Question 1: How did World War I evolve into a trench war?
In 1914, at the Battle of the Marne, the French and British stopped the German advance on Paris. At that point, the Shleiffen Plan was useless; the first goal of the plan had been to destroy the French. The soldiers involved in the conflict began to dig trenches for protection, which were little more than shallow ditches and soon became shallow graves for many of them. However, the fatal flaw of the system was that it was primarily defensive. When one side attempted to advance, the other could easily shoot down the advancing soldiers with strategically placed machine guns. Barbed wire also helped to defend the trenches. Since the system did not allow for solid offence, however, the battles continued with little or no gains on either side, only losses. In an attempt to rectify the situation, new technology was developed, such as tanks and poison gas; and, in return, counter-technologies were developed, such as gas masks. Until the United States entered the war, both sides were ultimately at a standstill, all due to trench warfare.
Question 2: Evaluate the impact of trench warfare on soldiers, civilians, and governments.
The greatest impact of trench warfare was almost indisputably on the soldiers in the trenches. So many were killed that soldiers would resort to using the bodies as shelter during heavy machine gun fire. There was often little food and drinkable water; communications lines were often damaged. Sanitation was nonexistant: human waste, rotting corpses, and flesh-eating rats were commonplace. Of course, under such conditions, a soldier in the trenches was constantly plagued by the idea that he might soon join the dead comrade beside him. Under such conditions, it is no wonder that many soldiers went home strangers to their own families.
The effect on civilians is two-sided. Of course, for civilians far from the front, the effect was minimal; they were far from most harm. However, many civilians near the front suffered the same fate as those in the trenches. They, too, were influenced by constant shelling and poisonous gas, as well as deserting soldiers trying to escape from the scene of horror. After the conclusion of the war, once thriving villages were deserted and destroyed; their residents would have to rebuild, and returning soldiers might find their own homes obliterated as well.
The effects on government could be said to be much less than on any other group; governments declare wars but do not fight them. However, governments suffered at the hands of war in their own way. They were frustrated because the war efforts yielded so little (the western front shifted only a few miles after its birth). The people shared this frustration, and it was the duty of the government to justify their actions. No one had expected the war to last more than four months, so as it dragged on, more resources than originally thought were required to support it. New technology and war supplies were necessary to the continuation of the war, but strategies for stopping it had to be considered, too.
In 1914, at the Battle of the Marne, the French and British stopped the German advance on Paris. At that point, the Shleiffen Plan was useless; the first goal of the plan had been to destroy the French. The soldiers involved in the conflict began to dig trenches for protection, which were little more than shallow ditches and soon became shallow graves for many of them. However, the fatal flaw of the system was that it was primarily defensive. When one side attempted to advance, the other could easily shoot down the advancing soldiers with strategically placed machine guns. Barbed wire also helped to defend the trenches. Since the system did not allow for solid offence, however, the battles continued with little or no gains on either side, only losses. In an attempt to rectify the situation, new technology was developed, such as tanks and poison gas; and, in return, counter-technologies were developed, such as gas masks. Until the United States entered the war, both sides were ultimately at a standstill, all due to trench warfare.
Question 2: Evaluate the impact of trench warfare on soldiers, civilians, and governments.
The greatest impact of trench warfare was almost indisputably on the soldiers in the trenches. So many were killed that soldiers would resort to using the bodies as shelter during heavy machine gun fire. There was often little food and drinkable water; communications lines were often damaged. Sanitation was nonexistant: human waste, rotting corpses, and flesh-eating rats were commonplace. Of course, under such conditions, a soldier in the trenches was constantly plagued by the idea that he might soon join the dead comrade beside him. Under such conditions, it is no wonder that many soldiers went home strangers to their own families.
The effect on civilians is two-sided. Of course, for civilians far from the front, the effect was minimal; they were far from most harm. However, many civilians near the front suffered the same fate as those in the trenches. They, too, were influenced by constant shelling and poisonous gas, as well as deserting soldiers trying to escape from the scene of horror. After the conclusion of the war, once thriving villages were deserted and destroyed; their residents would have to rebuild, and returning soldiers might find their own homes obliterated as well.
The effects on government could be said to be much less than on any other group; governments declare wars but do not fight them. However, governments suffered at the hands of war in their own way. They were frustrated because the war efforts yielded so little (the western front shifted only a few miles after its birth). The people shared this frustration, and it was the duty of the government to justify their actions. No one had expected the war to last more than four months, so as it dragged on, more resources than originally thought were required to support it. New technology and war supplies were necessary to the continuation of the war, but strategies for stopping it had to be considered, too.
