7 - The transition to peace, 1918-1919

Summary

The end of hostilities and the demobilization of Europe's armies after November 1918 inaugurated a period of economic transition that was just as dramatic as the crisis of mobilization in 1914-1915. Nevertheless, the changes that had taken place in Paris, London, and Berlin in over four years of total war ensured that the transition to peace would not bear any simple resemblance to mobilization in reverse, that is, a return to the pre-war situation. All three cities had been transformed by the demands of the war economy, albeit to varying degrees. Older patterns of employment had been disrupted, new industries had been developed, and the state had intervened in the economic life of each city in unprecedented ways. This chapter will explore the crises of demobilization in each city in order to determine the extent to which the dislocation caused by the war continued into the immediate post-war period.

In assessing the changes which accompanied the demobilization, some historians have emphasized the quick abandonment of government control during the difficult years 1919 and 1920, and pointed to the apparent victory of free-market policies in the post-war period, at the expense of organized labour. Other historians have questioned the view which posits a stark opposition between wartime economic interventionism and post-war laissez-faire in Western Europe, and noted instead several significant arenas of continuity between the period before and immediately following the Armistice of 11 November 1918.