101 Facts About World War One

greetings well the fact is my name is Sam and today we're going to learn all about a fantastic example of things getting very out of hand very quickly world war 1 it's been 100 years since the end of this historic conflict which rapidly changed Europe and the wider world forever so what started World War 1 what are the opposing armies do on the first Christmas of the war and how far off is world war 3 I really need to know and so does everyone else frankly because it's gonna be a right to answer three of those questions are going to be answered so prepare yourself to dive into some pretty awful recent history as we go through 101 facts about World War 1 just a quick disclaimer things get pretty serious here so it's not your usual laughs filled edition of 101 facts so were you've been warned okay okay number one World War one was a surprisingly global war originating in Europe that began on the 28th of July 1914 until the 11th of November 1918 the conflicts involved dozens of nations around the world and changed the political landscape of vast regions of the planet particularly in Europe number two for an idea of exactly how global World War 1 eventually became the war ultimately instigated conflict on every ocean and on multiple continents involving most of the nations of Europe and Africa much of Asia and the Americas and numerous territories in Australasia and the Pacific seriously it's quicker to list places that weren't involved the vast majority of the actual fighting however happened in Europe number three the conflict has been known by numerous labels the most common of these is obviously world war one der but it's also been called the Great War the world war the war of the nations and rather embarrassingly the war to end all wars because it unfortunately wasn't number four World War one led to the mobilization of more than 70 million military personnel from over 30 different countries 60 million of whom were Europeans making it one of the largest wars in history number five an estimated eight and a half million combatants and seven million civilians died as a direct result of the fighting in World War one constituting a death toll of over 15 million people number six so I know what you're thinking no not that and by the way the answer is three ice pops what actually caused the first world war well like most major events in world history the origins of world war numero uno are extremely complicated and difficult to condense into mere bullet points europe's tenuous balance of peace had been faltering for years since the end of the last wave of conflicts such as the austro-prussian and franco-prussian war leading to unresolved territorial disputes weakened governance and increased militarism Europe was basically just a bubbling cauldron of angry people all spoiling for a fight leading many to conclude in hindsight that the first world war was essentially inevitable number 7 following its victory in the 1871 franco-prussian war the newly unified German nation experienced a massive surge in economic and industrial strength which in turn led to an increased level of resources committed to creating strong armies this made other European powers quake in their little boots and prompted a fierce competition between Britain and Germany for naval supremacy number 8 Germany also wanted to expand its Imperial Empire to compete with other European nations in the Scramble for Africa which is nothing to do with the toto song of the same name unfortunately but is rather when European nations very politely divided up the continent of Africa among themselves ruining the lives of millions of native Africans how civilized regardless Britain France were by far the biggest colonizers of the African continent and Germany's attempts to expand its African territories created even more competition and disagreement number 9 it's worth saying as well at this point by the way peace in Europe was being held together by a complex web of formal and informal alliances in which various countries agree to support one another in various ways love that word various various by 1914 those agreements had the effect of sorting the six major European powers into two broad groups Britain France and Russia formed the triple on top while Germany austria-hungary and Italy comprised the Triple Alliance the first one sounds like of rubbish hipster folk group and the last one sounds like a boy band number turn meanwhile burgeoning independence movements created further disagreement and conflict as nationalist tensions fester throughout Europe in particular France was bitter about losing the region of alsace-lorraine to Germany following the franco-prussian war while large areas of both Austria Hungary and Serbia Harvard numerous nationalist factions desperate to assert their independence number 11 with all this going on all that was necessary to initiate a major conflict was a single trigger that crucial spark arrived on the 20th of June 1914 in the form of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria heir to the throne of austria-hungary and the namesake of the band used to like he wasn't asking for it though it's not like he was screaming come on guys take me out that would have worked