by Barbara Anderson

Created on: October 07, 2008

The "War to End All Wars" began on July 28, 1914. By the time it was over, more than 8.5 million soldiers would have lost their lives, millions more would be wounded or missing, several nations would no longer exist, new countries would be created, and the world would never be the same again.

Arguably, the first casualty of the war was Archduke Franz Ferdinand. His assassination by a Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princep led to Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia. Joined by her allies Germany, Bulgaria and Turkey, the forces of Austria-Hungary engaged in bloody battles against the Allied Forces of Serbia, the British Empire, France, Russia, Japan, Belgium, Romania, Greece, Portugal, Italy, and the United States.

World War I was radically different from wars of the past, not only because of the number of nations involved in the conflict, but also because of the methods used to fight the war. With the dawn of the industrial revolution, mass production of weapons provided plentiful supplies of poison gas, powerful explosives, flame-throwers, hand-grenades, machine guns, tanks, fighter planes and bombers, and accurate long range artillery. These and improved new tools of warfare resulted in a terrible loss of human life on both sides.

The following information taken from The History Learning Site (http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/FWWcasualties. htm), describes the number of military casualties of World War I. What is particularly horrifying about these numbers is the percent of casualties in the number of men mobilized.

Russia - 12 million mobilized. Total casualties were 9.15 million, or 76.3% of the men who served. These included 1.7 million killed, 4.9 million wounded, and 2.5 million were missing or prisoners of war.

France - 8.4 million mobilized. Total casualties were 6.1 million, or 73.3%. These included 1.3 million killed, 4.2 million wounded, and 537,000 missing or prisoners of war.

British Empire - 8.9 million mobilized. Total casualties were 3.1 million, or 35.8%. These included 908,000 killed, 2 million wounded, and 191,000 missing or prisoners of war.

Italy - 5.5 million mobilized. Total casualties were 2.1 million, or 39%. These included 650,000 killed, 947,000 wounded, and 600,000 missing or prisoners of war.

USA - 4.3 million mobilized. Total casualties were 350,000, or 8%. These included 126,000 killed, 234,000 wounded, and 4,500 missing or prisoners of war.

Japan - 800,000 mobilized. Total casualties were 1,200, or .02%. These included

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