History of chemical warfare

Common card · No. 290001

The history of chemical warfare dates from antiquity. Chemical weapons have been a part of warfare in most societies for centuries. However, their usage has been extremely controversial since the 20th century. Chemical warfare is recorded in the ancient periods of Greece, Rome, Carthage, India, China, and South Africa. Soldiers poisoned arrows, water supplies, or dispersed toxic smokes. Chemical weapons were first used on a large scale by most major powers in World War I, employing the gases mustard, phosgene, and chlorine, and others, causing lung scarring, blindness, and death. During World War II, Nazi Germany used a commercial hydrogen cyanide blood agent named Zyklon B to commit industrialised genocide against Jews and other populations in gas chambers. The Holocaust resulted in the largest death toll due to chemical weapons in history. The Empire of Japan also used chemical warfare in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War, including mustard gas and lewisite. Nazi Germany discovered...

Read on Wikipedia · Image John Singer Sargent, Public domain