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World War I saw the convergence of several different technologies and doctrines which translated into a devastating loss of life and property never before seen.

Weapons were more devastating than ever before. Most nations carried bolt action rifles chambered with new powders, making them much more powerful than small arms used in previous wars. These literal hand cannons inflicted devastating injuries on soldiers like never seen before. The advent of the machine gun and quickly becoming out-dated cold-steel or "over the top" tactics (massive charges) combined to created massive casualties. Artillery was also more powerful than ever before, and the often tight formations were devastated by newer more powerful guns.

Trench warfare dominated this war, and the massive amounts of trenches and earthworks dug in the earth devastated much of the prime farmland throughout Europe.

The invention of the machine gun was one of the biggest contributor to the large death toll during the first world war, also the civilian death toll was all though bad nothing compared to the death toll of the second world war.

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9y ago

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