Talk:World War I

Recommendation to reduce/merge content

This article has been tagged with a recommendation that it be considerably reduced. I think this can be done fairly easily by moving most of the content from Section 6 onwards into sub-articles or significantly reducing it.

However, the remaining content is still too wordy and the Lede remains too long, which means people won't read it. I can put a draft up but it needs to only include what is essential, not what would be nice. Robinvp11 (talk) 17:54, 17 January 2023 (UTC)

No need to shorten this major event in the history of many countries. Readers can easily find the section that interests them. If they want the whole story they can read it in parts. Rjensen (talk) 03:37, 29 March 2023 (UTC)

Manpower

In the summary box it used to say how much manpower each nation had. Personally I thought that was useful information. I just wondered how come it got deleted. Firestar47 (talk) 11:27, 2 February 2023 (UTC)

Anyone? Firestar47 (talk) 12:45, 21 March 2023 (UTC)

Lead sentence revisited

Hello all

I'm sorry to reopen this so soon, but I missed the previous discussion on the lead sentence of this article, and would like to make a suggestion. @Thinker78 suggested I should start a new discussion here. In my experience, First World War is the most common term in Commonwealth countries, and World War I is the most common in the US. The following NGram shows that First World War is marginally the most common term in English worldwide.[1] So following MOS:BOLDSYN the lead sentence should be: World War I (WWI) (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the First World War...

This isn't cluttered or difficult to read, captures the two most important names for the conflict in English, and is the preferred form under policy. Would anyone object if this change were made? Thanks. Aemilius Adolphin (talk) 01:02, 8 February 2023 (UTC)

"First imperialist war" listed at Redirects for discussion

A discussion is taking place to address a potential problem with the redirect First imperialist war and it has been listed for discussion. Readers of this page are welcome to participate at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2023 February 9 § First imperialist war until a consensus is reached. An anonymous username, not my real name 04:11, 9 February 2023 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 10 February 2023

when you press show under france it shows the countries of the british empire, shouldnt this be under british empire 2A00:23C5:348D:4301:8DD1:1F35:7CBC:9A0 (talk) 01:03, 10 February 2023 (UTC)

The "show" feature of the drop down box refers to the information below. So it correctly refers to the combatants fighting as part of the British Empire. Aemilius Adolphin (talk) 02:53, 11 February 2023 (UTC)

 Not done: Seems to be a problem with template:clist. Don't think it can be fixed here. small jars tc 20:25, 11 February 2023 (UTC)

Oversimplification

@TheIranianSalafist simpler is not always better. This little footnote you put on the Ottoman sultan of "oh it's not only this guy, also this guy succeeded him" all because of your fixation on keeping it short makes it kind of ridiculous.

Also, I'm not sure how familiar you are with Ludendorff, but before tweaking around you should go read about him and his role in 1910s German politics. I didn't include him for potatoes. Synotia (moan) 15:08, 26 February 2023 (UTC)

1918

The section on 1918 makes no mention of Russia's exit from the war. This should be included. Firestar47 (talk) 22:19, 26 February 2023 (UTC)

You are correct, we should probably mention that in the info box. 165.234.101.99 (talk) 15:49, 10 March 2023 (UTC)

They exited then wear the year before. Slatersteven (talk) 16:08, 10 March 2023 (UTC)

So should we add “Russia (Until March, 1918)” to the info box? 165.234.101.99 (talk) 19:44, 21 March 2023 (UTC)

Summary Box* 165.234.101.99 (talk) 19:45, 21 March 2023 (UTC)

Intro

Another point, I was reading the introduction and saw this: "Attempts to bypass the stalemate caused fighting to expand into the Middle East, the Alps, the Balkans and overseas colonies, bringing Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and others into the war." This sentence is factually wrong in numerous ways and really needs taking out. Firestar47 (talk) 22:30, 26 February 2023 (UTC)

IN what way? Slatersteven (talk) 16:08, 10 March 2023 (UTC)

The sentence is wrong because it is misleading -- the war spread in part because the Allies kept encouraging more neutral states to join the war effort, offering them territory in return. Italy joined to gain S. Tyrol, Trieste and Dalmatia; Romania joined to gain Transylvania, etc. Japan was offered various German island colonies. The "stalemate" in the Western front did not cause this to occur. The Allies caused it to occur -- again expanding the war. In fact, the entire war was unnecessarily expanded. A brief Austria-Hungary v. Serbia conflict over terrorism was expanded to a continental contest between France/Russia/Serbia and their territorial desires (i.e. regain Alsace-Lorraine, undo the restraints on the Black Sea from the Crimean War, take the straits from the Ottomans during their imminent collapse -- as shown by their huge territorial losses in 1911, 1912, 1913) and AH and Germany. And then again, that continental war was expanded into a global conflict when Britain entered. And that global conflict expanded again as the Allies encouraged Italy, Greece, Japan, Romania, the USA, etc. to join. The Central Powers added Bulgaria and Ottoman Turkey -- which did allow for expansion of the Allied war effort to the Middle East. Chesspride216.144.161.51 (talk) 18:59, 17 March 2023 (UTC)

Source? Slatersteven (talk) 19:21, 17 March 2023 (UTC)

I will look at the sentence and see if it can be made clearer. I would point out "stalemate" refers to both the Eastern and Western Fronts, while Bulgaria, Greece etc were brought into the war specifically to open up new fronts due to that lack of progress. The entries of Japan, Italy and the Ottoman Empire are covered in an earlier paragraph.

Most of the subsequent argument is extremely contentious and seems to ignore the extensive literature on the causes of the war. Robinvp11 (talk) 20:24, 17 March 2023 (UTC)

One problem basically is it puts the cart before the horse, the fighting expanded geographically as new states joined not vice versa. Also the war didn't expand to the balkans it started there. Firestar47 (talk) 12:42, 21 March 2023 (UTC)

Hyperinflation in Germany

I think that there needs to be an addition at the end of the lede section of the article which talks about the hyperinflation that Germany was suffering around that time. I tried, but was reverted, so I would like to hear anyone else's thoughts rather than starting an edit war. There are sources to support this as well: [2] [3] [4]
Please feel free to share your thoughts. Professor Penguino (talk) 21:12, 25 March 2023 (UTC)

The article is already too long and we should be looking for ways to cut it. There is no need to add a sentence about the German post-war hyperinflation. This article is about WWI, not the post-war period. There are already several articles which deal with the German post-war hyperinflation. Aemilius Adolphin (talk) 22:50, 25 March 2023 (UTC)

I was just throwing out ideas. I consider the matter closed then for the time being. Professor Penguino (talk) 23:44, 25 March 2023 (UTC)

Start date of the war

At the moment the article lists two start dates; 28 June 1914, when Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, and 28 July 1914, when Austria declared war on Serbia. Either of these may be appropriate, but the most appropriate will be the one most commonly cited by historians; have we determined this previously? BilledMammal (talk) 09:40, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

History

first world war 102.244.221.113 (talk) 09:36, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

Yes? Slatersteven (talk) 12:41, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

Black Tom Explosion

The Black Tom Explosion is not mentioned as a reason why the US joined WWI. Despite it being a major event. I think it should at least be mentioned. 69.204.59.102 (talk) 19:55, 10 April 2023 (UTC)