The Unprevented War

The First World War was one of the defining events of the 20th century. It was supposed to be the war to end all wars but instead it had disastrous repercussions, some of which are still reverberating today. A direct line can be drawn from the end of the First World War to the rise of Nazi Germany and to the beginning of the Second World War, while the fighting over the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s and the on-going conflicts in the Middle East have roots which can, in part at least, be traced back to that conflict. It resulted in the dissolution of the German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires, the redrawing of maps across Europe and many other parts of the world, and, after the Russian Revolution in October 1917, to the rise of the Soviet Union. The terrible nature of the fighting and the number of casualties it incurred has meant that the First World War continues to be commemorated today and is regarded as being the epitome of the horror and futility of war.