Answer: Total war among industrialized nations meant that everyone was considered a combatant, including civilians.
Step-by-step explanation:
Each side tried to starve the other into submission by sealing off foreign trade, often by sinking commercial vessels and passenger liners. Intentional destruction extended well beyond the battlefields. Occupied cities saw their cultural monuments—cathedrals, museums, historic buildings—systematically destroyed. Total war among industrialized nations meant that everyone was considered a combatant, including civilians. Each nation engaged in the war talked regularly about God, duty, sacrifice, patriotism, and honor, but the arbitrary horrors and wastefulness of World War I involved dishonorable actions and decisions that we have yet to understand but cannot forget.