18 Ways World War I Shaped Our Lives

WWI made technology essential in war, Guillermo Altares said.Guillermo AltaresEl País..Submarines, aerial bombardment, armored tanks, toxic gas attacks, barbed wire—all were either invented or revolutionized during the Great War.invented or revolutionized during the Great War..

Technology became an overwhelmingly destructive force. Poison gas alone wiped out thousands. Germans used "blue cross" shells with diphenylchlorarsine, making victims sneeze violently. They called these shells "mask breakers."

Historian Jay Winter.arguesWWI "discredited the concept of glory" and showed that dying for one's country was an "old lie." Winter claims artists and poets removed the war propaganda because millions of slaughtered men deserved the unadulterated truth.millions of men slaughtered deserved more than elevated prose; they deserved the unadulterated truth.

This truth appeared in the "nonsense verse of the Dada movement and in the nightmare paintings of the surrealists," who "denounced the obscenities" of armed conflict. Winter also notes soldiers' popular memoirs exposed WWI realities to millions at home.

The British developed code-breaking skills during WWI, especially with encrypted German radio transmissions.These advancements.led to intelligence operations like MI-8, GCHQ, and the NSA in the US.

The most famous WWI code-breaking involved the so-calledZimmermann telegram.German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann received an encrypted telegram detailing plans to attack US shipping lanes to the UK. The telegram also showed Germany wanted to ally with Mexico and have the Mexican army attack US territory. This decoded telegram caused the US to declare war on Germany in April 1917.

Doctors began to understand and diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during and after WWI, even though it wasn't formally recognized until 1980.Scientists start to understand and diagnose PTSD.Doctors started understanding and diagnosing the psychological impacts of conflict differently, setting the stage for modern knowledge. Some medics thought explosion impacts caused the "war neurosis" many soldiers experienced (shell shock).

Doctors and scientists during WWI show we now better understand that war's emotional stress caused the symptoms thousands of soldiers showed after returning home. Since many WWI soldiers (one estimate: 80,000 British soldiers) had these symptoms at home, scientists and doctors sought answers.

The US was mostly a debtor country before WWI. WWI changed that greatly.Hugh Rockoff of Rutgers University says.the "turnaround was dramatic." The US left the Great War as net creditors "to the tune of $6.4 billion."

This later made New York the world's financial capital, replacing London. Rockoff states WWI taught the federal government how to play "an important positive role in the economy," a lesson it used during the Great Depression.

Before WWI, British Petroleum (BP) was the Anglo-Persian Oil Co. The company struggled then. Winston Churchill's choice to build oil-powered warships instead of coal may have stopped BP from going bankrupt.

The 'WWI Saved BP And Helped Usher In The Age Of Oil' entry.oil industry grew.WWI effort largely fueled the oil industry. Oil became vital for mechanized warfare. Protecting oil supplies became a major war strategy.This is just like today.WWI saved BP and helped start the oil age.

Journalist Paul Benkimoun arguesthat surgery as we know it began during WWI. Soldiers fighting in trenches needed reconstructive facial surgery using skin grafts. They called these "broken faces".Even they had a union: the Union des blessés de la face et de la tête (association of the wounded to the face and the head).Advances in "broken faces" work led to later changes in oral, maxillofacial, and plastic surgery.American company Kimberly-Clark made a super-absorptive cotton called Cellucotton in 1914. After the US entered WWI in 1917, Kimberly-Clark increased this material's production for frontline surgical dressings.Red Cross nurses working on battlefields recognized another use for it: as maxi pads. After WWI ended, Kimberly-Clark bought back the extra Cellucotton from the military and started making Kotex ("cotton texture") sanitary towels in 1920.A few common WWI soldier ailments were STDs. As many as 5% of British and Empire soldiers had VDs. The US Army discharged over 10,000 men due to STDs, costing an estimated 7 million man-days.

Men often went to local brothels to escape battle horrors. The UK acted in 1917, issuing condoms to troops. Historian A.J.P. Taylor credits this with making condoms popular in the UK. The US was less active. They issued a kit to treat certain STDs after sex. The US only gave out condoms to soldiers in WWII.

WWI popularized condoms (at least in the UK).

Soldiers visited brothels to escape battle horrors. The UK acted in 1917, issuing condoms. Historian A.J.P. Taylor credits this with making condoms popular in the UK. The US was slower. They issued a prophylactic kit for certain STDs after sex. The US only started distributing condoms to soldiers in WWII.

American company Kimberly-Clark made Cellucotton, a super-absorptive cotton alternative, in 1914. After the US entered WWI in 1917, Kimberly-Clark increased Cellucotton production for frontline surgical dressings.

