World War 1 Research Paper

“Abstract words such as glory, honor, courage, or hallow were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, the numbers of roads, the names of rivers, the numbers of regiments and the dates.”(Hemingway 185). The soldiers in World War 1 were fighting for the glory of their country and honor. However, the destruction and horrors that soon followed their actions made their reasons seem hollow. In comparison to World War 2, the situation for soldiers in World War 1 was much more grave because of chemical warfare, the influenza pandemic of 1918, and trench warfare. To begin with, chemical warfare aided in making the horrors of World War 1. Chemical Weapons can have varying effects on it’s victims as each weapon has a different goal. For example, one of the less lethal chemical weapons used in World War 1 is mustard gas which had only a 5% lethal percentage( Facts about Sulfur Mustard). Although it had a miniscule lethal rate it’s symptoms tortured those who had been exposed to it and could cause devastating, possibly lethal long term effects. Examples of some immediate symptoms include itching of the skin, high irritation and swelling in the eyes, sinus pain, abdominal pain, vomiting, and severe damage to your tissue and bones (Facts
Although more soldiers did die in World War 2 than World War 1, one must also take into account that the population was higher in World War 2 than World War 1, and thus the soldier count was higher as well. If you divide the world population by the amount of deaths of soldiers caused by the war, the results are around 10.6 percent of the world population died during World War 1 and 6.5 percent of the world population died during World War 2(By the Numbers)(Trueman). In addition, chemical warfare and the day to day life provided by trench warfare make fighting as a soldier during World War 1 worse than fighting during World War