They were for the first time bombed as targets - both on the Western but also on the Eastern front. Evidently, it most have been worse on the Eastern Front, as the warfare was very quick to mobilise; they did not care if they 'hit' a small town during fighting.
Economical Impacts
Annotations:
The economy was worse on the civilians. This was for example seen suring the blockades of the German harbours by the Brits.
U-boats
Annotations:
The U-boats and the blckades caused that they were hit by food shartages and rationing systems esp. in GB and Germany.
New technologies
War at air
The Zeppelins
The Airships
Aircrafts and mobilisation
War at sea
U-boats
Annotations:
Played a huge role in the outcome of the war, as the blockades of esp. the Germans meant that they ran out of supplies and food. This ultimately led to a defeat by Germany that could no longer wothstand the heavy pressure made by the Allies.
War at land
Chemical Warfare
Tanks
Heavy artillery
Aims
The Allied Powers
USA
Great Britain
France
Russia
Italy
Romania
(Portugal)
The Central Powers
Austria-Hungary
Germany
Turkey
Bulgaria
The increase of governmental power
Russia
Great Britain
Annotations:
· Dec 1916, Lloyd George set up a Ministry of Labour and a Ministry of Food to coordinate war production and food supplies.
· Munitions of War Act from 1915 – the government banned strikes and restrictive working
practices in some industries.
· 1917, rationing started after the Germans sank British merchant ships.
· 1918, the rationing had expanded to most food.
· The government took control over 2.5 million of acres of unused land.
Germany
Annotations:
They did put up an allocation system for some raw materials, however, never to the
same degree as done in GB. The
economy was never centralised as in GB. The Hindenburg Programme, August 1916 à General Hindenburg and General Ludendorff gained
more and more control over the economic situation of the country – some historians argue that at this point, GER was experiencing a ‘military
dictatorship’. All non-essential industries were shot down, whilst the production of machine guns
and artillery were increased. The
Auxiliary Labour Law stated that all men from the age 17-60 to work. The government decided the profession. The number of female workers increased by 46%. They
increased the amount of paper currency, whilst borrowing a lot of money (not from US) à inflation. Due to the economic unrest, the people became more and more unsatisfied and started
protesting. This led to the later rise of Hitler in the 20s and 30s.