Analysis of the Nature of World War 1 - Essay Example

World War 1 Name: Institution: Date: Lecturer: World War 1 is an infamous event in the life of humankind since it was an extremely bloody war which particularly engulfed Europe though it also directly affected other parts of the world from 1914 to 1919. The war was characterized with huge losses of life for both the soldiers and the civilians and a little ground won or lost. The war was fought mostly by soldiers from the enemy countries and since it was not well advanced the soldiers fought from the trenches, World War 1 eventually had an estimated 10 million deaths of the military personnel and another 20 million were left wounded. European soldiers also had other soldiers in the battle field from African country which they colonized known as the carrier cops and that was how the war affected the whole world (Adams 2001). World War 1 weapons were not very well developed but consisted of different types of weapons which were standardized and improved over some period of time together with some other newly developed weapon types using innovative and creative technology and different improvised weapons used in the trench warfare. Some of the weapons that were commonly used in the trenches by the soldiers in this war were infantry weapons. An average soldier in the trench had a grenade, a rifle and a bayonet. German soldiers introduced the 7.92mm Gewehr 98 Mauser rifles which were very good in accuracy and the speed of the rounds. The British on the other hand, had the famous Lee-Enfield gun. The tanks used at the time were not well developed and were first introduced into the war by the British. However, the tanks would break down easily by getting stuck in the mud in the battle fields. In addition the tanks once well prepared, would be very lethal as they would very destructive by blowing up everything (Keegan 1980). Germans invented and were the first to get equipped with machine guns but soon after everyone had them. They also introduced guns equipped with telescopic sights and were used by their snipers in the field. At the time machine guns were a way better that the previous rifle guns that were being used. Mortars were other weapons that were widely used in the World War 1. These were a pressure powered figure of a tube used to shoot out some little bombs. Gas was also used in this war to completely annihilate the rival camps out of the trenches. However this method was quite unsuccessful because during the windy seasons the soldier would shoot it to rival trenches and the wind would blow the gas back to the soldiers killing them. In the years between 1914 and 1917, soldiers from rival camps on each side of the line had dug some trenches where they fought from the trenches. The trenches served as the safety houses for them and they could fire artillery onto the enemy's position and lob grenades to the enemies from that position. However, anytime the military leaders would order a full attack, the soldiers had to leave the safety of their trenches and fight as they approached the enemies. Most of the soldiers would dies before reaching the other end of the trenches. This War had severe effects on the soldiers as it affected them physically with severe injuries. It also left them too much traumatized with deep shock of the things that happened in the battlefield. Some of the soldiers saw their close friends die and that feeling would not leave them just soon. They also experienced other soldiers screaming in agony and deep pain and even the thought of their own death. This would lead to night mares even long after the war. Other soldiers could not bear the trauma and could eventually lose their mind. WW1 caused a heavy impact on the families of the soldiers that were in the battle fields.  Since the soldiers had gone to the fight, their wives had no option but to take over the duties of a man and replace him in the family. In addition in all the other department of the country women had to take over workforce. Involvement of both the mother and father in the national duties would force the older children into taking care of the smaller children as well as other household duties. The war also affected the children whose fathers were soldiers as they did not know if their fathers would ever come back and if they did some came home traumatized which made the children get confused. Impact of World War 1 in the UK Before the World War 1, United Kingdom remained to be the leading European power. In addition, the UK also had to overcome the interwar world economic depression. At the start of the war UK declared war on Germany in the year 1914. At the time it had the most powerful navy to the European powers, however, the British army was very well prepared (Branaghet al 2005). The United Kingdom contributed troops to Norway, France, Middle East, India Africa, Greece as well as invading Italy together with the Pacific / Asian Theatre. In addition, the UK also participated when invading Normandy and the war of the Bulge. At first, the UK army suffered some difficulties against the German U-boat strikes; however, with help of U.S army, it gained superiority over the Germans in the Atlantic Ocean and the Northern Sea. Consequently, UK along with the U.S army and Russian army played the most important role of liberating France from the Germans and also defeating the Axis Powers. After the World War 1 ended, Labour political party in the UK was the political party that Winston Churchill belonged. The party won the general election in Britain and their manifesto had a promise to create a Jewish state in Palestine. However, due to political wrangles, this was not immediately implemented. As a result, many British personnel were attacked and Britain therefore, imprisoned many Jewish immigrants on Cyprus (Open University 1973). However, the British were not