ten years ago this was carried out by members of the Black Hand a nationalist movement favouring an independent bosnia-herzegovina outside of austria-hungary there were a lot of double-barreled place-names back then it's like a school playground in Chelsea number 12 the Archduke and his wife Sofia who were visiting Sarajevo to inspect army maneuvers in his capacity of Inspector General of the army and actually survived an initial attempt on their lives earlier that day in which a grenade was thrown at their car the explosive though bounced off their vehicle and instead exploded underneath the car behind them severely injuring a number of people number 13 eventually the Archduke's motorcade made its way to Franz Josef Street whereupon another black hand member Gavriel Oh Princip was standing outside a cafe upon seeing the Archduke Princip called out a pistol and shot into the car hitting the Archduke in the neck and his wife in the abdomen killing them both number fourteen understandably austria-hungary wasn't best pleased with this and the resulting events that occurred in its wake are now known as the July crisis suspecting that the Serbian government may have had something to do with it austria-hungary issued Serbia an ultimatum constituted by a list of impossible demands designed to make Serbia's rejection inevitable the demands included removing certain people from the Serbian military and allowing representatives of the austro-hungarian government to operate in Serbia basically too big no no's number 15 surprisingly though Serbia actually agreed to most of austria-hungary demands refusing only minor points since austria-hungary had planned on attacking Serbia from the get-go these minor disagreements was all that was needed to form a pretext for war at 11 a.m. on the 28th of July 1914 austria-hungary declared war on Serbia with the support from Germany this is commonly accepted as the date on which World War 1 the number 16 soon after as a result of various alliances Serbia Russia and France declared war on Germany and austria-hungary it was all kicking off basically number 17 sandwiched between France and Russia Germany found itself in the unenviable position of having to fight on two fronts but Germany had a plan for success now known as the Schlieffen Plan after field marshal alfred von Schlieffen based on the belief that big old clumsy russia would take time to fully mobilize germany plan to attack and subdue France first before turning to face Russia unopposed number 18 however this posed a problem for Germany the border between the two nations was heavily fortified making a direct invasion far more difficult the cunning solution to this problem was to invade France through neutral Belgium smart right well number 19 it was the invasion of Belgium a neutral country that constituted the last straw for Britain and on the 14th of August 1914 Great Britain declared war on Germany days later Japan declares war on Germany owing to a 1902 alliance with Great Britain forming the Allied powers of Serbia Russia France Great Britain and Japan against the Central Powers of Germany and austria-hungary seriously without the infinity war of nations I guess number 20 the German however pushed on through Belgium during this early period of the war German forces were engaged in numerous atrocities against the Belgian people thousands of Belgians were murdered by the Germans and thousands more died as a result of expulsion deportation and imprisonment resulting in a death toll of well over 20,000 people number 21 the purpose of this was part of a German war policy known as reckless kites meaning terror or frightfulness this I'm gonna say an evil tactic was implemented to terrify civilians in occupied areas to discourage rebellion and resistance number 22 these atrocities became the focus of Allied propaganda which reported both genuine instances of violence as well as completely fabricated stories of German soldiers bayonetting babies and mutilating peasant girls by cutting off their breasts number 23 on the 29th of October 1914 the Ottoman Empire joined the war on the side of the Central Powers prompting Russia France and Great Britain to declare war on the Ottoman Empire days later number 24 eventually Germany made its way through Belgium and marched on Paris but the combined French and British Allied forces managed to halt their progress and push them back at this point Germany dug trenches to form a defensive barrier prompting the Allies to do the same this begins several miserable years of trench warfare on the Western Front number 25 the trench systems of World War one were extensive and eventually running from the Belgian coast through northeast France down to Switzerland stretching roughly 25,000 miles number 26 until 1918 neither the Allied nor central powers would advance more than 10 miles forward or backwards from the positions they held in 1914 number 27 in the first year of the war before the worst of the fighting had occurred there was a distinct gentleman the attitude between the warring factions while not exactly ubiquitous cruisers were held between the French British and German forces allowing soldiers to set out onto no man's land to recover wounded or dead comrades the