Talk:World War I

easy war

the first world war starts for a hungariyan king who was killed by a small teneger 61.2.121.248 (talk) 18:14, 12 February 2024 (UTC)

What? Slatersteven (talk) 18:15, 12 February 2024 (UTC)

Death toll

Hello all This section needs to be thoroughly checked and made consistent with the lead. I removed all the content regarding deaths through disease and starvation in Russia from 1918-22 because this was obviously affected by the Russian civil war. It is also highly dubious to claim that pandemics in the 1920s were "caused" by WWI. As for the lead, it quotes figures for deaths which aren't to be found in the article. For example, nowhere does the article can I find separate estimates of deaths by genocide and other civilian deaths. Estimates of death tolls vary widely between authors and depend on what they consider to be a death caused by the war and this needs to be briefly discussed in the article and used consistently throughout. Happy to discuss. Aemilius Adolphin (talk) 22:28, 9 March 2024 (UTC)

"that pandemics in the 1920s were "caused" by WWI" The Spanish flu (1918-1920) is thought to have spread from American troops to European populations. Other pandemics of the era could have followed the path of mass military transports. Dimadick (talk) 00:23, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

I didn't remove the content on the Spanish flu. Stating that typhus pandemics in the 1920s were caused by WWI is an entirely different matter and requires far better sources than are provided. Aemilius Adolphin (talk) 01:11, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

Patterson, K David (1993). "Typhus and its control in Russia, 1870–1940". Medical History. 37 (4). Cambridge University Press (CUP): 361–381. doi:10.1017/s0025727300058725. ISSN 0025-7273.....

Moxy🍁 01:43, 10 March 2024 (UTC)

The summary of the article quoted above does not claim typhus epidemics in the 1920s "were caused by WWI". In fact, it suggests typhus was a long term problem in Russian rural society (hence the article starting in 1870), but one which was actually disappearing in the 1920s. I can't see the whole article, so a page reference would be useful. Robinvp11 (talk) 16:44, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 15 March 2024

"Serbia's defeat in the 1914..." Should be: "Austria-Hungary's defeat in the 1914..."

See the main article of the 'Serbia' campaign for confirmation, there is an almost identical line there, but written correctly with 'Austria-Hungary'. 2A02:1811:D05:D500:236E:43DC:C923:68FF (talk) 12:41, 15 March 2024 (UTC)

 Done You are quite right, I think an editor must have misread the source as it does say "Serbia's defeat of Austria-Hungary". This has been amended now, thank you. Irltoad (talk) 18:22, 21 March 2024 (UTC)

WW1

In ww1 Germany and France declared war on each other despite both their armies being where they're supposed to be. Both Germany and France had the security system that has every power.

Britain didn't declare war on Germany until the German army had gone through Belgium. The German army is not supposed to be in Belgium. Britain had mi5 that does agent handling and surveillance, and then police that display badges and arrest people. 211.29.202.35 (talk) 23:49, 24 March 2024 (UTC)

@user:211.29.202.35 Write this again, making it intelligible and say what your point is, otherwise it will be removed. Roger 8 Roger (talk) 00:20, 25 March 2024 (UTC)

I think we can be more tolerant and welcoming of people whose first language may not be English and what they say is reasonably intelligible even though some clarifications may be needed. Sincerely, Thinker78 (talk) 03:28, 26 March 2024 (UTC)

I agree that tolerance should be encouraged, but contributors do have a basic responsibility to be reasonably articulate and concise. It's not the responsibility of other editors to puzzle out the meaning of an incoherent submission. Mediatech492 (talk) 10:29, 26 March 2024 (UTC)

I understand but there is a way to be more welcoming and tactful in how we approach users, specially if they may be new. Sincerely, Thinker78 (talk) 02:15, 27 March 2024 (UTC)

or wp:cir. Slatersteven (talk) 11:06, 26 March 2024 (UTC)

WP:CIR also states "We should cut editors (particularly new ones) some slack, and help them understand how to edit competently".

Asking (politely) to clarify the point would achieve the same thing, as well as modelling effective behaviours for others. Robinvp11 (talk) 16:21, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

Maybe rather than complaining about how some of us acted, user's time would be better spent doing what they are telling us to do, as this is about WW1, not any editor. Comment on content, not users.Slatersteven (talk) 16:39, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for your contribution; unexpectedly enlightening in various ways. Robinvp11 (talk) 12:22, 30 March 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 12 April 2024

Well i have found atleast 1 but there might be more words with no links like in 1 place "Germany" isnt linked to the germany wikipedia page World War I LostThisGame (talk) 20:54, 12 April 2024 (UTC)

Now that I look at it a bit more it is probably made like that so it is not just a bunch of link everywhere.

