Translations:Benutzer:Arian/Klett-Mini-Test/348/en

The ammonia synthesis had reached full productive maturity just before the outbreak of the First World War, thereby making the Central Powers independent of imports of Chilean saltpeter and rendering obsolete the Atlantic blockade the English had mounted to prevent these imports. It was only through ammonia synthesis that the First World War became conductible for the Central Powers as an artillery and bombing war on the devastating scale and of such duration. In the course of the war the Western Allies too came to possess this technology. After the war's end, the nitrogen industry faced the question: if there is to be no more war, where does the nitrogen go? Among victors and vanquished alike, agreement came swiftly; the European Nitrogen Syndicate was founded and agriculture was declared the new market. With enormous advertising and industry-promoted research closely tied to practice, nitrogen production passed seamlessly from the manufacture of explosives for bombs and shells into the production of synthetic fertilizers for agriculture. Once again the truth of Heraclitus's saying proved itself — that war is "the father of all things." The same happened after