American Literature

The year 1914 to 1918 saw the world powers of that time engage in military conflict which was what eventually came to be called World War 1. The war was between the allies and the central powers. The war was said to have been specifically triggered by the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, who was to be heir of the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination saw retaliation and because during that time, alliances between specific nations had been formed, most of the nations around the world went to war. The conflict continued until November 11, 1918 when the German army surrendered in what was called Armistice Day (Spencer and Priscilla 10).

    World War 1 brought a lot of changes to society, some of which are still experienced today. Changes that span till today were in the arena of technology, social changes and economic changes among others. This paper will have an in depth look at the different ways that world war one has continued to influence our society even today.

Discussion
Culture can best be described as an integrated pattern of human belief, behavior and knowledge it is a shared set of values, attitudes, and practices amongst a people or a group.  Society in itself can be defined as a group of humans distinguishable from other groups by their mutual interests, relationships, shared institutions, and a common culture (Asa 15). Thus in relation to the continuing influence of World War 1 on culture and society, we are looking at how the war has changed or brought an evolvement in the beliefs and lives of human beings as one.

The happenings of World War 1 saw an upsurge in technological innovations that have revolutionized the world till today especially when it comes to how military conflicts are carried out in this day and age. Among other things, the World War one saw advancements in war technology which included the invention of chemical warfare, fighter aircraft, more sophisticated guns and other machines (Spencer and Priscilla 35) Were it not for the first basic inventions of some of the fighting equipment from World War 1, the world would not have had a base upon which to make improvements, in order to come up with the advanced weapon machinery, used today. The invention of chemical warfare for example during World War 1 has even today left a mark on society. We today hear of how superpower and non- super power countries are threatened by the thought of a nuclear war. The debut of chemical warfare during World War 1 led to this because it is those first chemicals that were used back then, that have been modified to give us what we know today, as the deadliest threat ever. So as you can see, World War 1 influenced technology and we feel that influence to date.   

A second factor we saw from World War one was the loss of some countries, and the birth of new ones. Some countries became independent while others were divided to carve out new countries. An example is Austria-Hungary, which after the war, was partitioned into several states. These included the present day Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. The Russian Empire of that time was also divided and it bore what we today know as Finland, Latvia, Poland and Lithuania. In addition, the end of World War one also saw the establishment of Israel. In fact, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that we see today was also as a result of the resentment, and unstable power dynamics in the Middle East, which took place after World War 1 (Spencer and Priscilla 57). As is obvious, these countries would today not be there, if it had not been for World War 1 and in addition, most likely the power surge between Israel and Palestine would also not be taking place. So as far as change of countries is concerned, World War 1 also had an impact on that front.

On the economic front, the war saw an expansion of governmental power for France, the U.S. and Britain. In these countries, new laws e.g. tax laws were created, and this brought about changes in these countries (Spencer and Priscilla 98). Some of the changes of that time led all the way up to the Great Depression, which we know from our history books changed America, and other economies forever.

On the social front, due to the fact that there was a massive loss of life, especially in terms of men, the workforce saw a decline in workers. This resulted into high numbers of women having to go into work for they were now to be the breadwinners. Their joining the workforce also gave birth to the struggle for the voting rights of women which thanks to that struggle, women can today vote.
World War 1 was also primarily the catalyst for World War II. The power struggle that was never reformed during World War 1 emerged again as World War II. In fact, Germany felt that they had been dealt with unjustly after World War 1 thus why you saw the rise of Hitler, and we all know the atrocities he committed, and which till today, are fresh in the minds of people, especially the Jewish men and women (Spencer and Priscilla 110).

    World War 1 as we have just seen above still has a continuing influence on todays society and culture. We have seen that economically, country wise, socially, technologically, and conflict wise, the world is not the same as a result of the 1914-1918 war. I believe that its influence will still live on for many more generations to come.