ABSTRACT
World War One affects the public perception of twentieth-century conflict to a disproportionate extent, and the impression created focuses on the heavy casualties of the war on the Western Front in France and Belgium and the impasse of trench warfare. World War One had major and largely unexpected consequences. The profound political consequences included the fall of the Austrian, German, Russian and Ottoman empires. German generalship proved superior in benefiting from the flow of the campaign and, specifically, from the deficiencies of Russian commanders, although these were less acute than are sometimes suggested. British naval superiority led the German surface fleet to take a cautious position. Within Europe, the German fleet was confined for most of the war to German waters. The major naval battle, Jutland in the North Sea on 31 May 1916, was to be the largest clash of battleships in history.
