Timeline of Chemical Warfare in WWI


5th Century B.C. First Recorded use of Chemical Weapons by Spartans lighting sulfur on fire to drive the Athenians out of a besieged city

1860 Fredrick Guthrie first scientist to synthesis Mustard Gas

1865  "At Chalons experiments with asphyxiating shells were made on dogs before Napoleon III., who stopped the trials and declared that such barbarous means of destruction would never be employed by the French army because they were against the " law of nations."" (Encyclopedia)

1899  Hague Conference "The Contracting Powers agree to abstain from the use of projectiles the sole object of which is the diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious gasses" (Leavenworth pg. 3)

August 1914 First use of chemical weapons in WW1 by the French throwing tear gas grenades (xylyl bromide) against the Germans

January 31st 1915 First serious use of chemical weapons in WW1 at Bolimov on the Eastern Front. The Germans used over 18,000 T-shells

April 22nd 1915 First use of cylinders as primary dispersal agent against the French and Algerian troops in Ypres

September 25th 1915 British gas attack fails wind shift and gas affects the British at Loos, first British gas attack in the war

December 1915 First combined Chlorine and Phosgene gas attack by Germany near Ypres

Numerous small attacks using various chemical weapons between 1916-1917

September 1917 Germans use mustard gas on the Russians at Riga

July 12th 1917- German use of mustard gas in France near Ypers.

1918 Over 85,000 killed and 1,175,000 injured due to chemical warfare in World War 1

1920 Britsh troops used mustard gas on Iraqi insurgents

June 17th 1925 Geneva Protocol - protocol for the prohibition of the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases and of bacteriological methods of warfare

1925-1927 Chinese commission Germany to build a mustard gas development plant

1946 Mustard gas research began and a variant of Nitrogen-mustard gas was produced which was incorporated into chemotherapy for curing cancer



Chemical Weapons Prohibitions Treaties

Date Name Effect
1675 Strasbourg Agreement The first international agreement limiting the use of chemical weapons, in this case, poison bullets.
1874 Brussels Convention on the Law and Customs of War Prohibited the employment of poison or poisoned weapons, and the use of arms, projectiles or material to cause unnecessary suffering.
1899 1st Peace Conference at the Hague European Nations prohibited "the use of projectiles whose sole purpose is the release of asphyxiating or harmful gases"
1907 2nd Peace Conference at the Hague The Conference added the use of poisons or poisoned weapons.
1922 Treaty of Washington Failed because France objected to clauses relating to submarine warfare.
1925 Geneva Protocol Prohibited the use of "asphyxiating gas, or any other kind of gas, liquids, substances or similar materials"
1972 Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention No verification mechanism, negotiations for a protocol to make up this lack halted by USA in 2001
1993 Chemical Weapons Convention Signed Comprehensive bans on development, production, stockpiling and use of Chemical Weapons, with destruction timelines.
1997 Chemical Weapons Convention enters into force Inspections begin
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