The Aftermath of The Great War

Meredith Harbison
Katelyn Wetzel
Derek Wilbert
 Battered Europe
• War weary and war torn Western Europe looked for revenge
after the brutal years in the bloody trenches.
• After Kaiser Wilhelm abdicates and flees Germany an
armistice quickly follows on November 11th
• In Paris a peace conference convenes to create what will
become The Treaty of Versailles
 Treaty of Versailles
• Germany was held personally responsible for the war and
was forced to pay reparations to the Allies.
• Germany was forced to cede Alsace-Lorraine, coal mines
in Saar to France
• Most of West Prussia and Posen was given to Poland
• The Rhine was demilitarized
• All colonies and possessions were released
• All war materials given to allies
Affects of the Treaty
 Germany
• Germans reached the top
of the inflationary chart
after the war going from
4.6 million marks to 4.2
trillion marks

• Germany was hit hardest

by inflation because of the
immensely high war
reparations
Germany’s Losses
 United States
• Before the was the U.S.
economy was in a
recession, but a 44 month
economic boom ensued
from 1914-1918.
• After the war, America
was doing great because
we were making a huge
amount of money for
supplying ammunition and
supplies to other powers.
 Positives vs. Negatives
• The mass loss of life in
WWI disillusioned many
Americans against the war
• However, the cost for
fighting for freedom is
never too high
 World War I
• Over 100,000 American lives were lost in the fight for
democracy
• This generation was nicknamed “The Lost Generation”
because of the casualties in the trenches despite having the
lowest casualty amount in the war.
 Changes in American Culture
• After the war and devastation occurred the American
populace wanted nothing more but to shrink back into its
shell
• The war propaganda made many blame foreigners for the
problems leading to a vast wave of anti-foreignism and
xenophobia that intoxicated Americans into the 1940’s
 Struggling Finances
• The once reliable money
lender of the Western
European nations now
found themselves millions
of dollars in debt to the
war fund.

• The rapid printing of

money began to steadily
increase inflation during
the after war years
Price Changes in the 1920s
Communism:
•system of social organization in which property
(especially real property and the means of
production) is held in common.

•In modern terms, Communism is applied to the

movement that aims to overthrow the capitalist
order by revolutionary means and to establish a
classless society in which all goods will be
socially owned.
 Anti-Communist Tide
After the horrors of The feelings rose against
World War I and the anything “Unamerican” and
tremendous loss of life, xenophobia ran rampant.
America wanted to
return to its traditional Anti-Foreign and Anti-
policy of strict Communist feelings both
isolationism began to rise after troops
returned from World War I
 Red Scare Outbreaks
• Starting with the Czar
toppling in Russia by
the radical Bolsheviks
in 1917 and lasted
through 1920
• The fear of anarchism
and revolution
sparked a strong
feeling against the
“non-native” socialists
and communist parties
Carl Marx: Idea of Communism
started with him
 Finding Commies on Home Soil
• While our men were over
fighting the “Huns”, many
American's fought at
home. Anyone who
wasn’t as patriotic as
possible (draft dodgers,
“slackers”, German-
Americans, immigrants,
and communist) were
suspected
 Communist Discontent
• In the Seattle docks a large scale strike led by alleged
Communist sympathizers led to the United States Marines
being sent in to return the workers to their posts
• In the next summer multiple race riots erupted in dozens of
cities, leaving many dead and many more wounded
• A police strike centered in Boston led to a ton of theft and
vandalism sweeping through the unprotected streets
• Steel workers struck and slowed the return to normal
economy
 Communist Resistance
• Wilson appointed a new Attorney General Alexander
Mitchell Palmer whose reign was characterized by illegal
search and seizure, unwarranted arrests and detentions, as
well as mass detentions

• He was eventually defanged by the bombing of his house

and became of little note after
 The Hunt is Over…
When companies started realizing that deporting immigrants
(many of them were accused of being communist) took out
a major source of labor, the newspapers stopped featuring
the Reds. They started objecting the over zealous Red-
hunters.
New Transportation
• Ingenious entrepreneur Henry Ford
reshaped American History by the
mass production of the Model T

• “I will build a motorcar for the great

multitude” Ford oft was quoted.
 Revolution of the Automobile
• Cars strictly for the
affluent was a thing of the
past as Henry Ford’s
assembly line swept into
factories everywhere.

• Henry Ford was churning

out a car every 24 seconds
in the prime of the
assembly line
 New Affluence, New Toys
The newly booming economy and stock market led to a
sharp rise of the standard of living in America.
With the new money and the ending of a military
production board the economy shifted to a consumer based
one.
The creation of the radio, television, and cars changed
American ways of life.
 TV
1925 - October 2: Scottish inventor John Baird invents the
first form of a television
 Everlasting Companies
• NBC and CBS were
created in the 1920s and
are still around today
– Covered the 1928 Election
– Hired musicians,
comedians, and sold
advertisements.
• Schwebel’s Bread
What Went On!
 Impact on America
• The new ease of transportation and the seemingly endless
supply of natural oil led Americans to flock to the suburbs
• The recreational view switched from the group and get
together, to the solemn and quiet car drives
• The tremendous boost kick started an American economy
and continued the boom until the end of the Roaring
Twenties
 The Boom of the Bear
• During the twenties and its unparalleled rise of prosperity
the “Bear” stock market rose to an unprecedented high
• The idea of “Buying on Margin” and Incremental
payments lead to a mass buy and sell during the decade
following WWI
The Economy
The 1920's was, for 8 years and 3/4 of 1929, a
very happy decade. Lots of positive things will
be forever know from the 1920s!
 Works Cited
• 13th Edition of the American Pagent
• Burnett, Paul. "The Red Scare". 3/29/2010
<www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials
/saccov/redscare.html>.
• "The Model T Ford". 3/30/2010
<www.modelt.ca/history.html>.
 Works Cited Continued
• "World War I: Aftermath". Holocaust
Encyclopedia. 3/29/2010
<www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?
lang=en&modulId=10007429>.