Figure 1.--The total of military and civilian casualties in World War I was over 37 million: some 17 million deaths and 20 million wounded. Among the wounded were many permanently disabled including many who lost limbs. The economic consequences were enormous. It needs to be remembered that at the yime men were the primary breadwinners meaning their families were left impoverished. In additiion, far more people were engaged in manual labor than is the case today. Thus the economic consequences of losing a limb were more severe. The scene here is unidentified, but we would guess was German.

There were profound economic consequences to World War I. All Belgerant countries were damaged, both human and monetary capital was lost or impaited. Millions were killed or wounded. Mullions of children were left wuthout a family breadwinner. The most obvious impact was destruction of infrastructure on the contient, except in Germany. All of this varied from country to country. The most notable economic impact was in the two potential superpowers--the United States and Russia. The United States unlike the Europeans countries were not badly damged by the War. The United States has emerged as an industrial giant even before the War. An American acendancy just grew during the War as Europe was laid waste. The agricultural economy declined as European agriculture recovered, but the industrial ecionomy just coontinued to grow leading to the Roaring Twenties. The Russian Empire went through catertrophic transformations. First the shick of the War and then the rise of the totalitarian Soviet Union. The Soviets asdoped an ineffcent economic system which would eventually lead to its imposion. But the Soviets reported industrual gains, not larger than reported during the Tsarist regime had been report, but still impressive on the surface. What was not recoignized at the time was the inefficency of the Sioviet system. Agriucultural production actually declined, especially after Stalin's collectivization program. Britain and France were seriously weakened by War These rich countres were left debtor nations. Unlike America, there was only limited industrial expansion. Germany is often seen as being economic crippled by the War and post-War settlement. We see assessments like, "While the war was a devastating experience for France and the United Kingdom, these countries were able to recover economically without too much difficulty. It was Germany, however, that particularly suffered following the war. Under the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was required to make monetary payments to the Allies, called reparations. The heavy reparations, combined with the devastated economic infrastructure throughout Germany and political tension under the Weimar Republic, led to an economic depression." [Study.com] Nothing could be further from the truth. France and the U.K. did not recover 'easily'. Germany was required to make substanbtial reparations, but actually paid very little to the Allies. Most of the payments made was funds borrowed from American banks. In fact, Germany was not siugnificantly hurt by the Versailles Peace Treaty. Alsacep-Loraine regained from France was a loss, but the aeas transferred to Poland were not major economic losses. Germany remained the economic center of Europe with an economy only somewhat smaller than Britain and France combined. German infrastructure was not damaged by the War which was fought almost entirely in the territory of other countries. It was French infrastructure that was danaged by the War. And the Depression when it came had nothing to do with the German economy, but rather a poorly managed economic downturn in the United States which it exported overseas. A major development throughout Europe was the rise of socialism which variously affected the European economies making it even more difficult to compete with American industry.

Created: 6:01 AM 8/27/2018
Last updated: 6:02 AM 8/27/2018