closest of the trench is also allowed for conversation and dare I say banter ranging from discussion about sport the weather news from other battles or even the occasional good morning or guten morgen shouted from trench to trench number 28 probably the most famous example of this good-natured attitude occurred at Christmas in 1914 on Christmas Eve soldiers on both sides of the Western Front sung carols to each other and on Christmas Day troops along two thirds of the front declared a truce in one area British and German soldiers met in no-man's land it suggested that they took photos together exchange souvenirs like buttons and hats and it's even a popular rumor that they played football together as time went on however the fighting had become far more bitter and the mood for truces had gone number 29 beginning in early 1915 the Germans employed the use of enormous airships called Zeppelin's which were use both of reconnaissance and to carry out bombing raids in Britain that killed around 500 people by 1916 however the Allies began attacking the Zeppelin's with fighter planes armed with incendiary bullets which would pierce our outer shell and ignite the hydrogen gas inside creating a fire that would quickly destroy the ship that's why you don't make vehicles house up it's explosive it's like having a boat made of dynamite number 30 one of the ways in which the Germans attempted to break the stalemate of trench warfare was to use poison gas first large-scale use of lethal poison gas in modern history occurred on the 22nd of April 1915 at the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium violating the earlier Hague Convention which explicitly prohibited the use of his fixating poisonous gases number 31 soon after though both sides resorted to the use of poison gas throughout the war the Germans ultimately released about 68,000 tons of gas while the British and French released 51,000 tons in total around 1 million two hundred thousand soldiers on both sides were gassed which caused over 90,000 horrific deaths number 32 approximately 30 different poisonous gases were used by both sides during World War one such as tear gas mustard gas and chlorine gas however it's estimated the phosgene or the related agent dye Faustine was responsible for as many as 85 percent of the deaths caused by gassing number 33 prior to the introduction of effective gas masks in 1918 soldiers were often told to hold a urine soaked cloth over their faces in the event of chlorine gas attacks as the ammonia in the urine would neutralize the chlorine number 34 the early days of 1915 also saw the first combat use of the flamethrower by the Germans these flamethrowers could you believe it would throw flames and could fire Jets of well fire as far as 40 meters number 35 though flamethrowers were limited by a short-range and limited mobility they were used by the Germans to terrify enemy soldiers and effectively flush them out of their trenches and into the open eventually other forces adopted them along with flamethrowers gases since become one of the most remembered horrors of the First World War number thirty-six the Germans also utilized a forty eight tonne howitzer capable of firing a nine hundred thirty kilograms shell a distance of roughly fifteen kilometres named Big Bertha after the wife of its designer Gustav Krupp but she must have loved by the way the weapons a crew of two hundred men six hours or more to assemble God was it made often Lego if it was destroy the Lego in the trenches that'd be more dangerous have you ever stepped in it before I mean ouch number 37 the First World War was the first major conflict involving the large-scale use of aircraft the most successful fighter pilot of the entire war was a German fighter pilot named Manfred Albrecht friar von Richthofen aka the Red Baron he was officially credited with shooting down 80 planes more than any other pilot in the war he died towards the end of the conflict after being shot down over the village of forcer Somme in northern France number 38 as a result of the first world war millions of soldiers suffered shell-shocked are now recognized as post-traumatic stress disorder these men were traumatized by the horrors of trench warfare often experiencing insomnia tremors paralysis hysteria loss of sight or hearing and even uncontrollable diarrhea while some soldiers did recover many suffered from the effects of shell-shocked for the rest of their lives number 39 during World War one dogs were used by both sides of the conflict for various jobs many dogs were used as messengers carrying orders to the frontlines in containers attached to their bodies in my head they're wearing helmets - I hope they were in real life number 40 some dogs were specially trained to locate wounded men on the battlefield and carried medical equipment so that soldiers could treat themselves as the canine kept them company what a sergeant general good boy number 41 additionally as many as a million pigeons were used to carry messages between headquarters and the frontlines these special birds had a delivery rate of roughly 95% and were genuinely crucial in aiding both sides of the conflict they mean actually let's stick with number 42 with this one all in all roughly 16 