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CHAPTER 1. LIFE IN LONDON DURING THE FIRST
WORLD WAR
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1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
1.9
1.10
1.11
1.12
1.13
1.14
1.15
Life Before The War
Declaration Of War
Propaganda
Censorship
The Home Front
"When Will This War End?"
Zeppeling Raid
British Air Defence
Law Passed During The War
Transports During The War
Women
Children
Christmas In War Time
Museums In Wartime
After The War
CHAPTER 2. THE BRITISH FRONT AND THE ROLE OF
MALTA IN WORLD WAR I
2.1
2.2
2.3
Why Did Britain Join World War I?
The Troops: The Most Remarkable Part Of War Experience Was
‘To See The Different Kinds Of Human Races From All Parts Of
The World’
2.2.1 Indian Army
2.2.2 Gurkhas
2.2.3 South African Army
2.2.4 Canadian Army
2.2.5 Anzacs
The Fronts
2.3.1 The Western Front (1914-18)
2.3.2 Ypres War
2.3.3 Gallipoli Campaign (1915-16)
2.3.4 The Somme Campaign (1916)
2.3.5 Vimy Ridge (1917)
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2.4
The Role Of Malta In World War I
2.4.1 Malta As A Naval Base
2.4.2 Malta As A Nurse Of The Mediterranean
2.4.3 Its Contributions To The Armed Forces Of The Empire
2.4.4 The Effects Of The Great World War
CHAPTER 3. THE AMERICAN PARTICIPATION
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
The United States’ Entry Into The War
3.1.1 The Submarine War
The American Supplies Given To The Allies
3.2.1 Economic Considerations
3.2.2 The Increasing Industry Production: Bethlehem Steel
3.2.3 Food Procurements
The Situation After The War
3.3.1 The Treaty Of Versailles
3.3.2 The League Of Nations
3.3.3 What Happened After The Ww1
The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF)
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CHAPTER 1. LIFE IN LONDON DURING THE FIRST WORLD
WAR
1.1
LIFE BEFORE THE WAR
The years before the war were characterized by the ascent
to the throne of the new King, George V who decided to
make his entrance in the war of the twentieth century in
order to show London's power as the capital of the largest
empire in history, but this decision brought many changes.
During the years of the war the King condescended to
nationalist English sentiment issuing a royal proclamation
by which he was changing the name of his family from
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor, because it was known
that his grandfather was Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg
and Gotha, and as a result that the king and his
descendants also bore the titles of Prince and Princess of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and that the German Kaiser
Wilhelm II, who for England symbolized all the horrors of
war going on, it was the first cousin of the English King.
London's population in this year continued to grow
rapidly in the early decades of the century, and public
King George V
transportation was largely increased.
During the First World War, London had also the experience of the first air raids made by the
Germans with the Zeppelins. They killed about 700 people and aroused great terror among the
population.
1.2
DECLARATION OF WAR
3 August 1914 – Britain gave an ultimatum to Germany, demanding that it stopped the invasion of
Belgium immediately. That was Britain's protest against the violation of Belgium's neutrality, which
had been guaranteed by a treaty time before. The answer received from the German Chancellor
was that the treaty was just a scrap of paper.
4 August 1914 – In the morning, German troops crossed the Belgian frontier at Gemmenich.
Because of that, the United Kingdom finally decided to declare war on Germany.
People's reaction: In London, people's enthusiasm culminated outside Buckingham Palace when it
became known that war had been declared. The news was received with tremendous cheering,
which grew into a deafening roar when King George, Queen Mary and the Prince of Wales
appeared.
Westminster, Charing Cross and the main street round Westminster were filled all with excited
crowds. Union Jacks were everywhere to be seen, and patriotic songs were played. Trafalgar
Square was almost impassable. A hostile crowd assembled outside the German embassy and
smashed the windows.
In the early stages of the war, many men, for a wide variety of reasons, decided to join up to the
armed forces. By 5 September 1914, over 225,000 had signed up to fight for what became known
as Kitchener's Army. Over the course of the war, a number of factors contributed to recruitment
rates, including patriotism, the work of the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee in producing
posters, dwindling alternative employment opportunities, and an eagerness for adventure to
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escape humdrum routine.
Recruitment remained steady through 1914 and early 1915, but fell dramatically during the later
years. That's why, in January 1916, there was the introduction of forced conscription for the first
time in the Kingdom's history. At the beginning it was only for single men, but then it was extended
to all men aged 18 to 41 across England, Wales and Scotland, by way of the Military Service Acts.
1.3
PROPAGANDA
In September 1914 the War Propaganda Bureau was
established and by the summer of 1915 it had printed
over 2.5 million books, speeches, official documents
and pamphlets regarding propaganda. It also
commissioned films about the war such as”The Battle
of the Somme”, which appeared in August 1916, while
the battle was still in progress as a morale-booster.
In this period sophisticated new techniques started
being used to speak effectively to the whole
population to support the war. For example the enemy
was associated with the evil and Germany with death,
destruction and harm. The public was motivated to
respond with purpose and urgency against an ‘evil’
enemy. The war was portrayed as a shared endeavour
in which every member of society had a stake.
Everyone was urged to look around to see what others
were doing and work together towards the common
Propaganda's material
goal of victory, also well-known figures – including
King George V himself - lent their support to the campaign, appealing directly to the public.
Spurred on by propaganda, nationalist fervour and the promise of adventure, many more eagerly
joined the ranks. Government appeals for volunteers began almost immediately. Some poster
campaigns urged or shamed men to enlist while others encouraged women to persuade their men
to join. Under the motto 'Wake up, London!', columns of soldiers marched through the capital to
attract
recruits.
In 1917 semi-official National War Aims Committee was set it. The NWAC published propaganda
material and, through its branches in the Nation’s parliamentary constituencies (often organised by
local political party agents), set up meetings and speeches to promote the Nation’s war aims,
genrally held outdoors.
1.4
CENSORSHIP
