Unlike other wars, this war was not only on land, or only on sea, fighting took place simultaneously in land, sea, under the sea, and in air (aeroplanes and bombing). Actually it even went on to trying to destroy resources and means of trade from the other side, this total war had a much broader vision of how to destroy the enemy. It wasn’t just trying to kill the soldiers, it involved everyone. This new model of war was between nations, not only a quarrel between rulers, thus even civilians were badly treated by occupying powers such as night raids.
The severity of this war, was also deeply shocking when compared to the previous wars. The use of new technology and for being a much more expansive war, caused appalling casualties such as 10 million people killed and 20 million people wounded. Newly discovered technology made it possible the use of new forms of killing-poisonous gas. Even though there was a law that prisoners would not be ill treated, this time there was ill treatment of prisoners, and a bitterness that only grew between populations and other powers, due to all the propaganda and hate “installed” over the people. The Germans used an anti-British campaign through the means of the press, the Belgian people who were supposed to be a neutral country were deported in order to work in German factories, and the Turks who massacred and treated Armenians as slaves, an act of genocide.
With war raging throughout Europe, there was a significant amount of government interference in the life of the people, they eradicated child labour, built new sewage systems, thus turning public life more organized in order to increase in intensity and detail their output in the war. Britain which had a policy of home liberalism shifted its views and the government took over railways, encouraged food rationing, conscription into key industries such as coal mining, taxation was increased. Even women managed to work in factories and farms in order to increase production. DORA (Defence of Realism Act) was created now that women were into labour, and the ministry of munitions allowed people to make more weapons, thus new employment began because new weapons needed industry. More work was needed to supply food and ammunition for the army. This war also caused a great impact on peoples’ lives. German people had to live with inflation and black market.
What was probably one of the largest differences between this war and others, was a naval warfare. The 20th Century was a century of major technological advances, thus new tactics were created in order to use the new weapons available. This war was now also an economic war due to its length, thus the availability of supplies was crucial in order to keep on going, and it was therefore critical to be able to maintain this constant income of supplies. Although a navy race had begun between Germany and Britain, because Germany was convinced it would only be a major power if she had a strong navy such as Britain. There was only one significant encounter, the Battle of Jutland in 1916. This battle showed that if one lost a battle at sea, it would mean loosing control of the sea and probably of the war. Germany had as an aim to starve Britain into surrender, so the U-boats were extremely significant because they sunk all ships which supplied Britain, but this provoked USA into war and hostilities with other countries because this ended up affected Britains trade with other countries. Thus USA began providing great economic contribution. In addition, since U-boats were threatening Britain, they started transporting materials in convoys which would be surrounded by warships, thus warships would be targets before the supply ships sank.
Agriculture also suffered loses because the blockades caused a shortage of food for civilians leading to many deaths. German farmers were conscripted so while Germany was being blockaded, agriculture was extremely significant, however it was being halved.
In turn, the governments completely misjudged the military, and gave them too much power, believing that war would be over soon. Now, after power had been given to the military, it was hard to take back to take control over the situation.
In conclusion, World War One was a Total War because countries needed to re-direct national economies to attend to demands of war supply, this made countries enter into alliances with both business and labour creating a kind of corporate state. It however undermined social and political structures, it mobilized all of the nations’ resources for victory and it was extremely severe with everyone.
