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The Relationship Between Modernity and the First World War

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The Relationship Between Modernity and the First World War
The First World War, also known as the Great War of 1914-1918, is not an event that manifested overnight; it was the result of ever growing tension among European nations. This conflict was brought about by factors such as, nationalism, militarism, and the Alliance system. An upheaval such as the First World War was witness to the emergence of the glorification of war, struggle, despair, destruction and immense loss of life. The First World War brought about a defining moment in the history of the modern consciousness. The modern world was born anew with a self-conscious awareness of plight and modern society. This awareness has been characterized by a profound sense of the differences between past and present.
The process of modernity has proven to be inevitable in both the contemporary world, and throughout the course of history, especially since the outbreak of the Industrial Revolution and the First World War. Modernity is the “transition from traditional folk society to urban industrial societies,” a transition that inevitably affects all factions of society. The term modernity encompasses many cause and effect reactions, with industrialization as a centre point. The changes brought about by such processes are felt across a large spectrum of interactions and experiences including, education, politics, religion and ones conception of the self and the world in which they live. With this process class structure becomes mobile, and identity and connection to local community deteriorates, indicating a shift from gemeinschaft to gesellschaft, the creation of a mass society.
As Gesellschaft, or society, overwhelmed the sense of Gemeinschaft, or community, as speed and bigness became the dominant facts of life, work and social questions, ambition and job enjoyment became abstract notions, beyond the individual and his scale of personal reference, a matter of theory and intuition rather than experience and knowledge.
With the rapid change in politics, economics

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