It will never be possible to fully calculate the toll in human lives that was paid during the First World War. Battlefield deaths, civilian deaths, and deaths from epidemics cost millions of lives around the world. The short-term impact was devastating, but in the long term the war may have had negligible demographic consequences. It is difficult to calculate precise figures on deaths. It is estimated that between 9 and 10 million military personnel were killed during the war. The calculations are even more complicated when it comes to determining civilian deaths. Beckett notes that a calculation for Britain, France, Germany and Austria-Hungary gives a civilian death toll of 3.7 million and a birth deficit of 15.3 million. Another calculation gives a figure between 20 and 24 million. These losses do not take into account deaths in Poland, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania or any of the Balkan countries. Nor do they contain the 1.5 million Armenian victims of the Turkish genocide. The disease was a major cause of death, particularly of civilians, during the Fi...