1918: How the battle of titans changed the world

Assistant Warder at Sarova Taita hills and Salt lick Donart Mwakio recently shows part of a railway line used by the British and German Soldiers during the World war one and two around Taita Taveta County. [Maarufu Mohamed,Standard]

It is 100 years since the end of one of the most significant wars in modern history - World War One.

It became known as the Great War because it affected people all over the world and was the biggest war anyone had ever known. It even came to be known as ‘the war to end all wars’, as no conflict before World War One had caused destruction of this proportion before.

People wanted to believe that nobody would ever want to go to war again after it. Millions of people - both soldiers and ordinary citizens - lost their lives. Of those who did come home from the war, many were injured physically or struggled mentally as a result of what they had experienced.

World War One changed the world in ways that nobody could have imagined. Here, we take a look at how. One of the most significant impacts of World War One was huge advances in technology, which would transform the way that people all around the world travelled and communicated, in particular, in the years after the conflict. New weapons and technologies were developed and used that led to more destruction than any war had seen in the past. In 1914, planes were still a very new invention.

The first one had only taken to the skies just 11 years before! They were rare and fragile, but when war broke out, scientists and engineers worked hard to develop planes that were stronger, quicker and capable of being used in battle. The first bombs were dropped from the air and planes were used to spy on enemy territory.

Britain used tanks in battle for the first time on 15 September 1916 and, in total, produced around 2,600 of them throughout the war. It wasn’t just weaponry that advanced, though.

New methods of photography, sound recording and ways to communicate were developed during the war, which had a long-lasting impact. Knowing more about these new technologies and ways of fighting would prove vital for future military tactics and in preparations for World War Two.

Wounds inflicted on soldiers were like nothing medical professionals had had to deal with before - not least in terms of the numbers of people injured. So the war meant that medicine had to catch up to be able to deal with these problems.

Blood donation and banks started during World War One, when a US army doctor called Captain Oswald Robertson realised that blood needed to be stockpiled so it was there ready and waiting when casualties arrived. He set up the first blood bank in 1917, using sodium citrate to stop the blood from clotting and becoming unusable.

Up until the war, women were perceived in a certain way in society. Their role was traditionally to stay in the home. Issues like politics and war were very much seen as things for men to deal with. In the UK, laws were being changed to improve women’s standing in society. For example, they had more rights when it came to their houses and their children, but there was still a long way to go before men and women would be treated more equally. When war broke out and men went off to fight, women took on their jobs and kept things running.

Across the country, by late 1918, nine in every ten workers in the munitions industry were female - jobs which traditionally would have been done by men. Women also worked as conductors.