The First World War, which broke out in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, brought deep disasters to mankind and caused European countries to suffer war losses. Many people will ask, what role did China play in the First World War?
Looking at the data, China at that time was in a republican system led by Yuan Shikai, because China at this time had suffered from war for a long time and its economy was scarce, and European countries basically looked down on China and had no intention of letting China join. However, although European countries looked down on China, China still played an important role in the First World War, influencing Europe's post-war development.
In 1916, the largest battle of the First World War, the Battle of the Somme, broke out, which was a battle in which Britain and France suffered heavy losses, and the domestic troops were obviously not enough to support the next breakthrough of the German army. What to do? They set their sights on China, which they had looked down upon. At this time, In order to quickly solve the Shandong problem, China also wanted to enter the battlefield of The First World War.
However, China still could not participate in the war directly, but signed contracts with Britain and France, allowing a large number of laborers in Shandong to enter the battlefield of World War I. According to statistics, in the First World War, the number of Chinese going to the European battlefield reached as many as 140,000, and they were almost all untrained laborers.
Although they did not receive professional training, in order to achieve their own combat objectives, Britain and France sent all Chinese laborers to the front line of the war, forged war fortifications for them, and even served as the heavy task of treating the wounded. Whenever they encountered enemy attacks, Britain and France would hardly care about the safety of Chinese laborers and let them "block bullets" on the front line. In two years, nearly 20,000 Chinese laborers died on the battlefield.
Until the end of the war in 1918, most of the Chinese laborers were sleeping in the European battlefield, and they did not receive any compensation or even neglect. Only now have the neglected Chinese heroes been recognized and admired by European countries. The surviving laborers, in order to help Britain and France recover the economic losses caused by the war, were assigned various jobs in rebuilding the economy, and with their help, the economies of Britain and France developed rapidly.
It is worth saying that although France's economy has recovered, the serious imbalance between men and women caused by the war cannot be solved in a very short period of time. At this time, French women set their sights on Chinese laborers, and many Chinese laborers were left here to marry and have children with French women.