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To: Sherman Logan

Actually.......I don’t think that’s quite correct.

“One variety of war damage was more difficult to repair. France’s manpower losses were enormous; in proportion to population and to the number of men under arms, they exceeded those of any other warring nation. The dead totaled 1,357,800 and the wounded 4,266,000, and these losses were, of course, concentrated in the active male population. The effects were intensified by the fact that the rate of population growth had been declining since the mid-19th century. Thus the nation entered the postwar era with a serious labor shortage and with a gravely unbalanced distribution of population.”

http://longtail.hubpages.com/hub/france-after-the-first-world-war

Also, as a percentage of losses expressed in terms of losses v. men mobilized, it seems that France suffered a significantly higher percentage of losses. See: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/FWWcasualties.htm
This is also expressed at: http://weimar.facinghistory.org/content/casualties-world-war-i-country

What I believe to be more telling is found at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties

Here we see the German total population before the war at 64.9 million while total French population was a mere 39.6 million.


78 posted on 02/03/2014 8:21:25 AM PST by Rich21IE
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To: Rich21IE

According to your tables, France suffered 4.29% of its population killed, while Germany had 3.82%. UK had only 2.2%, while USA was at 0.13%.

I’m not sure that difference of .5% is enough by itself to create the obviously vastly different psychological effects in France vs. Germany.

It’s interesting that these rates are dwarfed by those suffered by Serbia (16%) and the Ottoman Empire (14%).

The death rates for Germany and France would in previous centuries have been considered pretty minor. Though in WWI remarkably few civilians died when compared to previous wars, concentrating the deaths that did occur among military age men. Due to the blockade, I wouldn’t be surprised if Germany had a higher death rate among civilians.


81 posted on 02/03/2014 8:36:07 AM PST by Sherman Logan
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