Please decline my edit request im sorry for being a problem. LostThisGame (talk) 21:06, 12 April 2024 (UTC)

No worries @User:LostThisGame! Articles don't tend to link every time something is mentioned – typically just the first time, maybe more if there is distance between them. See MOS:OL for some more details on that. I'll also put some useful links on your talk page in a minute which you might find useful. Thanks for the request all the same! Irltoad (talk) 21:11, 12 April 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 14 April 2024

Serbia was one of the most important nations in ww1 and you didnt even put it in "entante" list, no u have to click "expand list".... thats so dissrespectfull, the war was won because of the push on Salonica/Thessalonici front, and u didnt even put us on the list but there are Japan and Italy that didnt do shit in war... Please put us in main countries Markosrbija10 (talk) 00:04, 15 April 2024 (UTC)

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit semi-protected}} template. While there doesn't seem to be previous discussion on this, I presume that the determination of principal powers is based on the text of the Preamble of the Treaty of Versailles, plus Russia which was a member of the Triple Entente. It's a waste of time trying to debate things like "who were the top five contributors to winning WWI", and that would probably constitute original research anyway. Liu1126 (talk) 00:46, 15 April 2024 (UTC)

Given the war actually began in Serbia, I agree with Markosrbija that it deserves inclusion in the main list of Allied Powers, especially as Bulgaria is listed for the Central Powers.

While we're on the topic, surely it should also be "British Empire" and "French Empire"; I understand the various sensitivities around this, but (unlike 1939), Australia and the other Dominions were committed to the war by virtue of being part of the Empire. And if you suggest to modern Egyptians, Indians or Sri Lankans they entered the war voluntarily, you'll get a pretty sharp response.

Since none of these can be considered separate Belligerents, which is a closely defined term, both legally and per Wikipedia, I'd argue the current Infobox is actively misleading on this topic. Robinvp11 (talk) 12:55, 15 April 2024 (UTC)

The problem is that the heading in the box simply says: "Belligerents" and no criteria is stated for the decision to only display a small number of them. We could avoid this by displaying none of them except through the links. (This is the way the WWII article does it.) Of course, then we would have the problem of deciding who are the "Main Allied Leaders" and "Main Central leaders" (whatever that means). This is a bigger problem than whether or not we add Serbia. In my view, info boxes aren't designed to handle such complexities. Aemilius Adolphin (talk) 22:25, 15 April 2024 (UTC)

I don't think this is nearly as complicated as you suggest. The primary participants on both sides are easily identified, and inserting "British" and "French" empires (for example) actually simplifies the list. But I'm not dying on this hill. Robinvp11 (talk) 11:21, 18 April 2024 (UTC)

Request to review Central Powers leaders of infobox

To some extent there is a consistent simplification of leadership in the infobox which is completely necessary, and for this reason I believe the Allied side of the leaders makes sense. I don't share this sentiment for the Central Powers Leaders listed. Like George V who is not on the infobox, Mehmed V was not calling any shots during his reign and was totally out of power, I would instead replace Sultan Reshad with Enver and Talat, they were the key decision makers on the Ottoman side during WWI. I would also advocate putting von Hindenburg, von Bethmann Hollweg, Ludendorff, or von Hotzendorf there as well but I don't have as much confidence to back up this request. I would appreciate input from a Bulgarianist in this discussion to verify whether Tsar Ferdinand was the leader of Bulgaria during the war or if there was a massive power behind his throne. Benlittlewiki (talk) 19:01, 16 April 2024 (UTC)

• In listing leaders, we should be aiming to list no more than seven leaders a side (per template documentation). Furthermore, per WP:INFOBOXPURPOSE any entry must be supported by the article - ie, why they were key or significant should be evidenced by the article, otherwise a listing would be meaningless to the reader. Cinderella157 (talk) 23:05, 16 April 2024 (UTC)

  Given this criteria, Mehmed V doesn't have a single mention in the article, at least Enver has one mention. Presumably we can at least replace the Sultan? Perhaps someone can add more information about the Ottomans during WWI in this article. Benlittlewiki (talk) 01:10, 17 April 2024 (UTC)

I think we need to clarify the criteria we are using. The heading in the info box is "Commanders and leaders" which sugget a distinction between political leaders and military commanders. However, given the importance of the home front and political aspects of the war, I'm not sure that such a distinction in meaningful. There is a huge historiography on the question of "who was really in charge" of Germany alone (and of course the answer often changes over the course of the war). Perhaps we should first settle the issue of who the major allied and central powers were. If we can do this we can then list the nominal head of government and the nominal head of the military for each major power. I suspect that this will be a lengthy process. Aemilius Adolphin (talk) 01:41, 17 April 2024 (UTC)