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History essay on the impact of the conscription debate
Political repercussions of ww1
Political issues during ww2
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The attitudes of individuals at the time of WWI towards conscription, created an extreme diversity and difference of opinions. Prime Minister of Australia at the time, Billy Hughes called for conscription, even though conscription was opposed by his own party, the Labor Party. The contrasting and diverse views of Conscription were argued between Leaders of Politics and Business against the views of Farmers and Trade Workers. Some Australian’s believed that it was a man’s duty to fight for his country while others believed no citizen should be forced to fight under “Totalitarianism.” As WWI went on, the enlistment of Australian troops declined as more Australian citizens became opposed to the fighting. The British Government were pressuring …show more content…
This became an issue for the Australian Government, who realised that they would eventually need more support on the front lines. A divisive public appeal began by the Australian Government led by Prime Minister Hughes to allow Conscription. “Billy Hughes decided to take the issue to the people in a referendum,” (Australian War Memorial, 2016,) to see if they should compel Australian men to serve in the war. At this time many forms of campaigning were made including the 1916 Conscription Badge “This is a pro-conscription badge for the campaign leading up to the vote and it says ‘Yes, for Australia and the Anzacs.” (Brown, 2007.) The referendum was acted upon on 28th October, 1916. Hughes asked the people of Australia during this time whether the government should have compulsory power over citizens in regard to requiring them for military. “The people of Australia are about to decide the destiny of their country. They must declare that they stand loyally by the Empire and their kinsmen. I ask them to prove in this referendum whether they want to be their own masters, or slaves.” (Museum of Australian Democracy, 2016.) Many people at the time disproved this statement as they wanted to make their own decisions. The First Referendum on Conscription was “narrowly defeated” with 51% voting against Conscription. As a result of this Hughes was expelled from his
Nevertheless, upon return to civilian life, many found they were treated with the same or harsher prejudice and discrimination as before. Fighting in another country in a war that does not affect them and completely against their culture and moral beliefs. It seems that the effects and the Aboriginal contribution of WW1 had a negative effect when they came back home and this was still evident at the start of WW2. When the war began in 1914, many Indigenous Australians tried to enlist but were rejected on the fact of their colour and race, but some simply snuck through. By October 1917, when recruits were rare and one conscription referendum had already failed, restrictions were eased back. A new Military Order stated: "Half-castes may be enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force provided that the examining Medical Officers are satisfied that one of the parents is of European origin." (Peter Londey, 2013). The repression of Indigenous Australians increased between the wars and protection acts gave government officials greater authority over Indigenous Australians. Australian Aboriginals had a positive contribution in World War One but this in turn had a negative effect on their culture and the way they were
World War 1 began in 1914, and because Great Britain was involved, Canada found itself pulled into the war as well. At the beginning of the war, Borden promised never to force men to fight. However, by 1916 the Allies found their situation had taken a turn for the worse, and were in desperate need of new soldiers. Canada’s Prime Minister, Robert Borden, was an imperialist. He desperately wanted Canada to be seen as an equal by Great Britain, and believed that providing large numbers of Canadian troops may accomplish this. However, as word of trench conditions and number of casualties reached home, fewer and fewer men were volunteering to be sent overseas, knowing that they would likely never return home. By 1917, Borden had only one unused
Hypothesis: The Australian public made a significant contribution to the war efforts from 1939 to 1945, through sacrifices on a personal and national level. The determination of the Australian people in bringing their loved ones home safely, created strong relationships between the community, which in many cases, are still prevalent in Australian society to this day.
He was dynamic and thus in due course very effective. His success as Minister of Munitions led to him becoming Prime Minister in December 1916, where he replaced Herbert Asquith. Most Liberal ministers resigned with Asquith, and about half the Liberal MPs (120) supported the old Prime Minister rather than the new. While the war continued it was said that he was ‘acting more like a president than a prime minister, his leadership style, was accumulating enemies, and thus storing up trouble in the future.
Australia (as a counry) felt a loyalty towards the 'mother country', Britaain and that the war would be a good opportunity to improve Ausrtalia's international reputation. Many individual Australians also joined the war for a variety of reasons. Some felt a strong loyalty to Britain who had supported Australia, and now, they felt, was the time for them to 'do their bit'. Others enlsted simply to prove they were brave enough to fight, but some enlisted because their friends had. Some simply enlisted because they needed a job, pay, and regular meals, but many enlisted in the army for an adventure, not knowing the true horrors of war. Private A.J. McSparrow (former railway worker from Parramatta, NSW), was one of the many men whwo enlisted because he felt that it was his duty to support the 'mother country' ..."I have (enlisted) ... and I don't regret it in the very least. I believe that it is every young fellow's duty" and "... we are the sort of men who should go."Private Antill enlisted because he needed the money, clothes and food and also because it was easier work than cabinet making ..."I tell you what I have just joined the Australan army ... it's not bad money here 5/- a day and clothes and food that's nearly as good as cabinet making and not half as hard."Lieutenant D.G. Armstrong (former bank clerk from Kyneton, Victoria), thought that the war would be great opportunity to prove his strength and to show that he was not a coward..."I am going to have a try for the war ... I think I ought to go, they want all they can get and ... I think it's the greatest opportunity for a chap to make a man of himself, those that come back from this war will be men of the right sort that anybody would be proud of.
