Development of world wars and what it created

Published on 10/23/2025 by Ron Gadd

Photo by Doku Pauls on Unsplash

From Trenches to Total War: How WWI Redrew the Global Playbook

When the guns finally fell silent in 1918, the world didn’t simply return to the way it had been a decade earlier. The Great War turned the old “limited war” model—where battles were fought between professional armies on set fronts—into a total war that pulled entire societies into the conflict.

Mass conscription meant whole generations of men (and later women) were mobilised.
Industrial economies were re‑oriented to produce rifles, artillery shells, and eventually, machines of mass death.
Civic life—from newspapers to school curricula—became a tool of propaganda and morale‑building.

The result was a new relationship between the state and its citizens: governments now had the authority to dictate work, ration food, and even control the narrative of national identity. Historians note that this “all‑hands‑on‑deck” approach laid the groundwork for the even larger mobilisation that would come with World War II.

The social trauma of the war also left a lasting imprint. As Duke Today reports, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the spread of colonial rule, and the surge of nationalism across Europe and the Middle East were intertwined outcomes of the war’s end. Those forces would shape borders, fuel independence movements, and set the stage for the ideological battles of the 20th century.

The Dark Spark: Chemical Weapons and the Industrialisation of Killing

World War I was the first conflict where industrial chemistry was weaponised on a massive scale. German scientists introduced chlorine gas on the Western Front in April 1915, marking the debut of lethal chemical warfare.

Phosgene, introduced later in 1915, was three times more lethal than chlorine.
Mustard gas, first used by the Germans in 1917, caused severe blisters and long‑term respiratory damage.

These weapons were not the product of a single rogue experiment; they were the outcome of a systematic effort to harness the industrial capacity of modern nations. As SGR: Responsible Science explains, the development and deployment of these gases required coordinated research, manufacturing plants, and logistical networks—essentially an early form of the “military‑industrial complex” that would become a defining feature of later wars.

The legacy of chemical weapons is twofold. On the battlefield, they forced armies to adopt protective gear and new tactics, forever changing how combatants approached trench warfare. Off the battlefield, the horror of gas attacks spurred the first international agreements on weapons control, culminating in the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which prohibited the use of chemical and biological weapons in war.

When Science Became a Weapon: Technological Leaps in WWII

If World War I introduced chemical terror, World War II turned science and engineering into the decisive factor of victory. The urgency of a global conflict accelerated research that might have otherwise taken decades. One striking example is the birth of the modern computer.

ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), completed in 1945, could perform thousands of calculations per second—unthinkable just a few years earlier. Though originally designed to calculate artillery firing tables for the U.S. Army, ENIAC’s architecture laid the foundation for the digital age. The National WWII Museum notes that the war’s demands forced engineers to push electronic components, vacuum tubes, and programming concepts to unprecedented levels.

Other breakthroughs that reshaped the post‑war world include:

Radar: Developed by both the Allies and Axis powers, radar transformed air defence and later became a cornerstone of civilian air traffic control and weather forecasting.
Jet propulsion: German and British research led to the first operational jet fighters, paving the way for commercial jet travel in the 1950s.
Nuclear fission: The Manhattan Project’s success not only ended the war in the Pacific but also launched the atomic age, influencing energy policy, international relations, and public perception of science.

These technologies didn’t stay confined to the military. After the war, governments and private firms repurposed them for civilian use, creating whole new industries and reshaping everyday life.

Borders Redrawn, Empires Crumbled: Political Aftershocks

The geopolitical map of the 20th century was essentially redrawn by the two world wars. Both conflicts triggered the collapse of empires and the emergence of new nation‑states, but the mechanisms differed.

After WWI: The Austro‑Hungarian, Russian, German, and Ottoman empires disintegrated. The Treaty of Versailles (1919) imposed heavy reparations on Germany, sowed resentment, and created a power vacuum in Central Europe. New countries such as Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, and Poland emerged, often with borders that ignored ethnic realities, planting seeds for future tension.
After WWII: The United Nations replaced the League of Nations, providing a platform for collective security. The decolonisation wave accelerated—Britain, France, and the Netherlands relinquished control over large parts of Africa and Asia throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Meanwhile, the Cold War divided the world into two ideological blocs, each backed by nuclear arsenals, leading to proxy wars, the arms race, and a persistent state of geopolitical tension.

These political shifts also triggered massive population movements. The Great Migration of Europeans from war‑torn regions, the forced expulsions of Germans from Eastern Europe, and the mass displacement of millions in Asia and Africa reshaped demographics and cultural landscapes worldwide.

The Unseen Legacy: Social, Economic, and Cultural Ripples

Beyond the obvious military and political consequences, the world wars forged deep, sometimes subtle, changes that still echo today.

A New Role for Women

In both wars, women stepped into factories, farms, and offices left vacant by enlisted men.
The U.S. “Rosie the Riveter” icon and the British Women’s Land Army exemplify how societies began to accept women in traditionally male roles.
Post‑war, many of these gains persisted, fueling the suffrage movements that secured voting rights in several countries during the 1920s and 1940s.

The Rise of Welfare States

The sheer scale of wartime destruction forced governments to adopt extensive social safety nets to rebuild economies.
Britain’s 1942 Beveridge Report, which proposed universal health care, unemployment insurance, and pensions, was directly influenced by the collective sacrifice of the war years. Its recommendations became the backbone of the modern British welfare state and inspired similar programs across Europe.

Cultural Reflections

Literature and film grappled with the trauma of the wars. Works like Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) and the post‑war existential cinema of directors such as Akira Kurosawa captured the disillusionment of a generation.
Music also responded: the swing era of the 1930s offered an escapist soundtrack to the Great Depression, while the 1940s saw the rise of protest songs that questioned authority and called for peace.

Economic Transformations

The War Production Board in the U.S. and similar agencies in the UK coordinated massive output, proving that a centrally planned economy could achieve rapid industrialisation. After the war, many of these organizational practices were adapted for peacetime infrastructure projects, such as the Interstate Highway System in the United States.
Conversely, the destruction of European industrial bases opened space for American economic dominance in the 1950s, a shift that reshaped global trade patterns for decades.

These hidden legacies illustrate that the wars were not just a series of battles; they were catalysts that forced societies to re‑evaluate values, restructure economies, and reimagine the role of the individual within the nation.

Looking Forward: Lessons Worth Remembering

The development of the world wars shows a stark paradox: humanity’s capacity for destruction can simultaneously drive unprecedented innovation and social change. Recognising this duality is essential for today’s policymakers, technologists, and citizens.

Technological vigilance: As we develop AI, biotech, and autonomous weapons, the same rapid‑development cycles that produced ENIAC or the atomic bomb could unfold again. International norms and transparent research practices are vital to prevent unintended consequences.
Humanitarian foresight: The horrors of chemical warfare prompted early arms‑control treaties. Modern equivalents—such as agreements on cyber warfare or autonomous weapons—must be pursued before the technology becomes entrenched.
Social resilience: The wars taught us that inclusive policies—whether extending voting rights, providing social safety nets, or integrating women into the workforce—can transform trauma into progress. Investing in education, health, and equality today can turn future crises into opportunities for collective growth.

Understanding the tangled web of cause and effect that the world wars spun helps us navigate a world that is still, in many ways, shaped by those seismic events. The challenge now is to harness the lessons of the past while steering clear of repeating its darkest chapters.