World War I for Kids: A History with 21 Activities

World War I for Kids: A History with 21 Activities — page 9
flict as World War II would be but it did even more to shape the world as it is today It rav aged most of Europe and destroyed four empires while also creating many new nations It triggered the Russian Revolution and laid the bases for Balkan and Middle Eastern conflicts that remain unresolved today Most significant ly perhaps it gave Germany grievances that Adolf Hitler's Nazi movement would exploit in its rise to power and thereby contribute to the Holocaust and World War II Indeed the roots of that later world war are so deeply embedded in the first that the second world war might justly be considered a continuation of World War I World War I also raised the United States to the status of a world power and inspired the creation of the League of Nations the predecessor of the United Nations In addition it fundamentally transformed military combat by introducing weapons of unprece dented destructive power and by taking combat closer to civilian populations than ever before It rev olutionized naval warfare and gave the world aerial warfare Meanwhile the war's impact on the home fronts of the nations involved set in motion vast social changes extending democracy giving more women the vote and helping to liberate women in