Introduction

World War I began as a European war that also had some impact in the Pacific and Africa. In a short while, however, it was transformed into a global conflict that caused fundamental changes in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Americas. Besides bringing about the disappearance of the Russian, Austro-Hungarian and German empires, the end of the Great War signaled the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, which controlled most of the Arab Middle East. Governments mobilized unprecedented numbers of soldiers, and casualties reached figures never before seen. Millions of people died as a result of warfare, epidemics, famines and massacres. Among the Ottomans, as many as 5 million people, mostly civilians, lost their lives. ¹