2 of 11

Write now Article Tools

Page 2 of 2

for doing so, and as a deterrent to other legions. The losses that the atrocious conditions of trench warfare inflicted on the common soldier resulted in a much higher rate of attrition.

Comprehending such large numbers is all but unimaginable, despite the even worse numbers of the Second World War that was to follow. But more than human lives were the casualties of this First World War!

Even after the conflict, the belief in a golden age still managed to survive, at least in the countries of the victors. A belief used by many politicians to establish and maintain their own power in their political environments; a concept some apparently absorbed into their own belief systems, such as Lord Chamberlain. Perhaps it could have been so, but the constraints and deprivations inflicted on the defeated nations by the Treaty of Versailles made this possibility another casualty of the First World War. The world-wide economic depression of the 1930s helped Hitler gain power in Germany, but it was the insult to German pride inflicted by the treaty that primarily gave him power and led to the Second World War.

Although the concept of caring for the environment and endangered species had yet to evolve in Europe in the time of the Great War, many areas were essentially protected simply because the dominant nobility held them as theirs, to be used only by themselves and their guests for their sport and recreation. This exclusivity resulted in the unintended protection of many endangered species, a protection lost as a result of warfare that reduced conflicted areas to lakes of mud and little else.

The casualties of World War I can be summarised as follows: the majority of the young men of all nations involved, the hope of a golden age of limited warfare and peaceful technological advancement, the devastation of European wildlife and the obliteration of Imperial Russia; an obliteration that would lead to future conflict impacting the whole world, during WWII and through the Cold War afterwards. The deaths of people are never the only impacts of war.

Learn more about this author, Perry McCarney.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

• << previous page
• 1
• 2

Add your voice

Know something about Casualties of World War I?
We want to hear your view. Write now!