World War One The Global Revolution

In 1914 the home front in all countries greeted the war with an outpouring of patriotic support, but only Germany saw significant support for war before it was declared. Everywhere the advocates of peace were quickly overwhelmed, in particular the Marxist Socialist movement, which struggled to balance the coordination of international pacifism with hopes for political revolution, as reflected in a conference at Zimmerwald in neutral Switzerland in 1915. By then, the early rush to volunteer in Britain and the Dominions, where no military service requirements existed, had begun to dissipate. The home fronts were forced to respond when the anticipated short war dragged on into a second year. When heavy casualties created an ongoing need for fresh manpower, and the exhaustion of the initial stockpiles of munitions placed unprecedented demands on industry, women assumed an increasingly important role either as workers or as noncombatant volunteers, including under the Red Cross and other humanitarian organizations. The war revolutionized labor relations as well as gender relations. As the war entered a third year, censorship and propaganda assumed a growing role in sustaining the home fronts, especially for the Central Powers once the Allied naval blockade began to affect food supplies.