From the start of the war British government started to control the flow of information from the
front line, passing legislation in 1914 which allowed the War Office to censor the press and
raising the death penalty for anyone convicted of assisting the enemy.
The War Office also employed thousands of bilingual women to work on postal and telegraphic
censorship monitoring correspondence with neutral countries all over the world. Assisted by the
Post Office, this censorship was the largest of its kind and helped the government to catch spies,
control the dissemination of military information and to compile economic data used to better
execute the blockade of vital imports into Germany.
Newspapers during the war were subject to the Defence of the Realm Act, which eventually had
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two regulations restricting what they could publish:
 Regulation 18,which prohibited the leakage of sensitive military information, troop and
shipping movements;
 Regulation 27, which made it an offence to "spread false reports", "spread reports that
were likely to prejudice recruiting", "undermine public confidence in banks or currency" or
cause "disaffection to His Majesty".
The newspaper editors and owners operated a ruthless self-censorship,and that's why censorship
had less effect on the British press than the reductions in advertising revenues and cost increases.
Moreover, news magazines were created inorder to satisfy public's thirst of information and which
were dedicated to reporting the war and were filled with photographs and illustrations
1.5
THE HOME FRONT
The huge growth of munitions output had ripple effects across the war economies: not least on
agriculture and food supply. In the Central Powers, the blockade exacerbated shortages of fertiliser,
tools, and lighting fuel. Allied farmers suffered less in these respects, but they too were deprived of
draught animals and especially of labour. In most countries armies recruited disproportionately
from the countryside. Many wartime family farms were run by the wives, assisted by their children
and sometimes by migrant workers and prisoners of war. But the war led to inflation and many
poorer families could not afford the increase in food prices. The impact of the German U-boat
campaign also led to food shortages and this hit home when rationing was brought in by the
government in February 1918.
1.6
"WHEN WILL THIS WAR END?"
This was a question that was all too often on the minds of soldiers, sailors and civilians during the
Great War: when will this war end? Views varied throughout the war on what a realistic answer
was.
In January 1915, businessman F.S. Oliver wrote to his brother in Canada about the progress of the
war and attitudes to it in London.
"…when will it be finished? The man in the street varies between 3 points of view: Kitchener’s
original prophecy of three or four years; the general business man’s view, March 1916 [i.e. another
14 months]; the newspaper (derived from the General staff) optimist, 3 or 4 months. Just now it has
made up its mind to the first of these."
This testimony tells us something about how war was seen. First of all it tells us that there was
some variation in views, so we cannot simply say that people thought one thing or another. The
quotation also tells us something of where he felt the views had come from; the 3-year prediction
was a well-known statement of Lord Kitchener’s, when he called for a mass army to be formed.
The idea that newspapers and generals were promising a short war is something that has become
a major part of our mythology of the Great War.
Over by Christmas? It began to spread among the people the idea that the Great War would be
"over by Christmas". Some may have done, but it was not a widespread belief and is only very
rarely expressed in written sources. Soldiers were more likely to say that it would be over so soon,
either because they feared not getting to use their training and take part, or because they had
taken part and wanted it to be over as soon as possible. Many went from fear of an early end to
the war to wishing for it.
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1.7
ZEPPELING RAID
For the fist time, civilians themselves were targeted with bombing raids by Zeppelins and coastal
raids by the German Navy. The first Zeppelin raid on London was at midnight on May 31st 1915,
when Hauptmann Linnarz bombed the capital killing seven people and making £18,000 worth of
damage. In the months that followed, fifty further Zeppelin raids took place and a blackout was
imposed on the city. By October 1915, these raids effectively ended when pilots from the Royal
Naval Air Service flew night patrols to protect the city.
1.8
BRITISH AIR DEFENCE
When the first German strategic bombing attacks were initiated against the United Kingdom in
1915, there was no system in place to provide a coordinated air and civil defense. Only in 1918 an
effective integrated defense provided London early detection and warnings, fighter interception
aircraft and air defense artillery.
In 1915, when the Zeppelin campaign started, London was defended by 12 anti-aircraft artillery
pieces and 10 small fighter detachments. Reports of enemy airships were forwarded by telephone
to the number for Anti-aircraft London from police constables, military installations, railway
stations and lightships in the English Channel.
In 1916 responsibility for command and control was passed to the War Office (the Royal Army),
and a number of new measures were implemented that proved adequate to meet the Zeppelin
threat. A searchlight belt was established 25 miles from the coast stretching from Sussex to
Northumberland. A sound locator system was deployed to attempt to increase detections of the
Zeppelins at night.
The third component of detection was the establishment of the Metropolitan Observation Service.
Approximately 200 visual observer posts, staffed by police, were activated, located at sufficient
distance from target areas to result in sufficient advance warning for effective tactical action. These
posts were connected to seven warning controls commanded by anti-aircraft defense
commanders, with direct connections into the telephone trunk system.
1.9
LAW PASSED DURING THE WAR
The outbreak of war in 1914 brought many new rules and regulations to Britain.The most
important of these was the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA), passed in 1914 ‘for securing public
safety’. The Act governed all lives in Britain during World War One and it listed everything that
people were not allowed to do in time of war. It regulated virtually every aspect of the British
home front and was expanded as the war went on because as World War One evolved, DORA
evolved. The first version of the Defence of the Realm Act was introduced on August 8th 1914. This
stated that:
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







