Continuities and Transformations

Yet some Belle Époque elements persisted, transformed by war. The theatrical sensibility adapted to propaganda needs. The technological optimism redirected toward military innovation. The international connections, severed politically, survived culturally through exile communities. The era didn't disappear but went underground.

Artists continued creating despite—or because of—catastrophe. Apollinaire wrote poems in the trenches before his fatal wound. Debussy composed despite cancer, racing to complete works before death. Marie Laurencin painted in Spanish exile. Culture persisted as act of resistance against barbarism.

Women's expanded roles, forced by necessity, couldn't be entirely reversed postwar. The munitionettes who'd managed factories wouldn't accept complete domesticity. The nurses who'd saved lives demanded professional recognition. The widows managing businesses proved female capacity. War accomplished what suffrage campaigns couldn't.

Colonial subjects' military service transformed imperial relationships. Senegalese soldiers who'd died for France created claims for equality. Vietnamese workers in French factories observed metropolitan realities behind colonial myths. The civilizing mission rang hollow when civilization destroyed itself. Anti-colonial movements traced origins to Belle Époque contradictions exposed by war.