The First World War
World War I (1914–1918) devastated the economic, social, and political order of Europe. People at the time, overwhelmed by the size of the war’s battles and the number of casualties, simply called it the Great War. The war was all the more disturbing to Europeans because it came after a period that many believed to have been an age of progress. World War I is often considered as the first stage in the crisis of the twentieth century.