no-one was allowed to talk about naval or military matters in public places
no-one was allowed to spread rumours about military matters
no-one was allowed to buy binoculars
no-one was allowed to trespass on railway lines or bridges
no-one was allowed to melt down gold or silver
no-one was allowed to light bonfires or fireworks
no-one was allowed to give bread to horses, horses or chickens
no-one was allowed to use invisible ink when writing abroad
no-one was allowed to buy brandy or whisky in a railway refreshment room;
no-one was allowed to ring church bells
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

the government could take over any factory or workshop
the government could try any civilian breaking these laws.
Moreover Londoners was banned to whistle for a cab between 10 pm and 7 am in case it should
be mistaken for an air raid warning. A blackout was also introduced in certain towns and cities to
protect against air raids. British Summer Time was instituted in May 1916 to maximise working
hours in the day, particularly in agriculture. Alcoholic beverages were now to be watered down,
and pub closing times were brought forward from 12.30 am to 10 pm.
1.10 TRANSPORTS DURING THE WAR
The volume of traffic on London’s public transport system in the early twentieth century was
enormous. Although many vehicles were motorised at the start of the war, creativity was required
as fuel became scarce and expensive. As soon as the war began, most London’s buses were
deployed with the British Expeditionary Force in 1914 using to transport men and ammunitions.
This change must have made a difference to the availability of public transport in the streets during
the war years – with the reductions in civilian train services as well, it was harder to get around
during the war than in the years that preceded it. Bus manufacturing also virtually stopped –
turned, like so much other production, to war purposes for the duration. The numbers of
passengers, however, continued to grow. By late 1915 it was quite obvious that women would be
needed to keep London’s transport infrastructure working. Transport was one of the major – and
most visible – areas of the expansion of female employment. By mid-1918 it was estimated that
90% of conductors on trams and buses were women. Of course, they were not paid the same as
men doing the same jobs in transport. The transport companies said that this was because their
female employees were less reliable, less able to collect fares during rush hours, required more
staff on duty at any one time and more training, and were subject to more complaints by the
public. In August 1918, women transport workers across the country went on strike demanding
equal pay with men. They didn’t get it but were given a war bonus.
1.11 WOMEN
This was a total war because it involved all sectors of society,
including men, women and children. Some of the roles that
women played were novel, many were not. Yet even
traditional feminine occupations and pursuits could become
part of a modern war effort. From the earliest days of the
conflict, domestic tasks like sewing and knitting took on a
military cast as girls and women created handmade comforts
for soldiers. In addition to the sacrifices asked of women who
surrendered their loved ones, as the war continued states
asked women to ‘sacrifice’ many other things. The Allied
blockade of the Central Powers obliged women to accept
rationing, and therefore to do without specific foodstuffs.
Women sustained their nations in many other ways. Most Women doing a typical men’s job: bus drivers.
working-class women already worked outside the home for
wages as well as undertaking domestic duties inside the home. Female factory workers continued
to labour alongside men; they sustained the production of textiles (including uniforms) but many
also shifted into metal working in factories, creating war material such as munitions.
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1.12 CHILDREN
Children learning how to use a gas mask
Children
were
particularly impacted
by the war through
disruption to home life
and
to
schooling,
absent parents, and
deaths of family and
family friends. While
such experiences were
common on the Home
Front, children often
struggled
to
understand the reasons
behind these events,
and the impact upon
them was sustained in different, and often more emotional, ways.
What is also clear from this is how deeply children were influenced by propaganda; the boys of
Princeton Street Elementary School in London wrote about heir impressions of airship raids and
these essays offer crucial insight into how the UK was not at all prepared for airship attacks. These
boys express both excitement and fear during the airship raids, and satisfied their curiosity by
going out to inspect the damage once the raids were over.
The war was also introduced into school lessons: examples of that might be calculations about the
amount of wool needed to knit gift parcels for the troops or calculating the length of row of
prisoners beside a railway line. Here the war was used not as a subject for teaching, but as a
background example, indicating the pervasiveness of the war to everyday lives.
1.13 CHRISTMAS IN WAR TIME
Although war is almost the antithesis of the festive spirit of goodwill, this feeling did show through
during the Great War. Most famously, there was the Christmas Truce of 1914. There was also the
continued work of old Saint Nick. Santa Claus was already a fixture of Christmas time well before
the First World War – both by that name and as Father Christmas. The traditions of his annual visit
to the children of the world was almost a century old in 1914, related in the 1821 poem “A visit
from St Nicholas” (better known now as “The Night Before Christmas”). The tradition continued
into the Great War; it was thought Santa could be seen in the streets and hospitals visiting poor
and unwell children. He also visited sick soldiers an of course he also visited soldiers at the Front.
1.14 MUSEUMS IN WARTIME
During wartime, many of people’s favourite pastimes were curtailed. Professional football was
suspended, bank holidays were temporarily cancelled, and some of London’s museums shut their
doors. The British Museum closed to the public in March 1916 and did not fully reopen for nearly
three years.
For the first months of the war the British Museum continued as usual, even if many of its staff
were off in the armed forces. By March 1916, 110 British Museum staff (and 53 at the Natural
History Museum, its branch in South Kensington) were serving in the armed forces, while another
42 were sent to work in other government departments.
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In February 1916, the Government announced that several London museums would be closed for
the duration of the war. From March 2nd 1916, a long list of museums were closed:

