Reflecting on the causes of the First World War, Jay Winter concludes his six-part video series, The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century (1996), as follows:
The war solved no problems. Its effects, both immediate and indirect, were either negative or disastrous. Morally subversive, economically destructive, socially degrading, confused in its course, futile in its result, it is the outstanding example in European history of meaningless conflict.
Summing up his conclusions more recently, he states:
1918 is a long way from now, but it’s still a puzzle. What was it for? Why? Why all this bloodshed? Why the carnage? Why the violence? Why the cruelty? I can’t pretend to have an answer, but I know it’s a question that we still have to resolve.
NO NEED FOR SUCH ANGUISH. P. H. Pearse had already provided the solution to the problem 104 years ago. Observing the daily carnage in France in 1916, he stated:
| The last sixteenth months have been the most glorious in the history of Europe. Heroism has come back to the earth. It is good for the world that such things should be done. The old heart of the earth needed to be warmed with the red wine of the battlefield. Such august homage was never before offered to God as this, the homage of millions of lives given gladly for love of country. |
Feeding the earth with the "red wine of the battlefield"--the blood of soldiers--that's what the First World War as all about. Nothing more need to be said.
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First World War Casualties
The figures below are from Chris Trueman's HistoryLearningSite.co.uk.
| Country |
Men mobilised |
Killed |
Wounded |
POW’s + missing |
Total casualties |
casualties in % of men mobilised |
| Russia |
12 mil |
1.7 mil |
4.9 mil |
2.5 mil |
9.15 mil |
76.3 |
| France |
8.4 mil |
1.3 mil |
4.2 mil |
537,000 |
6.1 mil |
73.3 |
| GB + Empire |
8.9 mil |
908,000 |
2 mil |
191,000 |
3.1 mil |
35.8 |
| Italy |
5.5 mil |
650,000 |
947,000 |
600,000 |
2.1 mil |
39 |
| USA |
4.3 mil |
126,000 |
234,000 |
4,500 |
350,000 |
8 |
| Japan |
800,000 |
300 |
900 |
3 |
1210 |
0.2 |
| Romania |
750,000 |
335,000 |
120,000 |
80,000 |
535,000 |
71 |
| Serbia |
700,000 |
45,000 |
133,000 |
153,000 |
331,000 |
47 |
| Belgium |
267,000 |
13,800 |
45,000 |
34,500 |
93,000 |
35 |
| Greece |
230,000 |
5000 |
21,000 |
1000 |
27,000 |
12 |
| Portugal |
100,000 |
7222 |
13,700 |
12,000 |
33,000 |
33 |
| Total Allies |
42 mil |
5 mil |
13 mil |
4 mil |
22 mil |
52% |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Germany |
11 mil |
1.7 mil |
4.2 mil |
1.1 mil |
7.1 mil |
65 |
| Austria |
7.8 mil |
1.2 mil |
3.6 mil |
2.2 mil |
7 mil |
90 |
| Turkey |
2.8 mil |
325,000 |
400,000 |
250,000 |
975,000 |
34 |
| Bulgaria |
1.2 mil |
87,000 |
152,000 |
27,000 |
266,000 |
22 |
| Total Central Powers |
22.8 mil |
3.3 mil |
8.3 mil |
3.6 mil |
15 mil |
67 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Grand Total |
65 mil |
8.5 mil |
21 mil |
7.7 mil |
37 mil |
57% |
|