Soldiers in World War I experienced horrific living conditions, ferocious forms of punishment, and endured weapons the world had never seen. Trench warfare dominated World War I, the form of combat in which groups of soldiers built underground structures spanning long distances to defend against enemy troops and at night or early in the morning attacked ("go over") across a territory in which or part he did not control (no man's land") and charged with rifles, bayonets, poisonous gas and other weapons. New military technology made trench warfare even more brutal with machine guns, and tanks were used to fire on the land of no one by killing those unprotected in their respective trenches.These methods killed many soldiers, decreasing their morale and increasing the instability of their mental health (a concept foreign to them at the time). measure on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned" Get an Original Essay Looking Back at the Great War, Can Historians Explain the Causes by Investigating the MAI N; the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. To put into numbers, from 1910 to 1914, Germany's defense spending increased by 53% and increased tensions in a now militaristic Europe. The powers' total military spending amounted to €398 million in 1914, indicating the militaristic attitudes that emerged. Furthermore, the Anglo-German naval arms race, which ended in 1912, denoted the intensity of pre-war international relations. The alliances became very clear as the Triple Entente; British Empire, Russia and France; and the Triple Alliance; Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy had made public or secret agreements. Imperialism was the school of thought whereby an empire or homeland would choose to radically colonize geographic areas where groups of people had settled. This way of thinking increases tensions similarly to how an arms race does, countries try to outdo themselves and inevitably end up in some sort of conflict, in this case, World War I. Nationalism can be seen as the main cause of World War I, the The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was motivated by Yugoslav nationalistic attitude against Austria-Hungary. The cost of this incident led Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia. The war had far-reaching consequences on society, and although Canada's home front was not physically damaged, Canadian culture was never the same as it was post-war. In particular, to aid the war effort, the Canadian government pushed for conscription (compulsory military service) as enlistment rates dropped dramatically. As one aspect of Canadian life was vastly changed, others soon followed, such as alcohol prohibition, corporate and personal taxation, censorship, propaganda, and, worst of all, personal income tax (a supposedly temporary measure in time of war).).