Why did World War 1 change Europe's national status?

Answer 1

The First World War probably altered the world more than any war before or since.

Going into the War the Great powers were still much the same countries as they had been for at least 100 years in some cases much longer. They were still ruled by powerful kings or emperors or in some cases a limited democracy with more or less rights to vote depending on the country - leading to rule by a political elite similar (often overlapping) with the nobles of old. The horse was the main mode of transport - motor vehicles had only been in mass production for a few years, flight was mostly a hobby for the rich. The British Royal Navy rules the seas with it's massive battleships and a tradition forged 109 years earlier at Trafalgar, France and Germany eye each other over land they or their forebears have fought over for literally centuries, Serfs in Russia farm the same fields as their great grandfathers.

After the War, Russia, the Ottoman Empire, the Hapsburg Empire and the German Empires had all ceased to exist, nearly 40 million people were dead wounded or missing, the "officer classes" were destroyed leaving the old aristocracy forever weakened, Revolution had come to Russia creating a workers state, the USA had entered the world stage, the British Empire was close to economic and military exhaustion. Aircraft flew across the Atlantic, Tanks drove over the battle fields, the battleship was being replaced by the aircraft carrier as Queen of the sea. Voting franchise increased - Women gaining the vote in most democracies within a few years of the wars end. A sense of "never again" lay over the elites of the Western powers, becoming "appeasement". Arab and Jewish Nationalism were born across the Middle East, the bonds of the old empires grew weaker although it would take another war to break them entirely. Political Ideas and national consciouses were ever more powerful replacing old beliefs and traditional methods, Communism, National Socialism in Germany, Irish Independence and civil war.

So basically - Politically, Economically, technologically and personally the "Great War" really did alter the world.

Answer 2

It didn't — Europe is not a 'nation' and didn't have a 'national status'. What did change was the status of some of the countries involved in the war. That was because that's what war does - it causes great changes to those countries involved, especially those which lose.

Answer 3

Russia was established