What Was the End Result of World War I?

World War I was originally known as "The Great War" and was also commonly referred to as "the war to end all wars." It wasn't until the next great war, World War II--the one after the one that was supposed to end war--that it became known as World War I. The end result of WWI is felt to this day, as many national boundaries that were drawn as a result of it are still in place, and Russia and France will always have to deal with the fact that an entire generation of young men was lost on the battlefields and in the trenches of Europe. Another generation would grow up between the world wars, only to fight in the later.

Casualties

The human cost of WWI was staggering. Approximately 10 million soldiers died in battle. It is estimated another 20 million soldiers and civilians died of war-related causes, including starvation, disease and exposure to chemical nerve gas. Millions more were critically wounded during the war, which left 6 million crippled. The Allies suffered the most losses. The United States entered the war late, and its losses weren't nearly as great as the other Allied Powers, such as Russia and France, who lost millions upon millions of young men.

The World Map

The borders of the world map were drastically altered by WWI, mainly in Europe. What was formerly a collection of nations of the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, German and Russian empires before the war became a group of independent countries after. Now Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hungary existed where the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been. Poland now existed on what used to be Austrian, German and Russian territory. Also new to the map were the countries of Yugoslavia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Finland.

The League of Nations

Precursor to the United Nations, the League of Nations was formed in 1919 as a direct result of the war. The League found its genesis in U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's "14 Points for Peace" speech, delivered in 1918, wherein the final point states that an association of nations must be formed to ensure peace and independence among sovereign nations. Ironically, the United States didn't ratify the treaty of the League of Nations after it was formed because of political infighting in the Congress. Historian Kenneth C. Davis wrote in his book "Don't Know Much About History" that this lack of participation by the United States left the League "doomed to pointlessness."

The Treaty of Versailles

In 1919, Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles, admitting guilt for the war, disarming itself, giving up much of its territory, returning territory it had seized and surrendering its overseas colonies. The giving up of territory meant many German-speaking people were now citizens of new countries, such as Czechoslovakia and Poland. Germany was also required to make economic reparations for the war. Since Germany was in deep debt due to the cost of waging war, these demands for reparation were nearly impossible to meet.

Effects

Most historians agree that the harsh conditions placed on Germany as a result of the Treaty of Versailles had a direct correlation to the rise of fascism in that country in the form of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. Hitler made it clear that he wanted to reunite the German-speaking peoples who were separated as a result of the treaty and this, along with a host of other complaints, including rabid anti-Semitism, led to Nazi aggression, one of the root causes of World War II.

Resources

• The Rise of Hitler