The Relationship Between Economic and Social Issues and the Length of WWI

By Rachel Rhoades

Due to economic and social issues, contemporaries perceived WWI as a costly and lengthy war. The fluctuating war tactics and strategies made the war longer and the need to out build other countries made this war very expensive. The new technology of aerial and naval warfare forced these countries to create new destructive war machines to compete in WWI. The social aspects of the war such as tactics, propaganda and strategies affected the length of the war. The length and cost of WWI were influenced by economic and social occurrences of the time.

In WWI, the central powers competed constantly with the axis powers to obtain the best and most efficient technology for combat. In the British Royal Navy, Fischer introduced the HMS Dreadnought in 1906. The Dreadnought made all other battleships seem obsolete because of its enhanced speed and its ability to hold twice as much firepower. After the British released this revolutionary naval machine, Germany was compelled to level the playing field and create their own dreadnought ships. They continuously attempted to out build each other. Later, when Britain rolled out the battlecruiser (which has less armor, making it fast and difficult to catch), Germany responded by making their own battlecruisers. The out building trend affected the war economically, by increasing war costs. This repeated trend of attempting to out build each other was finally settled in 1916 in the battle of Jutland between Britain and Germany. Although Britain suffered heavy casualties in the battle, they won because Germany fled the battle.

A vast majority of WWI was fought on the trenches in the Eastern and Western Fronts of the war. After the battle of Marne, a war of mobility turned into a war of complete immobility in the trenches. Opposing sides experienced a long stalemate, which contributed to the length of the war. This war strategy consisted of deep trenches facing each other and an area in between,called “no man’s land.” In trench warfare, tanks, barbed wire, grenades, poisonous gas, and stationary machine guns were utilized. The war of attrition became another war strategy that contributed to the lengthiness of the war. In the war of attrition, one country would attack and harass their opponents so much that the opponent would become very weak. This was done in the battle of Verdun when Germany attempted to “bleed France white.”

The sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 actually sped up the war, as it assisted America in making the decision to enter WWI. The sinking of the Lusitania did make the war more costly due to the need for supplies and equipment for America, and future convoys and blockades to protect the merchant and passenger ships. Another economic impact on the war was the strategy of reconnaissance. Reconnaissance is scouting out the opposing side which was most efficiently done through an air force. After reconnaissance was widely used, there was an economic demand for better planes for use in aerial reconnaissance. New tactics, strategies and the trend to out build increased the cost of the war, while trench warfare and the war of attrition contributed to the length of WWI.