CBSE Class 9 Answered

The deep impact left by the First World War on the European society and polity:

• Soldiers were placed above civilians.

• Politicians and publicists laid great stress on the need for men to be aggressive, strong and masculine.

• However, all these things were glorified by the media. The truth was that the soldiers lived miserable lives in the trenches, trapped with rats feeding on corpses.

• They faced poisonous gas and enemy shelling, and witnessed their ranks reduce rapidly.

• Aggressive war propaganda and national honour occupied centre stage in the public sphere, while popular support grew for conservative dictatorships.

• In fact, democracy was a young and fragile idea, which could not survive the instabilities of interwar Europe.