World War I (also known as The Great War or the War to End All Wars back when humanity thought there wouldn’t be a second one of these) was so deadly and catastrophic that people probably wondered if there was going to be any civilization left after it.
By the numbers alone, it is estimated that 65 million men from 40 countries fought in this war, with 8 million of those deceased either in action or perishing as the result of battle-related wounds and diseases.
This major incident is also considered the first modern war because it was the first time that we saw the type of technologies that we currently consider common in contemporary warfare. The self-powered machine gun for example, which was thought to be so destructive that it would prevent any wars from even happening…well, it didn’t, but it influenced trench warfare which was meant to keep soldiers away from their fire.
It was also the first war to be fought in the air (just a decade after the Wright brothers created the first flying machine), the one that saw the first tanks and artillery fire (which caused the most killings, both of combatants civilian casualties), and much more.
This infographic might not have every little detail in regard to this conflict, but the numbers alone are a valuable indicator to tell the sheer scale of this incident.
