By 1918, the country was hit by very high inflation and unemployment was high. Italy expected a lot from the treaty of Versailles. However, Italy received very little from the treaty. The Italian public believed that her leaders there had been humiliated as Italy was seen as a secondry figure at Versailies. The Italians did not get what they felt had been promised at the Treaty of London and that caused resentment especially at the losses Italy had endured fighting for the Allies.
By the time it came to 1918 food shortages had caused riots and discontent and the government was finding it difficult to keep the army supplied. Industrialists became independent on war time business and they severely struggled when the war came to an abrupt end in 1918. Due to the opposition from many neutralists the government operated through the use of emergency powers, where parliament played the role of simply rubber stamping legislation. The Italian socialists openly condemned the conflict as a capitalist or ‘bosses’ war. Italian politics was largely divided during war years.
In these winter months there were signs of the country’s morale and unity breaking, it was not helped when Germany was hit with an influenza epidemic, wiping out 20-40 million, the resistance to the disease was lowered due to decline in living conditions. Inflation was also a problem facing Germany after the war, the people were forced to work longer hours, but wages still fell below the inflation rate. As a result of these effects social discontent grew, and anger was expressed at sharks of the industry who appeared to be making money from the war. The
In the early stages of the war the Army saw success at Galacia, but they saw heavy losses at Tannenburg and the Masurian Lakes. The next six months of the war was a disaster for the Russians. They suffered many defeats and were pushed back 200-300 miles, losing Poland, Lithuania and parts of Ukraine. The losses for the Russian army were overwhelming. There were nearly 4 million dead, wounded, captured or missing.
Then, Countless number of individuals lost their life savings along with the Depression. After 3 years, the value of stock on the New York Stock Exchange was worthless. Also, millions of Americans were out of work at the same time. Banks, individual businesses, and factories were failing everywhere. Even, income of farmers fell about 50 percent (Gene, 2008).
From the start there was economic instability because of the cost of World War One and there was widespread disillusion within the German people. The public did not support the Weimar, and the administrative branch of the government, including the Judiciary, also teachers did not back it up either. Mass unemployment, damages to the infrastructure also from World War One, and the demand for reparation payments put lots of pressure on the inexperienced democracy. Not only in Germany, but all over Europe, fundamental and anti-democratic movements gained support. 2.
According to Darwin (1988: 65), twenty five percent of the national wealth was needed for war supplies, restoration of industries and reconstruction of the buildings. In addition, Britain did not have a strong military base as a result of industrial decline: the country was short of manpower and could not re-arm itself because of mobilizing man for war. As a result the development of new technologies declined especially in the aviation and Britain could barely defend itself during the war (Darwin, 1991: 43). Although the USA allowed Britain to have large amounts of ammunition without paying for it to be able to defend herself, Britain still had difficulties financially. American aid was very important to Britain as the means given could be used to restore industries and pay for imports of food and raw material (Darwin, 1991: 44).To pay for imports of
Before the PG came into power, the already dire economic, agrarian and social problems were getting worse and worse as the war continued and as a result, the majority of Russians opposed the war effort. This meant that from the beginning of their reign, the PGs decision to carry on with the war made them unpopular as food shortages and the economy got worse and worse. For example, by 1917, the price of bread had doubled while the rations halved from their original figures in 1914. This discontent was proven as early as April the 20th as a riot broke onto the streets demanding that Milyukov, the head of Russian foreign affairs and key war minister, was sacked. This was significant as it meant that in the times of potential danger for the PG, they couldn’t rely on the people to support them.
This was further enforced when the value of the Italian Lira sank to 1/5 of its pre-war value. For many Italians, these were strenous times. In addition, the period witnessed massive unemployment, especially among industrial workers. The year 1920 saw the rise of additional industrial problems as Italian workers engaged in a series of strikes, many violent. The biggest problem with these strikes was that workers took over the factories and plants and with workers in physical control of the venue for production, it became impossible for many factories to function at all.
Germany made a number of costly mistakes throughout the war, which in-turn led to their defeat in World War 1. Throughout the war, they had a number of opportunities to defeat the allies, but they failed to work effectively. Germany suffered defeats on the land and the sea; they failed to distribute public expenditure equally between the military and civilians, which led to unrest on the home front, which essentially led to their defeat in 1918. The failure of the Schlieffen Plan can be considered to be one of the most important reasons for the defeat of Germany in the First World War. Germany strongly believed that future wars would include short and rapid mobilization, which would be key for achieving victory.