The Impact of the WWI on the Local Populations: Broadcast
Good evening, America!
The topic of today’s broadcast will be the impact of the First World War on the life of the local populations. At the end of the nineteenth century, the life of the local populations including women, African Americans, and lower classes followed established patterns. Women continue to perform traditional work, such as farming, sewing, and housekeeping, African Americans experienced segregation, and working class worked non-normative employment day under dangerous conditions for miserable wages. One should note that the 1800s were a great period for the development of the American economy, but the transition to the new century opened new opportunities. At the dawn
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At first, the reaction of the American nation was diverse: the part of the population including upper and upper-middle classes strongly promoted preparations to the war, lower classes and African Americans showed almost no interest, and Southern farmers opposed Wilson’s decision. However, with time, the patriotic feelings of the nation improved, and the life of the local populations started to change. Soon after the declaration of the war, American civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bous appealed to African Americans calling them “to fight shoulder to shoulder with the world to gain a world where war shall be no more” (Panayi, 2016, p. 170). Black men entered the draft, and it became the first step to the spread of the civil rights movement; after the end of the war, a lot of African Americans waited for the recognition of their rights and equality, and the increased interactions between white and black Americans in the wartime led to the rise of civil rights activists and …show more content…
After joining the war, the United States immediately started to put the economy on the war footing, and the first thing that the American government did was a significant increase in the size of the army. According to Rockoff, in April 1917, the American army had about 200,000 soldiers, but soon after the draft, this number became much higher, and in general, more than 4,700,000 Americans served in the WWI (Rockoff, n. d.). Under such conditions, economic demands became obvious. A lot of military contracts went to the private sector, expenses of the government rose drastically, and the total labor force in the nonfarm sector also grew from 40 million in 1916 to 44 million in 1918 (Rockoff, n. d.). New workers also included African Americans and women, whose role started to change; women became employed in food and war industries. At the same time, Rockoff states that the level of wages increased by 6-7% (Rockoff, n. d.). Indeed, increased economic expenses affected American population; the government had to fulfill the budget and achieved its goal through the War Revenue Act and the famous Liberty Bonds that became a symbol of American patriotism and contributions to the following victory. After the end of the war, the USA was the only country that was not completely devastating, and it allowed American companies to spread their influence across the rest of the world and to