Social, Economical, And Political Effects Of World War I Essays

Social, Economical, And Political Effects Of World War I Essays Social, Economical, and Political Effects of World War I "Everywhere in the world was heard the sound of things breaking." Advanced European societies could not support long wars or so many thought prior to World War I. They were right in a way. The societies could not support a long war unchanged. The First World War left no aspect of European civilization untouched as pre-war governments were transformed to fight total war. The war metamorphed Europe socially, politicaly, economically, and intellectualy. European countries channeled all of their resources into total war which resulted in enormous social change. The result of working together for a common goal seemed to be unifying European societies. Death knocked down all barriers between people. All belligerents had enacted some form of a selective service which levelled classes in many ways. Wartime scarcities made luxury an impossibility and unfavorable. Reflecting this, clothing became uniform and utilitarian. Europeans would never again dress in fancy, elaborate costumes. Uniforms led the way in clothing change. The bright blue-and-red prewar French infantry uniforms had been changed after the first few months of the war, since they made whoever wore them into excellent targets for machine guns. Women's skirts rose above the ankle permanently and women became more of a part of society than ever. They undertook a variety of jobs previously held by men. They were now a part of clerical, secretarial work, and teaching. They were also more widely employed in industrial jobs. By 1918, 37.6 percent of the work force in the Krupp armaments firm in Germany was female. In England the proportion of women works rose strikingly in public transport (for example, from 18,000 to 117,000 bus conductors), banking (9,500 to 63,700), and commerce (505,000 to 934,000). Many restrictions on women disappeared during the war. It became acceptable for young, employed, single middle-class women to have their own apartments, to go out without chaperones, and to smoke in public. It was only a matter of time before women received the right to vote in many belligerent countries. Strong forces were shaping the power and legal status of labor unions, too. The right of workers to organize was relatively new, about half a century. Employers fought to keep union organizers out of their plants and armed force was often used against striking workers. The universal rallying of workers towards their flag at the beginning of the war led to wider acceptance of unions. It was more of a bureaucratic route than a parliamentary route that integrated organized labor into government, however. A long war was not possible without complete cooperation of the workers with respect to putting in longers hours and increasing productivity. Strike activity had reached its highest levels in history just before the war. There had been over 1,500 diffent work stoppages in France and 3,000 in Germany during 1910. More than a million British workers stopped at one time or another in 1912. In Britain, France, and Germany, deals were struck between unions and government to eliminate strikes and less favorable work conditions in exchange for immediate integration into the government process. This integration was at the cost of having to act more as managers of labor than as the voice of the labor. Suddenly, the strikes stopped during the first year of the war. Soon the enthusiasm died down, though. The revival of strike activity in 1916 shows that the social peace was already wearing thin. Work stoppages and the number of people on strike in France quadrupled in 1916 compared to 1915. In Germany, in May 1916, 50,000 Berlin works held a three-day walkout to protest the arrest of the pacifist Karl Liebknecht. By the end of the war most had rejected the government offer of being integrated in the beaurocracy, but not without playing an important public role and gaining some advantages such as collective bargaining. The war may have had a leveling effect in many ways, but it also sharpened some social differences and conflicts. Soldiers were revolting just like workers: They [soldiers] were no longer willing to sacrifice their lives when shirkers at home were earning all the money, tkaing, the women around in cars, cornering all the best jobs, and while so many profiteers were waxing rich.

Quotes by Ahmed Skou Tour

Quotes by Ahmed Skou Tour Without being Communists, we believe that the analytical qualities of Marxism and the organization of the people are methods especially well-suited for our country.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, first president of Guinea, as quoted in Rolf Italiaanders The New Leaders of Africa, New Jersey, 1961 People are not born with racial prejudices. For example, children have none. Racial questions are questions of education. Africans learned racism form the European. Is it any wonder that they now think in terms of race after all theyve gone through under colonialism?Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, first president of Guinea, as quoted in Rolf Italiaanders The New Leaders of Africa, New Jersey, 1961 An African statesman is not a naked boy begging from rich capitalists.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, first president of Guinea, as quoted in Guinea: Trouble in Erewhon, Time, Friday 13 December 1963. The private trader has a greater sense of responsibility than civil servants, who get paid at the end of each month and only once in a while think of the nation or their own responsibility.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, first president of Guinea, as quoted in Guinea: Trouble in Erewhon, Time, Friday 13 December 1963. We ask you therefore, not to judge us or think of us in terms of what we were or even of what we are but rather to think of us in terms of history and what we will be tomorrow.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, first president of Guinea, as quoted in Rolf Italiaanders The New Leaders of Africa, New Jersey, 1961 We should go down to the grassroots of our culture, not to remain there, not to be isolated there, but to draw strength and substance there from, and with whatever additional sources of strength and material we acquire, proceed to set up a new form of society raised to the level of human progress.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, as quoted in Osei Amoahs A Political Dictionary of Black Quotations, published in London, 1989. To take part in the African revolution it is not enough to write a revolutionary song: you must fashion the revolution with the people. And if you fashion it with the people, the songs will come by themselves.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, as quoted in Osei Amoahs A Political Dictionary of Black Quotations, published in London, 1989. At sunset when you pray to God, say over and over that each man is a brother and that all men are equal.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, as quoted in Robin Halletts, Africa Since 1875, University of Michigan Press, 1974. We have told you bluntly, Mr President, what the demands of the people are ... We have one prime and essential need: our dignity. But there is no dignity without freedom ... We prefer freedom in poverty to opulence in slavery.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©s statement to General De Gaulle during the French leaders visit to Guinea in August 1958, as quoted in Robin Halletts, Africa Since 1875, University of Michigan Press, 1974. For the first twenty years, we in Guinea have concentrated on developing the mentality of our people. Now we are ready to move on to other business.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©. as quoted in David Lambs The Africans, New York 1985. I dont know what people mean when they call me the bad child of Africa. Is it that they consider us unbending in the fight against imperialism, against colonialism? If so, we can be proud to be called headstrong. Our wish is to remain a child of Africa unto our death..Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, as quoted in David Lambs The Africans, New York 1985. People of Africa, from now on you are reborn in history, because you mobilize yourself in the struggle and because the struggle before you restores to your own eyes and renders to you, justice in the eyes of the world.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, as quoted in The Permanent Struggle, The Black Scholar, Vol 2 No 7, March 1971. [T]he political leader is, by virtue of his communion of idea and action with his people, the representative of his people, the representative of a culture.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, as quoted in Molefi Kete Asante and Kariamu Welsh Asantes African Culture the Rhythms of Unity: The Rhythms of Unity Africa, World Press, October 1989. In the history of this new Africa which has just come into the world, Liberia has a preeminent place because she has been for each of our peoples the living proof that our liberty was possible. And nobody can ignore the fact that the star which marks the Liberian national emblem has been hanging for more than a century the sole star that illuminated our night of dominated peoples.Ahmed Sà ©kou Tourà ©, from his Liberian Independence Day Address of 26 July 1960, as quoted in Charles Morrow Wilsons Liberia: Black Africans in Microcosm, Harper and Row, 1971.