million animals served in the First World War including dogs cats horses mules donkeys and even camels number 43 one of the main advantages held by the Allied powers were their colonies through their respective colonial empires the Allies had far more territories from the central powers from which to draw soldiers approximately 1.3 million Indian soldiers served in World War one and over 74 thousand of them were killed while about half a million African soldiers were deployed in Europe where most of them fought in the French army number 44 in the war nationalist leaders in the Ottoman Empire began to out certain groups within their territory in order to terrify their nation it was believed that Christian minority groups such as the Armenians Greeks and Assyrians might side with the Russians and instigate independence efforts in response the Ottoman Empire began the systematic deportation and murder of as many as 1.5 million Armenians as well as hundreds of thousands of Greeks and Assyrians these actions which continued for several years are to World War one and now widely considered by scholars as genocide yeah not for the laughs this episode is it but that was World War one unfortunately number 45 though you sporadically an early a conflict submarine warfare was first utilized on a large scale in World War one in the form of German and austro-hungarian u-boats these submarines mostly said on the surface which is not what a submarine does but anyway diving only to attack ships with torpedoes throughout the war German u-boats sank over six and a half thousand ships number 46 on the Sun with the May 1915 German u-boats sank a British ocean liner called the Lutzer taenia several kilometers of the coast of Island killing 1198 people 128 of these were Americans which sparked outrage in the United States turning public opinion throughout the world against Germany number 47 however the POTUS Woodrow Wilson was reluctant to enter the war some Americans disagreed so passionately with his hesitation that they voluntarily joined the French Foreign Legion or the British or Canadian Army number 48 one such group was the Lafayette Escadrille named after the French hero of the American Revolutionary War Marquis de Lafayette the Lafayette Escadrille was formed mostly of American pilots and under French command this unit is credited with downing almost 200 German planes number 49 one particular story of heroism concerns a British nurse by the name of Edith Cavell who is remembered for saving the lives of soldiers from both sides without discrimination Kavala also helped 200 Allied soldiers escape from a German occupied Belgium a crime to which he was arrested in 1915 and ultimately executed weeks later by German firing squad her death also contributed to the turning of global opinion against the actions of Germany number 50 utilizing its powerful Navy Britain eventually set up a naval block with the hope of starving Germany and austria-hungary into submission by cutting off supplies from the outside world it would be like if someone killed order delivery and ubirr eats drivers in London Aniki as a result many of Germany civilians began to suffer malnourishment from the winter of 1916 onwards while food shortages caused riots and eventually actual starvation in some areas of Austria number 51 between the 21st of February and the 18th of December 1916 France and Germany fought in the particularly brutal Battle of Verdun in which Germany attempted to wear down the French by forcing them into a defensive position at the cost of significant losses this battle ultimately became the largest and longest World War 1 battle between the Germans in the French on the western front number 52 even so the outcome of the battle was inconclusive though the French repelled a massive German offensive and defended the symbolically crucial fortress complex of Verdun doing so came at a terrible price both sides sustained enormous casualties the Germans lost four hundred thirty thousand men and the French lost five hundred and forty thousand number 53 another major conflict was the Battle of the Somme in which British forces aim to relieve the pressure on the French suffering at Verdun by attacking the German lines the battle would come to epitomize the horrors of the First World War on the first day of the battle almost 20,000 British soldiers were killed constituting the worst day in the history of the British Army oh it's all getting a bit heavy now isn't it that's er let's have a look at this picture of a cat and a woman dancing next to it okay let's move on number 54 the loss of life at the Somme was so severe that more British men were killed in that single battle than the United States lost from all of its armed forces and the National Guard combined number 55 the Battle of the Somme featured an interesting historical milestone the very first usage of a now common piece of military tech known as the tank around 40 perimeter tanks were used by the British in the psalm and despite being slow and liable to mechanical failure these machines proved their potential prompting the production of hundreds more number 56 milton 1915 the first prototype tank created by the british was for some reason called Little Willie I suppose