Abstract

The First World War was a global event, which intensively involved Latin America. From the beginning, Latin Americans sensed that this war had worldwide scope. Because of the breakdown of the European civilizational and development model and the unreserved belief in human progress in the years from 1914 to 1918, a world where Latin America had occupied a fixed position was effectively gone. By 1917, the war turned into a world war in every respect and Latin America found itself increasingly more dependent on its demands. This gave way in 1918 to unrest that spread across the entire subcontinent. The radicalization of social conflicts influenced the attitude toward the end of the war, which Latin Americans far and wide certainly welcomed enthusiastically. At the same time, the war's culmination in the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations also soon gave way to a sense of disillusionment. This article addresses the question in how far the First World War impacted upon social relations in Latin America.