WWI

For the first time in a long time, Europe was united in 1918--not in harmony and peace--but in grief. The effects of World War I were felt across the entirety of Europe. It was impossible to escape news of death and destruction caused by the warfare remained as markers to evoke memories of war. Nothing like World War I had ever been fought before: people, countries, and strategies worked together in ways that they never before had to interact in. World War I was fought on unfamiliar and untried territory; its mixing of old, traditional battlefield strategies with modern technological innovations resulted in destruction of such mass proportions Europe had never been exposed to. This video illustrates several new practices that were utilized during the war that helped shape the war into something beyond what any European could have projected. The footage in the beginning of the video shows the soldier recruitment process. Hundreds of thousands of civilians signed up for regimens, clueless on what they were about to be taking part in. The video demonstrates the sheer mechanicalness of the entire process: massive lines of citizens were rolled through assembly lines of recruiters, shuffling through to fill out papers confirming their recruitment with as much ease as products would move down a conveyor belt in a factory. There was certainly a spirit of nationalism in the recruitment process, committing one's life to the service of his country. But in this dedication to the nation, there was also a sense of lost individuality. Citizens, coming from all different kinds of backgrounds and occupational work, were drawn into a homogenous mass of soldiers, all fighting and dying for a single cause. The monstrous number of soldier deaths during the war could not allow an emphasis on individual memorialization; the scale of death just became a symbol for the unruly destruction more so than a count of individuals lost. Many soldiers who died at the battlefields were never even identified. The number of soldiers employed in the war was something Europe had never dealt with before; the deaths amounting from such numbers were justifiably hard to comprehend. Later in the video, machine guns are heard, pointing out another new element World War I brought to the table. Traditional strategies calling on soldiers to run and directly attack their opponents had worked for centuries in Europe; however, these strategies applied to WWI failed horribly as they failed to take into account the strength of 20th century warfare. Machine guns, grenades, and canons could wipe out huge numbers fast, and a change in strategy was necessary but was not realized until the end of the war. New weaponry changed the course of battle, but amid transition from traditional to 20th century warfare, many lives were lost as armies tried to fight an 18th century war with modern technology. The radicalness and inexperience World War I introduced to Europeans immortalized the war forever in European history.