Year 9 History Revision: Causes and Impact of WWI

Causes of WWI

  • Militarism: Boosting military strength, increasing spending and forces.

  • Alliance System: Agreements between powers. Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy), Triple Entente (Britain, France, Russia). Escalation of WWI.

  • Imperialism: Control over countries for economic/strategic reasons.

  • Nationalism: Pride, belief in superiority.

  • Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand: June 28, 1914, Sarajevo. Gavrillo Princip, 'The Black Hand', agenda: Bosnian independence.

Reasons for Enlistment

  • Loyalty, duty, avoid cowardice, peer pressure, teach Germany a lesson, exciting life, job opportunity.

Summary of Reasons for Enlistment

  • Emotional loyalty, Mother Country, British heritage, trade links, employment, duty, adventure.

Trench Warfare

  • 700km Western Front, 2m deep/wide. Front-line, support, reserve, communication trenches. Rotations, constant danger, lice, mud, trauma, shell shock, observation balloons, No Man's Land, artillery.

Technology in WW1

  • Guns: Machine guns, artillery, bolt-action rifles.

  • Gas: Chlorine, mustard gas (most deadly).

  • Zeppelin: Early bombing raids.

  • Tank: Developed for Western Front, Little Willie (slow), modern tanks (faster).

  • Torpedoes: Submarines, Lusitania sinking led to US entry.

  • Planes: Bombs, spying, fighter aircraft.

Conscription

  • Hughes called for conscription, referendums failed. Labor Party opposed. Divided community.

Conscription - For and Against

  • For: Duty to Britain, equality of sacrifice, voluntary recruitment failed, protect reputation. Representatives of most political parties, business organizations, major newspapers, Protestant churches.

  • Against: No right to send to death, farm labor shortage, working-class burden, too many deaths, harm Australia. Trade unions, Labor Party, Catholic Church, Women's Peace Army, working-class people.

The Gallipoli Campaign

  • Stalemate broken, ANZAC formed. Failed Dardanelles attack to supply Russia.

Overview

  • ANZAC in Egypt under Birdwood.

The Gallipoli Landing

  • Attack to force Turkey out of war and open supply lines to Russia failed. Landed at Anzac Cove, disaster. Evacuation in December 1915. 8709 Australians died.

The Impact of WWI on the Homefront

War Precautions Act 1915

  • Increased government powers, laws for war effort. Military, paying for war, trade, manufacturing, national security.

What would be censored in a Letter from the Trenches?

  • Location, soldier numbers/names, weapons, attack details, injuries, deaths, bad conditions.

The Economy

  • Disrupted trade, self-sufficiency, manufacturing grew. Hardship increased, prices rose, strikes for wages/conditions.

Germans Living in Australia

  • 'Enemy aliens' controlled, anti-German sentiment, internment camps. Anti-German feeling continued into 1920s.

Role of Women

  • Expanded roles in workforce and voluntary services, but limited. Nurses, Red Cross, propaganda, Women’s Peace Army.