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The War That Changed The World

2 minute read

One hundred years ago this summer, sparked by the June 28 assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Europe plunged blindly into a global war that would leave nearly 10 million soldiers dead, twice that number wounded, countless civilians slaughtered or ruined, economies wrecked, empires toppled and the disastrous seeds of communism and fascism sown in ground, fertilized by blood and anguish. “All gods dead,” as F. Scott Fitzgerald put it in the war’s wake, “all faiths in man shaken.”

The manmade disaster that was first called the Great War wrenched Europe out of the past and thrust it into a dystopian future. This is when the genocides began, and bombs first fell from the skies, when old orders discredited themselves with nothing better to take their places. The good were left exhausted by the carnage—which gave evil a head start in the next round of that eternal competition.

Despite the scale of the conflict’s death toll and its historical weight, World War I occupies a surprisingly small space in the Western memory, perhaps because it had no silver lining—no slaves were freed, no death camps liberated by brave American GIs. The story is told (when it’s told at all) through herky-jerky black-and-white movies of men in silly helmets moving like Claymation dolls, and goggled pilots in flimsy biplanes, and soldiers wearing gas masks like snouts.

These experimental color photographs, on the other hand, narrow the distance between us and that wasteland. They reach across the century to remind us that those millions dead were once as real and warm as we. Theirs was not an alien, colorless landscape. It was our world—and could be again, should we forget the lessons of World War I.

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A street in Verdun, France, after 8 months of bombing, Sept. 23, 1916. Jules Gervais-Courtellemont—Ullstein Bild-Leone/The Image Works
1. Weltkrieg
The return of a French column of Zouaves - light infantry regiments - from the border with Tripolitaine, at the garrison Medenine, in southern Tunisia, March 20, 1916.Albert Samama-Chikli—R Schultz Collection/The Image Works
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French soldiers in front of the Voevre during the Battle of Verdun on the Western Front in France, September 1916. Jules Gervais-Courtellemont—R Schultz Collection/The Image Works
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Anti-aircraft guns mounted on vehicles in action during the battle of Verdun on the Western Front in France, September 1916.Jules Gervais-Courtellemont—R Schultz Collection/The Image Works
1. World War, france, military, air force
A Nieuport 10 biplane during the Battle of the Marne, east of Paris, September 1914.Jules Gervais-Courtellemont—Ullstein Bild-Leone/The Image Works
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A group of French artillerymen with 75 mm guns during the Battle of Verdun on the Western Front, France, September 1916. Jules Gervais-Courtellemont—R Schultz Collection/The Image Works
1. World War, western front, France, military
Zouave infantry troops of the French army at Barcy, France during the Battle of the Marne, September 1914.Jules Gervais-Courtellemont—Ullstein Bild-Leone/The Image Works
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A French brigadier and his horse during the Battle of the Marne, east of Paris, September 1914. Jules Gervais-Courtellemont—R Schultz Collection/The Image Works
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Three French soldiers in the woods with a Howitzer during the Battle of Verdun on the Western Front, France, September 1916. Jules Gervais-Courtellemont—R Schultz Collection/The Image Works
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Canadian soldiers working in a sawmill, in Quesmy, France, 1917. Fernand Cuville—Bilderwelt/Roger-Viollet/The Image Works
French soldiers and vehicles of the mobile air defense during the Battle of Verdun. Western Front. World War I.France, September 1916Autochrome LumièrePhoto: Jules Gervais-Courtellemont (1863 - 1931)
French soldiers and vehicles of the mobile air defense during the Battle of Verdun on the Western Front, September 1916.Jules Gervais-Courtellemont—R Schultz Collection/The Image Works
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Belgian soldiers guarding a bridge after the beginning of the occupation of the Demilitarized Zone in the Rhineland carried out by Belgian and French troops, Germany, 1921. R Schultz Collection/The Image Works
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A family flees from German invasion during the Battle of the Marne, east of Paris, September 1914. Jules Gervais-Courtellemont—R Schultz Collection/The Image Works
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Five French soldiers clear rubble in the ruins of Reims, France, which was destroyed by German artillery and air raids, 1917.Fernand Cuville—R Schultz Collection/The Image Works
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A French military cemetery at the Battle of Verdun on the Western Front, France, September 1916. Jules Gervais-Courtellemont—R Schultz Collection/The Image Works

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