Following the Auxiliary Service Law in December 1919, which required all able-bodied Germans to work for the war effort, there was a sharp increase of social unrest as Germans felt their rights being curtailed. The winter of 1916-17 was the peak of discontent as the severe food and fuel shortages were at their worst. Civilian deaths from starvation and hypothermia increased from 121,000 in 1916 to 293,000 in 1918 and infant mortality increased by over 50% over the duration of the war. This led to huge resentment among Germans as they questioned the injustice of the loss of lives. 16% of the 1.8million who died at war were conscripted and all families were somehow impacted by the war, which consequently led to a decline in the popularity of the Royal Family.
The Tariff placed high taxes on imports leading to a decline in international trade. The United States held many loans with European countries that began to default. Reduction in international market spending in the US, coupled with the high tariffs placed on foreign countries led to unemployment abroad and foreign countries were forced to impose their own tariffs on other countries (Kelly, n.d.). The Great Depression was perhaps most devastating to the individual and family. The Depression was recorded to have decreased the marriage rate which helped lead to a decline in the birth rate.
On the other hand, the anguished effects of WWI were still enduring in the Germanic collective memory. Many Germans perceived The Versailles Treaty, signed by the Allies in 1919, as a humiliation. The treaty contained a number of heavy impositions to Germany which were socio-economically unbearable to a once great and powerfu l nation. The amount that had to be paid to the Allies as war damage 2 made the Mark lost all its value, causing a hyperinflation so severe that the prices increased by over 100 times in just one year (Bresciani -Turroni, 1968.). The hyperinflation crisis, which was only solved in 1924, lasted enough time to ruin thousands of Germanic families, thus worsening the general feeling of rage against the treaty.
Although the conditions of the agreement seemed extremely severe, the allied countries had no sympathy for the Germans. They were forced to pay excessive amounts of money as reparation fees to make up for all the damage and destruction that was caused during the war. 13% of German territory was given away and many important industrial areas were controlled by western allies. This caused a major impact on the economy and had many affects to not only the government, but German citizens as well. Many people became unemployed and were no longer able to support their families.
John majors government came into office after the downfall of Margret Thatcher, which ultimately created divisions within the party. Not only did the party suffer from the internal conflict but also faced the problems of the recession after the ‘Lawson boom’. In order to stabilise the economy he joined the ERM getting a good deal but ultimately resulting in ‘black Wednesday’ causing Major to raise interest rates to 15%. This was political suicide and he soon lost the support of the press we had once relied so much on to get re-elected in 1992. The housing market also plummeted leading to negative equity, which the majority of the working class could not afford resulting in the repossession of their houses combined with the drastic increase in unemployment Britain was in a mess.
Bartering had been common in medieval times which show how people resorted to previous looked down upon activities. Pensioners on fixed incomes suffered as pensions became worthless. Restaurants did not print menus as by the time food arrives…the price had gone up! The poor became even poorer and the winter of 1923 meant that many lived in freezing conditions burning furniture, or in some cases, banknotes, to get some heat. The group that suffered a great deal - proportional to their income - was the middle class.
The World War brought up a huge range of different issues, which plummeted an already shaky country, into a desperate country. One such issue was the economic strains that the war put on the country. The urgent need for weapons and specialised equipment drove the Russian economy into overdrive, leaving the poorest Russians without food and with an inflation rate which rose around twice as fast as wages went up. The huge numbers of men armed by Russia also meant that industries all across Russian began to slow their production rapidly, most notably of all being agriculture. This meant trade to other countries went down bringing the economy to yet another low and this lack of agricultural workers meant a lack of food across Russia, especially in towns and cities where there was no easy access to farms; and as is with most things in demand, the prices went through the roof, leaving peasants starving on a mass scale.
During autumn of 1929 the stock market began behaving highly volatile. Stock market prices were expanded to just about breaking point, and then suddenly it crashed. Because of the Stock Market Crash the gross national product dropped 40 %, $6.1 billion in 1929 to $3.5 billion in 1933 (The Canadian History Page). The Bank had no money left because of the effect of the stock market crash. Wages in the industrial sector were not keeping up with huge increase in manufacture and profits.
The failure of the Weimar Republic to fix the increasingly pressing problems of Germany consequently contributed massively to their downfall, as it demonstrated their weakness. By the early 1930s the German people were resentful of their government because of the economic issues caused by the Great Depression and Wall Street Crash. For example industrial production in 1930 had dropped by 13% of what it was in 1928, and by 1932 it had dropped by 42%. This combined with the fact many Germans still had the effects of the economic problems of the early 1920s fresh in their minds caused declining support for moderate parties and therefore the Republic. This can evidently be seen from the election results as in 1928 the SPD had 29.8% of the vote and by 1932 this had dropped to 20.4%.
How far was the impact of World War One the crucial factor in the fall of the Romanovs in February 1917. This essay will argue that the impact of World War One was a very crucial factor in the fall of the Romanovs in February 1917. The events in the Revolutions of 1905 and 1917 also show that Nicolas II was not a good leader and these events led to the fall of the Romanovs. World War One caused many problems for the Government, the army and the people at home. Having a war caused inflation, government spending rose from 4-30 million, taxation increased, and money became practically worthless and the price of food and fuel quadrupled.