World War I is one of the most famous wars in history, but despite its significance,
it often gets overlooked in favor of its more recent cousin, World War II.
The Great War is especially less remembered as clearly by Americans, even though they
played a large enough role that they should have felt more affected by it.
Even many in Europe may remember well the contributions of themselves, or their closest
allies, but some have forgotten the contribution of other less European allies, and many have
simplified — into somewhat erroneous legend — the reasons for the war and the ensuing
political ramifications.
10.
Flamethrowers Made Their First Appearance In World War I, And Were Found Wanting
Flamethrowers are a popular weapon in various video games, where they are especially good
at taking out hordes of enemies.
In some games, the enemy literally becomes helpless to fight you anymore once they burst
into flames.
In reality, when the Germans first tested the flamethrower in World War I, they found
initial success, but only because they had the element of surprise.
They attacked the British at Flanders and managed to push back the British line and
inflict fairly heavy losses, but the British stabilized that same line within a couple
days.
After that, the French and British not only started experimenting with their own, but
they also started targeting anyone who carried one — operators stuck out like a sore thumb
because of their gigantic backpacks and slow movement.
To make matters worse, the flamethrower canister can explode under pressure, and many didn’t
want to volunteer to use them because the enemy would gun for them.
While flamethrowers have a niche use in certain applications, they may not be as good as video
games suggest.
9.
Germany’s Complaints About The Treaty Of Versailles Are A Whole Lot Of Nonsense
While we can only get so in depth on the Treaty of Versailles in a top 10 article, we will
do our best to go over some of the most important myths.
The biggest one is that the Allies were asking for a ruinous amount of money from Germany
(a lie Hitler repeated constantly), but the allied powers were only asking the Germans
to pay for civilian reparations.
This was something that had been asked for in the past — and given — when Germany
had won previous wars.
It is important to note, as well, that some claim the initial expected amount was 132
billion marks, but historians say that the Allies only expected the Germans to pay 50
billion marks, which was one billion less than the Germans had offered — presumably
to round it down and give them some cushion.
To drive a final stake in the heart of Hitler’s lie, the Germans never even fulfilled the
obligation they agreed to — their economy was just mismanaged.
8.
Britain And France Combined To Recruit Close To 150,000 Chinese For Manual Labor
During World War I, both China and Japan were rising powers who wanted to show their clout
to the rest of the world.
While neither of them really fought on any major front, they still had significant involvement
in the war.
The Germans had taken a city called Qingdao in Shandong Province, which gave them their
own little permanent presence in China.
The Chinese were neutral at the time and offered 50,000 troops to help the British take the
city, but they didn’t feel it was important at the time.
The Japanese retook it in order to establish their own presence in China and joined the
Allies.
Now, with the Japanese part of the Allies, the Chinese tried to join in combat and found
themselves rebuffed.
The Allies would only allow them to fight if the Japanese would allow it as well — it
had to be all Allies.
And, unfortunately, the Japanese saw the Chinese as direct rivals and wanted all the glory
for themselves.
In order to still use the war to their advantage to show the world their strength and perhaps
gain future favors, the Chinese sent roughly 150,000 non-combat helpers to join the British
and French on the frontlines, doing all sorts of important work like repairing tanks, and
digging and repairing trenches and other key fixtures.
7.
The Story About The Sandwich Leading To The Start Of World War I Is Apocryphal
June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo was a day that will forever live in infamy.
Gavrilo Princip assassinated the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which many consider to be
the straw that broke the camel’s back of all the tension in Europe and finally led
to the start of World War I.
Today, most know that the assassin only succeeded because of a sandwich.
The story goes that the Archduke’s planned tour route actually was changed due to an
attempted bombing and this flummoxed Princip, who had missed his chance at his target, so
he went to get something to eat.
While he was eating the Archduke stopped at the same sandwich shop, and Princip took his
lucky chance and ended the royal’s life.
However, the folks at the Smithsonian Magazine have looked over this legend and found several
major problems.
For starters the legend only first appeared in 2003, and to make matters more silly, a
sandwich is just not something that would have been eaten in a restaurant in Sarajevo
in the early 1900s.
The final stake in this silly story’s coffin is that the Archduke’s planned tour route
did, indeed, go by the restaurant.
6.
Some Blame Mutual Defense Treaties, But Tensions Had Been Simmering For Years
While all the causes and tensions leading up the World War I would be hard to fit in
an entire top 10 article, much less one entry, the important myth that we want to talk about
is that of mutual defense treaties.
Many people think that World War I started largely due to many countries — who didn’t
even want to fight — being dragged in by mutual defense treaties, against their will.
Some even argue that this shows the weakness of such treaties, as they can force countries
into unnecessary or unjust wars they didn’t want to be a part of in the first place.
However, that excuse doesn’t really work when many were clamoring for war to begin
with and the tensions had been simmering for years.
The truth is that when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, it didn’t force
anyone to declare war — it was used as an excuse for war by the Austro-Hungarian Empire
and others.
Furthermore, many of the major players never invoked any particular mutual defense treaty
as their reason for getting involved, and most of the smaller players joined (again)
not because of treaties, but because they were looking for a share of the glory.