The British Museum (except the Reading Room);

The Natural History Museum;

The Science Museum (except to students);

The Geological Museum (now part of the Natural History Museum);

The Bethnal Green Museum (now the V&A museum for childhood);

The Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain);

The Wallace Collection;

The London Museum (now part of the Museum of London)
The National Gallery and Victoria & Albert Museum were not closed, while the National Portrait
Gallery had already closed.
How the art works were protected from damages in the museum
In early 1916 conscription
was introduced, bank
holidays disappeared and
priceless
antiquities
disappeared from public
view into tunnels under
the city (as in the case of
the Rosetta Stone) or
covered with sandbags in
empty galleries to protect
them from air raids.
Temporary openings seem to have taken place in August 1917 and again in August 1918, but
otherwise the museum remained closed apart from its Reading Room. The building gradually
reopened over the first winter after the end of the war.
1.15 AFTER THE WAR
After the end of the conflict, George V attended the difficult post-war years, which led to a
general malaise among the population, lowering the quality of life, but at the same time the
population of London began to grow, reaching, in 1921, the remarkable number of 7 million and
a half and it was made some positive innovation, such as the granting of universal male suffrage
and the partial granting of the vote to women in 1918.
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CHAPTER 2. THE BRITISH FRONT AND THE ROLE OF
MALTA IN WORLD WAR I
2.1
WHY DID BRITAIN JOIN WORLD WAR I?
In the second half of the XIX century the political and economic situation in Europe began to be
very tense. The causes which led to the outbreak of the First World War were mainly bound with
the strong imperialistic contrast for the world economic monopoly through the possession of the
colonies between Germany, France and Britain. Because of this cause, the Triple Alliance was
founded: it was formed by Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.
In the late 1800s, another concern was Russia. For much of the 19 th century, Russia wanted to take
control of the Dardanelles, the area where the Black Sea opened to the Mediterranean Sea.
This would allow Russian warships and treading ships to sail easily around Europe. Russia had
other ports in the north, but these tended to freeze over in the winter.
The problem was that the Dardanelles were owned by Turkey.
Turkey and Russia had long been
enemies, and Britain supported
Turkey against Russia.
This was because Britain did not want
Russian ships in the Mediterranean:
in fact, the Mediterranean was part
of Britain's most important trade
route to India.
Therefore, until the 1900s, Britain
was more concerned about Russia
and France than Germany.
Even though the relationship
between Britain and Germany had
been very good, bthis began to
change when the new ruler of
Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm II, felt that
Russia and France, which were allied
Triple Entente and Triple Alliance during the First World War
with Britain in the Triple Entente,
were encircling Germany. So,
Wilhelm began to prepare his armed forces.
France and Russia feared Germany and did the same: during the 1900s, all the greatest powers in
Europe began to build up their armies and navies.
For what concerns the British, whose policy in Europe intended that no country should became
completely dominant, they believed that if Russia, France, Germany and Austria-Hungary worried
about each other, they would have been less dangerous.
Now, the greatest potential threat to Britain was surely Germany because of its strong economy,
large population and especially because of its powerful army; these features gave Germany the
possibility to became dominant over Europe. So, in 1907, Britain decided to join France and Russia
in the Triple Entente to face the power of Germany.
Despite being part of the Triple Entente, Britain was not committed to going to war in 1914; but
Germany, that knew Britain had promised to defend Belgium in the Treaty of London (1839),
wanted Britain to ignore the agreement and let German army pass through Belgium.
Germany's plot missed the mark because the British government declared war on Germany when
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they attacked France through Belgium. Within a few more days, Britain, France and Russia (the
Allies) were all officially at war with Germany and Austria-Hungary.
2.2
THE TROOPS: THE MOST REMARKABLE PART OF WAR EXPERIENCE WAS ‘TO
SEE THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF HUMAN RACES FROM ALL PARTS OF THE
WORLD’
The British Army was mainly made up of Auxiliary Forces from the British colonies belonging to
the Commonwealth.
At the time, the British colonial dominion was extremely vast; it consisted of the whole territory of
India, Australia and New Zeland, South Africa, part of Canada and Nepal.
Britain made use of these stranger troops mostly to be able to count on a highly larger number of
soldiers , which would have been faithful to the Motherland in any condition.
Although the colonial forces were extremely important in war, they were overexploited and
suffered from many disadvantages.
First of all, the military roles assignation wasn’t equitable at all: in fact, the great part of the units
were led by officers from the British Army and the foreigners, in particular the non-white colonials,
as
well
as
non-whites
from
Britain,
had
to
fill
the
lower
ranks.
Often, only white soldiers fought, and the dirty, dangerous jobs of loading ammunition, laying
telephone wires and digging trenches, were assigned to black soldiers; in fact, the non-whites
(except for Indians)weren't allowed to fight in Europe. However, there are evidences that nonwhite soldiers were involved in some battles.
2.2.1 INDIAN ARMY
Among the various colonies of
the British empire, India
contributed the largest number
of men, with approximately 1.5
million recruited.
In August 1914, soon after the
outbreak of war when the
British expeditionary force had
been almost wiped out, Britain
Indian soldiers during the war
called on the Indian Army to fill
vital gap left in its defences.
The first 28,500 Indian Army troops arrived on the Western Front on 26 September and they
played a crucial role in holding the line: they arrived at Marseilles and were immediately sent to
the trenches.
The Indian Corps in the Western Front had been the subject of an intense debate, in fact they were
considered unsuitable for the long European winters, without adequate training or winter clothing.
However, Indian soldiers were deployed widely because of their military valour and fought in the
battles of Ypres, Neuve Chapelle, the Somme, Passchendaele and in even greater number in
Mesopotamia.
Indian soldiers did not fight as a separate army, but alongside British units, which led to a certain
amount of social interaction. These contacts were fostered by the common experience of the
horrors of trenches.
The Indian army also supplied the first and the second cavalry divisions, which saw action on the
Western front. Cavalry divisions played a crucial role at the outbreak of the first world war, and the
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British army saw cavalry charges and mounted infantry as tactically crucial throughout the war.
They stayed in France until the end of the war, fighting in the battles of the Somme and
Passchendaele.
Most of the soldiers were recruited from the peasant-warrior classes of North and North-Western
India, they were a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religious force. Many of these men were
semi- or non-literate, nevertheless they dictated letters, and often they used codes o to hoodwink
the British censors.
During the war, despite the collaboration with Great Britain, most of the imperial structures and
racist hierarchies remained intact, for example the hospital grounds were surrounded by barbed
wire so the Indian soldiers couldn't venture into town, and the most senior Indian officer remained
inferior in rank to the junior-most English officer.
2.2.2 GURKHAS
A truly important role was played by the Gurkhas, a Nepalese army renowned for its sense of
loyalty to Britain and a dauntless bravery.
The origins of Gurkha service with the British crown go back to the Anglo Nepal War of 1914-16,
where Gurkhas fought against British East India Company the battle ended up with Britain’s victory
and, with the Treaty Sugauli, the Kingdom of Gurkhas lose a third of its territory in aid of Britain,
but maintained its indipendence.
That war took them to the alliance
and Gurkhas were soon enlisted
for the service in the East India
Company's Army.
Their first conflict where the
Nepalese showed their valour was
the Pindaree War in 1817, where
their prestige begun to grow.
Their main war's act happened
during the Indian Mutiny: their
merit was, when they remained
faithful to the Motherlad even
Gurkhas: Nepalese warriors in World War One
when the Indian Regiments rise up
against Britain. For this reason they were awarded the Queen's Truncheon by Queen Victoria and
were restyled as a Rifle Regiment, as a mark of respect by the distinctive dark green uniform that
they still wear.
In the First World War they fought in France, Flanders, Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt, Gallipoli,
Palestine and Salonika.
2.2.3 SOUTH AFRICAN ARMY
When the world war broke out in 1914, the South
African government chose to join the war on the
