Many of the countries that participated in WWI expected a very short war. None of them prepared economically for such a long war, such as in the case of stockpiling raw materials such as steel or iron, or stockpiling food. Two of the consequences in economic policies where the following:
- The front lines had to be channeled with male workers, and one of the economic policies used to control the cost of war was forcing women and children to work at the production of weapons and munition. It is calculated that the French and Germans fired around 10 millions shells, with a total weight of 1.4 millions tons of steel.
- Food became an issue during WWI, with severe food shortages reported in urban areas by 1915. This caused a great increase in food prices, and food riots became more common and violent. Agriculture was in the hands of women, and food had to be stockpiled.
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