Home front during World War I

The home front during World War I covers the domestic, economic, social and political histories of countries involves in World War I (called the "First World War" in Britain). It covers the mobilization of war supplies and soldiers, but does not include the military history. Besides the hardships of war and the millions of military casualties, 1918 saw the worldwide Spanish Flu pandemic which struck hard at a population weakened by years of malnutrition.

Britain

Main article: History of the United Kingdom during World War I

At the outbreak of war, patriotic feelings spread throughout the country, and many of the class barriers of Edwardian England faded during the years of combat. However the Catholics in southern Ireland moved overnight to demands for complete immediate independence after the failed Easter Rebellion of 1916. Northern Ireland remained loyal to the crown.

Sacrifices were made, however, in the name of defeating the enemy. Fearing food shortages and labour shortfalls, the government passed legislation, such as the Defence of the Realm Act, to give it new powers to safeguard civilians. The war saw a move away from the idea of "business as usual" (the preservation of the status quo) under Liberal Party Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith, and towards a state of total war (complete state intervention in public affairs) in a coalition government led by David Lloyd George, the first time this had been seen in Britain. The war also witnessed the first aerial bombardments of cities in Britain.

Morale remained relatively high due in part to the highly influential national newspapers. Large quantities of propaganda were produced by the government under the guidance of such journalists as Charles Masterman and newspaper owners such as Lord Beaverbrook. By adapting to the changing demographics of the workforce (or the "dilution of labour", as it was termed), war-related industries grew rapidly, and production increased, as disparate groups of people pulled together.In that regard, the war is also credited by some with drawing women into mainstream employment for the first time, and forcing Britain to grant most women the vote in 1918.

Australia

From a population of 5 million, 417,000 men enlisted; 330,000 went overseas to fight the First World War. They were volunteers, since the political battle for compulsory conscription failed. Some 58,000 died and 156,000 were wounded. Fisher argues that the government aggressively promoted economic, industrial, and social modernization in the war years. However, he says it came through exclusion and repression. He says the war turned a peaceful nation into "one that was violent, aggressive, angst- and conflict-ridden, torn apart by invisible front lines of sectarian division, ethnic conflict and socio-economic and political upheaval." The nation was fearful of enemy aliens--especially Germans, regardless of how closely they identified with Australia. The government interred 2900 German-born men (40% of the total) and deported 700 of them after the war. Irish nationalists and labor radicals were under suspicion as well. Racist hostility was high against toward nonwhites, including Pacific Islanders, Chinese and Aborigines. The result, Fischer says, was a strengthening of conformity to imperial/British loyalties and an explicit preference for immigrants from the British Isles.

The major military event involved sending 40,000 ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand) soldiers in 1915 to seize the Gallipoli peninsula near Constantinople to open an Allied route to Russia and weaken the Ottoman Empire. The campaign was a total failure militarily and 8100 Australians died. However the memory was all-important, for it transformed the Australian mind and became an iconic element of the Australian identity and the the founding moment of nationhood.

France

Main article: French Third Republic § First World War

Many French intellectuals welcomed the war to avenge the humiliation of defeat and loss of territory to Germany following the Franco-Prussian War of 1871. After Socialist leader Jean Jaurès. a pacifist, was assassinated at the start of the war, the French socialist movement abandoned its antimilitarist positions and joined the national war effort.

Georges Clemenceau became prime minister in November 1917, a time of defeatism and acrimony. In November 1917 Clemenceau was appointed prime minister. French soldiers were reluctant to attack--many had mutinied--saying it was best to wait for the arrival of missions of Americans. Italy was on the defensive, Russia had surrendered. Civilians were angry, as rations fell short and the threat of German air raids grew. Clemenceau realized his fiorst priority was to restore civilian morale. He arrested Joseph Caillaux, a former French prime minister, for openly advocating peace negotiations. He won all-party support for his "Union sacrée" ("Sacred Union") to fight to victory calling for "la guerre jusqu'au bout" (war until the end).

Italy

See also: History of Italy § First World War, and Italy in World War I

Italy decided not to honor its Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria, and remained neutral. Public opinion in Italy was sharply divided, with Catholics and socialists calling for peace. However nationalists saw their opportunity to gain their "irredenta" – that is, the border regions that were controlled by Austria. The nationalists won out, and in April 1915, the Italian government secretly agreed to the London Pact in which Britain and France promised that is Italy would declare war on Austria it would receive its territorial rewards. The Italian army of 875,000 men was poorly led and lacked heavy artillery and machine guns. The industrial base was too small to provide adequate amounts of modern equipment. The war stalemates with a dozen indecisive battles on a very narrow front along the Isonzo River, where the Austrians held the high ground. In 1916, Italy declared war on Germany, which provided significant aid to the Austrians. Some 650,000 Italian soldiers died and 950,000 were wounded, while the economy required large-scale Allied funding to survive.

