In addition to its unprecedented geographical extent, World War I introduced something else new to warfare by affecting civilian populations in ways never before experienced. Aerial bombing and long-range artillery brought the terrors of combat directly into civilian homes. The need to keep vast forces constantly supplied with food, equipment, arms and ammunition, airplanes, ships, and vehicles at the same time able-bodied men were being lost to military service taxed countries to their breaking points. Governments assumed even greater control over every aspect of peoples' lives.
As the war groudn on, it affected more and more apsects of the daily lives of civilians. Accustomed freedoms were taken away, shortages of all kinds of consumer goods made life harder, traveling became more difficult, and life in general became harsher and less comfortalbe. At the same time, people grew more anxious about how the war was going, and more and more families lost sons, brothers, and fathers in the fighting.
Despire the general hardening of conditions and miseries that people suffered, the war brought positive changes. In most of the countries, it helped break down social class distinctions. Even more significantly, it advanced the emancipation of women by bringing them into the workplace, thereby widening their future economic opportunities. It also helped them win the right to vote in several countries after long years of struggling for political equality. In Great Britain, for example, the Representation of the People Act of 1918 lowered the voting age for men to 18 to reward young soldiers returning from the war. For their contributions to the war effort, women were also granted some voting rights. Full voting equality would not come until 1928, but the 1918 law was a huge turning point.
- Watch America in the 20th Century: WW1 on the Homefront
- Read Century for Young People pages 33-41.
- Read Treaties, Trenches, Mud and Blood pages 115-124
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