side of the Triple Entente, though the Afrikaner
opposition to fighting beside Britain so soon after
the Second Boer War (1899-1902), which was
ended in victory for Britain and the annexation of
both republics.
A rebellion rise up, too, but it was soon put down
and an expedition force was immediately sent to
South African units that served Britain during the war
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invade the German territory in Africa (now Namibia).
Over 146,000 men served in South African units during the war, fighting on three principal front,
and they also took part in many well-known battles, such as Somme, Arras, Vimy, Ypres and
Flanders' battles.
Most of the recruits already had military training or experience, but they were in general middle
class, well educated and well bred men.
2.2.4 CANADIAN ARMY
When Britain was at war, Canada was also
at war automatically. By war’s end, some
619,000 Canadians had enlisted in the
Canadian Expeditionary Force for service
overseas. This was an enormous
contribution from a population of just
under 8 million in 1914. Approximately
7% of the total population of Canada was
in uniform at some point of the war, and
hundreds of thousands of additional
Canadians worker on the home front in
support of the war.
Officers of the Canadian Army Medical Corps
Unlike the other colonial forces, Canadian
soldiers did not spend all of their time fighting in the trenches or preparing for battle: they were in
a better condition. There was leisure time, too, especially when soldiers rotated to the rear areas.
Also the Canadian Army Medical Corps, “CAMC”, played an essential role in keeping soldiers alive.
Founded in 1904 the Corps had the massive expansion from 1914 to 1918. Casualties among
Canadian troops in France and Belgium were so heavy that more than half of all Canadian
physicians served overseas to treat them.
2.2.5 ANZACS
Australia’s involvement in the First World War began when Britain and Germany went to war on 4
August 1914.
The outbreak of war was greeted in
Australia with great public enthusiasm.
In response to the overwhelming
number of volunteers, the authorities
set exacting physical standards for
recruits. Yet, most of the men accepted
into the army in August 1914 were sent
first to Egypt, not Europe, to meet the
threat with a new belligerent, the
Ottoman Empire (Turkey), posed to
British interests in the Middle East and
the Suez Canal. After four and a half
months of training near Cairo, the
Australians departed by ships for the
Gallipoli peninsula with troops from
ANZACs in the front line trenches during WW1
New Zealand, Britain and France.
14
Unlike their counterparts in France and Belgium, the Australians in the Middle East fought a mobile
war against the Ottoman Empire in conditions completely different from the mud and stagnation
of the Western Front. The light horsemen and their mounts had to survive extreme heat, harsh
territories and water shortages. Nevertheless, casualties were comparatively light, with 1394
Australians killed or wounded in three years of war.
Australians also served at sea and in the newly formed flying corps. The Royal Australian Navy
(RAN), under the command of the Royal Navy, made a significant contribution in the First World
War.
Also Australian women made their part during the Great War: they volunteered for service in
auxiliary roles, as cooks, nurses, drivers, interpreters, munitions workers and skilled farm workers.
When Australia took part in war, New Zealand joined Britain, too. Australia and New Zealand’s
armies united formed the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC)
ANZAC was an army corps formed in Egypt in 1915 and operated in World War I during the Gallipoli
Campaign, an attempt to capture the Dardanelles from Turkey. The corps was finally disbanded in
1916 following the evacuation of the Allies from the Gallipoli peninsula.
In 1916 Australian and New Zealand infantry divisions were sent to France. They took part in some
of the bloodiest actions of the war and established reputations as elite shock troops, at the price of
heavy casualties.
2.3 THE FRONTS
2.3.1 THE WESTERN FRONT (1914-18)
During The First World War of 1914-1918 the Allied Forces of Belgium, France, Great Britain, the
Dominion Forces of the British Empire (Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and South Africa),
Portugal and the United States (from April 1918) made a stand against the Imperial German Army's
advance and occupation of Belgium from 4th August 1914 and north-eastern France from 6th
August 1914.
The
Western
Front was the
name applied to
the fighting zone
in France and
Flanders, where
the
British,
French, Belgian
and (towards the
end of the war)
the
American
armies
faced
that of Germany.
There was an
Eastern
Front
too, in Poland,
Galicia
and
Western Front
down to Serbia,
where Russian armies faced those of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Western Front was not
the only theatre that saw the British army in action during the Great War but it was by far the
most important. After the battles of 1914 both sides held an entrenched line that stretched from
15
Nieuport on the Belgian coast, through the flat lands of industrial Artois, continuing through the
wide expanses of the Somme and Champagne, into the high Vosges and on to the Swiss border.
The British held a small portion of this 400-mile long line, varying from some 20 miles in 1914 to
over 120 early in 1918.
From the moment the German army moved quietly into Luxemburg on 2 August 1914 to the
Armistice on 11 November 1918, the fighting on the Western Front in France and Flanders never
stopped. There were quiet periods, just as there were the most intense, savage, huge-scale
battles. Until mid-1917 when the French Army was seriously affected by mutiny, the British
Expeditionary Force was the junior partner. From that time until the ultimate victory, the British
army played the central role. Weakened by casualties and government action that made the army
a low priority for the national manpower, with an ever-lengthening line to hold, the BEF fought a
magnificent defence in spring 1918. Breakthrough came August 1918 and in the last 100 days of
the war the BEF spearheaded the defeat of the main body of the main enemy.
The war on the Western Front can be thought of as being in three phases: first, a war of
movement as Germany attacked France and the Allies sought to halt it; second, the lengthy and
terribly costly siege warfare as the entrenched lines proved impossible to crack (late 1914 to mid
1918); and finally a return to mobile warfare as the Allies applied lessons and technologies forged
in the previous years.
2.3.2 YPRES WAR (1914)
Ypres war took place in Ypres, in western Belgium during October and November 1914, between
Germany, France, Belgium and Britain, which armies fought from Arras (France) to Nieuport (on
the Belgium coast). It was a part
of the First Battle of Flanders.
It began at the end of the Race to
the Sea, which involved attempts
by the German and Franco-British
armies to advance past the
northern flank of their opponents.
The fighting has been divided into
four battles: an encounter battle
from 19 to 21 October, the battle
of Langemarck from 21 to 24
October, the battles at La Bassée
and Armentières to 2 November
Ypres at close of war
and the battle of Gheluvelt from
29 to 31 October, a fourth stage with the last big German offensive.
The last battle culminated at the battle of Nonne Bosschen on 11 November and then local
operations faded out in late November.
The German captain tried a limited offensive to capture Ypres and Mount Kemmel, while Belgians
and a new French Eighth Army in Belgium made little progresses. But neither side had moved
forces fast enough to obtain a decisive victory and by November both were exhausted and short of
ammunition.
French, Britain and Belgian troops, in improvised field defences, repulsed German attacks for four
weeks, while another German front made mass attacks at Langemarck.
The German captain decided to reconsider his strategy over the winter, because he intended to
detach Russia or France (which stipulated a dictated of peace) from the Allied coalition, by
diplomatic or military actions.
16
A strategy of attrition would make the cost of the war, until one enemy negotiated an end to the
war. The remaining belligerents would have to negotiate or face the German army, concentrated
on the remaining fronts, which would be sufficient to obtain a decisive victory.
2.3.3 GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN (1915-16)
The Gallipoli Campaign of 1915-16, also known as the Battle of Gallipoli or the Dardanelles
Campaign, was an unsuccessful attempt by the Allied Powers to control the sea route from Europe
to Russia during World War I. The objective was
to capture Constantinople (now Istanbul in
Turkey), the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and
an ally of Germany. The campaign began with a
failed naval attack by British and French ships on
the Dardanelles Straits in February-March 1915
and continued with a major land invasion of the
Gallipoli Peninsula on April 25, involving British
and French troops as well as divisions of the
Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC).
Lack of sufficient intelligence and knowledge of
the terrain, along with a fierce Turkish resistance,
hampered the success of the invasion. By midAllied preparations for a landing
October, Allied forces had suffered heavy
casualties and had made little headway from
their initial landing sites. Evacuation, defined as the most successful operation in Gallipoli, began
