The First World War cost many lives and was a great tragedy; the reason the war started was because most other European countries had large empires made up of many other countries. However, Belgium has nothing to do with these great empires, rather it withdrew from all war and political fighting, so it became a neutral country. Even though it had refused to fight, Belgium helped the wounded and anyone seeking medical help. While the rest of the European countries strengthened and expanded their empires over time, Germany realized in 1889 that it did not have as immense an empire as Britain and the other countries. The new German monarch was extremely jealous, so Germany quickly became a hard-working, wealthy, and orderly nation. Even though William II had big plans for Germany, there weren't many good territories left to conquer. His confidence and overbearing nature made other world leaders uncomfortable and they felt they had to try to protect their great empires. Basically, Germany invaded Belgium and Britain thought it wasn't right to invade a neutral country, so they went to a place in France called the Somme. There was a river nearby called the Somme. This war was known as "The Great War" because it was not only great in the fact that it lasted 4 years and used loads of munitions, it was also called that because so many lives were lost. been lost and so many people were suffering because of the huge effect. it took a toll on them and their families. The effects of the “Great War” were devastating: most children sent into combat were killed and horribly mutilated. All because they were desperate for glory. They had been seduced by the old lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. Which means; It is sweet and honorable to die for one's country. The First World War had many effects, for example women had to care and work for the country because men were fighting and dying for their country, families were torn apart by the loss of family members to cause of the war and the mental and physical illnesses that resulted from it. the men came back there all their lives. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get the original essay The effects, during World War I 1914-1918, of trench warfare on the Western Front After the Battle of the Marne in September, the Germans withdrew. The German commander, General Falkenhayn, told his men they would have to dig trenches; this, he said, would protect them from the British and French. The soldiers dug and dug, creating furrows in the ground. Within months, the news spread as far as the Swiss border, near the North Sea. These trenches were so long that they stretched from the North Sea to the Alps. The trenches were not dug in straight lines because if anyone from the enemy got to the trench they could just fire straight away, this would result in many men being shot. The front side of the trenches was called the Parapet and the rear side was called Parados. Little by little, on both sides of no mans land, trenches were dug in the clayey mud. But because the Germans had this new idea of ​​digging trenches in the ground, they had their first choice of where they wanted to dig their trenches, and obviously they chose the highest and least muddy ground toplace these trenches. The British were therefore left with low-lying terrain which became extremely muddy and wet when it rained. The mud puddles that lay on no mans land were so dangerous that there were many accounts of men being swallowed up by the octopus like mud. Once the men had fallen, there was no help for them, they would have died a slow death. The German trenches were much more sophisticated than the British trenches, they had cement walls and a new type of barbed wire. The cement they used was actually imported from Britain to Rugby. The barbed wire they used was much better than the British barbed wire, it was stronger and it had a lot more spikes. By 1915, both sides were living and fighting in the trenches. So begins “Trench War Fare.” Trench warfare was when both sides fought from their trenches. It all started because Schlieffen failed and made a mistake. Alfred Von Schlieffen designed the Schlieffen Plan. He had calculated everything in 1905, he had developed this plan so that his army could defeat France and Russia on two different fighting fronts and, above all, he would not have to divide his army. His plan was to send his army at a fairly rapid speed, then they would have been unprepared for the attack and could have been expected to surrender in less than six weeks. Then the entire army would be transferred by rail to Russia before the Russians had time to gather ammunition and move their soldiers. Alfred Von Schlieffen's plan was a work of art, but several ideas that made up this ingenious plan turned out to be incorrect. When the Russians found out they were going to be attacked, they mobilized their soldiers, but the Germans still had to attack France first because they had to follow the Schlieffen Plan. The next flaw in the plan was that Schlieffen failed to take into account that if France was attacked, Russia would help them. Germany was now stuck, Russian soldiers had arrived where the Germans were and the Germans had to fight France and Russia at the same time. Finally, the last flaw in the plan was that Germany quickly sent ammunition, soldiers and equipment to Belgium (which was a neutral country) to buy time, which broke Belgium's neutrality. Britain had declared in 1839 that it would protect Belgium's neutrality. So by the time Schlieffen arrived in France, Britain was already there and the war had begun. The main weakness of Schlieffen's plan was that it was too rigid, he left no room for error in the plans and if the train timetable had to be changed it would have taken months. Once the German army was on the move, they could not be stopped. Conditions in the trenches were absolutely despicable. There was a continuous supply of rain-filtered water in the trenches, soldiers would have marched through these soggy trenches day and night with their feet submerged in a shallow pool of water. This was not good for the soldiers, it forced them to stay in the trenches; it was a foot infection caused by cold, humidity and unsanitary conditions. The feet gradually became numb and the skin turned red or blue. If left untreated, trench foot can become gangrenous and lead to amputation. Another major problem for the soldiers was rats. These nasty little vermin harbored many diseases like the Black Death and Bubonic Plague. Trench rats literally thrived in these millions of trenches on mostFrom the war fronts, rats also crawled on the faces of sleeping men. As they gorged on food, they grew, and many rats reportedly reached the size of a cat. Rats attack and eat a corpse's eyes first, then eat their way through the rest of the body in a short time. As horrified as the soldiers were, they had a small solution that wouldn't solve the problem but would allow them to relieve some stress. They attacked the rats with bayonets and shot them. Shooting rats was forbidden because the generals said it was considered an unnecessary waste of ammunition. This was one of the many problems the valiant soldiers had to endure. There were even worse problems, like casualties and deaths. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme there were more than 57,000 British casualties, and by November 1916 there had been a total of more than one and a quarter million men killed. The soldiers suffered mental and physical losses. The constant proximity of machine guns and shell launchers caused some men to have a mental illness known as shell shock. Early symptoms of Shell shock included fatigue, irritability, dizziness, lack of concentration, and headaches. Eventually, the men suffered mental breakdowns, rendering them unable to remain on the front lines. Some doctors in military hospitals came to the conclusion that the soldiers' condition was caused by heavy enemy artillery. These doctors argued that a bursting shell created some sort of disturbance in their brain and prevented it from functioning properly. I think the whole idea of ​​war and fighting in it was traumatic enough that with all the other things it would have made it a living nightmare. If the general faced an incident like this, they would have simply been afraid of the artillery and tried to retreat from the fight, so they would probably have been shot down as an example to their comrades. Some soldiers were shown as an example to the rest of the soldiers, a soldier who had done something that the general considered a crime would have either been tied to a post or chair and shot by several men. The general would first tell the men who were going to shoot the "convict" to face the other way or go elsewhere while he removed all the bullets from the guns and put just a few into a few guns. ask them to come back and collect their weapons. The soldier who was about to be shot would have been blindfolded and had a piece of white cloth pinned over his heart as a target for the armed soldiers to shoot at. The reason the general swapped the bullets was because some would have fired blanks and others would have actually shot the soldier, they would not have known who shot him and who was to blame. The notorious General Haig was responsible for most, if not all, shootings of innocent soldiers. He was known as “the Butcher”. But the physical effects of the fighting of the Great War were far more devastating and far more horrific. I think bombs have killed more soldiers than any other potentially lethal object. These bombs caused death, they left soldiers paralyzed and even blinded by the explosions of these terrible and deadly weapons. I also think that all weapons were equally destructive. Gas bombs, without a gas mask to protect your breathing, were deadly. If you had been unlucky enough to find yourself without a gas mask during a gas bomb explosion, you would have felt like your lungs were being torn apart inside you and your nostril was infire. The Great War was a traumatic and distressing time for all the British people. Everyone was affected in some way, especially the brave soldiers sent to protect and fight for their country. Young boys entered the army full of patriotism and idealism, then as time passed and they saw their best friend get blown up by a bomb, their morale would become low and they would probably wished he had never joined such an army. miserable army. The German general, General. Ludendorf knew that British soldiers were brave and he once said, “They are only brave-hearted lions led by donkeys.” There were many other reasons why soldier morale was low, but I think another reason that contributed more to the depressing nature of military life was where they were located. The British army fought at two locations: the Marne and a location near the Somme, both of which were in France. The structure of the area wasn't too bad during the Battle of the Marne, but during the Battle of the Somme, the British couldn't have chosen a worse place to put down roots and fight. During the winter month of November, it rained so much that the war had to be postponed for a time until British soldiers could mobilize across the muddy lands of France. Soldiers were caught in muddy pits and dragged down into the heavy abyss. So I think this place in which the war played a vital role in the effects that the war had on most of the young soldiers. The effects were devastating on the front line of the Great War, so these effects were life-changing for everyone in Britain. Men who did not go to fight in the war received a white feather from neighbors and others who might have lived along their route. They wondered why the men in our family should suffer in the war while he is just at home. So life in the 1900s was very different from that of the 21st century. Young boys who felt very patriotic signed up by the thousands to be drafted into the army, but others did not feel the same idealism as these young boys. If men of suitable age and health could fight in war, but didn't want to, it would have been bad luck. This was a conscription law intended to force people to fight in the First World War. Propaganda played a vital role in getting men to go to recruiting stands and sign up to join the army. Propaganda ran advertisements assuring young men of the time to enlist and that it was for their king and country. Some advertisements emphasized that most men were unemployed and that joining the army would give them a good salary and a good pension for their wives and children. But an ad prompted men who had children to recruit very quickly. On it was a photo of a man sitting in an armchair, his daughter reading a book about the Great War and his son playing on the floor with toy soldiers. At the bottom of the poster is the question "Dad, what did you do during the Great War?" ". So it was obvious that this made the men think that their children would have been proud to continue fighting in the war. But one thing he doesn't mention in the poster is that there was a good chance you'd never come back from the war! These advertisements were broadcast everywhere, such as on the streets, in newspapers and in voice form, to encourage the listener to join the army. There had been,,.