Before the war the government had ignored labor issues, but now it had to intervene to mobilize war production. With the main working-class Socialist party reluctant to support the war effort, strikes were frequent and cooperation was minimal, especially in the Socialist strongholds of Piedmont and Lombardy. The government imposed high wage scales, as well as collective bargaining and insurance schemes. Many large firms expanded dramatically. The workforce at Ansaldo grew from 6,000 to 110,000 as it manufactured 10,900 artillery pieces, 3,800 warplanes, 95 warships and 10 million artillery shells. At Fiat the workforce grew from 4,000 to 40,000. Inflation doubled the cost of living. Industrial wages kept pace but not wages for farm workers. Discontent was high in rural areas since so many men were taken for service, industrial jobs were unavailable, wages grew slowly and inflation was just as bad.

Italy blocked serious peace negotiations, staying in the war primarily to gain new territory. The Treaty of St. Germain awarded the victorious Italian nation the Southern half of the County of Tyrol, Trieste, Istria, and the city of Zadar. Italy did not receive other territories promised by the Pact of London, so this victory was considered "mutilated". In 1922 Italy formally annexed the Dodecanese (Possedimenti Italiani dell'Egeo), that she had occupied during the war.

United States

Main article: United States home front during World War I

Russia

Czarist Russia was being torn apart in 1914 and was not prepared to fight a modern war. Repeated military failures and bureaucratic ineptitude soon turned large segments of the population against the government. Control of the Baltic Sea by the German fleet, and of the Black Sea by combined German and Ottoman forces prevented Russia from importing supplies or exporting goods. By the middle of 1915 the impact of the war was demoralizing. Food and fuel grew supply, war casualties kept climbing and inflation was mounting. Strikes increased among low-paid factory workers, and the peasants, who wanted land reforms, were restless. Meanwhile, elite distrust of the regime was deepened when a semiliterate mystic, Grigory Rasputin, gained enormous influence over the Czar. Major strikes broke out early in 1917 and the army sided with the strikers in the February Revolution. The czar abdicated. The liberal reformer Alexander Kerensky came to power in July, but in the October Revolution Lenin and the Bolsheviks took control. In early 1918 they signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that made Germany dominant in Eastern Europe, while Russia plunged into years of civil war.

While the central bureaucracy was overwhelmed and under-led, Fallows shows that localities sprang into action motivated by patriotism, pragmatism, economic self-interest, and partisan politics. Food distribution was the main role of the largest network, called the "Union of Zemstvos." It also set up hospitals and refugee stations.

Germany

Main article: History of Germany during World War I

By 1915 the British naval blockade cut off food imports and conditions deteriorated rapidly on the home front, with severe food shortages reported in all urban areas. The causes involved the transfer of so many farmers and food workers into the military, combined with the overburdened railroad system, shortages of coal, and the British blockade that cut off imports from abroad. The winter of 1916-1917 was known as the "turnip winter," because that vegetable, usually fed to livestock, was used by people as a substitute for potatoes and meat, which were increasingly scarce. Thousands of soup kitchens were opened to feed the hungry people, who grumbled that the farmers were keeping the food for themselves. Even the army had to cut the rations for soldiers. Morale of both civilians and soldiers continued to sink.

The end of October 1918, in Kiel, in northern Germany, saw the beginning of the German Revolution of 1918–19 as units of the German Navy refused to set sail for a last, large-scale operation in a war which they saw as good as lost. By 3 November, the revolt spread to other cities and states of the country, in many of which workers' and soldiers' councils were established. Meanwhile, Hindenburg and the senior commanders had lost confidence in the Kaiser and his government.

Philipp Scheidemann proclaims a German Republic on 9 November 1918.

The Kaiser and all German ruling princes abdicated. On 9 November 1918, the Social Democrat Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed a Republic. On 11 November, the armistice ending the war with a total defeat for Germany and occupation by the Allies.

