European History and the Fall of Communism

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World War 1
The results of WWI were some of the worst ever, and had participants from all over the globe. Military modernization began with WWI. There were new weapons that were used, heavy artillery, automatic weapons, airplanes, vehicles, submarines, tanks, and chemical weapons unleashed catastrophic damage to combatants and destruction that had not been seen before. The battlefield in war became huge. Despite how big it became, soldiers fought for inches to advance. Bombings and new weapons brought a new kind of destruction to the war and often hindered advancement of troops on the battlefield. Politically, new nations were developed, and the last age of empires ended in the Ottoman empire. Russia went through radical changes, opening the way for the new Communist regime in the country. The United States became the dominant power of the world as Great Britain could no longer hold that position after the war. The Treaty of Versailles, brought upon Germany many reductions and put sanctions on their country which eventually led to the Nazi regime through Hitler. The sanctions were very loosely followed and no one tried to put a stop to the elevation of the military when Hitler took charge of the country. Italy became very weak and allowed for Mussolini to take power over the country. The League of Nations was developed as a result of WWI. The war destroyed Europe's economy. Many of the countries were devastated by the war and never really returned to what they were before the war. The mechanization and industry that came from the war made the economy boom for the countries that were producing war products, which rode high until the late 20s. However this was all just a cover up for the true results of WWI. Eventually things evened out and things were still rough for the economies. Millions of people lost their lives and civilian casualties were a result of this new kind of warfare.

One of the problems in World War I was that old tactics (cavalry charges, bayonets, trenches and then massed attacks) were used against new military technology (machine guns, poison gas, and massed artillery). Additionally, the medical profession had not advanced at the same rate as technology. Therefore one of the visible results of WWI was the millions of veterans who were amputees. This was due to the lack of battlefield medical technology that could save lives without amputating mangled limbs. The US did rise to power largely due to her choice to finance both Britain and Germany during the initial stages of the war and also because she chose not to enter the war until the last year. America suffered far fewer casualties and no battles were fought on her territory. Because the European nations had suffered economically and socially and had also borrowed heavily from America to finance the war they became the debtors and America became the most powerful and influential nation on earth. ...