Despite isolationist sentiments, after the War, the United States became a world leader in industry, economics, and trade. The world became more connected to each other which ushered in the beginning of what we call the “world economy.”

Consequences of Second World War

• End of colonialism and imperialism.
• End of dictatorship in Germany and Italy.
• Germany was divided into West Germany and East Germany.
• Strengthening of nationalist movements in Africa and Asia. (
• 5 crore deaths (2.2 crore soldiers and 2.8 crore civilians)

The entry of the United States into World War II caused vast changes in virtually every aspect of American life. Building on the economic base left after the war, American society became more affluent in the postwar years than most Americans could have imagined in their wildest dreams before or during the war.

The First World War destroyed empires, created numerous new nation-states, encouraged independence movements in Europe’s colonies, forced the United States to become a world power and led directly to Soviet communism and the rise of Hitler.

Competition for employment led to racial unrest and race riots breeding hatred and suspicion which spilled over into the Red Scare and the fear of communism. The introduction of Prohibition led to the rise of organized crime, speakeasies, gangsters, increased violence and massive political corruption.

The war resulted in the death of empires and the birth of nations, and in national boundaries being redrawn around the world. It ushered in prosperity for some countries, while it brought economic depression to others. It influenced literature. It changed culture.

Major problems at the end of the war included labor strikes and race riots, and a lag in the economy due to farmers’ debts. The Red Summer of 1919 saw an increase in violence in more than two dozen cities, as returning veterans (both white and African American) competed for jobs.

The socialist movements had declared before the war their opposition to a war which they said could only mean workers killing each other in the interests of their bosses. Once the war was declared, most socialist and most of the trade union decided to back the government of their country and support the war.

[25] Beginning in 1914, the Socialist Party was the political force most consistently expressing opposition to the war. Eugene Debs and the socialist Congressmen Meyer London and Victor Berger, all spoke out against the war and in favor of U.S. neutrality.

Pacifists are people who are opposed to war for moral or religious reasons. Some pacifists are opposed to all wars, regardless of the war’s causes, while others only oppose wars that they believe are based upon immoral justifications.

Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand: set higher tensions for the countries and alliances had to go to war. Why did the following groups of Americans tend to oppose US participation in the war? Naturalized citizens: didn’t want to be forced to fight. Parents: did not want their children to go to war.

Opposed Wobblies spoke out against the war in their newspaper, Industrial Worker; Wobblies believed they could not be forced to fight in a war they did not agree with. The Wobblies’ antiwar views gave their enemies a chance to attack them as disloyal; federal agents raided some of the Wobblies’ meeting halls in 1917.

Pacifists and Wobblies (IWW members) opposed the war. The Pacifists had the biggest impact because they made the reform efforts smaller. A government-issued bond sold during World War I to raise money for the Allied war effort.

Arguably the most profound effect of World War I on African Americans was the acceleration of the multi-decade mass movement of black, southern rural farm laborers northward and westward to cities in search of higher wages in industrial jobs and better social and political opportunities.

Q: Why did the United States choose to stay neutral in 1914? Put simply the United States did not concern itself with events and alliances in Europe and thus stayed out of the war. Wilson was firmly opposed to war, and believed that the key aim was to ensure peace, not only for the United States but across the world.

The war set families in motion, pulling them off of farms and out of small towns and packing them into large urban areas. Urbanization had virtually stopped during the Depression, but the war saw the number of city dwellers leap from 46 to 53 percent. War industries sparked the urban growth.