in December 1915, and was completed early the following January. In all, some 480,000 Allied
forces took part in the Gallipoli Campaign, at a cost of more than 250,000 casualties, including
some 46,000 dead. On the Turkish side, the campaign also cost an estimated 250,000 casualties,
with 65,000 killed.
2.3.4 THE SOMME CAMPAIGN (1916)
The Somme Campaign in 1916 (July-November) was the first great offensive of World War I for the British,
and it produced a more critical British attitude toward the world. During and after the Somme, the British
Army started a real improvement in tactics. Also, the French attached at the Somme and achieved greater
advances on July 1 than the British did, with far fewer casualties.
But it is the losses that are most remembered. The first day of the Somme offensive, 1 July 1916, resulted in
57,470 British casualties, greater than the total combined British casualties in the Crimean, Boer and
Korean wars.
2.3.5 VIMY RIDGE (1917)
The Battle of Vimy Ridge (Vimy is situated northern France, Vimy Ridge was part of the larger
British and French offensive, which failed) is Canada's most celebrated military victory.
The four divisions of the Canadian Corps attacked the ridge from 9-12 April, 1917 and succeeded
in capturing it from the German army, nonetheless more than 10,500 Canadians were killed and
wounded in the assault.
17
The Canadians would carefully
plan and rehearse their attack.
The infantry had specialist roles
as machine-gunners, rifle-men
and grenade-throwers. Soldiers
trained for weeks, using models
to represent the battlefield and
new maps crafted from aerial
photographs. Engineers dug
deep tunnels to bring men
forward safely for the assault
and the employment of the
shells that explode on contact,
Machine gun crew at Vimy Ridge
as
opposed
to
burying
themselves in ground, facilitated the destruction of hardened defences and barbed wire.
The Canadian divisions stormed the ridge, against Germans, at 5:30am on 9 April 1917 and the
battle lasted three days. The Canadian operation was an important success but it was victory at a
heavy cost: 3,600 Canadians were killed and another 7,000 wounded.
Vimy became a symbol for the sacrifice of the young Dominion. In 1922, the French government
ceded to Canada Vimy and the land surrounding it, which became the symbol for the sacrifice and
the birth of Canadian nation.
Canadians built the Vimy Memorial to remind the 11,300 Canadian soldiers killed in France who
have no known graves.
2.4 THE ROLE OF MALTA IN THE GREAT
WORLD WAR
At the end of summer in 1914 Malta, as a British
colony, enter the war, too.
The island didn't participate actively to the Great
World War, but it served as a hospital for wounded
soldiers, a dockyard for the British navy, a prison for
prisoners of war, a home for refugees from Egypt and
other Middle Eastern countries.
European armies didn't go and fight on the island, it
was only the trustee of Britain and it only sent soldiers
to the other Campaigns, such as Salonika and Gallipoli.
Malta wasn't constantly controlled and considered by
the motherland; the government of the colony
suffered the pressure of London only when it revolted
or when the administration failed to be self-sufficient.
Wounded soldiers taken to an hospital ship
2.4.1 MALTA AS A NAVAL BASE
Malta became a centre for the transport of troops and supplies.
A lot of dockyards were created, which worked around clock, rapid repairs to torpedoed of mined
naval and merchant ships. The island were used also as a port for English and French navies.
18
2.4.2 MALTA AS A NURSE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN
At the beginning of the war, an early enquiry of hospital accommodations were done and in
February 1915 more hospitals were sprang up in barracks and schools and equipped over 25000.
A month later convoys of wounded started arriving and the population gave its contribution in
caring.
In 1916, in the island first malaria cases arrived, sent from Salonika Campaign.
2.4.3 ITS CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ARMED FORCES OF THE EMPIRE
Malta was used also as a base for training personnel, in fact an enlistment of mass was done in
Royal Air Force and Royal Naval Reserve.
There were also a lot of battalions and each of them was sent to Campaigns: Maltese Labour
Battalion was sent to the Dardanelles; two Malta Labour Corps, Royal Malta Artillery and Maltese
Militia officers were sent to Salonika. Over 31000 men and women of Malta were engaged on warwork.
The island also had two prisons: Salvatore Fort and Verdala Barracks, where prisoners of war were
kept.
2.4.4 THE EFFECTS OF THE GREAT WORLD WAR
During the war a black market economy reigned supreme; the cost of living soared to
unprecedented heights, prices of the most of principal foods were those mostly affected.
The economy began to improve. Malta was used increasingly by the French navy.
The dockyard was working at full capacity repairing damage and refitting vessels.
Malta became a hospitalisation centre for casualties from the Salonika and Dardanelles Campaign.
The cost of living was rising rapidly and the price of several basic commodities became inflated,
because of the disruption of trade reduced government revenue.
But the incomes of all sections of the community didn't increase proportionally, in fact in 1916 “the
Imperial General Workers Union” was founded by the dockyard workers.
The inflation of prices, and a general unemployment, especially of demobilised soldiers,
culminated in revolts of the population, suppressed by British armies.
The most notable repression was the one of 7 June, known as the “Bloody 7 June Riots”, when
motherland soldiers shot to the unarmed crowed picketing (demonstrating).
The war had psychological impact on soldiers, that presented mental insanity.
Because of economic and social problems the population start to demanding a constitution
reform, that was approved after repression of 7 June 1921.
It provided for two governments: an imperial government, as represented by the governor, and a
Maltese government, which had a chief minister and a cabinet who were elected by a bicameral
parliament.
Both the governments attempted to encourage the output in sectors which were not dependent
on British military expenditure while maintaining the balanced budgets requested by London.
The Maltese self-government created technical government departments for agriculture, migration
and tourism.
The need to maintain budget balance also led to the Maltese self-government attempts to
promote manufacturing without government expenditure by the introduction of production
monopolies.
The attempts to encourage economic diversity were checked by the decisions of the British
military, which tended to take the definition of Malta as a “fortress”, that literally meant a key
viewpoint given to Malta by the small territory and the high density of population.
19
CHAPTER 3. THE AMERICAN PARTICIPATION
3.1
THE UNITED STATES’ ENTRY INTO THE WAR
The United States’ entry into World War I came in April 1917, after two and a half years of efforts
by President Woodrow Wilson to keep the United States neutral during World War I. Americans
had no idea that war was imminent in Europe in the summer of 1914, and tens of thousands of
tourists were caught by surprise.
American public opinion went along with neutrality at first. The sentiment for neutrality was strong
among Irish Americans, German Americans and Swedish Americans, as well as among church
leaders and women. However, the citizenry increasingly came to see the German Empire as the
villain after news of atrocities in Belgium in 1914, and the sinking of the passenger liner RMS
Lusitania in 1915 in defiance of international law.
Wilson made all the key decisions and kept the economy on a peacetime basis, while allowing
large-scale loans to Britain and France. To preclude making any military threat Wilson made only
minimal preparations for war and kept the army on its small peacetime basis. However, he did
enlarge the US Navy. At the beginning of 1917 Germany decided to begin a submarine warfare on
every commercial ship headed toward Britain, realizing that this decision would almost certainly
mean war with the United States. Germany also offered a military alliance to Mexico in the
Zimmermann Telegram.
Publication of that offer
outraged Americans just
as
German
U-boats
(submarines)
started
sinking American ships in
the North Atlantic. Wilson
asked Congress for “a war
to end all wars" that
would “make the world
safe for democracy”, and
Congress voted to declare
war on Germany on April
6, 1917.
On December 7, 1917, the
US declared war on the
Austro-Hungarian
Empire.
President Wilson asking the Congress to enter the war.
3.1.1 THE SUBMARINE WAR
A critical indirect strategy used by both sides was the blockade. The British Royal Navy successfully
stopped the shipment of most war supplies and food to Germany. By 1918, the German front-line
soldiers were on short rations and were running out of essential supplies.
Unable to challenge the more powerful Royal Navy on the surface, Germany wanted to scare off
merchant and passenger ships on the route to Britain. They reasoned that since the island of
Britain depended on imports of food, raw materials, and manufactured goods, scaring off a
substantial number of the ships would effectively undercut its long-term ability to maintain an
army on the Western Front. While Germany had only nine long-range U-boats at the start of the
war. However, the United States demanded that Germany respect the international agreements
upon "freedom of the seas", which protected neutral American ships on the high seas from seizure
