World War One was the biggest conflict the world had ever seen. In Europe, there were millions of casualties, and America’s decision to engage in warfare had many effects on U.S. soil, even though no fighting occurred there. There were several characteristics in terms of politics, social structure, and economics before the war that dramatically changed during the war and left an impact for many years to come. The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which America changed after WWI in terms of these political, social, and economic issues through the analysis of various sources. It will become clear that, whilst Americans played a smaller part in the war than their European counterparts, engagement in war led to an increase in propaganda and racist sentiment, changed the landscape for women, and ushered in an economic boom that led to the Great Depression.
Before the Great War, there were many changes afoot in how America dealt with foreign issues. William Howard Taft sought to use “dollar diplomacy”, which used the weight of the U.S. economy as a threat to other countries without resulting to military warfare. Woodrow Wilson followed this tradition by vowing to avoid foreign conflict and avoid the expansionism that had characterized foreign relations at the turn of the century. Wilson seemed determined to minimize the role of the United States in the European conflict, despite the fact that many citizens felt that Germany was acting immorally in their approach to war. One major economic factor that helped to sway public opinion on this was that, prior to the outbreak of war, the United Kingdom was one of the biggest trading partners of the U.S., and the Allies themselves relied heavily on the Americans for exports. The United States could not afford to lose this trading partner as such a big contributor to the economy, nor would severing this link go down well with major banking partners. This not only drove America into the Great War but also had an impact afterwards, especially in terms of the Great Depression.
A major social issue prior to the war was increasing tensions between native-born Americans and recent immigrants. There were tensions between those descended from Great Britain and those from Ireland, reflecting tensions between the two countries across the Atlantic. German immigrants were also a growing minority, but “saw their nation of origin as a victim of British and Russian aggression and a French desire to settle old scores”. The war itself had a devastating effect on the treatment of recent German immigrants, who were the targets of extensive propaganda campaigns designed to sway public opinion and rally up support for the war. As noted, there was increasing tension between native-born Americans and recent immigrants before the war, but this was really exacerbated in the post-war years and changed relations between different ethnic groups.
The economic situation also changed during and after the war, and this had several social effects. The war efforts were largely dominated by industry aimed at providing the Allies with the supplies they needed to continue fighting, which boosted the economy in terms of business profits. Despite this, those who remained at home were told to avoid wasting food and individual purchasing power declined. Women were most severely affected, as they were not drafted and had to stay on U.S. soil and deal with economics. It is also notable that the loss of large numbers of men to war (whether they returned or not) had a significant impact on women’s rights. Women were suddenly needed to fill all the positions left by men who were fighting in Europe, and despite being paid lower wages and being treated much worse than their male counterparts, this ushered in an era of change for women’s rights that continues to evolve to this day.
Socially, the situation of African-Americans also changed from before to after the war. As with women, the war was viewed by some African-Americans as being a time of opportunity, but unfortunately there were also some negative consequences. Before the war, African-Americans were gaining some social rights, but there was an increase in anti-black sentiment and the Klu Klux Klan. The Birth of a Nation, for example, was released in 1915 and depicted black men as being sexually aggressive and unintelligent. This helped to increase the numbers of Klan members to 5 million by 1925, who also targeted Jewish and Catholic Americans. As mentioned above, there was an increase of intolerance towards those of non-British descent from before and after the war.
No discussion of the post-war period would be complete without an analysis of the Great Depression. Immediately after the war, America was in an economic boom era that was supported by increasing sales of cars and new industries. Unemployment was at a new low, partly because of the loss of men during the war but partly because businesses were having to expand to meet new demands. For the majority of the 1920s, Americans had large amounts of disposable income and could therefore afford new sources of entertainment on a regular basis, leading to the success of both jazz and Hollywood. This decade of American prosperity was not to last, and partly because of this exaggerated overspending and the optimism of U.S. spending, Black Tuesday and the Great Depression hit Americans hard. The stock market lost half of its value and many banks were forced to close, which of course affected the consumer.
Overall, the Great War changed America in several important ways. There was an increase in social tensions between ethnic groups, the start of women’s rights movements, and the increasing power of the Ku Klux Klan. Economically, America experienced a great boom and bust cycle that had devastating effects on the country in the long term.
