Industrialism Meets WarfareThe First World War (1914-1918) was the first full-scale industrial war in human history. Nearly 9 million people were killed, and 28 million more were wounded, missing, or taken prisoner during the course of the war. The emergence of the machine gun, the tank, planes, poison gas, and submarines radically changed military tactics, and led to the development of trench warfare. In this kind of warfare, both sides suffered severe casualties for little gain, while living in muddy and disease-ridden conditions. Unfortunately, the lessons of this world conflict were not learned, and the issues which created it were left unresolved after the Armistice which ended the war. The Treaty of Versailles only deepened existing problems, and laid the framework for the emergence of Totalitarianism, with leaders like Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, and Adolf Hitler.
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World War I in Europe
Most of the fighting during the First World War took place in Europe along the Western and Eastern Fronts. There were also battles in northeastern Italy, the Balkans, the Dardanelles (a waterway between Europe and Asia), the Middle East, and in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
The Triple Entente (The Allies), were made up of many countries, but primarily Great Britain, France, and Russia. The Triple Alliance (The Central Powers) comprised Germany and Austria-Hungary. Italy was originally the third member of the Triple Alliance, but left to join the Allies at the beginning of the war, and was soon replaced by the Ottoman Empire. Many countries chose to remain neutral, but the majority of Europe chose a side at some point during the course of the war. Even the United States eventually joined the conflict in 1917, while others, like Russia, would sue for peace and leave the war to deal with their own problems at home. |