I can be accused of overcompensating buckling up that day the vehicle carried a crew free and could move at blistering speeds of roughly three miles an hour number 57 the first proper tanks were initially called land ships Bubba ultimately codename tanks in an attempt to disguise there was water storage tanks rather than weapons I mean I know which one I'd put a fish in yeah number 58 during the First World War British tanks were initially grouped into males and females the heavier tanks carrying cannons were male because it looks like you know yeah Adam's apple while lighter versions Fatima machine guns were female number 59 on the 23rd of May 1915 austria-hungary and Germany's friend and colleague in the Triple Alliance Italy decided to finally enter the war on the side of the Allies plot twist bit awkward though Italy joined the Allies owing to the secret Treaty of London in which Great Britain had promised it to the large sections of territory in the Adriatic Sea in the event of victory drawn boy number 60 in October of 1915 Bulgaria joined the war on the side of the Central Powers helping with an assault that conquered Serbia in less than a month that's a no I said a lot number 61 in less than immerse the only instance of Great Britain and Germany engaging each other in naval warfare occurred on the 31st of May and the 1st of June 1916 in the Battle of Jutland in which the Germans hope to weaken the Royal Navy by ambushing the British Grand Fleet in the North Sea good plan no actually that's I should praise the Germans 14 British and 11 German ships were sunk causing over 8,500 deaths the vast majority of which were British both sides claimed victory in this indecisive battle but Great Britain regained control of the North Sea prompting Germany to focus their maritime energies into their u-boats number 62 in 1917 British engineers detonated 19 enormous mines totaling nearly 1 million pounds of explosives which had been buried deep below German positions along a ridge outside the Belton village of Messina after two years of tunneling the resulting blast is thought to have been one of the largest human-caused explosions before the nuclear era sending enormous columns of Earth's steel concrete and bodies into the air and killing an estimated 10,000 German soldiers number 63 the explosion was so large that many British soldiers were knocked off their feet and dozens were killed by falling debris farther away in France meanwhile the shock wave was mistaken for a literal earthquake nintendo64 the explosions left 19 enormous craters in the earth atmosphere the largest of which measures over 120 metres across and almost 30 meters deep the crater is now filled with water and exists as a war memorial known as the pool of peace number 65 in 1917 the French authorities executed Margaret Iselle also known as Mata Hari who was a dutch exotic dancer whom they accused of being a double agent Hari always denied being a spy and just before her death she refused to wear a blindfold and famously blew a kiss to the firing squad number 66 in early 1917 Germany decided to resume its practice of unrestricted submarine warfare and used a u-boat to sink any allied and neutral ships Oh within one month almost a million tons of shipping was sunk including numerous American vessels number 67 the longest sentence in history here anticipating that this could draw the u.s. into war Germany decided it would be a good idea to send a secret diplomatic communication to Mexico called the Zimmermann telegram before you ask no this a momen telegram wasn't just a lovely poem trying to convince them to join the war with them but rather a proposal for a military alliance between the two nations in the event that the US should enter war with the promise that Mexico could regain control of enormous sections of the Isis's territory specifically Texas New Mexico and Arizona number 68 unfortunately for the Germans though British intelligence managed to intercept and decode the message like a teacher tearing a secret note out of the hands of students gossipy Great Britain then showed the message to the United States which really steamed their American turnips number 69 this feels inappropriate this imminent telegram proved to be the last straw for the Americans and on the 6th of April 1917 the United States finally joined the first world war by declaring war on Germany the Zimmermann telegram as well as the sinking of US ships particularly the Lusitania were used to justify America's decision to start throwing some serious punches with thousands of American soldiers shipping out into Europe every day 70 fondly enough the United States President Woodrow Wilson's campaign for a second term had the slogan he kept us out of war roughly a month into a second term the United States had declared war on Germany number 71 tired of having their phone communications hacked which panic was going on the Americans enlisted the help of several Native American soldiers from the Choctaw tribe these men would translate commands into the Choctaw language which the Germans had absolutely no hope of translating because the Choctaw language didn't have a direct translation of words like artillery and machine gun these words were respectively