Watched a few docs on WWI lately. for some reason, i really like war history stuff.

WWI was incredibly brutal. It was the first war fought with modern firepower. Modern medicine was also cutting its teeth and many of the tools and treatments doctors still use today were discovered and refined on the battlefield. Chemical weapons also made their debut during the conflict, mustard gas.

Trenches were common on every battlefield and tens of thousands of miles of trenches were dug to protect soldiers from enemy fire on the surface. they were dug in a zig zag pattern so that explosions only killed a few guys instead of channeling laterally through the trench and taking out 10 or 20 guys. Tanks were also introduced in the first war, designed to combat groups of soldiers in trenches from a relatively safe position.

WWI costs us 37 million military and civilian casualties. The Treaty of Versailles negotiated reparations and other language that all but guaranteed WWII.