World War I had caused many casualties and was a great tragedy; the reason the war had started was because most other European countries had large empires made up of many other countries. However Belgium had nothing to do with these great empires, instead it renounced any war and political struggle, so it became a neutral country. Even though she refused to fight, Belgium helped the wounded and anyone who needed medical assistance. While the rest of the European countries were making their empires stronger and stronger over time, Germany, in 1889, realized that it did not have as large an empire as Great Britain and other countries. The new German monarch was extremely jealous, so Germany had quickly become a hard-working, wealthy, and orderly nation. Although Wilhelm II had great plans for Germany, there were not many good territories left to conquer. Its security and invasiveness made other world leaders uncomfortable, who 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 was known as "The Great War" because not only was it great because it lasted 4 years and used a lot of ammunition, but it was also called that because so many lives were taken and so many people suffered due to the enormous effect it had on them and their family. The effects of the "Great War" were devastating, most of the children sent to fight in the war were killed and horribly mutilated. All because they were burning for desperate glory. They had allowed themselves to be lured by the old lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. Which means; It is sweet and honorable to die for your country. There were many effects of the First World War, for example women had to care for and work for the country because men fought and died for their country, families were destroyed with the loss of family members due to war and disease mental and physical that resulted from it. men have returned there for life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayThe effects, during the First World War 1914-1918, of trench warfare on the Western FrontAfter the Battle of the Marne in September, the Germans retreated. The German commander, General Falkenhayn, told his men that they would have to dig trenches; this, he believed, would protect them from the English and French. The soldiers dug and dug, creating furrows in the ground. Within a few months the news spread to 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 a straight line because if any of the enemy managed to reach the trench they could simply shoot straight ahead, this would result in many men being fired upon. The front side of the trenches was called Parapet and the back side was called Parados. Gradually trenches dug into the clay mud formed on both sides of the no-man's land. But since the Germans had thought of this new idea of ​​digging trenches in the ground, they first had to choose where they wanted to dig the trenches, and of course they chose the highest and least muddy ground to place these trenches. So the English were left with lower ground which became extremely muddy and wet when it rained. The muddy puddles that sat on no man's landthey were so dangerous that there were numerous accounts of men being swallowed by the octopus like mud. Once the men fell in, there was no help for them, they would die a slow death. The German trenches were much more sophisticated than the British trenches, they had concrete walls and a new type of barbed wire. The cement they used was actually imported from Great Britain to Rugby. The barbed wire they used was much better than the British barbed wire was stronger and there were many more spikes. In 1915 both sides lived and fought in the trenches. Thus began the "tariff of trench warfare." Trench warfare occurred when both sides fought from the trenches. It all started because Schlieffen had failed and when he had made a mistake. Alfred Von Schlieffen created the Schlieffen Plan. He had calculated everything by 1905, he had made this plan so that his army could defeat France and Russia on two different combat fronts and, most importantly, he would not have to divide his army. His plan was to send out his army at a high enough speed so that they would be unprepared for the attack, so they would be expected to surrender in less than six weeks. After that the entire army would be moved 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, however several ideas that led to this ingenious plan turned out to be incorrect. When the Russians knew they would be attacked they mobilized their soldiers, 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 did not take into account the fact that if France was attacked, Russia would help them. So Germany remained blocked, Russian soldiers had arrived where the Germans were, and the Germans had to fight France and Russia at the same time. Finally, the final flaw in the plan was that because Germany had quickly sent ammunition, soldiers and equipment to Belgium (which was a neutral country) to save time, this had broken Belgium's neutrality. Britain had said in 1839 that it would protect Belgium's neutrality, so by the time Schlieffen reached France Britain was already there and the war had begun. The main weakness of Schlieffen's plan was that it was too rigid, it left no room for the possibility of an error in the plans and if they needed to change the train times it would take months. Once the German army moved, they could not be stopped. The conditions in the trenches were absolutely despicable. There was a continuous supply of water seeped into the trenches by the rain, soldiers would walk through these soggy trenches day and night with their feet submerged in a shallow pool of water. This did not go well for the soldiers, because it forced them to take trench foot; it was a foot infection caused by cold, damp, unsanitary conditions. The feet would gradually become numb and the skin would turn red or blue. If left untreated, trench foot could become gangrenous and cause amputation. Another big problem for the soldiers were rats. These nasty little parasites harbored many diseases such as the Black Death and Bubonic Plague. Trench rats thrived in literally millions of trenches on most war fronts, rats even crawled on the faces of sleeping men. As they gorged on food, they grew, and many rats reportedly grew to the size of cats. Rats attack and eat the eyes firstof a corpse, rats would constantly make their way through the rest of the body in a short amount of time. Horrified as