World War 1 was so destructive because of society's advances in technology and the constant drive to annihilate anyone that stands in the way of expansion
Demography During WW1 (ENV)
Battles with heavy use of machine guns during World War 1 led to heavy casualties which led to significant population losses
Rules of engagement made civilians targets of warfare. For example military leaders used blockades to block food to large populations, hoping that starving masses would force their governments to surrender.
The British blockade of Germany during the war contributed to the deaths of an estimated half million Germans
The war also had a campaign of extermination against the Ottoman empire’s two million Armenians who sought independence. This brutal massacre became known as the Armenian Genocide
Forced mass evacuations, along with starvation, dehydration, and exposure, led to the death of too many Armenians
As war progressed mutiny and rebellions occurred as well for war to stop. The number of soldiers in the mutiny was huge: 50,000 soldiers were involved, which led to 23,385 courts-martial and 432 death sentences
WW1 killed fifteen million people and wounded twenty million others.
Virulent influenza attacked which left more than twenty million dead. The disease killed more people than the Great War, and it hit young adultswith great ferocity
Migration (ENV)
Millions of Asians, Africans, and residents of the British dominions into the war to serve as soldiers and laborers while women moved out to start working in factories to mass produce weapons
War caused many innocent civilians to move out of their old homes because of the destruction weapons caused
Blockade of several countries did not allow for much migration except for families fleeing their homes
Patterns of Settlement (ENV)
Military planners knew that the timing of mobilization orders and committing to accurate timetables was important to successful war conduct
For example, the Russian government mobilized its troops to defend its Serbia and itself from Austria. The Tsar then ordered mobilization against Germany
Territorial losses were significant for nations such as the Ottoman Empires which led to different borders of settlement
Military from other countries during battles would come in to nations and invade specific cities which must have influenced patterns of settlement today
Technology (ENV)
Barbed wire, which had confined cattle on America’s Great Plains, was very useful in halting soldiers in one's territory
The machine was always a key weapon for overcoming resistance to colonial expansion before it was heavily advanced during the Great War. The machine gun signified one of the most important advances in military technology and made military leaders on all sides to rethink their battlefield tactics
The most hazardous weapon was poisonous gas, first used by German troops. Especially used against troops in the trenches was mustard gas, a liquid agent that, when exposed to air, turned into a noxious yellow gas. The effects of mustard gas includes it rotting the body from both inside and outside
British first introduced tanks, and the Allies utilized them to break down defensive trenches and to resume fighting. Despite its short-term effectiveness during the final parts of the war, the tank did not produce a strategic advantage
The airplane, after constant improvements , showed huge gains in speed, range, and altitude. However, because airplanes could not carry enough weapons to do serious damage. their purpose during the Great War was aerial recon. It was an attempt to prevent the enemy from conducting aerial recon that led to the much dramatized aerial combat of the Great War
Other weapons systems, such as the submarine, made earlier appearances in warfare but did not play a significant role until the German navy deployed its diesel-powered submarine fleet against Allied commercial shipping, which showed its military effectiveness. Although the German navy relied more heavily on submarines, the allied navies of Great Britain and the United States utilized their own fleets of diesel-powered submarines
Synthesis In comparison to the biological warfare method of poison gas used in World War 1 such as the mustard gas, it is similar to how the Mongols used biological warfare in their conquests by using disease. During the age of the Mongols, they used many tactics of invasion and one such was to use catapults to fling bubonic plague and disease ridden corpses across to infect the enemy army, which led to significant losses but wasn't the most effective form of attack. Similarly in the contemporary period, a form of advanced biological warfare, known as mustard gas, was used to rot enemy armies during the Great War which led to significant army losses.
The image above examines the technology of the war, mainly the most useful one, which was the machine gun that was used to kill fiercely
The depiction above shows significant casualties of the war which led to significant demographic losses in multiple states
Map
This map according to its legend, shows the different divisions of the nations that they claimed during war and it compares them to the modern day countries that currently reside in that region