Austria-Hungary

See also: Hungary in World War I and Austria-Hungary § World War I

Ottoman Empire

See also: Ottoman Empire § World War I (1914–1918), and Armenian Genocide

The Young Turks had taken control of the government in 1908; they mobilized society for war, employing numerous political and economic reforms. The Committee of Union and Progress, through its Committee of National Defense, fostered pan-Turkish nationalism based in Anatolia. Reacting to highly exaggerated fears that the Armenians were a tool of the Russians, the Young Turks forcibly evacuated the Armenians from eastern Anatolia, regardless of the 600,000 or more lives lost in the Armenian Genocide. Meanwhile many Arabs turned against the Turkish rulers of the Empire and collaborated with the British.

Further reading

• Broadberry, Stephen, and Mark Harrison, eds. The Economics of World War I (2005) ISBN 0-521-85212-9. Covers France, Britain, USA, Russia, Italy, Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Netherlands, 362pp; excerpt and text search
• Grayzel, Susan. Women and the First World War (2002), worldwide coverage
• Hardach, Gerd. The First World War 1914-1918 (1977), economic history of major powers
• Higham, Robin and Dennis E. Showalter, eds. Researching World War I: A Handbook (2003), 475pp; highly detailed historiography, stressing military themes; annotates over 1000 books--mostly military but many on the homefront; online edition
• Stevenson, David. Cataclysm: The First World War as Political Tragedy (2005) 625pp; excerpt and text search
• Stevenson, David. With Our Backs to the Wall: Victory and Defeat in 1918 (2011) excerpt and text search
• Strachen, Hew. The First World War (vol 1, 2005) 1225pp; covers the chief home fronts in 1914-1917 excerpt and text search
• Tucker, Spencer, ed. European Powers in the First World War: An Encyclopedia (1999) excerpt and text search
• Tucker, Spencer, ed. The Encyclopedia of World War I: A Political, Social, and Military History (5 vol 2005); the most detailed reference source; articles by specialists cover all aspects of the war
  • Tucker, Spencer C., ed. World War I: A Student Encyclopedia. 4 vol. ABC-CLIO, 2006. 2454 pp.
• Winter, J. M. The Experience of World War I (2006) excerpt and text search

Britain

• Butler, Simon. The War Horses: The Tragic Fate of a Million Horses Sacrificed in the First World War (2011)
• Cassar, George. Lloyd George at War, 1916–1918 (2009) excerpt and text search
• Cooksley, Peter. The Home Front: Civilian Life in World War One (2006)
• Davis, Belinda Joy. Home Fires Burning: Food, Politics, and Everyday Life in World War I Berlin (2000) excerpt and text search
• Doyle, Peter. First World War Britain: 1914-1919 (2012)
• Fairlie, John A. British War Administration (1919) online edition
• Ferguson, Niall The Pity of War (1999), 563pp; cultural and economic themes online edition
• French, David. The Strategy of the Lloyd George Coalition, 1916–1918 Oxford University Press, 1995
• Fry, Michael. "Political Change in Britain, August 1914 to December 1916: Lloyd George Replaces Asquith: The Issues Underlying the Drama," Historical Journal (1988) 31#3 pp. 609–627 in JSTOR
• Gregory, Adrian. The Last Great War: British Society and the First World War (2009) excerpt and text search
• Grigg, John. Lloyd George: war leader, 1916–1918 (2002)
• Havighurst, Alfred F. Twentieth-Century Britain. 1966. standard survey online edition
• Hazlehurst, Cameron. "Asquith as Prime Minister, 1908–1916," The English Historical Review Vol. 85, No. 336 (Jul. 1970), pp. 502–531 in JSTOR
• Johnson, Matthew. "The Liberal War Committee and the Liberal Advocacy of Conscription in Britain, 1914-1916," Historical Journal, Vol. 51, No. 2 (June, 2008), pp. 399–420 in JSTOR
• Little, John Gordon. "H. H. Asquith and Britain's Manpower Problem, 1914–1915." History 1997 82(267): 397–409. Issn: 0018-2648; admits the problem was bad but exonerates Asquith Fulltext: in Ebsco
• Marwick, Arthur (1965) The Deluge: British Society and the First World War, (1970)
• Matthew, H. C. G. "Asquith, Herbert Henry, first earl of Oxford and Asquith (1852–1928)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online
• Paddock, Troy R. E. A call to arms: propaganda, public opinion, and newspapers in the Great War (2004)
• Silbey, David. The British Working Class and Enthusiasm for War, 1914-1916 (2005) online edition
• Simmonds, Alan G. V. Britain and World War One (2011) excerpt and text search
• Storey, Neil R. Women in the First World War (2010)
• Taylor, A.J.P. English History: 1914-1945 (1965) pp 1-119
• Turner, John, ed. Britain and the First World War (1988)
• Winter, J. M. Capital Cities at War: Paris, London, Berlin, 1914-1919 (1999)

