How did total war and new technology change the conduct of the First World War?
Topic 7.3 Conducting World War I: the new technologies and the practice of total war that made the First World War uniquely destructive and global, including trench warfare, the mobilization of home fronts, and the global reach of the conflict.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 7.3, explaining how the First World War was fought: trench warfare and new technology like machine guns and poison gas, the practice of total war and home-front mobilization, the use of colonial troops, and the global reach of the conflict.
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What this topic is asking
Topic 7.3 covers how the First World War was fought. It asks you to explain the new military technologies and the practice of total war that made the conflict uniquely destructive: trench warfare and weapons like the machine gun and poison gas, the mobilization of entire societies and economies on the home front, the use of colonial troops and resources, and the global reach of a war often imagined as merely European.
What "total war" means
Trench warfare and new technology
Industrial weapons reshaped the battlefield.
Mobilizing the home front
The war consumed whole societies.
- Economic mobilization. Governments directed industry to produce munitions, took control of resources, and rationed food and goods.
- Labor and women. With men at the front, women entered factories and other workplaces in large numbers, a shift with lasting social effects.
- Propaganda and control. States used propaganda to sustain morale and demonize the enemy, and censored news, blurring the line between civilian and combatant.
This total mobilization is what made the war so different from earlier conflicts.
A global war
The conflict reached far beyond Europe.
The warring states were empires, so they drew on their colonies and dominions. India sent over a million soldiers; African colonies supplied troops and labor; Australia, New Zealand, and Canada sent forces (as at Gallipoli). Fighting spread to the Middle East (against the Ottomans), Africa, and the oceans. The war's global reach exposed colonized peoples to the realities of European power and fed postwar demands for self-rule, a link to decolonization (Topic 8.5).
Try this
Q1. Name the form of static, dug-in warfare that dominated the Western Front. [Recall]
- Cue. Trench warfare.
Q2. Explain one feature of total war in the First World War. [Short explanation]
- Cue. States mobilized their entire economies and populations, directing industry to munitions, rationing food, bringing women into factories, and using propaganda to sustain civilian morale, so the whole society was harnessed to the war effort.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of College Board exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AP 2020 (style)3 marksBriefly describe ONE new military technology of the First World War. Briefly explain ONE feature of total war. Briefly explain ONE way the war was global rather than only European.Show worked answer →
A Short Answer Question (SAQ), 3 points, one per bullet.
A. Describe: the machine gun, along with poison gas, tanks, and aircraft, made the battlefield vastly more deadly and helped produce trench stalemate.
B. Total war: states mobilized their entire economies and populations for war, directing industry, rationing food, and using propaganda to sustain the home front.
C. Global reach: the war drew in colonies and dominions, with troops and resources from India, Africa, Australia, and elsewhere, and fighting spread beyond Europe.
Each bullet must be concrete.
AP 2022 (style)6 marksEvaluate the extent to which the First World War represented a new kind of warfare in the period c. 1900 to the present.Show worked answer →
A Long Essay Question (LEQ), scored on the 6-point change rubric.
Thesis (1): "The First World War was a new kind of warfare because industrial technology and total mobilization produced unprecedented destruction and drew in entire societies and the globe, though older patterns of great-power conflict persisted."
Contextualization (1): situate the war in the industrial and imperial transformations of the previous century.
Evidence (2): machine guns, gas, tanks, and aircraft; trench warfare and stalemate; total-war mobilization and propaganda; colonial troops and global theaters.
Analysis (2): explain HOW industrial technology and total war made the conflict new, then add complexity by noting continuities with earlier great-power warfare and empire.
Related dot points
- Topic 7.2 Causes of World War I: the long-term and immediate causes of the First World War, including militarism, alliances, imperialism, nationalism, and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 7.2, explaining the causes of the First World War: the long-term MAIN factors (militarism, alliances, imperialism, nationalism) and the immediate trigger, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914.
- Topic 7.5 Unresolved Tensions After World War I: the political and social tensions left by the peace settlement, including the Treaty of Versailles, the mandate system, anticolonial movements, and the rise of fascism and authoritarianism.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 7.5, explaining the tensions left after the First World War: the harsh Treaty of Versailles and German resentment, the mandate system and broken promises to colonized peoples, the rise of fascism and authoritarianism, and the weakness of the League of Nations.
- Topic 7.7 Conducting World War II: the methods and technologies of the Second World War, including total war, the deliberate targeting of civilians, new weapons, and the use of the atomic bomb.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 7.7, explaining how the Second World War was fought: total war and total mobilization, new technologies like tanks, aircraft, and radar, the deliberate targeting of civilians through strategic bombing, and the use of the atomic bomb.
- Topic 5.5 Technology of the Industrial Age: the new technologies and energy sources of the first and second industrial revolutions and how they changed production, transport, and communication.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 5.5, explaining the technologies of the first and second industrial revolutions: the steam engine and coal, then steel, electricity, the internal combustion engine, and chemicals, and how they transformed production, transport, and communication.
- Topic 7.8 Mass Atrocities After 1900: the genocides and mass killings of the twentieth century, including the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, and others, and the conditions that enabled them.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 7.8, explaining the mass atrocities and genocides of the twentieth century: the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, the Holodomor, the Cambodian and Rwandan genocides, and the conditions of ideology, total war, and state power that enabled them.
Sources & how we know this
- AP World History: Modern Course and Exam Description — College Board (2020)