How to effectively write war as a backstory

So, my story basically takes place about 20 years after an awful world war (it\'s like a combination of WWI and WWII). It is supposed to be a major explanation for the races in the setting hating and mistrusting each other, and forms the backstories of many heroes and villains alike. One arc is supposed to focus on the looming threat of war and how both the veterans and new generation either try to prevent or instigate it. How can I use it effectively for a backstory.

I'm just rattling this off the top of my head, so take it all with a grain of salt.

First, figure out the events of the war. How did it start? What were the major battles? Were there any cultural shifts? Which countries were fighting which? The thing you have to remember about WWI especially is that it escalated so quickly because so many countries had treaties with others that they would immediately get into the war because "That one country we signed a treaty with 10 years ago just got attacked! We're obligated to retaliate!" WWI could have just been a little war in the Balkans, but so many treaties made it spread to Austria-Hungary, Russia, Germany, and beyond.

Second, don't show the war itself. And especially don't do a whole rambly prologue saying "this is what happened in the war." Instead, show the effects of the aftermath. This is both cultural and personal: Is there some League of Nations or United Nations equivalent? How effective is it? Did anybody use a tactic that countries look at and say "this is bad; we shouldn't do this"? There will be veterans with PTSD, so what do they see when they have an episode?

The end of World War I also led to the United States' Baby Boom: "Let's have those kids we couldn't have during the war!"

And since you're tying this to World Wars 1 and 2, be absolutely sure to read up on anything related to those wars. I, for one, recommend the Crash Course World History videos on the subject. But don't let that be your be-all-end-all guide, because World Wars 1 and 2 are extremely complicated since, y'know, they're WORLD wars and the world is big.

But don't just think about the World Wars. Also look at every other big, defining war you can find. What were those causes? Effects?

Seriously, you've opened up a huge can of worms by invoking the World Wars. Good luck. No really.

PS — It's worth pointing out that all this (and ) is assuming the cultures in your setting are Earth-like or near-Earth-like compared to the late Industrial Era. If they aren't (and especially if your world is medieval) you've got your work cut out for you. The World Wars were also a product of globalization, industrialization, and the end of imperialism.

edited 18th Jan '15 7:56:18 PM by AwSamWeston

Besides what said I'd say just think through every possible implication a war might have. Businessmen lost fortunes, others tripled them, several thousand families will have fled from one location to another, so a high level of immigrants, many soldiers will now be out of a job now and many may resort to becoming criminals, bodyguards, mercenaries, adventurers of some kind and other dangerous professions. Inversely, some will have simply returned to their normal lives before the war (or at least be trying to return) and their usual state of affairs, so war veterans may crop up in the weirdest places. Sportsmen, businessmen, blue collar workers in general, janitors and of course, beggars.

But also not only those who went to war will be affected, those who didn't will be just as altered. Without men to fuel the economy, females may have acquired a bigger economical role in production and now there may be some friction between the returning soldiers and the females, some others will have massive guilt for not having fought there, and some will have some Draft Dodging and be disliked for it.

Culture is also massively changed by a war this scale. Singers will have built their careers based on war-time jingles, television/radio/plays (depending on the tech level here) will be affected by this war and be churning out war-related material, this generation (since you said 20 years) will probably be heavily affected by the imaginarium of the "glorious" (or hellish, depending if these are children of the winning or losing side) war that passed.

Which also leads to religion. Priests may have served in the war and endured conflict, the current largest religion may be either have become more war-like due their participation in the war or calling out for peace desperately and currently be mourning the dead (or making saints out of them depending on how the religions work).

So just analyze every aspect of society and think about how a large scale war may change it.

Your historical go-tos will be the European countries in the 1920s and in the 1950s, of course. There will be no shortage of case studies for you to learn about the results of the wars, including entire countries disappearing from the map. Once you've more or less worked out which of the social consequences you want to feature in your story, you'll have a much easier job.

Quite useful for background knowledge of how many LITTLE things tie things together:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-wSL4WqUws

Some people don't like their use of voice, but this series of videos nicely illustrate the personalities and co-incidences at play: was the war started "intentionally"? What are the ramifications for the rulers? Who lost out, who gained. What were the after-shocks?

You may not put all this into the book, but maybe have a "bible" pointing out the key battles, the important shifts, etc, which you can reference in the novel. So, whilst the reader may not have an end to end view of the war and everything in it, there's enough "continuity" of events mentioned that people could, in the end, piece together the whys.

But yeah, WW 1 and WW 2... vastly different. WW 1 was a culture shift away from the ranked soldiers and cavalry charges that had dominated the Napoleonic and Crimean eras. It was the first move towards mechanisation and force multiplyers in terms of artillery and chemical weaponry, plus the use of trench warfare. Artillery became the real "force" in this, but wasn't massively used in tandem with infantry as much as in WW 2.

WW 2 was the more solid move to combined arms, and the used of complimenting weapon systems (First really pushed by the Wehrmacht); so, aircraft supporting tank movements, in turn supporting infantry pushes. Commando soldiers, air-drop troops, etc.

WW 2 was also where mechanisation really kicks in: Dieselpunk is a trope for a reason, and Wolfenstein draws inspiration from the real world craziness and inventiveness of that war.

The world wars produced amazing advances in technology as well as the crippling reality of PTSD, devestation in economies and war dead.

When I said it was like a mix of WWI and WWII I meant it had the bloodshed of both, the ranks of WWI, the weapons and such of WWII, the charismatic leaders of WWII, and led to a darker view of the world like WWI. Also, neither side really won or loss, the bloodshed led to the two sides simply signing a cease-fire (the war was the result of a long standing blood feud between the orcs and elves that wound up involving all the other races).

That would be really interesting to read - see who thinks the aggressors are, how the treaties worked out, the tech each side used, or the magic (If it exists in the universe)