| Queen Klazina Wok |
01-09-2004 23:19 |
At home the regular ways of civilian life were disrupted and reordered, a preparation in regimentation, according to some historians, for the totalitarian rule that the various dictatorships of the 1930s would attempt to impose. Although it is difficult to assess the wartime conditioning of the European populations that was caused by increasing state control and domination of daily life, there is no doubt that liberal democracy suffered. A form of wartime dictatorship, in which the legislative branch delegated or abdicated authority to the executive, existed on both sides. The French premier Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929) enjoyed virtual control of the French government in late 1917 and 1918, while at the same time the two most significant generals then directing the military effort in Germany, Erich von Ludendorff (1865- 1937) and Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934), held even greater authority. Censorship of the press, harsh laws on treason, food rationing, the drafting of civilian workers for war-directed industries--these were all imposed in the belligerent states, and all to the detriment of the rights of the individual.
http://www.britannia.com/history/euro/2/8_2.html |
