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    Why Was World War I Considered As A Total War

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    jjswaggner
    World War I was considered a Total War because it affected every aspect of life in the participating countries, from families and the economy to infrastructure and government. Total War meant that all resources and production were devoted to the war effort, halting civilian industries and leading to food and supply shortages. It also left long-lasting impacts through shattered families as many soldiers did not return home, a lost generation of young men, and permanently damaged landscapes from trenches and unexploded ordnance. The war entirely consumed all participating governments and societies.

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    Why Was World War I Considered As A Total War

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    jjswaggner
    5K views2 pages
    World War I was considered a Total War because it affected every aspect of life in the participating countries, from families and the economy to infrastructure and government. Total War meant that all resources and production were devoted to the war effort, halting civilian industries and leading to food and supply shortages. It also left long-lasting impacts through shattered families as many soldiers did not return home, a lost generation of young men, and permanently damaged landscapes from trenches and unexploded ordnance. The war entirely consumed all participating governments and societies.

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    Why was World War I considered as a Total War

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    World War I was considered a Total War because it affected every aspect of life in the participating countries, from families and the economy to infrastructure and government. Total War meant that all resources and production were devoted to the war effort, halting civilian industries and leading to food and supply shortages. It also left long-lasting impacts through shattered families as many soldiers did not return home, a lost generation of young men, and permanently damaged landscapes from trenches and unexploded ordnance. The war entirely consumed all participating governments and societies.

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    Why Was World War I Considered As A Total War

    Uploaded by

    jjswaggner
    World War I was considered a Total War because it affected every aspect of life in the participating countries, from families and the economy to infrastructure and government. Total War meant that all resources and production were devoted to the war effort, halting civilian industries and leading to food and supply shortages. It also left long-lasting impacts through shattered families as many soldiers did not return home, a lost generation of young men, and permanently damaged landscapes from trenches and unexploded ordnance. The war entirely consumed all participating governments and societies.

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    Why was World War I considered as a Total War?

    World War I is considered the first ever-Total War. To understand why it is


    called a Total War, one must understand the raw definition. Total War does not
    simply mean the involvation of many countries but that the war affected every
    aspect of life in the participating countries. This includes everything, from family
    to economy. The 1st World War dug its roots into every structure of a country.

    The most important thing during a war is weapons and the ammunitions used by
    them. These have to be produced as quickly as possible in order to speedily
    resupply the troops at the fronts. Many countries started arming processes in the
    years leading up to the war due to the several crises, i.e. in Agadir or Bosnia.
    Those included the British and Germans who were caught up in a race for naval
    superiority. But this was simple armament in a modest pace. As soon as the war
    began all other production had to step back and make way for the war effort. All
    factories were now used to produce tools of war, uniforms, and supplies to aid
    the fighting troops. This, of course, had great effects on the population. The
    commodities formerly enjoyed by the people were now unattainable due to a
    halt in production. As a matter of fact, even the simplest needs had to be
    subordinated to the war effort. This lead to several problems, one of them being
    food shortages. All food that was produced was first distributed to the fighting
    troops and then to the public. This led to the rationalizing of food, which in turn
    led to major public discontent and, in some places, even to starvation. A good
    example of this can be given in the form of Russia were starvation was a big
    problem during the war.

    The effect of World War I on families is also very significant. During the war,
    there was a constant need for new soldiers. These were, of course, to be supplied
    by the families of the country. The soldiers were either fathers or young boys,
    barely sixteen years of age. Few of those soldiers ever returned home which left
    their families shattered. Without the father and/or the sons, there would be
    hardly any way of feeding the family, as it was them who either worked the land
    or occupied other jobs that secured the income of the family. When they did not
    return, this often left the remaining members in a horrible emotional state, from
    which recovery was, if ever achieved, very slowly. The ones that did return were
    often in such a bad physical or mental condition that they could not resume work
    or even simple life, the way they had done before the war. This consequently led
    to increased poverty. Also, the war wiped out an entire generation of young
    people. Blinded by propaganda the boys often volunteered despite being
    ignorant of the horrors of war. The fact that most of these young men died during
    the fighting proves that the majority of their generation was brutally wiped out.
    This often robbed the families of their last hopes of a financially secure future.

    Another piece of evidence that shows World War I was a Total War, is the effect
    of it on a country’s infrastructure. At the beginning of the 20 th century the
    infrastructure was solely made up of the railway system. Due to this, it was the
    only way of quickly supplying the troops at the fronts, as every other mean of
    transportation would have taken much longer. This led to restrictions in travel
    and mobility for the population. Often times, this meant that whatever small
    surplus was produced could not be transported to the cities to be sold for a
    profit. This is just another example of the dedication towards the war effort.

    The Total War also includes the governments. All participating countries had
    entirely devoted governments. The 1st World War was also the first in which a
    massive amount of propaganda was used to keep the public enthusiastic about
    the war. This was also why a lot of young men volunteered to fight. Propaganda
    often glorified war as something incredibly heroic. The idea of fighting for the
    fatherland, standing fast against the enemy and winning heroic battles was all
    conjured by the brilliant propaganda created by the government. The volunteers
    were blinded by the propaganda and the feeling of protectiveness of the home
    country it implied. They felt that it was their duty as a member of a certain
    nationality to defend its proximities and honour. Towards the end of the war, the
    façade of propaganda started to break down as the soldiers returned from the
    fronts to report of the terrors that they had experienced.

    Last but not least a Total War also affects the landscape. The trenches that were
    dug along the fronts left the landscape scarred for many years after the conflict.
    Artillery shell ripped open huge spaces of formerly fertile land. Unexploded
    bombs and other debris litter the countryside, posing a threat to many people
    that do not know of their existence. A good example would be the German-
    French borderlands. This area saw the heaviest skirmishes of the war and was
    thereby left completely destroyed. During the war the currents of soldiers
    trotting over soft ground left the earth churned and the landscape muddy,
    preventing all recultivation efforts after the war, causing a huge gap of
    production. Several thousand mines are still dug into the ground, without any
    account of where and how many were buried. Although they have been dug in
    for some time, a lot of them are still armed and deadly.

    All these are factors that prove World War I to be a Total War, as it breached all
    aspects of life inside the countries that fought it. It left economies in shambles,
    families shattered, the landscape scarred, and an entire generation wiped out.

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