Portugal and the Great War 1, 2, 3

The Great War, later known as the First World War, broke out in Europe in the first days of August 1914 and only ended with the signing of the Armistice on November 11, 1918.
Begun by the invasion of Belgium by German troops, in the belief of a short campaign, the war would only stop fifty-one months later, with 65 million men mobilised, eight and a half million dead, 20 million wounded, and thousands upon thousands of prisoners and missing.

It only stopped with the exhaustion of resources, the destruction of cities, the desolation of the countryside, and immense suffering.