without the upheaval of World War I, could Russian politics have evolved more peacefully, rather than through the violent upheaval of revolution?
What if Alexander Kerensky’s version of democracy had survived, making the Russia of today a totally different place?
The Collapse of Empires and Changes to Europe’s Map
Nowhere is the dramatic impact of World War I more evident than in the transformation of Europe’s political landscape.
Just compare the maps of Europe before and after the war, and you’ll see a continent utterly transformed.
Out of the ashes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire arose new nations: Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. Serbia disappeared from the map, only to re-emerge as a part of Yugoslavia, setting the stage for future conflicts in the region.
This redrawing of borders laid the groundwork for the turmoil that erupted under Marshal Tito during World War II and later contributed to the terrible Balkan wars of the 1990s. These wars were driven by ethnic tensions and the struggle for dominance in a region fractured by the legacy of World War I, leading to devastating conflict and humanitarian crises.
The collapse of the once-mighty Hapsburg and Ottoman empires further transformed the European map. The Hapsburg Empire’s dissolution fragmented Central Europe, leading to the creation of new nation-states like Poland, which re-emerged after over a century of partition and foreign rule.
Meanwhile, the Ottoman Empire’s downfall saw the end of centuries of Ottoman influence in Southeastern Europe and the Middle East leading to the formation of modern Turkey and the redistribution of lands to European powers, setting the stage for future Middle Eastern conflicts.
Before World War I, the United States was staunchly isolationist. Its diverse immigrant population had left Europe in search of a better life, rejecting the old continent’s conflicts and class struggles. The U.S. had no interest in entangling itself in European wars — until the unthinkable happened.
The German government’s decision to engage in unrestricted submarine warfare and intervention Mexico drove American leaders to enter the war. However, President Woodrow Wilson’s (D-New Jersey) subsequent decision to enter the war in 1917 was driven by a desire to make the world “safe for democracy.”
After the war, Wilson spearheaded the creation of the League of Nations, an ambitious but ultimately flawed attempt to prevent future global conflicts. Despite its initial reluctance, the U.S. found itself forever tied to European affairs.
World War One marked the beginning of America’s transition from isolationism to a prominent role on the world stage — a shift that profoundly influenced its foreign policy throughout the 20th century and beyond.
This transformation in global geopolitics is a testament to how World War I not only redrew borders, but also redefined national identities and international relationships in ways that are still present today.
Echoes of Collapse: World War One’s Economic Legacy
World War One exacted a heavy toll on global economies, with profound repercussions that resonate even today.
Germany, held solely responsible for the war under the Treaty of Versailles, faced crippling reparations bills that devastated its economy. The reparations, combined with war debts and inflation, plunged Europe into financial instability, shattering confidence in markets and institutions.
The Great Depression of the 1930s was significantly influenced by the economic aftermath of World War One.
Together with the precarious state of European markets and banks, war debts owed by European nations to the United States created further economic strain. These debts, vital for financial support during the war, required substantial repayments, diverting resources from domestic economies and constraining growth.
The collapse of international trade further exacerbated the situation as disruptions in global trade patterns and protectionist measures, such as tariffs, stifled economic recovery efforts.
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 marked the tipping point, triggering widespread banking failures and plunging economies into depression.
The economic consequences of World War One thus played a pivotal role in precipitating the Great Depression, reshaping economic policies and global relations for years to come.
The harsh lessons learned from the economic devastation of World War One shaped subsequent approaches to economic stability and international cooperation, paving the way for institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
The Rise of Adolf Hitler and the Seeds of Future World Conflict
“Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand… A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun… And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” — The Second Coming by W.B. Yeats, 1919
Earlier, I quoted Yeats’ powerful poem, The Second Coming. His use of the phrase “rough beast” and the imagery of it “slouching towards Bethlehem” evoked an ominous sense of an emerging force or new, unknown, frightening era after World War One.
For me, however, that ‘rough beast’ wears a toothbrush-style mustache and a swastika on his arm. Germany, bruised and battered after World War One, awaited its own “Second Coming” in the form of Adolf Hitler.
The aftermath of World War One left Germany in turmoil. The abdication of the Kaiser led to a succession of unstable democratic governments unable to address the severe economic and social challenges.
Germany endured not one but two major economic crises: the first marked by hyperinflation so severe that by November 1923, one US dollar was worth 4,210,500,000,000 German marks. The German people’s life savings became worthless and they were forced to scavenge in the gutters for food and fuel.
Next came the devastating blow of the Great Depression, plunging the nation into deeper despair.
Amidst this turmoil emerged Adolf Hitler, a man with a magnetic voice and an uncanny ability to tap into the German psyche.
He denounced the Treaty of Versailles as a crime against Germany, promising to tear it up and reclaim lost territories. He rallied the German people with visions of national greatness, promising full employment, fair prices for farmers, and a restoration of Germany’s pride.
And how did Hitler propose to expand Germany’s borders again and restore pride and glory to the Ubermensch?
By entering World War Two.
Thus, World War Two and its far-reaching consequences were a direct result of the unresolved tensions and economic hardships imposed by World War One.
Hitler’s rise to power and the subsequent global conflict underscored how the seeds of conflict sown in the aftermath of the Great War continued to bear bitter fruit for the world.
Conclusion
I could probably write pages more on the world-shattering and new-world-creating consequences of World War One, but I hope I have shown both the immediate and far-reaching impact this terrible war exacted on society at the time, and how the world we know today would not be as it is without World War One.
Consider this: You are reading this article online on the wonderful Medium platform. But, if not for World War One, there’s every chance the internet as we know it today may not exist.
The urgent military needs during both World War One and World War Two spurred governments, researchers, and engineers to push the boundaries of technology, paving the way for transformative advancements that shaped the modern world.
Early electronic military computers like Colossus and ENIAC laid the groundwork for future computing innovations. Post-war research efforts, including projects like ARPANET in the late 1960s, aimed to create interconnected computer networks. Innovations such as packet switching and the standardization of TCP/IP protocols in the 1970s and 1980s were critical in establishing the global internet we use today for all our online and social media experiences.
Do you need any further proof that Trotsky was right?
World War One was indeed a ‘locomotive of history’, propelling humanity into an era of unprecedented technological and social change… and it still shapes and influences our world today.
