World War One

1914 – 1918

Australia & WW1

Long term causes of WW1 can be distilled into MAIN:

– Militarism

– Alliances

– Imperialism

– Nationalism

Spark / short term cause of the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand – led Austria to invade Serbia and then Germany to pre-emptively invade France as per the Schlieffen Plan.

Question: Who do you think look the strongest?

Australia involved immediately due to links to Britain and desire to prove itself on world stage.

The formation of the ANZACs

– Australia quickly recruited a volunteer army it called the Australian Imperial Force (AIF)

– Sep 1914 – 20 000 troops

– Dec 1914 – training in Egypt

– AIF joined by New Zealand troops

Course & nature of WW1 • 1914-1918

• Began Europe, ultimately involved countries as far away as Japan and USA.

• ‘The Great War’ at the time, ‘WW1’ only applied decades later.

• Brief war of movement in 1914, degenerated into trench warfare.

• Showcase of new technologies – changed the nature, speed and efficiency of warfare completely. – Tanks, airplanes and submarines.

– Other motorised vehicles such as trucks & cars & trains.

• Soldiers fought from dug in positions, striking at each other with machine guns, heavy artillery & chemical weapons

• Though soldiers died by the millions in brutal conditions, neither side had any substantive success or gained any advantages.

• Machine guns allowed a single soldier to take on multiple opponents at once.

• Chemical warfare so bad, countries vowed never to use it again.

• By war’s end, map of Europe began to resemble one we know today.

• German and Austro-Hungarian Empires ceased to exist.

• Much of Europe redivided.

• Marked the practical end of monarchy on the continent and of European colonialism throughout the rest of the world.

Europe pre- and post- WW1

• Around 9 million soldiers died in battle.

• Civilian loss of life around 13 million.

• Epidemics of influenza & other diseases either caused by war or exacerbated by it added at least another 20 million.

• Total casualties (battle, civilian, disease) = more than 40 million people.

Where Australians fought:

• Gallipoli

• The Western Front

• The Middle East

• At sea.

The war at home - conscription

• Beginning of war Australia mostly united.

• As war progressed, one of most divisive issues was conscription.

• Two very divisive referenda.

• Widened existing divisions and created new ones.

• Led to split in the ruling Labor party.

Australian casualties

• Over 416,000 men enlisted (from pop. of about 5 million).

• 330,000 served overseas.

• 62,000 killed.

• 150,000 wounded.

• Casualty rate of 65% = highest among allied nations.

Led almost directly to World War 2.