Australian men were very keen to get involved in the war because they felt that it was their duty and if they didn’t go to war it would make them look cowardly. “Men rushed to enlist. In the first two weeks 7000 Victorian men volunteered for the first Australian Imperial Force (AIF) and 10 000 in Sydney.” It was a man’s duty to go to war. Most people who lived in Australia felt an obligation to England. England was at war so Australians wanted to go and help them. “The war would be glorious, exciting and ‘over by Christmas’.” This is what people were hearing at the time. Australia was not geographically close to the war in Europe and they did not know the realities of war. They got a huge shock when they...
61, 000 Canadians died during World War I and another 172, 000 were injured. World War I was supposed to be “the war to end all wars” however it did not achieve that. Another negative effect was the War Measures Act that Prime Minister Borden introduced in 1914 which gave the government undemocratic powers to deal with war and power to limit the freedom of Canadians. The act suspended habeas corpus which is recourse in law when a person can report unlawful detention or imprisonment before a court. Anyone that was thought to be an enemy alien could be imprisoned or deported, so recent immigrants from Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire had to carry ID cards with them at all times and more than 8, 500 were held in isolation in internment camps. Another negative effect of World War I on Canada was that of conscription, which made it mandatory to enlist after Borden introduced the Military Service Act in 1917. Conscription was very controversial and emotional issue that divided English and French Canadians lasting in scars. French Canadians felt no patriotic connection to Britain or France; they saw the Military Service Act as a way of forcing them to fight in a distant war that had no connection to them. Many French Canadians felt like second class citizens of the home front; there were violent conflicts in Quebec between those
Australia is a relatively young country; only becoming a unified nation in 1901 (Commonwealth of Australia, 2012). A young country is no different from a young person; identity is an issue. Questions of who am I and where do I fit in the world are asked, and unfortunately not often answered until a tragedy occurs. National identity is a sense of a nation and its people as a connected whole. This feeling of cohesiveness can be shaped by many events in a nation’s history but none more so than war. War is a stressful, traumatic affair that changes forever, not only the people that go to it but the nation as a whole. Many consider the Great War Australia’s tragedy where we became a nation (Bollard, 2013) with our own modern identity.
The introduction of conscription into Australia during the Vietnam War, caused much outrage in the Australian public. Vietnam was the first war ever to be properly televised, the public saw for the first time the true brutality of war. The public started to question Australia’s involvement in the war. Moratoriums were held around Australia in protest against conscription and Australia’s involvement in the war. Much of the protesting was done by students and the younger generations, there was still support for the war effort. This was reflected in the November 1966 elections, when there was a landslide victory for the Liberals. Conscription did have an effect on the Liberal governments popularity, a few months after a complete troop withdrawal in 1972 from Vietnam, the Whitlam Labour government replaced the McMahon Liberal government. Historically, one of the influencing factors of the Liberal’s election loss was the Governments choice to get involved in a war that had little to do with Australia.
In 1917 Robert Borden made terrible mistakes into which caused the Country separating Conscription Crisis of 1917. When Prime Minister Borden was elected he promised that there would be no obligatory conscription applied in any event. In the beginning of the war more than 400,000 soldiers volunteered for service overseas, one in 20 of them were Québécois. The low interest of the French Canadian's vividly shown they were not interested in the war at all. By 1917 there have been very high amount of causalities; more people were dying then volunteering. Rob Borden thought that conscription was indeed needed. As a result on May 18, 1917 he retreated his promise on "no obliga...
In World War 1 (WW1), 1914-1918, Australian troops became involved in order to give support to the "Mother Country". Great Britain only became involved after Germany did not respect the neutrality of Belgium. In the first world war, Australian soldiers participated in some of the bloodiest and most enduring battles known to man, and soon developed a courageous name for themselves. Of the 330 000 Aussie soldiers who took part in WW1, there were 211 500 casualties and over 60 000 deaths, a casualty rate much higher than that of several other participants.
Another vigorously protested topics of the Vietnam War was Conscription. Most of two million soldiers who fought in the war were chosen through the Selective Service program. The draft policy has been an imprint of America the Civil War. This policy has been used in every major United States war since. Young adult males were required to register for the draft when they turned eighteen years old. A lottery system decided who would be called to combat. If selected for the draft, the draftee had to serve 24 months of active duty. During the Vietnam War, the hostility Americans felt towards the draft erupted and caused major protests across the nation.
For years on end, countries have been fighting with big museums from other countries for ancient artifacts that belong to the original countries. The argument of whether or not the museums should be able to keep them still remains. It is the right of the country to have their own artifacts. It is imperative for countries to be able showcase their historical artifacts, therefor museums should return them to their rightful owners.
Child soldiers are a prevalent issue in the international community and must be stopped. Whether kidnapped, enslaved, or volunteered: child soldiers are a clear violation of human rights. The United Nations are actively working to eradicate the issue by creating programs such as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) which is a treaty that contains three Optional Protocols, the first of which is aimed at protecting children’s rights.
The just war theory is described by Thomas Massaro in his book Living Justice as the “principle that warfare might be justified under certain conditions” (108). The complexities involved with international relations makes determining a just war very difficult. Even though historically pacifism hasn’t gained much traction within Catholic circles, it currently is gaining popularity with many mainstream Catholics. With so many differing views on military action, one might ask, “What determines a just war? How can we balance the need for peace with self-defense?” An examination of criteria for a just war and critiques written on this topic might shed light on these two questions.