The war of 1914-1918 was a severe test for Poland. Hostilities were conducted in 85 percent of its territory, often more than once. No other State underwent the same experience. From 1915 onwards, most of the future Poland found itself occupied by the Central Powers, which exploited it to the hilt as an answer to the Allied blockade. The civil population suffered every kind of affliction, from requisitioned property to brutality to the deportations that were the fate of 6 million people. The daily misery of wartime was followed by a postwar marked by severe damage and destruction.