they were, the soldiers had a small solution that wouldn't solve the problem but would allow them to relieve some stress. They attacked the mice with bayonets and shot at them, shooting mice was forbidden because the generals said it was considered a useless waste of ammunition. This was one of the many problems that the brave soldiers had to endure. There were worse problems like casualties and death. On the first day of the Battle of the Somme there were over 57,000 British casualties and in November 1916 more than 1 and a quarter million men were killed in total. The soldiers suffered mental and physical losses. The constant proximity to machine guns and shell launchers caused some men to get a mental illness called shell shock. Early symptoms of Shell shock included tiredness, irritability, dizziness, lack of concentration and headaches. Eventually the men suffered mental breakdowns that made it impossible for them to remain on the front lines. Some doctors in military hospitals came to the conclusion that the soldiers' conditions were caused by the enemy's heavy artillery. These doctors claimed that the explosion of a shell created some sort of disturbance in their brain and prevented it from functioning properly. I think the whole idea of ​​war and fighting it was traumatic enough and with all this other stuff going on it would have made it a living nightmare. If the general had come across an incident like this, they would have thought that the man was simply afraid of the artillery and that they were trying to escape the fight, so they would probably have been shot as an example to his comrades. Some soldiers were shown as an example to the rest of the soldiers, a soldier who did something the general thought was a crime would be tied to a post or chair and killed by several men. The general first told the men who would shoot the "inmate" to look the other way or go somewhere else while he removed all the bullets from the guns and put some in only a couple of the guns. Then ask them to return and take the weapons there. The soldier who was about to be killed would be blindfolded and have a piece of white cloth pinned to his heart as a target to be shot at by armed soldiers. The reason why the general switched bullets is that some would fire blanks and others would actually shoot the soldier, without knowing who shot him and who was to blame. The infamous General Haig was responsible for most, if not all, shootings of innocent soldiers, he was known as "The Butcher". But the physical effects of fighting in the Great War were much more devastating and gruesome. I think bombs have killed more soldiers than any other life-threatening object. These bombs caused deaths, crippled and even blinded soldiers due to the explosions of these terrible and murderous weapons. I also think that all the weapons were destructive to each other. Gas bombs, without a gas mask to protect breathing, were deadly. If you were unlucky enough to find yourself without a gas mask when a gas bomb exploded, you would have felt as if your lungs were being ripped apart inside you and your nostrils were on fire. The Great War was a traumatic and distressing time for all British people. Everyone has been affected in one way or another, especially the brave soldiers sent to protect and fight for their country. The boys entered the army full of patriotism and idealism, then as time passed andthey would see their best friend get blown up by a bomb, their morale would drop, and they would probably wish they had never joined such a group. miserable army. The German general, general. Ludendorf knew that British soldiers were brave enough that he once said, "They are nothing but brave-hearted lions led by donkeys." There were many other reasons why soldiers' morale was low, but another reason that I think contributed most to the depressing military life was where they were located. There were two places where the British Army fought: the Marne and a place near the River Somme, both in France. The layout of the area wasn't that bad at the Battle of the Marne, but at the Battle of the Somme the English couldn't have chosen a worse place to entrench themselves and fight from. In the winter month of November it rained so much that the war had to be postponed for a while 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 the place where the war situation played a vital role in the effects the war had on most young soldiers. The effects were devastating on the front line of the Great War, so those effects were life-changing in Britain for everyone. Men who didn't go to fight in the war were sent a white feather by neighbors and other people who might have lived on their street. They thought why should the men in our family suffer in war while he is at home. So life in 1900 was very different from life in the 21st century. Thousands of young boys who felt very patriotic signed up to be drafted into the army, but others did not feel the same idealism as those young boys. If men of the right age and health could have fought in the war, but did not want to do so, it would be unfortunate. It would have been a conscription law in place to coerce those fighting in World War I. Propaganda played a vital role in convincing men to go to recruiting booths and sign up to join the army. Propaganda had made announcements assuring the youth of the time to enlist and that it was for your king and your country. Some advertisements emphasized the fact that most of the men were unemployed and joining the army would give them a good salary and a good pension for their wife and children. But one ad got men with kids recruited very quickly. Above 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 obviously this made the men think that their sons would be proud to have fought longer in the war. But one thing that isn't mentioned in the poster is that there was a huge chance that you would never return from battle in the war! These ads were placed everywhere, such as on the streets, in newspapers and in voice announcements to entice the listener to join the army. Before the war there had been large demonstrations by many women across the country trying to gain the right to vote. But when the war began, women understood that now was their time to shine and show men that they could run a country and not just cook and clean. So with most of the men fighting in the Great War, women were very impressed by the men who fought in the First World War because they had to do,.