Vast crowds gathered in London's Trafalgar Square to celebrate the victorious end of the First World War on 11 November 1918. However, the joyous mood was short-lived. Post-war Britain, as many contemporary observers noted, did not seem like a country that had just experienced a great military triumph. Various political, economic and social problems ensured that the return to peacetime conditions was not a soft landing.

The Representation of the People Act (June 1918) gave the vote for the first time to all men over the age of 21 (subject to a six-month residency qualification) and to women over the age of 30. As a result, it almost trebled the franchise in Britain, from 7.7 million to 21.4 million. Historians have long debated the relative impact of this and the war itself on the dramatic reconfiguration of party politics after 1918.

The Liberal Party - divided between supporters of the Lloyd George coalition that regained power in the 'coupon election' (December 1918) and supporters of the former prime minister Asquith - went into steep electoral decline during the 1920s and never recovered. Its status as Britain's 'second' party of government was taken by the Labour Party, a development confirmed when the first-ever Labour government - a coalition led by Ramsay MacDonald - took office in January 1924.

Amid these radical changes, the success of the Conservative Party, which dominated government during the inter-war years, constituted the major remaining link to the pre-war British political map.

Although demobilisation was relatively unproblematic, the end of the war did not witness a swift return to pre-war 'normality' for the British economy. More British than German workers were involved in strikes in 1919. Unemployment in 1921 reached its highest point (11.3%) since records had begun. Staple wartime industries - such as coal, ship-building and steel - contracted. Working women were forced to cede their jobs to returning soldiers.

How was post-war British society different from the society that had entered the First World War in August 1914? It was indubitably more democratic. Previously under-represented groups such as women and, in particular, the working class became better organised and more powerful during the war. This, in turn, encouraged the growth of less deferential attitudes, as did the cross-class experiences of the trenches. There had been a disproportionately high percentage of casualties among the landed classes, and the strict class hierarchy of Edwardian Britain disappeared for good in the immediate post-war years.

Yet, though the working class became a more powerful political force, it shrank numerically. Growing numbers of the working population in inter-war Britain were employed in 'white collar' jobs. The First World War thus marked an important staging post on the road to 'modern' British society.