able to come up with an all acceptable agreement between the Arabs and the Jews and hence it was left for the UN to help resolve their conflicts. Effect of World War 1 in USSR Russia in history has had no secure border. In addition, there are no great mountains, no rivers, no seas, no great deserts or any geographical feature that separate her from her potential enemies. The fear of being invaded and the idea of wasting time through land (Russia, has always a tactic of when invaded allowing the enemy to invade their land, then, when the supply lines of the enemies are overstretched, they counter-attack) is the main reason that Russia became so strong. As the enemies’ towns become consolidated inside the Russian political and economical landscape, so does the need to push the border away from the heartland of the nation. Consequently, after the devastation that faced in the Soviet Union in the World War 1 the army wanted to push their border away from Moscow, Kiev & Minsk far away as they could (Brasch 2009). The USSR wanted to set up satellite states since they could. The Red Army, as popularly known, had conquered the major territories at great expense and therefore the Soviet governance was unwilling to simply withdraw from the war. This allowed Western style governments to push up to her boundaries. In addition, the Yalta Agreement that was between Churchill, FDR & Stalin had laid out the dimensions of influence to which each of the Allied nations would have, and the satellite states all fell under the USSR sphere. Another effect was the Soviets held a different view of democracy from what the west had. The Soviets had an argument that as the Communist party that represented the people and belonged to the people, it was the most inherent form of government according to their views (Bussler et al 2006). In addition, Marx had an ideology that claimed that the Communist Revolution could not be evaded and especially in highly developed, industrialized and advanced nation like Germany. The USSR saw it as though it was their mission exporting the revolution to the other countries and especially Germany. Hence, the Soviets after seeing what the Western friends were doing in the Western Europe as if it was not different from what they were doing when establishing governments that were based on the models that the victors' governments had (Welsh 1982). Effect of World War 1 in Germany Germany tried to control France, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union and mainly in the form of dismantling their factories and forced labour in the coal mines. World War 1 had a devastating impact to the Germans. The Nazis who were affiliated to the Germans had destroyed most of the industrial and domestic infrastructures in the country before being out of the USSR (Fay 1966). Similarly in the countries where the Soviets had liberated from the Nazi rule they faced massive wars as the Nazis were trying to hang on to the territories. Consequently, in most of the Satellite nations the Communist Parties were not enjoying much support before the World War 1, so the Soviet had to impose regimes that never had the support. This indeed informed the Soviets of what to expect from the population, the rebellion and the disobedience of the people. Both Germany and Japan later became the two strongest world economies and since they were able to effectively start building from scratch due to the help from their allies (Houlihan 1974) Unlike Germany, France before the wars had not at any time experienced the huge human losses sustained in the First World War, however, they would have to recover properly from the effects imposed by the Nazi occupation. In addition, retribution was then taken upon the collaborators. Like the UK, France had to be compelled to dismantle the colonial empires present in the years that followed the war (Perry 2003). However, this was a particularly traumatic, oppressing and drawn out process to the French, mostly those in Algeria and in the ones in Vietnam where they had to fight prolonged bitter wars in their attempt to try and maintain their colonial powers and control. Hence, England and France could no longer hold any status of power that was comparable to either the United States or to the Soviet Union (Goldman 1993). During World War 1, the French army, cooperating with other like the Japanese invaders aligned colonial authorities. In addition, their Allies who included the Soviet Union all had an agreement that the area was to be controlled by the French. However, the Chinese forces had to move in from the north while the British had to do so from the south, however, the French could not do so immediately and hence they handed power to the French (Cawood, & McKinnon-Bell 2001). References Adams, S. 2001. World War 1. London: Dorling Kindersley. Branagh, K., FremantleMedia., Sony Pictures Television., Universal Pictures Visual Programming (Firm), & Capital Entertainment Enterprises (Firm). 2005. World War 1 in color. Burbank, CA: Capital Entertainment Enterprises. Brasch, N. 2009. World War 1 1914-1918. Port Melbourne, Vic: Pearson Education Australia. Bussler, M., Connelly, B., Carradine, D., & Inecom Entertainment (Firm). 2006. World War 1: American legacy. Pittsburgh, PA: Inecom Entertainment Co. Cawood, I., & McKinnon-Bell, D. 2001. The First World War. London: Routledge. Fay, S. B. 1966. The origins of the World War. New York: Free Press. Goldman, D. 1993. Women and World War 1: The written response. New York: St. Martin's Press. Houlihan, M. 1974. World War 1 trench warfare. London: Ward Lock. Keegan, S. 1980. World War 1. London: Hamlyn. Open University. 1973. World War 1. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Perry, A. 2003. No graves as yet: A novel of World War I. New York: Ballantine Books. Welsh, D. 1982. The USA in World War 1. New York: Galahad Books. Read More