Describe the social, political and economic effects of WWI

This yearning for security manifested itself economically and was especially evident in the Danube valley.  Finding themselves without the labour and capital that had previously come from Germany, and fearing for their safety, the successor states instituted protective export and import tariffs not observed in the Europe of half a decade ago.  Another element of the post-war continental economies was growing currency instability that occurred as their gold reserves rapidly and unevenly flowed to the USA in debt payments.  Inflation, too, was universal, but particularly plagued Germany, which was printing much money at the time, Austria and Hungary, where the League of Nations intervened economically, and Poland and Russia.  Much needed stabilisation came with US loans to Germany from 1924, as capital once again began to flow to Europe and growth reappeared.  Immediately after the war, however, economic destitution in Europe was comprehensive.  Primarily, resources were depleted; most of the workforce was killed, factories and farms were destroyed, little capital was available and shortages were ubiquitous (except for the USA, which improved economically during the war).  Communications and infrastructure were badly hit by the fighting and took long to reconstruct, for Europe's manufacturing production reached only around 75% of what it was in 1913.  Unemployment soared, but evened out as more women were trained to take over male positions in industry.          

        Meeting the new female roles that sprouted from a heavily disrupted gender ratio, legal adjustments ensuring equal pay and other protection were established, (social change, unsurprisingly, was slower in following).  The League of Nations also guaranteed minorities in the newly formed, nationality-oriented states the freedom to establish and use religious, cultural and linguistic institutions.  This spreading ethnic awareness was felt in colonies, which gradually increased their independence.  For example, India gained self-sufficiency as a result of growth in British created industries to produce for Imperial operations in the Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia during the war.  Nationalism generally rose, especially in Germany and newly created states, as a means of quick mobilisation of labour and, more typically of Nazism, the conversion of defeat and sorrow to hatred and pride.  Germany found this strategy especially successful, even in alleviating the acute post-war problem of low birth rates and poor population growth, with the help of the abolition of contraceptives and abortions.  The slow population growth was another social indicator of the depression and insecurity felt in most European countries for many years after 1918.  These feelings were realistic, as society's landscape was bleak at the time:  Families were torn as thousands of women and children became widows and orphans; because of bombings, numerous people lost their homes and were displaced but were often provided with neither shelter nor welfare.  In general, the social ramifications of WWI were mixed.

        World War One, the war that should have ended all wars, was the most terrifying and large-scale confrontation the old world had experienced.  As it ploughed through European cities and countryside, it slaughtered people and animals in cold blood, razing settlements to the ground and bringing industry to its knees.  The social, political and economic effects of the first world war were so historically influential that they have not only defined the immediate future, but continue to shape our present existence.