Hello, all! It’s me, Dylan. Today, I’m going to be writing about our latest Humanities project, “A War To End All Wars”. We learned about the First World War which was very interesting. It’s such a complicated topic and it was really hard to fit everything into one project so we pretty much skimmed the top of the war. I have always been very interested with the history surrounding WWI and WWII. My great grandfather actually fought in the First World War. I definitely used my previous knowledge of the topic to further my learning in this project.

We started this project by looking at the causes of the war. We looked at both immediate causes like the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and more long term causes, such as Serbian nationalism. It was very interesting to look at the First World War as more of a butterfly effect than a conflict that boiled over into what we know it as today. I had never really considered how if even one of the things that caused the war had never happened then the course of history as we know it today would be incredibly different.

We also read a graphic novel about the war which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was a great look into the perspective of a basic foot soldier, as much of the things we hear about the war are stories about great generals, war heroes, intense battles and acts of heroism. I find it to be interesting to look at it from the standpoint of someone who would have been considered unimportant, disposable and replaceable by their superiors.

This brings me to what was pretty much the main goal of this project: to make a graphic novel about the First World War, specifically the part that Canada played in the war. We were able to chose if we wanted to write about a battle, an event, an important person or someone/something else that played a part in the war. It just had to be connected to Canada’s place in the war. I chose to write about the Battle of Amiens, which was fought in France in August of 1918. I chose this battle because my great grandfather actually fought in the battle. He was shot in the chest and arm by machine gun fire and sustained a head injury (there are no records about the cause of the head injury, just that it happened. I believe my grandfather once said it was the result of a German shell, but like many other veterans, I’ve been told my great grandfather didn’t really talk about the war much). Luckily, he survived the war and returned to Canada. Anyways, I did a lot of research on the battle for this project, which was very eye opening into what he would have gone through. The main character in my comic isn’t supposed to be my great grandfather but I drew inspiration from his experiences in the war. Here’s the comic:

I hope you enjoyed the comic! It definitely took me quite a while to make.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed this project. I had a ton of fun on it and I definitely learned a lot about WWI and I feel I gained some new understanding of the war. I fully understand the causes and consequences of the war.

I hope you enjoyed all 574 words of this post and I’ll see you next time!

Bye!

-Dylan