The Great War World War I

WWI was like no other war that had preceded it. What began with a minor assassination in a small corner of a long-forgotten empire in Europe was to become history's first truly global conflict. It embroiled some 30 countries across five continents and was fought on a scale never-before-seen by mankind. This was the first war of the Industrial Age, and it demonstrated the prodigious strength, resilience and killing power of modern states. The main theatre of action, the Western Front, was deadlocked from a few months after the war's start in 1914 until a few months before its end in 1918, stretching in a near continuous line of trenches from the English Channel to the Swiss frontier. Advances were measured in terms of a few miles gained over several months. Casualties for each big attack or 'push' ran into hundreds of thousands on both sides. At least 10 million men lost their lives on the battlefield, and another 20 million were wounded. By the time the Great War ended, Europe had lost almost an entire generation of men. Unknown numbers of civilians lay dead and the landscape of Europe looked like the surface of the moon. Empires that had taken centuries to build were gone. The United States had transformed itself into a world power. The face of the world had changed, and the "War To End All Wars" became, in reality, the first in a long line of wars to come.