Why Was Ww1 A Total War Analysis

Why was WW1 a “total war“ ?

In this essay, I am going to analyze why War One (28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918) was a total war by emphasizing the economical, military and political and social characteristics of the First World War. These characteristics are part of the definition of a “total war“. A total war is defined as “A war that is unrestricted in terms of the weapons used, the territory or combatants involved, or the objectives pursued, especially one in which the laws of war are disregarded“ .

A total war consists of a large part of a nation being part of a war and civilians being integrated in the war. This was the case in the First World War, the war which was expected to be a swift one turned out to be a long-lasting war. The economy

This suggests that during the First World War, nobody had the opportunity to distance oneself from the war. The USA (United States of America) tried to make more soldiers join the war by making the people who did not want to join the war work in very bad conditions while not earning a lot of money. So the USA made everybody work for the war, by being a soldier or by working in gun factories. The USA only being an example, many countries focussed on making people join their army voluntarily and punishing the people which did not want to go to

The First World War was a major cause for a rapid decrease in the human population. The War created a gap in an entire generation and led to a baby-boom after the war was over. By looking at the graph, one can see that only about half the people sent into war came home unwounded and still alive. For instance, 12.000.000 soldiers were mobilised from 1914 to 1918 and about 2.000.000 soldiers died. This is a decrease of about 16 % of soldiers in 4 years. Connecting this rapid decrease in population during the First World War to the fact that this war is defined as a “total war“ one could say that the war had a dangerous effect on the population. Many people lost family members, friends and other people in their surroundings. John Bourne describes the consequences of the war as : “ The cost of all this in human terms was 8.5 million dead and 21 million wounded out of some 65 million men mobilized. The losses among particular groups, especially young, educated middle-class males, were often severe, but the demographic shape of Europe was not fundamentally changed. The real impact was moral. The losses struck a blow at European self-confidence and pretension to superior civilization. It was a blow, perhaps, whose consequences have not even now fully