What was a sign that nations were determined to fight world war i, a “total war,” to the bitter end?

a. women joined the military and faced combat conditions for the first time.

b. governments took control of their nations’ economies.

c. nations used only trained professional soldiers instead of volunteers.

d. colonial forces were rejected in favor of using only national troops.

The correct answer is B. Governments took control of their nations’ economies.

When WWI started, the nations that participated in the war entered into an war economy context. All of their resources from every economic sector like industry, labor, and agriculture, were mobilized and channeled to the front lines. At the middle of the conflict, when the Allies spent most of their resources, they had to ask for loans to the US, which they would repay after the war was finished. France applied the Levée en masse (mass levy) and therefore, it lost a great percentage of its population, for that reason France depended on the work of women, elderly, and disabled people. Moreover, France brought many citizens from its colonies in order to keep the economy working. A similar panorama was seen in the UK and in the central powers. During those years all of the wealth and resources of the markets were controlled by the governments with the goal of winning the war.

c.) biotic: snails; abiotic: temperature climate