What were some of the effects of ww1 on ordanary citizens?

Question: What were some of the effects of ww1 on ordanary citizens!?
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This question is difficult to answer quickly, because it's somewhat vague and depends on what you mean by "ordinary citizens"!.

The most obvious effect that the Great War had on ordinary citizens was that it called millions of them to do battle using conventional strategy with new weapons!. The result was that many were killed or maimed, and almost all of them were exposed to horrific scenes of death!.

But the First World War was also the stage for many other significant advances in human understanding!. Some of the greatest achievements of the 20th century, and indeed mankind's very existence, occurred as a result of WW1!.

For example, Fritz Haber (a war criminal who is responsible for Germany's gas warfare - including the first attack at Ypres) invented a process for a nitrogen fixation reaction between nitrogen and hydrogen over an iron substrate which yielded ammonia!. This had two effects: Firstly, it enabled the German war machine to continue to churn, because it allowed them to produce the much needed ammonium nitrate used in gun powder (which they desperately lacked, as the British held the Chilean nitrate belt and had cut them off from saltpeter imports); secondly, and far more importantly (apologies), the Haber process is now responsible for the production of 100 million tonnes of fertilizer every year, which is used to feed 1/3 of the world's population!.

Another important effect of the war was that it galvanized the women's suffrage movement in much of the developed world, as women took up much of the load in keeping the war economics going!. Women were given the vote in Canada and the UK in 1918, and in the US in 1920!.

The war also served as a grounds for many of our current countries to set the stage for their independence!. Countries such as Canada and Australia actually owe much of their existence to the hard fought battles in which their ancestors fought during the war!. Battles such as Gallipoli and Vimy ridge serve to mark the birth of many former colonies!.

The war also led to the enforcement of reparations against Germany by many Allied countries (France most notably), which sent that country's citizens into despair and squalor!. The despair and squalor inflicted gave way to anger and hate, which were used by the National Socialist Party (the Nazis) to gain momentum for another war and a purge of european jews!.

So you see that to try and simplify the explanation of what effects the First World War had!.!.!. is really no easy affair at all, because there are just far too many to name!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Which country!? and which theater!? and do you include the military with ordinary citizens!?

For instance, ordinary citizens in France, particularly northeast France, and Belgium suffered greatly since the majority of the war was fought there!. Ordinary citizens in Russia suffered as their nation could not afford the war!. Without aircraft to bomb them daily, ordinary citizens in England were immune from most of the war's destruction, but had to bear the brunt of the war economically!. In the United States, the war was really over before ordinary citizens felt a lot of pain!.!.!.!.

That being said, here are some of the effects:

First, a lot of "ordinary" citizens died in the war!. For instance, in the Third Battle of Ypres, in Belgium, over 850,000 British, Commonwealth, French and German troops were killed, injured or captured!. (As a comparison, total U!.S!. casulties in World War I, combined killed and injured, were just over 250,000!.)

As a result, ordinary citizens, particularly in England and France, were very anti-militaristic and anti-nationalistic in the interwar period!. While we blame Chamberlain and Daladier for appeasing Hitler, and they share some of the blame because they were supposed to be leaders, we need to remind ourselves that they were largely following the dictates of the people in England and France who elected them!. In the interwar period, remembering a lost generation of dead soldiers on European battlefields, ordinary citizens of France and Britain did not want another war with Germany!.

Thirdly, the unsanitary conditions caused by WW1 led to the Spanish influenza outbreak that followed the war!. The flu was probably transported to Europe by American soldiers during World War 1 -- it was first reported in Fort Riley, Kansas, among other places!. Returning colonial soldiers, such as Commonwealth soldiers from India and Fiji, took the flu worldwide!. Between 50 million and 100 million people died as a result of the epidemic!. While it can not be said that the Spanish flu outbreak would not have happened if WW1 had not existed, it is clear that WW1 greatly magnified the effect due to the conditions of the war zone and close proximity of large amounts of infected troops!.

A fourth impact would be economic weakness that increased the effects of the Great Depression!. Because of the cost and destruction of World War 1, European countries found it difficult to combat the effects of the American stock market and subsequent depression in the United States!.Www@QuestionHome@Com