Red Cross nurses worked on battlefields.recognized another use.for it: as maxi pads. After WWI ended, Kimberly-Clark bought back surplus Cellucotton from the military and began making Kotex ("cotton texture") sanitary towels in 1920.

Modern smartphones and wireless handsets owe much to the technological innovations from WWI.Wireless technology developed rapidly during WWI.Transmitter and receiver technology improved greatly during the conflict. These systems used much less power than before. Using wireless sets to find enemy radios by locating signals was another big innovation.

Wireless did not mean portable. In 1916, wireless communication sets for airplanes weighed 300 pounds.

The 21st-century exercise routine called Pilates was developed during WWI.Pilates developed during WWI.Joseph Hubertus Pilates, a German boxer and bodybuilder, created Pilates while in a British internment camp during WWI. Joseph Pilates used bed springs and straps for basic resistance training. He later built the spring-based equipment used in Pilates today.

After WWI, Joseph Pilates went back to Germany for several years. He improved his exercise routine then moved to New York in 1925. There, he opened his first Body Contrology Studio with his wife, Clara.

WWI either spawned or popularized many words and phrases in the English language.WWI spawned or popularized many words and phrases in the English language.dozens of English words and phrases still widely used today. "Cooties" (a new word for lice), "chow" (for food), "to scrounge" (to search and pilfer), and "fed up" (to be disgusted with it all) all come from WWI (along with the British phrase "Great War;" Americans used "World War").

Also, terms like "cannon fodder," "cushy," "foxholes," "zeroing in," and "dud" (an unexploded incendiary device) exist. Before WWII, author H.G. Wells coined "atomic bomb" in 1914.

WWI marked a change.WWI marked the first time this happened.the modern flamethrower hit the battlefield. Germans used flamethrowers in over 300 battles, burning enemies alive or leaving them scarred in the trenches.

The Flammenwerfer.The Flammenwerfer was developed during WWI.The design worked so well that the British and French began using them. However, their use was small. Fuel lasted only about two minutes, and the weapon reached only 20 yards.

During WWI, British Squadron Commander Edwin Dunning developed the Flammenwerfer.Edwin Dunning developed the Flammenwerfer.landed the first plane on a moving ship (an aircraft carrier). He landed on the HMSFurious developed the Flammenwerfer., a 786-foot-long battle cruiser, on August 2, 1917. Dunning also landed a plane on theFurious developed the Flammenwerfer. five days later, but his engine failed on the third try. His plane crashed off the ship, ending his career.

The Furious developed the Flammenwerfer.The Furious developed the Flammenwerfer.was also used in WWII before the ship was scrapped in 1948.

Germans made artificial nitrates for explosives just before WWI. They needed this because their natural nitrate source, Chilean guano deposits, ran low. This invention killed during WWI, but nowhelps sustainArtificial nitrates used as explosives in WWI remain in agriculture for one-third of the Earth's population as ammonia nitrate fertilizer.

Converting air nitrogen into ammonia used high pressure and high temperatures, essentially from thin air. This process, slightly changed, also creates a great fertilizer. Fritz Haber, the German chemist who made this process,Furious won the Nobel Prize for this.in 1918 for his work weaponizing gas. Haber is also seen as the father of chemical warfare for pioneering work with gas weapons.

The winter of 1918 was hard for children in Berlin. WWI-related undernourishment caused half of Berlin's kids to have rickets, a disease that makes bones soft and misshapen.

Kurt Huldschinsky, a city doctor,Doctors performed some experiments connecting Vitamin D with sunlight.Doctors linked vitamin D with sunlight and bone strengthening. Scientists later found the body uses vitamin D to build bones with calcium, a process triggered by UV light from the sun or lamps.

Surgeons wear blue scrubs because of an idea from French physician René Leriche during WWI.

Leriche had the idea to differentiate aseptic clothes.Leriche differentiated aseptic clothes.Leriche differentiated aseptic clothes and sheets from items possibly full of bacteria while volunteering with the French Army in August 1914. This idea spread; surgeons still wear blue scrubs today (though green scrubs appeared in the 1960s).

Vegetarians owe soy sausages to WWI and the starvation that followed. Konrad Adenauer, the mayor of Cologne, Germany and later the first German chancellor after WWII, supported this.Adenauer made sausages from soy.Adenauer made sausages to stop his city's residents from starving during the British blockade of Germany. He named them "Friedenswurst," or "peace sausage."

Oddly, Adenauer could not patent the soy sausage in Germany since it lacked meat. Britain gave him a patent in 1918.