The Mechanics and Impact of Finance in the First World War Essays

Decisions for War, 1914-1917 by Richard Hamilton and Holger Herwig investigates the origins of the First World War detailing individual country’s reasons for entering the war. Historians at War by Anthony Adamthwaite explores how scholars have understood the origins of the Second World War throughout varying times and differing national view points. Both works share a common theme of determinism; a retrospective notion placed on historical events by historians that Europe was inescapably predestined to go to war and that nothing nor anyone could inhibit that. Both remark that this popular approach does a disservice into the explanation of war as it does not accurately depict the economic and social agency present in Europe at the time. In

This essay analyses the origins of the Second World War by briefly summarizing the events from 1919-1939. However, most emphasis is put on the amount of responsibility the Treaty of Versailles deserves for the outbreak of war. Other than analysing the Treaty of Versailles on its own, it also analyses the effects of the 1929 Wall Street Crash on the world, the rise of Fascism and Nazism, as well as the rise of Adolf Hitler, the failure of the League of Nations and the appeasement of the Fascist and Nazi regimes by Britain and France throughout the 1930s. Hence the Treaty of Versailles plays a

Germany started out as a divided nation fighting for dominance in Europe. Otto Von Bismarck was able to take this struggling complexity and unify it. During this process Bismarck turned the small country of Prussia into a powerhouse, growing the population from 11 to 18 million. Bismarck sprung from a landlord class and moved his way up the political ladder as realpolitik, realistic Politician. He was a man of simple ideals; he stressed duty, service, order, and the fear of God. These ideals along with manipulative tactics are what lead Bismarck on his journey of the unification of Germany, proving that without Bismarck’s diplomatic efforts between 1871 and 1890 Europe would not be the stabilized continent it is today.

As much as Europe’s worldwide empires had globalized the war, so too its economic linkages

The First World War of 1914-1918, also known as the Great War, was the first total war in history. What began as a European struggle over the balance of power between the triple alliance of France, Britain and Russia on one side and the central powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary on the other, soon became a global conflict that involved the imperial powers of Europe, their colonies and lands such as the Ottoman Empire, Japan and the United States. Although the sheer number of countries involved in the conflict is enough to describe the First World War as a mass war, what makes it total is the fact that it was waged not only against the enemy’s armies, but also against the civilian

Prior to the First World War, Europe was the world center of industry and capital. Massive death, destruction, and resentment after World War I left most countries unable to recover to a normal existence and damaged the world economy. The economic collapse and the political instability caused by World War I eventually led to the rise of fascism in Europe. Forceful dictators in Italy, Germany, and Japan took advantage of these problems to seize power by territorial expansion. These events caused a major repositioning of world power and influence. This paper traces a variety of significant factors and forces that contributed to the outbreak of World War II.

Chapter 28 Descent into the Abyss: World War I and the Crisis of the European Global Order

The Economic reasons was a big problem that cause the war too. From Document C ( Historian Howard Zinn) was talking about loans to protect US investments in England and France.

When most people talk about World War I, they typically only talk about the Western front. The Eastern front was entirely different compared to the Western front but equally as ghastly. Nonetheless, the one thing both fronts had in common was the vitality of the German army, which was the only country that fought a two-front war, as it had to fight in the West against the Entrance powers of France and Great Britain and in the East against the Russia. Germany had to bear the brunt of the fighting on both fronts as Austria-Hungry proved incapable of resisting Russian offensives without German support. The support of the Entrance and Central powers’ home fronts were essential to the war efforts and came in multiple forms such as economic assistance or social acceptance. For instance, the West proved to be an effective adversary against the Central Powers as the Entrance Powers’ approach to economic warfare disheartened the Central Powers’ armies and helped undermined their ability to wage total war. Total war demanded total mobilization of all a nation's resources, but what the most important resources were, differed between the two fronts. For example, vast munitions industries had to be built to provide supplies for the stalled armies on the Western front but in the East, providing transportation and the mobility of such transportation was the most significant challenge. While both fronts faced their own unique challenges, overcoming such challenges was key to military

Germany emerged from World War I with huge debts incurred to finance a costly war for almost five years. The treasury was empty, the currency was losing value, and Germany needed to pay its war debts and the huge reparations bill imposed on it by the Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended the war. The treaty also deprived Germany of territory, natural resources, and even ships, trains, and factory equipment. Germany’s population was undernourished and contained many widows, orphans, and disabled veterans living in poverty. The new German government struggled to deal with these crises, which had produced a serious hyperinflation.

Monetary elements were another constituent that realized the frightful World War I. After the mechanical Revolution spread outside of Britain, the quantity of purchaser requests and makers battling for business sectors expanded, setting off an expansion of rivalry for what appeared to be a steady economy for the timeframe. Furious nationalistic emotions were escalated by this opposition, bringing on the sentiment a country's predominance of another, expanding the odds of particular threats. To secure themselves, European countries joined into abroad states, yet by 1900 the best areas for colonization had as of now been vanquished, which likewise brought on rivalry for the couple of regions that rested. A case of this was when Germany and France,

The ‘decades of crisis’ between both World Wars in Europe was an armistice lasting twenty years. Given France’s resentment towards German occupation, and postwar peace and economic conditions placed on Germany by the Versailles Peace Treaty,Karl von Clausewitz referred to the period as ‘war by other means.’ The treaty redrew borders to destroy the Austria-Hungary ally of Germany and once redrawn, thirty-eight independent economic units replaced the pre war twenty-six, and there were twenty-seven currencies in comparison to the fourteen before the war. These geopolitical changes gave rise to nationalist upheaval and new waves of hostility among neighboring nations. Imposed geographical changes affected local politics and occupied local and

World War I occurred as a result of a number of political, social, and economic changes that were taking place at a rapid pace in the region. A prominent transformation was the onset of industrial revolution that accompanied these changes. Many countries were investing significantly in industrialization while undergoing transformation that was changing the face of society. To enhance patriotism and to achieve objectives that were otherwise impossible, political forces were utilizing notions like nationalism. In this scenario, the colonies of European nations became the cause of significant rivalry and disputes, settled only after the blood of millions was shed. The war had far-reaching consequences for all nations that were involved in the conflict such that the entire boundaries of many countries were remarked. This paper will discuss the impact of nationalism, industrialization, and colonialism on WWI and its occurrence.

“The German Empire in 1871 was constitutionally a federal state based on a compromise between Prussian dominance and the attempt of other, medium-sized states to keep their autonomy” (Wolf).

To fight the battles in the 1914-1918 conflict, nations used all the resources available as the conflict cost enormous amounts of money and caused mass causalities for all nations involved. The cost of the war can be seen when the Allies will not negotiate for peace as the only way for them to afford the war is for them to win . The British Empire spends $47 billion on the war and Germany spends $45 billion on the war . The nations have spent so much money paying for the war that the only way for them to have economic prosperity after the war is for them to win and make the losing nations pay them reparations. Nations have put