In the train there was talk only about the war.

The dread of another winter of war is noted in all classes of society.

We win and win, but we win ourselves to death, people say.

Spirits are very low in the Reichstag.

People are facing the new year with thoughts of tears, blood, and misery.

Hans Hans Hansen, member of the Imperial German Reichstag, Diary of a Dying Empire.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century. Episode 133. We Win Ourselves to Death

By the autumn of 1916, the peoples of Europe had suffered through two years of terrible war

and all the attendant

hardships that come with the war, including shortages of all kinds, most notably food.

We've already seen how the war has impacted agriculture. Fertilizers are in short supply,

as are horses, and there's a shortage of labor to work the fields and bring in the fruits of the harvest.

As a result, harvests have been getting smaller every year the war drags on.

In a cruel twist of fate, the situation is about to get even worse.

The weather during the 1916 harvest season was about as bad as it could be

across Europe. Heavy rains impeded the harvest and spoiled the crops. Then the winter freeze

came early. This led to food shortages across the continent. It wasn't so bad in France, which had plenty of

domestic agriculture, much of which was mechanized, and also access to imported food. The price of

butter in France in 1917 was no higher than it had been in 1914. In contrast, butter had all but disappeared from dinner tables in Germany and

Austria and Russia. France got through the entire war without introducing food rationing. Indeed,

per capita consumption of food in France actually increased over the course of the war.

France is the only European combatant that can make that claim,

...