As we all know from 1914-1918 was the First World War or World War I which was a whole new phase of world history that occurred. This European civil war would provoke the Russian Revolution and would lead to the beginnings of world communism. Following World War I we would see an meltdown in the economy due to the Great Depression, then the rise of Nazi Germany that would lead to the Holocaust that demonstrated pure horror, and then an even more deadly World War II. Within a short period of only three decades Europe which was once seen as the dominating center of the modern world system will have self-destructed or fallen apart. Many could say that Europe had damaged itself beyond self repair, all while the United States and the Soviet Union rose to bring about a shift from being minor countries to becoming global powers. Even after devastation of war, Europe was able to recover slowly but surely in the second half of the century thanks to its restoration of its industrial economy, and would finally put aside their differences of a war prone nationalist passion in a loss European Union. After all these events unfolding in Europe, after 1945 Europe would lose its control as the political, economic, and military core of Western civilization marking a new start in history. This meant that United stakes was now in charge of making a change in the historical development of the West. The country that was once restrained by chains, now could move freely and walk a path free of options. The Great War or also known as the First World War was a event that changed everyone. No one expected the war to go on for more then the late summer of 1914, many expecting their son home by Christmas; however, this was not the case for it would end after a little more then four years with German defeat in November of 1918. The casualties were far larger then anyone expected due to trench warfare where each side was fighting restlessly to gain or lose only a few years of muddy, blood-soaked ground. These battles did not last only a few days or weeks but would carry on for months in places like Verdun and the Somme in France. What made World War I more perfidious is that the countries that became involved ended up in total war where the entire country was mobilizing for war. The aftermath of this war would bering about change that was both social and cultural for the ordinary Europeans and Americans. This war changed not only the way of living but the entire way of history. Horror struck many of how many casualties there were in the war and many hoped that this would never happen again.
From the documents I looked at the propaganda and critique in World War I. War is something that artist would create, the meaning of the drawing would be to portray the enemy in the most terrible way. Posters and drawings were created to generate public support for the struggle of what was going on. However for independent artist, they would draw something different which was the face of the hostilities and their aftermath from the war. The illustrations shown in the visual sources illustrate both perspectives on the First World War. The visual source that stood out most to me was The Battlefield on page 1030 which demonstrates maimed, and disfigured veterans,, man of them had men without faces. The men in the drawings were a reminder of a terrible past that many wanted to forget. Trench warfare was where most of the fighting occurred and in the drawing we see men go over the top only able to gain a few yards of bloody ground before being thrown back with a high number of casualties. John Nash free the picture and was an official war artist. Nash was one of eight-man of a British unit that had to go over the top in late 1917 and was one of twelve survivors from that attack. As a reminder of what he had gone through he painted this picture three months later. This comes to show that many people are never able to forget what they went to and are able to share their memories through stories, poems, and drawings.
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