The First "Modern" and "Total" War

• The First "Modern" and "Total" War

  • Mass mobilization and industrialization
  • Mechanization of war machinery
  • More complex weaponry and weapons of mass destruction (WMDs)
  • Artillery, machine guns, tanks, navy, air force, chemical warfare
• The war, which had initially been welcomed enthusiastically by many, soon developed to an unforeseeable extent
• In Germany, more than 13 million soldiers were conscripted, and more than 6 million of them were finally wounded or killed
• The mechanization of the war machinery, made possible by industrialization, developed quickly in the four years of war, from 1914 to 1918
• Impact on civilians


  • Men, women and forced labourers from abroad were conscripted for the production of armaments
  • Population was asked to invest in war bonds
  • Increasing lack of supplies led to an economic policy of distributing foodstuffs and punishing black market sales
  • Daily life of the people was more and more influenced by this war economy
• The war was "total" in that it affected everyone, from soldiers to civilians
• German military plan for quick victory in the west

  1. Attempt to take the enemy by surprise

  2. Advance of German army came to a halt at the River Marne in September 1914
• Reasons for German failure


  • Belgian army resisted more forcefully than expected
  • Germans miscalculated the time Russia would need to mobilize her troops
  • French counter-attack against Alsace-Lorraine failed
  • Germans failed to encircle Paris
• The outcome of the Battle of the Marne is often seen as a preliminary indication of the outcome of the war as such since a stalemate came into being
• Trench warfare


  • Provided insufficient protection against new weaponry
  • Led to a war of attrition with very high numbers of casualties
  • Both sides aimed at "bleeding the enemy white"
• Battles of attrition


  • Battle of Verdun
  • Battle of the Somme
• On the eastern front, the advance of the Russian army could be stopped in the Battle of Tannenberg
• Germany's hopes for naval supremacy were not fulfilled despite the massive build-up of arms
• When the USA entered the war on the side of the allies in April 1917, the balance of power finally shifted in favour of the Entente