World War One and the Trench Periscope
In this project we answered the driving question; “How might we use artifacts and film to show the significance of WW 1?” We did this by first doing a lot of research and lessons our teacher gave us about specific aspects of the war. Then we got our artifacts and created videos about the things we had learned about while also answering the driving question. Here’s mine!
The video doesn’t work half the time. If it isnt working just click on this link.
I took a long time to research about my soldier. I visited many different websites which I can remember, and many more which I cannot. If you have watched my video then you know most things about my soldier but I left out one key aspect; Did he die in battle? The answer, of course, is no. He, having likely used a trench periscope, made his chance of surviving the war significantly higher. But why did I choose the trench periscope out of all the artifacts we could’ve chosen?
Like any event in history there isn’t any single cause to the outcome of anything, and this is true for my choosing of my artifact as well. But, I can narrow it down to two main causes. The first was the fact that is was close to where I was already sitting and I learned more about it than any other artifact, and the second one was that I liked the reason it was built and its simplicity.
I will now talk about my collaboration with others in the making of this project, how I used technology to efficiently and effectively gather information, and how I used my many resources to convey my strong and reasonable argument that World War One was a significant event in the history of humanity.
For this project I used a variety of sources, most of which were legitimate and run by governments or non profits. I also got to use zoom to talk to the manager of the WW 1 box and ask her some questions about it. One of my favourite sources of information is Youtube. I enjoy watching videos to find out interesting facts and effects of events. If I find something which is interesting enough I google it after I finish the video and research a bit about it on my own, in order to maintain legitimacy. The only problem with this is that it makes my videos biased towards the view of the people who’s videos I watch and therefore also me. You can see how much I know about WW 1 and about the Trench Periscope in this short instagram video.
The really interesting part of WW 1 which is definitely my favourite is its significance.
To figure out just how significant an event is, you first have to look at the causes. WW 1 had many, the main causes were, the escalating militarization and advancing of military technology throughout Europe, the nationalism within all the European countries, the amount of alliances that pulled everyone in on what was initially a conflict between Austro-Hungary and Serbia, the greed of the power hungry leaders of Germany and Austro-Hungary, and the spark that ignited the bomb, the assassination of Frantz Ferdinand.
This then set in motion a series of events which eventually led to all out war. During this war many atrocities were committed, the one that most western people recognize as being the worst is the use of chemical warfare on the battlefield. At least they didn’t commit genoci- oh wait, the Armenian genocide in 1915.
This war had lots of consequences.
The war saw the creation of the SFSR which was the more moderate version of the later USSR.
The war was the biggest reason for the creation of the nazi party and later WW 2.
The war led to the destruction of the Ottoman Empire.
The war made Poland a separate nation-state again.
The war broke up the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The war led to the development of many deadly gasses.
The war enhanced the ease at which people could kill each other to a level never seen before.
Without the war canada would’ve likely took much longer to become self governing. The English Crown would also have retained much more power.
The war led to the rise of ideas and ideologies such as fascism, communism, nihilism, and populism.
The war led to a decrease in religion as a whole.
The war was extremely decisive and shifted the way that people act everyday.
I display my thinking and knowledge of this one event as well as the history surrounding it very well throughout the milestones and within the video. I enjoy learning about history as well as politics although I do prefer radicalization to normal social democracy, conservatism, or liberalism. I showed that I understood my artifact and its significance in milestone 2, when we had to write a page or two about the significance of our artifacts. I showed that I understood and knew about my soldier as well as the events and battles throughout the war in various milestones throughout the project. I know what WW 1 was and I know everything that my teacher wanted to teach me. I hope you enjoyed reading this post, have a nice time.
