1.3.2 Search for yourself
As you’ve just seen, finding accurate casualty figures is no easy task.
You have been given several estimates of how many military losses Britain and the Empire sustained during the war. As you saw in the previous section, estimates are that around 10 million soldiers and up to 6 million civilians died as a result of the war. You have seen that it is impossible to get exact figures for the casualties of the First World War – many soldiers may have died in captivity or after being discharged from the army, and would not have been included in official estimates. We therefore need to be cautious when approaching statistics of this kind.
Now that you’ve seen Annika and Vincent carry out this research, it’s time for you to do your own historical research, and learn how to find and interrogate historical data.
Activity 3
Do your own internet search for casualty rates of the First World War, using a search engine, just like Vincent did in the video. Most likely, your query will bring up Wikipedia as one of the first hits. As you have just seen, that’s fine as a starting point, so make a note of the casualty rates for a number of other countries, including Germany, Russia, France and Serbia. Choose additional ones if you like. Which countries suffered the highest losses among civilians? Who lost the most soldiers in the war?
Now compare these numbers with some different sources, like the History Learning site or those featured in the previous section.
Here are the figures we’ve found for Germany, Russia, France and Serbia:
| Country | Military deaths | Percentage of men mobilised | Civilian deaths |
|---|---|---|---|
| France | 1,327,000 | 16% | 340,000 |
| German Empire | 2,037,000 | 15% | 424,000–763,720 |
| Russia | 1,997,500 | 11% | 1,140,000 |
| Serbia | 278,000 | 33% | 450,000 |
The military casualty figures are the most recent estimates taken from The Cambridge History of the First World War (Winter, 2014).
The civilian casualty figures have been taken from Wikipedia (2015) and include deaths due to malnutrition and disease, as well as deaths as a result of direct military action.
Reflect on your findings. Which websites did you consult? Would you consider them reliable sources? How did the figures you found compare to those we’ve given above? If there are differences, could you speculate on why that might be?
1.3.1 Finding and interrogating historical data