<P> Ireland was on the verge of civil war in 1914 after Parliament voted a home rule law that was intensely opposed by the Protestants, especially those in Ulster . When the war broke out the law was suspended and Protestants gave very strong support for the war in terms of military service and industrial output . </P> <P> Occurring during Ireland's Revolutionary period, the Irish Catholic experience of the war was complex and its memory of it divisive . At the outbreak of the war, most Irish people, regardless of political affiliation, supported the war in much the same way as their British counterparts, and both nationalist and unionist leaders initially backed the British war effort . Their followers, both Catholic and Protestant, served extensively in the British forces, many in three specially raised divisions . Over 200,000 Irishmen fought in the war, in several theatres with 30,000 deaths . In 1916, Catholic supporters of Irish independence from the United Kingdom took the opportunity of the ongoing war to proclaim an Irish Republic and to defend it in an armed rebellion against British rule in Dublin . The rebellion was poorly planned and quickly suppressed . The British executed most of the prisoners which caused Catholic opinion to surge in favour of independence . Britain's intention to impose conscription in Ireland in 1918 provoked widespread resistance and as a result remained unimplemented . </P> <P> The Commonwealth nations and India all played major roles . The Asian and African colonies provided large numbers of civilian workers, as well as some soldiers . The Indian Army during World War I contributed a large number of divisions and independent brigades to the European, Mediterranean and the Middle East theatres of war . Over one million Indian troops served overseas, of whom 62,000 died and another 67,000 were wounded . </P> <P> Canada was prosperous during the war but ethnic conflict escalated almost out of control . In terms of long - run economic trends, the war hardly affected the direction or the speed of change . The trajectory of the main economic factors, the business and financial system, and the technology continued on their way . Women temporarily took war jobs, and at the end of the war there was a great deal of unrest among union members and farmers for a few years . </P>

What effect did world war i have on governments and economies worldwide