British Empire

• Beaumont, Joan. Australia's War, 1914–1918 (1995)
• Brown R. C., and Ramsay Cook. Canada, 1896-1921 A Nation Transformed. (1974). the standard survey
• MacKenzie, David, ed. Canada and the First World War (2005) 16 essays by leading scholars excerpt and text search
• Morton, Desmond, and Jack Granatstein. Marching to Armageddon: Canadians and the Great War 1914-1919 (1989)
• Wade, Mason. The French Canadians, 1760-1945 (1955), ch 12 online edition
• Winegard, Timothy C. Indigenous Peoples of the British Dominions and the First World War (2012) excerpt and text search, covers Canada, Australia, Newfoundland, New Zealand and South Africa

France

• Audoin-Rouzeau, Stéphane, and Annette Becker. 14-18: Understanding the Great War (2003) excerpt and text search
• Becker, Jean Jacques. The Great War and the French People (1986)
• Darrow, Margaret H. French Women and the First World War: War Stories of the Home Front (Berg, 2000) online edition
• Smith, Leonard V. et al. France and the Great War (2003) 222pp; excerpt and text search
• Winter, J. M. Capital Cities at War: Paris, London, Berlin, 1914-1919 (1999)

Russia

• Gatrell, Peter. Russia's First World War: A Social and Economic History. 2005. 318 pp.
• Lincoln, W. Bruce. Passage Through Armageddon: The Russians in War and Revolution, 1914-1918 (1986)

U.S.

• Bassett, John Spencer. Our War with Germany: A History (1919) online edition
• Chambers, John W., II. To Raise an Army: The Draft Comes to Modern America (1987)
• Kennedy, David M. Over Here: The First World War and American Society (1982), covers politics & economics & society online edition
• Koistinen, Paul. Mobilizing for Modern War: The Political Economy of American Warfare, 1865-1919 (1997)
• May, Ernest R. The World War and American isolation, 1914-1917 (1959online at ACLS e-books
• Scott, Emmett Jay. Scott's Official History of the American Negro in the World War (1919) 511 pages online edition
• Slosson, Preston William. The Great Crusade and after, 1914-1928 (1930). social history online edition
• Venzon, Anne ed. The United States in the First World War: An Encyclopedia (1995)
• Young, Ernest William. The Wilson Administration and the Great War (1922) online edition
• Zieger, Robert H. America's Great War: World War I and the American Experience. 2000. 272 pp.

Germany and Austria

• Chickering, R. Imperial Germany and the Great War, 1914-1918 (1998)
• Herwig, Holger H. The First World War: Germany and Austria-Hungary 1914-1918 (2009)
• Kocka, Jürgen. Facing total war: German society, 1914-1918 (1984). online at ACLS e-books
• Osborne, Eric. Britain's Economic Blockade of Germany, 1914-1919 (2004)
• Verhey, Jeffrey. The Spirit of 1914. Militarism, Myth and Mobilization in Germany (Cambridge University Press 2000)
• Welch, David. Germany, Propaganda and Total War, 1914-1918 (2003)
• Winter, J. M. Capital Cities at War: Paris, London, Berlin, 1914-1919 (1999)
• Ziemann, Benjamin. War Experiences in Rural Germany, 1914-1923 (Berg, 2007) online edition

Other nations

• Bloxham, Donald. The Great Game of Genocide: Imperialism, Nationalism, and the Destruction of the Ottoman Armenians (Oxford University Press, 2005)
• De Grand, Alexander. Giovanni Giolitti and Liberal Italy from the Challenge of Mass Politics to the Rise of Fascism, 1882–1922 (2001)
• Dickinson, Frederick R. War and National Reinvention: Japan in the Great War, 1914-1919 (2001) excerpt and text search
• McCarthy, Justin. The Ottoman Peoples and the End of Empire (2001).
• Page, Thomas Nelson. Italy and the world war (1992) online at Google

Primary sources

• Marwick, Arthur, and W. Simpson, eds. War, Peace and Social Change - Europe 1900-1955 - Documents I: 1900-1929 (1990)
• Shevin-Coetzee, Marilyn, and Frans Coetzee, eds. World War One and European Society (1995).
• * Shevin-Coetzee, Marilyn, and Frans Coetzee, eds. World War I: A History in Documents (2002) online edition