Australian Enlistment to World War I

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Recommended: What was the impact of the World War 1 on Australian society

Thesis: During World War 1, the amount of Australians enlisting decreased due to the realisation that war was not as it was portrayed to the public The First World War or World War 1 was a conflict between Britain and Germany, which spread over Europe predominantly beginning on the 28th of July 1914 until the 11th of November 1918. AS soon as the war began, Prime Minister Andrew Fisher's government pledged full support for Britain in an effort to defend Britain or the “Mother Country”. As enlistment came up for Australian men, thousands people across the country rushed to enlist for what they thought would be an opportunity to adventure Europe with the war supposedly ending before Christmas. With the propaganda at the government’s advantage, they could easily manipulate the Australian’s public view on what life, as a soldier would be like. As the pain of loss began to strike the citizens of Australia, views on what war was like changed and reality began to hit. This meant enlistment around Australia was significantly reduced especially after Gallipoli where there were the most casualties, which hit Australia hard. As time grew on Factors Leading to Initial Rush At the beginning of the war, 20,00 men enlisted to fight in the war, which was 2.5% of the possible pool of over 800,000 eligible men, this number then increased to 50,000 at the end of the first year. This was a good representation of the rush that there was to enlist which was largely due to all of the mythical representations of the war and also the rewards for enlisting which included the chance to travel Europe with a decent pay of 6 shillings a day 3 times what a British troop would have earned and also the reward of honour and respect. The war was also seen as al... ... middle of paper ... ...ueensland, 164,030 from New South Wales, 112, 399 from Victoria, 34, 959 from South Australia, 32,231 from Western Australia, and 15, 585 from Tasmania. This was 38.7 % of the male population aged between 14 and 44. However 50,000 of them enlisted within the first year of the war because of the rush to enlist these numbers soon died out after the public noticed the death tolls and understood the consequences of the war. These statistics clearly outlines and supports the fact that after the rush to enlist during 1914 the rate of enlistment dramatically decreased. The graph displayed above demonstrations the decrease in enlistment from 1914 to 1918. During 1915 the enlistment numbers ranged from 8,000-16,000 per month but during 1918 the numbers declined to as low as 2,000-3,000 troops enlisting in a month. Works Cited http://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/gallipoli/

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