or sinking by either belligerent. Furthermore, Americans insisted that the drowning of innocent
20
civilians was barbaric and grounds for a declaration of war.
German submarines, however, torpedoed ships without warning, and some sailors and passengers
drowned.
Britain armed most of its merchant ships with medium calibre guns that could sink a submarine,
making above-water attacks too risky. In February 1915, the United States warned Germany about
misuse of submarines. On April 22, the German Imperial Embassy warned US-Citizens from
boarding vessels to Great Britain which would have to face German attack. On May 7, Germany
torpedoed the British passenger liner RMS Lusitania, sinking her. This act of aggression caused the
loss of 1,198 civilian lives, including 128 Americans.
The sinking of a large, unarmed passenger ship, combined with the previous atrocity stories from
Belgium, shocked Americans and turned public opinion hostile to Germany, although not yet to the
point of war.
Wilson issued a warning to Germany that it would face “strict accountability” if it sank more
neutral U.S. passenger ships. Berlin acquiesced, ordering its submarines to avoid passenger ships.
By January 1917, however, German army demanded the unrestricted submarine warfare to be
resumed.
Germany knew this decision meant war with the United States, but they gambled that they could
win before America’s potential strength could be mobilized. However, they overestimated how
many ships they could sink and thus the extent Britain would be weakened. They believed that the
United States was so weak militarily that it could not be a factor on the Western Front for more
than a year – a mistake that would ultimately prove to be fatal to their war.
3.2 THE AMERICAN SUPPLIES GIVEN TO
THE ALLIES
At the beginning of the World War I America
declared itself neutral, because it was not directly
threatened by any of the belligerents country and
also because it had little interest in European
power politics.
The United States were, however, the largest
producer of industrial and agricultural products in
the world so it played an important role even as a
neutral country.
In 1915 Allies contracted for weapons, food and
clothing. Because of great quantities of food and
clothing needed, the meat packers and the
manufacturers of textiles, shoes, and other articles
turned their plants to the production of supplies
for the army.
Then, as the Allies hard currency reserves ran out,
huge loans were floated to finance their
American propaganda to invite people joing the industries to
purchases.
produce supplies for the war.
In fact between 1917 and 1918 Britain borrowed $4
billion from the USA Treasury. Much of this money was spent paying the United States industries to
manufacture weapons and food an other loans were never paid back.
21
3.2.1 ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS
The beginning of war in Europe coincided with the end of the Recession of 1913–1914 in America.
Exports to belligerent nations rose rapidly over the first four years of the War from $824.8 million
in 1913 to $2.25 billion in 1917. Loans from American financial institutions to the Allied nations in
Europe also increased dramatically over the same period. Economic activity towards the end of this
period boomed as government resources aided the production of the private sector.
The improvements to industrial production in the United States outlasted the war. The capital
build-up that had allowed American companies to supply belligerents and the American army
resulted in a greater long-run rate of production even after the war had ended in 1918. In 1913, J.
P. Morgan, Jr. took over the House of Morgan, an American-based investment bank consisting of
separate banking operations in New York, London, and Paris.
The House of Morgan offered assistance in the wartime financing of Britain and France from the
earliest stages of the war in 1914 through America’s entrance in 1917.
J.P. Morgan & Co., the House of Morgan’s bank in New York, was designated as the primary
financial agent to the British government in 1914. The same bank would later take a similar role in
France and would offer extensive financial assistance to both warring nations. J.P. Morgan &Co.
became the primary issuer of loans to the French government by raising money from American
investors.
Relations between the House of Morgan and the French government became tense as the war
raged on with no end in sight. After the war, in 1918, J.P. Morgan & Co. continued to aid the French
government financially through monetary stabilization and debt relief.
J.P. Morgan issued loans to France including one in March 1915 and another in October 1915, the
latter amounting to US$500,000,000. Although the stance of the U.S. government was that ending
such aid could hasten the end of the war and save millions of lives, little was done to insure
adherence to the ban on loans.
3.2.2 THE INCREASING INDUSTRY PRODUCTION: BETHLEHEM STEEL
The American steel industry had faced difficulties and declining profits during the Recession of
1913–1914. However, as the war began in Europe, the increased demand for tools of war began a
period of productivity that alleviated many U.S. industrial companies from the low-growth
environment of the recession. Bethlehem Steel, America's second-largest steel producer and
largest shipbuilder, took particular advantage of the increased demand for armaments abroad.
Prior to American entrance into the War, these companies benefitted from unrestricted commerce
with sovereign customers abroad. After President Wilson issued his declaration of war, the
companies were subjected to price controls created by the U.S. Trade Commission in order to
insure that the U.S. military would have access to the necessary armaments.
22
By the end of the war in 1918,
Bethlehem
Steel
had
produced 65,000 pounds of
forged military products and
70 million pounds of armor
plate, 1.1 billion pounds of
steel for shells, and 20.1
million rounds of artillery
ammunition for Britain and
France. Bethlehem Steel took
advantage of the domestic
armaments
market
and
produced 60% of the
American weaponry and 40%
of the artillery shells used in
The Bethlehem Steel’s factory during the first world war.
the War. Even with price
controls and a lower profit margin on manufactured goods, the profits resulting from wartime sales
expanded the company into the third largest manufacturing company in the country.
Bethlehem Steel became the primary arms supplier for the United States and other allied powers
again in 1939.
3.2.3 FOOD PROCUREMENTS
Agriculture and food distribution were issues
that every belligerant country had to face with.
America had a vast agricultural sector and, unlike
the Europeans, it could be expanded to meet the
needs of not only its own people and army, but
also the people and armies of its allies so the
USA mobilized for war to procure supplies for
the Allies.
Several new Federal agencies were created to
manage a war-time economy as the Food
Administration that was placed under Herbert
Hoover. It provided food assistance for Allies and
it also oversaw domestic markets. For example
Hoover launched a campaign to teach Americans
to economize on their food budgets and grow
victory gardens in their backyards. Moreover
various promotions were devised, such as the
''meatless Mondays'' and the ''wheatless
American propaganda to invite people in helping the Allies.
Wednesdays''. Hoover was convinced that
Americans would cooperate to support the soldiers overseas. In fact the idea was that Americans
23
would have modify their eating (also conservating food and eliminating waste) so that more food
was available for shipments overseas.
In 1917 Germany announced an underwater war using the U-Boote to block the transit of the
American procurements across the Atlantic Ocean.
Since the beginning of World War I in 1914,
the United States, under President Woodrow
Wilson, had maintained strict neutrality, other
than providing material assistance to the
Allies. Even in May 1915, when a German
submarine sank the British ocean liner
Lusitania, killing 128 U.S. citizens out of a total
1,200 dead, the United States, though in
uproar, remained neutral.
In January 1917, Germany announced that it
would lift all restrictions on submarine
warfare starting on February 1. This
declaration meant that German U-boat
commanders were suddenly authorized to
sink all ships that they believed to be
providing aid of any sort to the Allies. Because
the primary goal was to starve Britain into
surrendering, the German effort would focus
largely on ships crossing the Atlantic from the
United States and Canada.
The first victim of this new policy was the
American cargo ship Housatonic, which a
German U-boat sank on February 3, 1917.
American propaganda presenting the dramatic situation in France.
Although Wilson tried hard to keep the United
States neutral, by the spring of 1917, the situation had changed significantly, and neutrality no
longer seemed feasible. Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare was taking its toll, as American
ships, both cargo and passenger, were sunk one after another. Finally, on April 2, Wilson appeared
before Congress and requested a declaration of war. Congress responded within days, officially
declaring war on Germany on April 6, 1917.
24
3.3
THE SITUATION AFTER THE WAR
3.3.1 THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES
On January 8, 1919, the president Wilson
numbered the 14 points that would represent his
inspiration in his action in the next peace
conference:

