by David Brown

Created on: December 10, 2009   Last Updated: December 11, 2009

There were many consequences of the First World War, unfortunately, the war did not end all wars and the war’s end did not result in any sort of peace at all.  There were political, economic and cultural consequences of the war and all three fell into the most horrible of events for the time and actually had a terrible impact on the near future as well as what has occurred of late.

First, we need to look at the political consequences of the First World War.  In the United States, Woodrow Wilson was president during the war.  He did not want the war, wanting to stay neutral even after the sinking of the Lusitania cruise ship by a German U-Boat, killing over one hundred Americans. 

The people agreed with the president and re-elected him.  However, circumstances caused the U.S. to enter the war in 1917 and a year later in 1918; the war did come to an end with the signing of the Armistice between Germany, the United States, France and Great Britain. 

However, this all changed the political climate in Germany as well as in the United States.  Let’s take Germany first as it was devastated with the loss of the First World War.

Germany, by signing the armistice was met with a devastating blow.  The deutschemark seemed to meet an untimely demise and was worth nothing.  The German Army was forced to disarm and all of its weapons destroyed.  This is possibly why this was the war to end all wars. 

However, because of a lowly little German corporal by the name of Adolph Hitler, Germany reversed itself and became a stronger European nation than was expected.  In 1933, Hitler became chancellor of Germany, and we all know what happened from that day on until 1945 at the end of the Second World War. 

Hitler made it possible for Germany to grow again with the most horrible of propaganda speeches making the people of Germany believe that what they were doing was right and that their country would rule the world.  Well, again, we all know what happened.

World War One also saw the creation of the League of Nations which President Woodrow Wilson fought so hard for.  However, the American people were not so keen on having it created.  The League of Nations was the forerunner for today’s very unpopular United Nations.  This was another political and economic consequence of the First World War.

When it came to cultural consequences of the First World War, we can again look to the rise and the fall of the soon to come Third Reich under Adolph Hitler.  Hitler’s propaganda machine found the Jews of Europe in a quagmire.  Hitler blamed the Jews for the world’s problems and with his writing of Mein Kampf, developed what became the Final Solution to the “Jewish Problem.” 

Hitler wanted and convinced his people to believe that it was the Jews who wanted and strived to rule the world so they had to be exterminated before this became a reality to him and to his people.  So, as has already been mentioned here, we know what happened. 

Six million Jews were put to death, yet, with the end of the Second World War, the Jews who survived the Holocaust were scattered throughout the world.  With this came the creation of the State of Israel.

So, looking at the political, economic and cultural consequences ever so briefly, so much can be said of how World War One had an effect on the future of the world.

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