referred to as big gun and little gun shoot fast number 72 almost 13,000 Native Americans served in the First World War despite the fact the United States government didn't grant Native Americans US citizenship until 1924 number 73 more than 200,000 black Americans also served in World War one though only about 11% of them actually saw combat the overwhelming majority were put in labor units building roads digging ditches and loading cargo these men were forced to train separately from other troops and were put in segregated divisions number 74 the Harlem Hellfighters also known as the black Rattlers and the men of bronze all of whom sound like Marvel villains were the very first mostly black American Infantry Regiment to serve in the American Expeditionary Forces in the First World War many of their members won medals for their bravery and valor such as two Purple Heart and the French quad agar number 75 the most decorated American soldier of the First World War was Alvin column York who in October of 1918 led an attack on a German gun nest taking thirty two machine guns killing twenty-eight German soldiers and capturing 132 more for his actions York received a promotion to sergeant the Medal of Honor the French quoi de guerre and a reward of four hundred acres of farmland number 76 during World War one the Americans decided that even German names were utterly intolerable and renamed numerous things to avoid having to utter a word of Deutsch hamburgers and frankfurters named after the German cities of Hamburg and Frankfurt were respectively renamed Salisbury steak and Liberty sausages and accents were renamed Liberty dogs schools also stopped teaching German as a second language and German books were burned number 77 predictably American people of German heritage also became suspect to the United States protests broke against Germans many of which turned violent resulting in the death of at least one German American number 78 throughout the First World War the United States shipped about seven and a half million tons of supplies to France to support the Allies including nearly 50 thousand trucks 27,000 freight cars and 1800 locomotives number 79 all in all the total cost of America's involvement of the First World War amounted to more than twenty billion dollars and if you won that in today's money that's around three hundred and thirty four billion dollars number 80 in 1917 the British conducted an offensive as part of the Sinai and Palestine campaign in which our forces pushed into territory held by the Ottoman Empire this result is notable for the involvement of British archaeologists nor 30e Lawrence also known as Lawrence of Arabia who led an Arab revolt against the Turks which severely disrupted their railroad and communication system number 81 eventually russia's grueling world war 1 campaign began to cause turmoil at home in the form of strikes and riots these strikes and riots eventually snowballed into the Russian Revolution which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and ended the Russian Empire replacing the nation's leader with the Bolsheviks Russian military resistance broke down and on 3rd of March 1918 Russia and Germany signed the Treaty of brest-litovsk ending German invasions into Russia and Russia's involvement in World War one number 82 this was good news for Germany as it freed up troops on the Western Front however America's entry into the war dulled much of the advantage they had gained by subduing the Russians Germany realized that their only chance to win the war was to defeat the British and French before substantial amounts of American forces could possibly arrive number 83 this prompted Germany's 1918 Spring Offensive when Germany pushed on the Western Front in a series of assaults designed to break through the Allied lines defeating the British army and forcing the French to surrender though Germany hit the Allies hard and managed to gain significant ground their efforts faulted due to a lack of men's supplies and food and they were forced to retreat as allied reinforcements arrived number 84 this already pretty deadly situation was further compounded by a global pandemic known as Spanish flu great timing span flew the deadly strain of influenza affected all sides in the war but was particularly damaging to the weakening German forces the outbreak lasted for about a year killing this mated 20 million people number 85 the reason why the flu pandemic of 1918 is often furtive is the Spanish flu is because neutral Spain was basically the only nation that didn't minimize their data to maintain wartime morale creating the false impression that the plague was especially severe in Spain hence the nickname Spanish flu number 86 as the final German offensive spotted to a halt in the middle of 1918 the Allies hit back with a hundred days offensive from August of that year the Allies counter-attack with the support of well over a million fresh American soldiers number 87 violate September the Allied forces approached the Hindenburg Line a series of heavily fortified positions that constituted the last line of German defenses on the Western Front on the 29th of September 1918 British Australian and American forces finally broke through at the Battle of