Democracy would be guaranteed;

There would be absolutely liberty of
navigation;

All the economic barriers would be
abolished and there would be equality of
economic services;

Weapons would been reduced and used
only to the inner security;

Borderlines would been re-established;

An League of Nations would been created.
World War I officially ended with the signing of the
Treaty of Versailles on June 28. The Treaty,
An article from a news paper about the 14 points of Wilson.
negotiated among the Allied powers with little
participation by Germany, was signed at the vast Versailles Palace between Germany and the Allies
and the three most important politicians
that were David Lloyd George, Georges
Clemenceau and Woodrow Wilson.
On 11 November 1918 Allies signed
peace with some treaties: with the
Treaty of Versailles Germany gave up
Alsace, Lorraine and colonies; the Treaty
of Saint Germain imposed the break up
of Austro-Hungarian Empire in new
states and terrirories: Austria, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Trentino
South-Tyrol, Venezia Giulia and Histria.
Therefore the winning states, in order to
obtain from their victory more possible
The sign of the Treaty of Versailles in the Palace of Versailles, Paris.
advantages in economic and territory
terms, imposed heavy conditions to the losers and in particular to Germany: the creation of Polen
took away the major part of the german territory, the assignment of some districts rich of coal to
Belgium, Denmark and Czechoslovakia caused the loss of vital industrial territory and difficulties to
Germany to rebuild her economy. Germany’s army was reduced to 100,000 men; in the army was
not allowed tanks, an airforce; she was allowed only 6 capital naval ships and no submarines. The
Allies were to keep an army of occupation on the west bank of the Rhine for 15 years.
25
There are three vital clauses in the Treaty of Versailles:
1. Germany had to admit full responsibility for starting the war.
2. Germany was therefore responsible for all the war damage caused by the First World War.
Therefore, she had to pay reparations, the bulk of which would go to France and Belgium to
pay for the damage done to the infrastructure of both countries by the war.
3. A League of Nations was set up to keep world peace.
The German government signed the treaty under protest. Right-wing German parties attacked it as
a betrayal, and terrorists assassinated several politicians whom they considered responsible. The
U.S. Senate refused to ratify the treaty, and the U.S. government took no responsibility for most of
its provisions.
3.3.2 THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
On April 1919 appeared the League of Nations, wanted by
Wilson, that was an international organization, headquartered
in Geneva, Switzerland, created after the First World War to
provide a forum for resolving international disputes with
the aims to stop wars, encourage disarmament, make the
world a better place by improving people's working conditions,
and by tackling disease.
In front of the U.S. Congress on January 8, 1918, President
Woodrow Wilson enumerated the last of his Fourteen Points,
calling for a “general association of nations…formed on the
basis of covenants designed to create mutual guarantees of
The president of USA, Thomas Woodrow
the political independence and territorial integrity of States,
Wilson (1856-1924).
large and small equally.” Many of Wilson’s points would require
regulation or enforcement, and thus he distilled the wartime thinking of many diplomats and
intellectuals, on both sides of the Atlantic, into a call for a new type of standing international
organization dedicated to encouraging international cooperation, providing security for its
members, and ensuring a lasting peace. With Europe’s population exhausted by four years of total
war, and with many in the United States supportive of the idea that a new organization would be
able to solve the international disputes that had led to war in 1914, Wilson’s articulation of a
League of Nations was wildly popular. However, it proved exceptionally difficult to create, and
Wilson left office never having convinced the United States to be a member of it. Its
main weaknesses were the fact that it was set up by the Treaty of Versailles (which every nation
hated) and Germany, Russia and the USA were not members; that it had no army and its
organization was cumbersome; and that its aims were too ambitious and decisions had to be
unanimous.
3.3.3 WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THE WW1
World war one had devastating effects on Europe that were also felt across the Atlantic Ocean
in America. Due to the war industry in the USA grew, the women’s movement progressed, and the
26
government adopted new diplomatic policies. The Great War affected all areas of life in America,
and continued to have its effect for many years to come.
As a result of the USA joining the war in 1916, industry production in America boomed.
Manufacturers had to keep production up to the velocity needed to support the war: so new
technologies were developed to help manufacturers meet the needs of the government and
people and also more employment opportunities opened for women and African-Americans
because the absence of most of the able-bodied men in American. During this time as industry
boomed, so did the economy. However, as the war ended, and soldiers started to return home,
the industry production began to slow, and there was less need for workers in factories. Many
women stopped working, but even so there were not enough jobs for the men returning home
from Europe. This rising unemployment after a time of industry and economic prosperity, planted
the seeds of the coming Great Depression.
World War I became a display of new technologies and warfare. The battle fighting of the
nineteenth century was obsolete in the war, instead trench fighting with heavy gunfire and
biological weapons were the warfare of the First World War. Even though the weapons expanded
humankind's potential for killing they were also helpful because people felt more protected. They
also helped United States avoid another war because other countries were afraid of the new
technology that might be used against them.
After the war, Americans felt that they had been too hasty in joining a war in Europe. This
sentiment caused a new era of diplomacy that include not becoming involved with European
conflicts. The diplomacy of America became that unless attacked by a belligerent
nation, America would not enter a war any time soon.
So the United States became a political and military power. Americans began to let its own artists
and citizens to shape its future because they no longer desired Europe to shape its culture. The
United States started to become viewed as a leader to the world. American lifestyle became a
model of wellness and progress and influenced also the european society that adopted many styles
and habits: charleston dance, jazz music and whisky became for young european people symbols
of modernitiy.
Another positive effect of World War I were the different kinds of transportations that were
invented. The Americans needed airplanes to fight in the Great War but later on the airplane was
established as a peacemaker means of transportation. People were now starting to take trips by
airplanes.
World War one had huge effects on America including highly productive industry that preceded the
Great Depression, jobs given to woman, which helped pass the nineteenth amendment, and a new
kind of diplomacy and antiwar sentiment that affected America’s entrance into World War II. Not
only did the American public feel these effects, but also the loss of so many men in the war
affected all of America and the all of the world. Although, America suffered some bad effects of
the war, certainly it was nothing compared to Europe, where nations were divided and reformed,
and entire countries scourged by warfare. Certainly, World War I was devastating to America as
well as the entire world.
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3.4 THE
AMERICAN
FORCES (AEF)
EXPEDITIONARY
Once war was declared, General John Joseph "Black
Jack" Pershing was designated the supreme
commander of the American army and the American
Expeditionary
Forces
were
created.
AEF consisted of the United States Armed Forces sent
to Europe to fight alongside French and British allied.
In 1917 the United States Army counted 200.000
members, 80.000 of whom served in National Guard
units. Even though the National Defense Act of 1916
provided for the gradual expansion of the regular
army and reserves, the USA was forced to build and
army based on volunteer enlistments and the draft.
More than 24 million men registered for the draft,
and almost 2.7 million men were furnished to the U.S.
J. M. Flagg's 1917 poster used to recruit soldiers.
Army by conscription.
Since the transport ships needed to bring American
troops to Europe were scarce, the army pressed into service cruise ships and borrowed Allied ships
to transport American soldiers.
Although the first American troops arrived in Europe in June 1917, the AEF did not fully participate
until October, when the first division (one of the
best-trained divisions) entered the trenches at
Nancy, in France.
Between 1917 and 1918 American divisions
were employed to augment and help French
and British units defending their lines and in
staging attacks on German positions.
When the war ended more than four million
"Doughboys" (informal term for a member of
the United States Army) had served in the
American
Expeditionary
Forces.
In less than two years the United States had
established new motorized and combat forces,
equipped them with all types of ordinance
including machine guns and tanks, and created
an entirely new support organization capable of
moving supplies thousands of miles in a timely
manner.
General John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing.
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WORKS CITED:
CHAPTER 1. LIFE IN LONDON DURING THE FIRST WORLD
WAR
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_London_%281900%E2%80%9339%29
https://greatwarlondon.wordpress.com/2015/01/04/when-will-this-war-end/
https://greatwarlondon.wordpress.com/2014/12/30/london-buses-at-war-1914-1918/
https://greatwarlondon.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/a-year-of-great-war-london/
https://greatwarlondon.wordpress.com/2012/12/24/the-christmas-truce/
https://greatwarlondon.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/will-you-march-too/
https://greatwarlondon.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/thomas-harper-propaganda-speaker/
https://greatwarlondon.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/the-british-museum-in-wartime/
https://greatwarlondon.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/housing-the-war-workers/
https://greatwarlondon.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/londons-air-defences/
https://greatwarlondon.wordpress.com/2014/12/24/santa-in-wartime/
https://greatwarlondon.wordpress.com/2013/09/07/the-1914-recruiting-boom/
http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/10-surprising-laws-passed-during-the-first-world-war
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/home_front_1914_to_1918.htm
http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/first-world-war
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/08/first-world-war-outbreak
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_Kingdom_during_World_War_I#Social
_change
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/05/england-declares-war-germany-1914
http://mentalfloss.com/article/58200/wwi-centennial-britain-declares-war-germany
http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-air-raids-that-shook-britain-in-the-first-world-war
http://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/childrens-experiences-of-world-war-one
http://www.iwm.org.uk/history/10-surprising-laws-passed-during-the-first-world-war
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/home_front_1914_to_1918.htm
http://www.history.com/news/londons-world-war-i-zeppelin-terror
CHAPTER 2. THE BRITISH FRONT AND THE ROLE OF
MALTA IN WORLD WAR I
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www.nationalaechives.gov.uk
www.telegraph.co.uk
http://www.1914-1918.net
http://firstworldwar.com/
http://www.bl.uk/
http://www.avalanchepress.com
http://www.warmuseum.ca/
http://it.wikipedia.org/
http://www.awm.gov.au/
http://www.history.com/
29
CHAPTER 3. THE AMERICAN PARTICIPATION
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_entry_into_World_War_I
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_in_World_War_I
http://www.worldwar1.com/tgws/rel001.htm
http://jimmythejock.hubpages.com/hub/World_War_1_America_Declares_War_on_Germa
ny
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlehem_Steel
http://www.worldwar1.com/sfnum.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/treaty_of_versailles.htm
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/treaty-of-versailles
https://history.state.gov/milestones/1914-1920/league
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/ir1/aimsrev3.shtml
http://jarredjoly0.tripod.com/id3.html
http://www.123helpme.com/life-in-usa-after-wwi-view.asp?id=157265
http://www.ww1accordingtobob.com/shCh13.php
http://www.thenagain.info/WebChron/World/USWWI.html
http://www.history.army.mil/html/museums/uniforms/survey_uwa.pdf
http://www.socialstudieshelp.com/lesson_72_notes.htm
http://roadstothegreatwar-ww1.blogspot.it/2015/01/the-american-army-and-first-worldwar.html
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