What characteristic of World War 1 sets in a part from earlier wars?

Answer 1

The advent of large scale mass conscription by all major world powers and their smaller allied counterparts on both sides is a major difference that set this conflict apart from all conflicts previously fought. A powerful sense of nationalism was rampant throughout Europe and the world as a whole. in countries both large and small. Imperialism and militarism had gripped major European powers in order to counter the threat they perceived other major powers posed to them. The new German Empire had allied with the Austro-Hungarian Empire and newly unified Italy to form the Triple Alliance. The British, French, and Russian Empire countered this move by forming the Triple Entente in a move to counter the threat posed by the Triple Alliance. The Balkan region of Europe was in turmoil in the early 20th century. War had rocked the region over and over and destablization resulted in an environment ripe for terrorist and extremist activity. The seizure of the area of Bosnia-Herzegovina by the powerful Austro-Hungarian Empire had infuriated many nationalists in the region who had imagined a free and independent country of their own or unified with the fledgling state of Serbia. The trigger that would lead to a rapid cascade of events leading to the declaration of war occured when a Bosnian nationalist and extremist by the name of Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne June 28th of 1914 while he was on tour of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Simply put rapid transit and comunication which was not nearly as widespread in previous conflicts led to massive reservist and conscript armies being called to arms, equipped, organized and rapidly moved to the frontiers and borders of both sides. Unfortunately the invention of the machine gun, massive improvement of mobile artillery and mass rapid transit would result in wholesale salughter of armies employing antiquated human wave tactics. Massive strategical shifts of thinking were necessary but lack of revolutionary equipment (wonder weapons) or tactics led to a bloody stalemate that gripped the European continent for nearly 4 years before a massive influx of millions of fresh Amrican soldiers entering the front in aid of the Entente, war exhaustion, starvation, and staggering casualties combined to forced the surrender of Germany and Austria-Hungary in late 1918. No side can be blamed more than the other side for causing the war although history commonly will name Imperial Germany or Austria-Hungary as the cause for the war. Nevertheless all sides were armed and willing for this calamitous conflict although none could be prepared for the nightmare that would unfold as a result of this titanic clash of arms and will. I hope I was able to answer your question in some small way [: if you would like to further discuss this topic or that of WW1 please feel free to email me at jaredvillhelm2002@yahoo.com