st. Quentin canal number 88 in the next two days both Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire signed armistice agreements Italian forces pushed north in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto regaining territory lost a year earlier at the brutal Battle of Caporetto and initiating the collapse of the austro-hungarian Empire during the last week of October 1918 several declarations of independence were made in central and southern Europe setting the stage of the emergence of modern nations like Hungary Croatia and Czechoslovakia which later began the Czech Republic and Slovakia number 89 the hundred days offensive brought victory but at a huge cost allied casualties between August and November of 1918 were around 700,000 German casualties were slightly higher at 760 thousand number 90 it was now clear to everyone that the Allies would prevail and at 5:00 a.m. on the 11th of November Germany agreed to an armistice agreement which came into effect several hours later at 11:00 a.m. at the 11th hour on the 11th day on the 11th month the first world war finally came to an end number 91 around six months later on the 28th of June 1919 the Treaty of Versailles was signed exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand while the Armistice stopped all the fighting the Treaty of Versailles officially ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied powers and assigned Germany with responsibility for the war number 92 the treaty also imposed harsh sanctions and penalties on Germany requiring that the country make significant reductions through its military as well as make large territorial concessions and pay reparations amounting to thirty one point four billion dollars roughly the equivalent to four hundred and forty two billion dollars today number 93 among the amendments of the Treaty of Versailles were provisions that gave large areas of Germany to various other nations including Belgium Czechoslovakia Poland and France Germany was also forced to reduce its military to only 100,000 men allowing for only six ships and no submarines tanks or air force at all number 94 the Treaty of Versailles left Germany impoverished and humiliated and drove the country into a deep recession it's claimed by numerous historians that these harsh severe terms contributed at the start of the Second World War around 20 years later number 95 following the first world war Great Britain lost its place as the world's most prominent nation suffering huge debts high unemployment and slow growth allowing the United States to emerge as the world's strongest economy other Allied nations also struggled the Russian Empire had collapsed and most of the loans had taken out with war-torn France were never repaid number 96 the end of the First World War also led to the formation of the League of Nations laying the groundwork for the modern United Nations number 97 at the end of the first world war numerous new nations were created from territories previously held by losing States the Empire of austria-hungary for instance was dissolved and Russia yielded land for the creation of several new countries Austria Hungary Czechoslovakia Yugoslavia Poland Finland Estonia Latvia and Lithuania number 98 nearly two-thirds of military deaths in the first world war were in battle making it the first major conflict in which battle deaths exceeded those caused by disease number 99 as a matter of necessity the First World War hastened various medical advance is physicians learned how to better deal with wounds and setting of bones while an English doctor named Harold gillies pioneered skin graft surgery as a direct result of the war number 100 depending on how its measured World War one is somewhere between the 6th and 3rd deadliest conflict in human history number 101 since the end of the conflict poppies have become one of the most widely used symbols of remembrance for those who died fighting in the First World War poppies will burn as a few flowers that grew on the decimated battlefields of Europe and their brilliant red color has come to represent the blood spilled in the conflict so that was a very serious episode of one-on-one facts all about the First World War did any of these facts shock you are you not surprised I wasn't able to fit Jennifer Lawrence in anywhere this time except for here which I guess counts let me know in the comments down below in the meantime though give this video a like and subscribe to 101 facts for all your fact goodness here are a couple videos on screen right now just for you you're gonna really dig see you next week you

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Keywords: 101 facts, 101, 101facts, world war 1, world war one, facts about ww1, ww1, facts about world war one, world war one facts, modern history, triple alliance, germany, first world war, france, belgium, japan, usa, hh asquith, david lloyd george, woodrow wilson, rememberance day, veterans day, history of ww1, v day, remembrance day facts, poppies, ww1 in color, ww1 trenches, battle of the somme, rhineland, ww1 100 years, 100th anniversary ww1, ypres, footage, we will remember them

Id: XmQ4nQtHIFw

Length: 33min 21sec (2001 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 10 2018