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at SK LSH slash real-life floor 18 I
purposefully released this video on the
9th of November 2018 two days from now
on the 11th of November will mark
exactly 100 years since the end of the
first world war one of the most
destructive and violent wars ever fought
in human history while the Second World
War and the destruction it caused often
overshadow the First World War
I felt like now would be a good time to
remember and visualize the enormous loss
of life that the Great War caused we'll
be counting soldiers and civilians
separately as well as deaths and
injuries separately a casualty can be a
confusing statistic in war because it
means that a soldier has been taken out
of action but not necessarily killed
each of these models represents 1000
people who died or went missing while
each of these models represents 1,000
people who were injured which when
combined equal the number of casualties
and we'll begin the counting with the
United States over 116 thousand soldiers
died and another two hundred four
thousand were injured fighting against
the Germans and Austrians on the Western
Front
this amounted to 0.17 percent of the
American population at the time becoming
a casualty of war but America only
fought for a little over a year between
1917 and 1918 the war had already been
going on for over two and a half years
before that so let's take a look at some
of the countries who were fighting from
the beginning
the war began when austria-hungary
declared war against Serbia in 1914 and
Serbia suffered worse than any other
country during the war 375,000 Serb
soldiers lost their lives in the
fighting while another six hundred
twenty-five thousand civilians died from
famine and disease that amounted to over
22% of the Serbian population dying
during the four year-long war more than
one out of every five people in the
country Serbia was a member of one of
the two alliances that fought against
one another in the war called the on
tonked which also included the United
Kingdom France Russia Italy America and
many others all of whom would suffer
terribly the United Kingdom would send
over eight hundred fifteen thousand
soldiers to their graves like on the
first day of the Battle of the song in
which nineteen thousand would die in
only 24 hours the bloodiest single-day
in British history over 123 thousand
British civilians also lost their lives
during the war totaling up to just over
two percent of the British population
where about one in every 50 people dying
but many more were wounded
1 million 675 thousand more soldiers
which adds together to 5.77 percent of
the UK population then becoming
casualties of the war subjects of the
British Empire like Australia Canada New
Zealand India and South Africa also
fought in the war and took high
casualties percentage-wise New Zealand
suffered the worst losing 3.8 percent of
her population as wartime casualties
while numbers-wise
Australia took the hardest hit losing
over 61,000 of her soldiers and
suffering another 150 mm wounded with
Canada and India both not too far behind
but the other major on top powers lost
an incredible amount more the Italians
joined the war in 1915 but in three
years of fighting suffered 555 thousand
military fatalities along with 592
thousand civilian deaths another 900
47,000 Italian soldiers became wounded
from for sending 5.8 percent of the
Italian population becoming casualties a
figure roughly comparable to the UK
percentage but then there's Russia and
France both of whom suffered higher
casualties than the entire Serbian
population combined during the war
Russia was the first country to come to
Serbia's defense during the war and
suffered catastrophic losses 1 million
nine hundred seventy seven thousand
soldiers died fighting against the
Central Powers while another 1 million
one hundred forty thousand civilians
lost their lives but Russia suffered
vastly higher injuries 4 million three
hundred fifty thousand soldiers were
wounded during the fighting which
together represents two point
five percent of the Russian population
that became casualties these enormous
losses eventually helped contribute to
Russia's spiral into revolution in their
surrender in the war
early into 1917 but percentage-wise the
Allied country that suffered during the
war the most besides Serbia was France
most of the Western Front took place in
northeastern France and Belgium in
during four years of fighting 1 million
three hundred seventy seven thousand
French soldiers gave up their lives in
defense of their country along with 340
thousand civilian fatalities this
represented a loss of life for 4.3
percent of the entire French population
but many many more were wounded four
million two hundred sixty-six thousand
additional French soldiers were wounded
or maimed by the war representing a
total casualty amount similar to
Russia's but from a much smaller
population in total around 15% of
France's population became a casualty
during the first world war a horrible
loss of life that would it be fully
recovered twenty years later at the
start of the Second World War
other ontong countries an order of
wartime casualties include Romania which
also suffered terribly at 10.4% of their
population becoming casualties as well
as Greece Belgium Portugal Montenegro
and Japan with only about 1,000
casualties during the entire war but now
let's take a look at the other side the
Central Powers which were led by Germany
Germany was fighting on two fronts for
most of the war and also suffered
cataclysmic losses two million thirty
seven thousand of her soldiers died
fighting in the West in the east and
five hundred ninety four thousand of her
civilians died largely due to starvation
caused by the Allied blockade of the
country another 2.5 million German
soldiers were wounded during the course
of the war amounting to seven point
eight percent of Germany's population
becoming a casualty while Germany
suffered the highest raw numbers of the
Central Powers casualties she didn't
suffer the highest percentage wise while
austria-hungary took less casualties
overall they represented a higher
proportion of that Empire's population
ten
77% over 1.3 million soldiers were
killed in another 3.6 million injured
all of which helps to explain why the
austro-hungarian Empire itself wasn't
able to survive the war but the worst
suffering on the Central Powers side
occurred inside of the Ottoman Empire
and most of it was self-inflicted the
ottomans joined the war in 1915 and
suffered 548 thousand military
fatalities and another 582 thousand
wounded fighting against mostly the
British French and the Russians but
absurdly high civilian deaths inside of
the Ottoman Empire were largely due to
the Ottoman government's policy of
ethnic cleansing against her Armenian
Greek and assyrian ethnic minorities
collectively known as the Armenian
Genocide 1.5 million Armenians were
systematically killed by the Ottoman
government tearing and shortly after the
war along with 600,000 Greeks and 225
thousand Assyrians accounting for all of
this in addition to the military
casualties an enormous 17% of the
Ottoman Empire's population was killed
or wounded during the conflict which can
also help to explain why this Empire 2
didn't survive long after the war was
over
and finally Bulgaria was another member
of this alliance that suffered greatly
as well with 6.8 percent of their
population becoming casualty victims of
the Great War in total and across all
countries about 9 million soldiers lost
their lives as well as 7 million
civilians 36 percent of all deaths were
auntaunt military 22% were the Central
Powers military another 22% were central
powers civilians in the final 20 percent
were aunt on civilians the first world
war was and still remains the bloodiest
war ever fought in the history of the
United Kingdom France Italy Belgium
Bulgaria Romania Serbia Turkey Australia
New Zealand and Canada the Second World
War was actually not as bad for all of
these mentioned countries but it would
be worse for others like Russia into
Germany hopefully after two terrible
lessons during the 20th century humanity
will never forget what can happen when
we let our differences get the better of
us
lessons of any kind are valuable for
both societies and for individuals and
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