Britain's army especially included soldiers from India, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, who was just happy to be invited. Africans also served with the French, and for a lot of these people, their experiences helped build nationalist movements when the survivors returned home after the war. That's about as close as we get to a silver lining. The war itself was incredibly destructive. Over 15 million people were killed and over 20 million wounded. In France, 13.3% of the male population between the age of 15 and 49 died in the war. The war also saw a lot of civilians die, especially in the Ottoman Empire, where more than 2 million of the 3 million people killed were non-combatants.