How pointless was ww1?

It was a sad, pointless war, for which we're still paying a price. A hard-hearted peace treaty and a ravaged economy produced a “lost generation” of young Germans and led directly to the rise of Hitler and an even uglier worldwide conflagration.

How was World War 1 pointless?

World War I has been called unnecessary because the original dispute that triggered the conflict was limited, yet it triggered a massive, global war.

What was the most pointless war in history?

1. The Pastry War. After his Mexico City pastry shop was destroyed by a lawless mob in 1828, a French chef named Remontel asked the Mexican government to pay damages, a request it promptly ignored.

What made ww1 so horrible?

One of the saddest facts about World War I is that millions died needlessly because military and civilian leaders were slow to adapt their old-fashioned strategies and tactics to the new weapons of 1914. New technology made war more horrible and more complex than ever before.

Is ww1 the worst war in history?

The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was about 40 million: estimates range from around 15 to 22 million deaths and about 23 million wounded military personnel, ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history.

The First World War Was a Pointless War

What were the odds of dying in ww1?

About one to every 10,000 men. With one exception – I'll speak about that later – there has been no widespread disease among the armies on the western front. This is a splendid record. In our previous wars thousands of soldiers died in hospitals without ever seeing action.

Was ww1 more brutal than ww2?

World War II was the most destructive war in history. Estimates of those killed vary from 35 million to 60 million. The total for Europe alone was 15 million to 20 million—more than twice as many as in World War I.

Did anyone survive ww1 from start to finish?

Following his death and funeral, there were two surviving World War I veterans, British-born Florence Green and British Australian citizen Claude Choules, both of whom served in the British Armed Forces.

What did soldiers say was so wrong with the trenches?

Disease and 'shell shock' were rampant in the trenches.

Trench mouth, a type of gum infection, was also problematic and is thought to be associated with the stress of nonstop bombardment.

Why did people not like ww1?

However, trade unions feared that their members might be replaced by cheaper foreign or female labour and opposed conscription. Some groups argued that the whole war was immoral, and it was unjust to force people to fight. In Australia, women had full rights to vote which was then rare.

What was the weirdest war?

The War of Jenkins' Ear

The seeds of this Caribbean conflict between Britain and Spain were sown in 1731 when Robert Jenkins, captain of a British merchant ship and a suspected smuggler, had his ear cut off by the captain of a Spanish patrol boat.

What was the war that nobody won?

The War of 1812; The War Nobody Won; The War Nobody Lost and The War Nobody Remembers. Over two hundred years ago on June 18, 1812 the young republic of the United States of America declared war on Great Britain, then the World's greatest power. Congress had declared war at the request of President James Madison.

Who never defeated in the war?

In antiquity, no one stands taller than Alexander the Great - the young military genius who never once lost a battle and established a vast empire that heralded a new historical era.

What did World War 1 soldiers do for fun?

In their spare time, soldiers wrote letters and diaries, drew sketches, read books and magazines, pursued hobbies, played cards or gambled. There were also opportunities for more-organised social activities.

What did WW1 actually accomplish?

World War I was one of the great watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history. It led to the fall of four great imperial dynasties (in Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey), resulted in the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and, in its destabilization of European society, laid the groundwork for World War II.

Why does World War 1 still matter?

The war introduced deadly new weapons.

A main reason for the historic loss of life, say experts, was the introduction of deadly new weapons. Among these were machine guns and artillery that could fire more rapidly than before. Tanks, airplanes, and poison gas were also deployed for the first time in World War I.

What did the trenches smell like?

The stink of war

Then there was the smell. Stinking mud mingled with rotting corpses, lingering gas, open latrines, wet clothes and unwashed bodies to produce an overpowering stench. The main latrines were located behind the lines, but front-line soldiers had to dig small waste pits in their own trenches.

How awful was the trench warfare?

In battle, soldiers had to charge out of the trenches and across no-man's land into a hail of bullets and shrapnel and poison gas. They were easy targets and casualties were enormously high. By the end of 1914, after just five months of fighting, the number of dead and wounded exceeded four million men.

Did soldiers get bored in the trenches?

Trench life involved long periods of boredom mixed with brief periods of terror. The threat of death kept soldiers constantly on edge, while poor living conditions and a lack of sleep wore away at their health and stamina.

How likely was a soldier to survive all of WWI?

The mortality rate ranged between 6% and 30%, with the highest in the armies of Serbia, Montenegro and the Turkish Empire, mainly due to large epidemics of cholera, typhoid and smallpox, against which the armies of other countries vaccinated their troops.

Who was the last person killed in ww1?

World War I ended precisely on the 11^th Hour of the 11^th Day of the 11^th Month of 1918. At the moment the bells struck and the guns went silent, a body fell in a French village. Henry Gunther was a bank clerk from Baltimore, drafted the year before. He's listed as the last man killed in World War I.

How many bodies are missing from ww1?

Total losses in combat theaters from 1914–1918 were 876,084, which included 418,361 killed, 167,172 died of wounds, 113,173 died of disease or injury, 161,046 missing and presumed dead and 16,332 prisoner of war deaths.

What was the hardest war for America?

The Civil War was America's bloodiest conflict. The unprecedented violence of battles such as Shiloh, Antietam, Stones River, and Gettysburg shocked citizens and international observers alike. Nearly as many men died in captivity during the Civil War as were killed in the whole of the Vietnam War.

What were the most cruel war crimes of WW1?

After exhaustive investigating, the commission found Kaiser Wilhelm and his uniformed aristocrats directly answerable on over twenty charges of war crimes, the top five being the massacre of civilians, the killing of hostages, the torture of civilians, the starvation of civilians, and rape.

Who was the most brutal army in ww2?

The Axis powers (Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan) were some of the most systematic perpetrators of war crimes in modern history.