The reality was that nearly every major (or minor) power had been trying to expand their
empires, and eventually this was going to lead to a seriously major clash.
5.
Many Tend To Forget That Modern Chemical Warfare Debuted In World War I
Many people forget, in all the chaos and brutality of World War I, that this was the war where
chemical warfare debuted in a truly major way.
In fact, many historians now refer to the Great War as “The Chemists’ War” due
to all the efforts by the major powers to experiment, with no regard for ethics, with
all sorts of horrific chemical agents like chlorine and mustard gas as a way to damage
an opponent’s front line, distract them, and push them back.
It started, perhaps unsurprisingly to some, with the Germans, who discretely prepared
tanks of chlorine on their defensive line at Ypres in Belgium, and then released 160
tons of chlorine gas into the air, calculating the wind patterns so it would float into the
enemy trenches.
The effect was devastating, and after that, it was on.
All the major, richer powers started experimenting with chemical weapons and testing them on
enemy trenches.
It was during the Great War that the military started testing all sorts of new attempts
at creative gas masks, and some soldiers found that they could protect themselves partially
from certain chemical attacks by wearing rags soaked with urine wrapped around their faces.
4.
For The United States It Wasn’t That Big A Deal, But Europe Was Changed Forever
When President Trump decided to forego a visit to a memorial for the Armistice Day, on its
100th anniversary no less, many in Europe were quite disappointed, although many may
not have been that surprised.
What seemed to bother many Europeans a bit more is that most Americans didn’t seem
that outraged or bothered by President Trump’s unintended snub.
However, the reason for this is likely because Americans (not out of disrespect) just have
trouble seeing World War I with the same significance that Europeans do, and with the same significance
that they see World War II.
There are quite a few reasons for this.
For starters, the United States was only in World War I for a couple years, and their
contribution led to a lot less American deaths, a lot less American economic pain at home,
and generally much less stress than World War II.
The other big reasons are political and economic.
The United States was much more isolationist at the time, so even after the war, people
were more interested in moving on rather than focusing on war glories, and the Great War
didn’t make the United States the economic powerhouse that World War II did.
For Europe, however, it was a long slog and a horrific loss of life.
3.
Even In Europe, Many Forget The Close To 2.5 Million Muslims Who Assisted The Allies
Today in Europe, there’s a lot of tension with regard to Muslims, who come as refugees
from war torn nations in hopes of finding a better life.
This tension is partly because there is a lot of overcrowding in some cities, partly
because people are worried about there being enough resources for everyone, a little bit
because people don’t tend to assimilate quite as much when moving to a European country
as they do when moving to America, and sometimes because of racism.
However, some historians feel that if Europeans understood the full, volunteer accomplishments
of the Muslims who came from their homes in the Middle East — many of whom made the
ultimate sacrifice for the dream of a free Europe — there would not be as much tension
or hard feelings over all of the migration.
While this is a history that has been largely untold, researchers who have done an incredible
amount of digging in recent years estimate somewhere close to 2.5 million Muslims who
came to help either in battle or with general labor.
Now, this contribution has been forgotten, and when their descendants come to Europe
asking for a little help, many wish they would just go away.
2.
People Degrade The Leaders Of World War I, But This Was A Time Of Changing Warfare
One of the old sayings from World War I is that the men who fought in the war were “lions
led by donkeys.”
However, there is good reason to believe that this saying is wrong.
The truth was that the men in charge of the war were pretty much all seasoned veterans
on all sides who were quite experienced, but it was a massive war, all around the globe,
at a time of greatly changing technology and rapidly growing infrastructure.
The commanders weren’t stupid, but trying to adapt to, deal with, and experiment with
multiple different new technologies and advancements that were changing the game completely, right
in the middle of the worst conflict any had seen in their entire lives.
Conflicts like the Battle of the Somme are unfortunate for the heavy losses they inflicted,
especially early on, but it wasn’t due to incompetence on the parts of the commanders.
The were dealing with untested waters, and were doing the very best they could with the
understanding and knowledge they had.
1.
Turkey Is Still Trying To Cover Up The Ottoman Empire’s Genocide Of The Armenians
The Ottomans (now modern day Turkey with less territory) had long hated the thriving Armenian
ethnic minority, but it was during World War I when they truly moved against them in a
massive way.
When the Armenians made moves to help the Russians, they called all Armenians enemies
and used it as a excuse for genocide.
Men, women, and children were ripped from their homes and forced to walk death marches
in the desert — if you stopped to take a rest you were shot.
Some managed to make it out of the country alive, simply by being forced out, and some
escaped, but the majority were taken by surprise by the brutality and organization of the genocidal
campaign of the Ottomans.
While it is hard to ever be sure of exact numbers, historians place the number lost
during the genocide as anywhere between 600,000 and 1.6 million — the disparity is because
it is hard to know how many were killed and how many escaped alive, as the survivors scattered
all over the world.
While it is hardly talked about anywhere in the world, and illegal to talk about in Turkey,
Armenians have found an unlikely champion in Kim Kardashian, who has used her Armenian
roots and celebrity to champion more acknowledgment of the genocide against her people.