Costs of World War I

World War I was the largest and most costly war up to that point. More than 65 million men went to war, of which 650,000 were Canadian.

Battle Casualties – 10 million killed (60,000 Canadians)

22 million wounded

5 million “missing in action”

______________________________

37 million total

Germany had the highest death toll of 1.8 million but Austria suffered the highest casualty rate of 90%.

In addition, large numbers of European civilians were killed in the fighting or died of starvation. The final estimated total lives lost were 20 million dead. The total economic costs have been estimated at $400 billion, with only half the amount spent directly on fighting.

Any romantic ideas of war involving adventure, glory or honour had been shattered. The survivors were often almost as bitter towards their own leaders as the enemy.

Peace Treaties

Versailles Treaty – a cause of World War II (see map on page 12)

Reparations - $33 billion in gold

The treaty with Austria recognized newly independent nations – Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Yugoslavia. Austria was left a small republic forbidden to join with Germany.

Turkey also became a republic without an empire. Palestine, Syria and Iraq were placed under the supervision of Britain and France.

The Russian Empire had already come apart. Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were approved as independent nation-states. Russia also lost land to Poland and Romania. The peacemakers claimed all these non-Russian peoples had the right to rule themselves. More important, this would punish Communist Russia and keep Communism from spreading westward.

Naturally, the defeated states hated the peace terms but so did two victors. Italy felt that it was given less Austrian land than it deserved. Many Americans feared that Germany had been treated too harshly. The US Senate refused to approve the Versailles Treaty.