The first use of chemical weapons was recorded on 24.04.1915. It was used to defeat soldiers who were near the city of Ypres (France). As a result, five thousand people died immediately, and ten thousand soldiers died later after some time, and the rest remained disabled. This was the first case of mass destruction of people by poisonous substances (S).
Why hasn’t it been used before?
Despite the fact that chemical weapons were invented several millennia ago, they began to be used only in the twentieth century. Previously, it was not used for several reasons:
However, in the twentieth century, everything changed dramatically, and toxic substances began to be produced on a large scale. In history, several major facts of its application are known: during the First World War, in concentration camps during the Second World War, in the Vietnamese War and Afghanistan, in the conflict of Iraq and Iran, in the civil war in Yemen, during the uprisings of the Kurds and at the moment In the Syrian conflict. The fact is that the exact data about who used chemical weapons are thoroughly hidden, and you can only find out approximate information. At the moment, the largest supply of fighting poisonous substances is in Eurasia, but most of them were disposed of until 2013.
Classification of chemical weapons
Experts divide poisonous substances into groups on the effect of people’s body. The following types of chemical weapons are known today:
The terrible consequences of the use of chemical weapons are known in the history of mankind. Now they have abandoned it, but, alas, not because of humane considerations, but because its use is not very safe and it does not justify efficiency, since other types of weapons turned out to be more effective.
