Library Guides: Towards WWII: Home

Source: Insider

In this unit you will investigate how the aftermath of World War I impacted society and ultimately led to the rise of Nazism and the start of World War II. Read through the resources below for a general overview of the aftermath of World War I and click through the tabs along the top of the page to explore topics more in depth.

World War I casualties (REPERES, 2011)
The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I, was around 40 million. There were 20 million deaths and 21 million wounded. The total number of deaths includes 9.7 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians. The Entente Powers (also known as the Allies) lost about 5.7 million soldiers while the Central Powers lost about 4 million. Read through this report to learn more.
Effects of World War I (History on the Net, n.d.)
The effects of World War I are still being felt a century after its conclusion. It was the deadliest war which involved more countries and was more expensive than any other war before it. The weapons used during WWI were also more advanced than any previous war, using tanks, submarines, poison gas, airplanes and long range artillery. Over 9 million military personnel died during this war, and over 7 million men were left permanently disabled. It is not surprising that the effects of WWI were still evident decades later. Read through this website to learn more.
First World War 1914-1918 (Australian War Memorial, n.d.)
Read through this website from the Australian War Memorial to get an overall summary of World War I and Australia's involvement and response to the conflict.
The aftermath of the First World War (The Holocaust Explained, n.d.)
The First World War took place from the 28 July 1914 to the 11 November 1918. An estimated twenty million people died. As the war drew to a close in 1918, German supplies and troops were exhausted from four years of warfare. In contrast, by 1918, the British had improved their tactics and equipment and the United States of America had arrived to support the Allied powers on the battlefields. It was combination of these factors that led to the Allied Powers achieving victory. Losing the war caused far reaching upheaval in Germany. This website covers how the aftermath of the First World War led to the creation of Germany’s new democratic government, the Weimar Republic.
How did WWI change the world? (BBC, 2018, November 19)
On 11 November 1918, the guns fell silent and the war came to an end, but its impact was felt for many, many years after. World War One changed the world in ways that nobody could have imagined. This website takes a look at how.

Adolf Hitler: an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then assuming the title of Führer und Reichskanzler in 1934.

Assembly line: an arrangement of workers and machines in a factory, where each worker deals with only one part of a product.

The Big Three: the three main victorious countries after World War One. Sometimes they are referred to as the Allied Powers, sometimes the victors and sometimes the Big Three. They include Britain, France and the United States of America.

Bootlegger: a person who makes or sells liquor or other goods illegally.

Bull market: a market in which share prices are rising, encouraging buying.

Casualty: a military person lost through death, wounds, injury, sickness, internment, or capture or through being missing in action.

Colony: a country or area controlled politically by a more powerful country that is often far away.

Coup: a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government.

Depression: a long and severe recession in an economy or market.

Dole: the money that the government gives to people who are unemployed.

Diktat: a harsh settlement unilaterally imposed (as on a defeated nation).

Empire: an extensive group of states or countries ruled over by a single monarch, an oligarchy, or a sovereign state.

Eviction: the removal of a tenant from rental property by the landlord.

Flapper: a subculture of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior.

Great Depression: a severe worldwide economic depression that took place mostly during the 1930s, beginning in the United States.

Harlem Renaissance: an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater and politics centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s.

Hobo: a migrant worker.

Isolationism: a policy of remaining apart from the affairs or interests of other groups, especially the political affairs of other countries.

The Jazz Age: a period in the 1920s and 1930s in which jazz music and dance styles rapidly gained nationwide popularity in the United States.

Merger: an agreement that unites two existing companies into one new company.

Mobilised: the act of assembling and readying military troops and supplies for war.

Motivation: a reason or reasons for acting or behaving in a particular way.

Nazism: a form of fascism, with disdain for liberal democracy and the parliamentary system. It incorporates fervent antisemitism, anti-communism, scientific racism, and the use of eugenics into its creed.

Prospectus: a disclosure document that describes a financial security for potential buyers.

Recession: a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity.

Reparations: the compensation for war damage paid by a defeated state.

Self-determination: the process by which a country determines its own statehood and forms its own government.

Severity: harshness, sternness, or rigor.

Shanty: a small, crudely built shack.

Speakeasy: an illicit liquor shop or drinking club.

Stockbroker: a broker who buys and sells securities on a stock exchange on behalf of clients.

Stock certificates: a legal document that certifies ownership of a specific number of shares or stock in a corporation.

Susso: an Australian slang term referring to "sustenance" payments, especially during the Great Depression. "Susso" could also be used as a noun, for someone depending on such payments, often unsympathetically.

Sustenance: food or drink that allows you to continue to be alive.

Treaty of Versailles: peace document signed at the end of World War I by the Allied and associated powers and by Germany in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles, France, on June 28, 1919; it took force on January 10, 1920.

Unjust: not based on or behaving according to what is morally right and fair.

Vagrant: a person without a settled home or regular work who wanders from place to place and lives by begging.

Volstead Act: an act of Congress, introduced in 1919 by Andrew J. Volstead to implement the Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution, which forbade the sale of alcoholic beverages.

Wall Street Crash: a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929.

Weimar Germany: the German state from 1918 to 1933 when it functioned as a federal constitutional republic. The state was officially named the German Reich, and was also referred to as the German Republic.

Yield: give way to arguments, demands, or pressure.

Experiences of the Great War 1914-1918 by Susan Johnston
Publication Date: 1990
Provides students with a wide selection of documents and photographs. Through this material students will see into the experiences of the men and women who lived and died during that war.
The world at war
Publication Date: 2014
An essential guide that documents the progression of both world wars, detailing crucial decisions that led to war, highlighting prominent political figures, and explaining the extent of the human cost of such brutal wars. Both wars are logged in fascinating detail, a must-have for war enthusiasts.
World at War 1914-1939 by Duncan Hill
Publication Date: 2011
The many conflicts that took place around the globe between 1914 and 1939 showed that diplomacy was all too often incapable of arresting military and political ambition, and that the notion of collective security was just a noble idea. This book uses contemporaneous reports and photographs from the Daily Mail archives, including many eyewitness accounts, to show how conflicts of that period developed, describing key battles, tactical decisions and turning points that settled the outcome.
The first world war by Joyce Swinton
Publication Date: 1995
Europeans ruled the world in 1901. By 1918, all their systems of power and privilege had been transformed by a war which had lasted four years, killed nearly 9 million, wounded 20 million, and turned much of the European countryside to wasteland. A|comprehensive account is presented of the major aspects of this battle. Beginning with a simple explanation of the causes of conflict and concluding with chapters on the reasons for Germany's defeat and the Treaty of Versailles. Special attention is given to the human side of the conflict, in particular the trench warfare, the Western Front and the home fronts of Great Britain, Germany and Australia.