Economical Impact of WWI on Germany: An introduction

World War I was arguably one of the most important and deadly conflicts in history of modern civilisation. This conflict was caused by the incompetence of most of the leaders involved in the war as well as the need for countries to compete against each other to demonstrate who is more powerful in the struggle for land. In this deadly conflict. men, women and children alike lost their lives and of their loved ones, fighting for their countries for their own nationalistic beliefs. Germany was one of the countries that was affected the most by this conflict as it was one of the main conspirators in the war and had a major role in the disagreements that escalated to war.

Before World War I Germany, being a recently developed superpower, had a good economical and industrial infrastructure and had a good amount of money produced. Before the 1800's, Germany had a very agriculturally based economy with little to no industrial power compared to other European countries such as Great Britain and France however, by the 1850's, Germany started to industrialise heavily and its economy underwent a rapid change from agricultural to industrial and by 1900 Germany had the largest economy among its European counterparts. Historians and economists alike believe that what helped Germany develop so quickly economically was the fact that it was the largest steel producing nation in the late 1800's, steel being one of the most important resources at the time.

With the power that great economical stability gave Germany, it also gave them some hunger for more power and more money therefore leading them to try to expand their territory, even if it meant plunging into war with one of the continents superpowers. During this period of self- importance, which was from 1870- 1910, the Germans fought against France and gained a very instrumental part of their territory called Alsace- Lorraine, which remained in their power until the end of World War I in 1918. With the resources from Alsace- Lorraine, as it had ample supplies of iron, Germany was able to develop its economy further, which led to them gaining more self- importance. This also led to Germany moving on to a much bigger target at the time, Britain, which was considered the most powerful country in Europe. The Germanic administrative staff had various altercations with Britain as they believe that Britain held too much territory in Africa and the rest of the New World and that Britain had to share its territories. This led to escalated tensions between both countries which, ultimately, led to World War I.