The First Modern Military Divergence

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

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World war one was the first modern military divergence in the world history, and it gave birth to the notion of total war. The First World War called in its own name the Great War had, an almost catalymistic effect upon the history of mankind. This war has been vastly compared to an impenetrable veil that sharply separated a former, more peaceful way of life from our own way of confused and chaotic existence.

Certainly the political and military institutions that emerged from this great conflict are much more understandable to the modern man than they were to the nineteenth century human beings who helped bring it about. Aside from its unprecedented scale and the toll that it brought about on the world resources, the Great War is significant because of the changes that occurred during its course. The war is accredited for accelerating changes and initiating programs that inevitably and irreversibly changed the societies and the perception of human kind (Terraine 13-15).

Prior to 1914, the prevailing mood in Europe was one of conceit in the accomplishment of western civilizations and confidence in its future progress. Advances in science and technology the rising standard of living, the spread of democratic institutions, and Europe position of power in the world all contributed to a sense of confidence, as did the extension of the social reform and the increase in literacy for its population. But with this economic changes this fueled jealousies and initiated conflicts that could not be easily solved

So what so special about world war one. The war was massively destructive. It was extremely costly causalities were enormous, intense, and people suffered over that rather short period of time. Compared to other war that had happened in Europe the estimate of death rate report suggested that over 5 percent of the European population perished in the war. With new technological innovations of the warfare, like the machine guns and tanks and long range artillery made some aspects of battle more impersonal. The technology advancement of the weapon made war far less crude and dirty since men found that killing each other at long range was less repugnant than up close

Moreover, the logistics were vastly improved in world war one, so unlike in olden days where, soldiers and civilians very often found in earlier wars. Was far less of a problem in world war one. In addition, prisoners of war were generally treated by many standards. In the ancient times, prisoners of war were mistreated and at times slaughtered. And with the successful development of modern medicine and of institutions such as Red Cross, a wounded soldier was far more likely to recover than in the earlier wars, when the non-ambulatory wounded were characteristically abandoned on the battled field to die in lingering agony from exposure and blood loss.

The war also led to gender equality. Before the war, women stayed at home to cook and take care of the family they never worked in factories but when all men left for war. Women remained to take care of the families. Afterwards, they ended up taking men jobs in industries where they worked in heavy industries, where they were involved in making weapons and tools which were used in the war. With their involvement, this led to the idea that women could also work (Reese 32-50).

The world war one led to the emerging of the Anti war movement. The substantial anti war movement had been organized prior the world War it had grown, but it was still very much a minority movement and largely drowned out b those who held war to be a method for resolving international disputes that was natural and inevitable, honorable, thrilling, manly, invigorating, necessary, and often progressive, glorious, and desirable. But although the antiwar people were often ridiculed, their gadfly arguments were persistent and unavoidable, and the existence of the movement probably helped Europeans, and the Americans to look at the institutors of war in a new way when massive conflict of 1914-18 entered their experience.

World war one, therefore, served as a catalyst. It was not that horrible because of the efforts of the prewar anti war movement it was the first in which people were widely capable of recognizing and being thoroughly repulsed by those horrors and which they are substantially aware that viable alternatives existed(Winter 192).

Conclusion

The war as it is known brought with it the greatest test that mankind had experienced to that date. Dominions, imperialism, and cultures controlled from the past were, for the most part, found faulty and either ruined. Politically, the conflict brought with it essential transformation. New principles support by the dream of democracy all country’s experienced the arousing of influential groups that demanded respect. The World War ended the period of national deficiency. Countries, which were entwined in conflicts, were now interconnected by treaties and trade.

The War transformed traditional attitudes towards the war, for the first time there was an almost worldwide sense that the intentional induction of a war could no longer be acceptable. European attitude toward war changed profoundly at the time of world war one. In an area where war had been traditional as a typical way of settling disagreements, the idea suddenly gained considerable occurrence that war was unnecessary fact of life and that key attempt should be made to discard the idea. With this change, this marked an end to an era of where war been one of mankind’s master institutions.

Work Cited

Terraine, John. The Great War. Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions, 1997. Print.13-15

Winter, J M, and Antoine Prost. The Great War in History: Debates and Controversies, 1914 to

the Present. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Internet resource.192

Rees, Rosemary. Britain and the Great War. Oxford: Heinemann Educational, 1993. Print.32-50