The purpose of this source could be for either propaganda uses or it could have been taken by a passerby which world affect it’s reliability.
If the photo was ‘staged’ to support the propaganda campaign it was to encourage more to join up as news from the front may have led to a decrease in the number of volunteers and the government was desperate for others to fight as conscription hadn’t yet been introduced.
Other methods of inspiring men to join the war were also used by the government.
The Minister of Munitions and later the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George spoke to a London-Welsh audience at the Queen’s Hall on the 19th of September 1914 soon after the war had begun.(source A2(i))
A Welshman and member of government, he later replaced the Prime Minister Asquith.
He states in the source that the world owes much to the ‘little five-foot-five nations’ referring to Belgium and how Britain should help as there ally was attacked. He appeals to the people’s emotions as Wales is also a ‘little five-foot-five nations’.
“The heroic deeds of the little nations fighting for their freedom. Wales must continue doing her duty.” This quotation appeals to the emotions of the crowd, emotions that would inspire and encourage young and old men to join and do their part for the “race who faced the Normans, for hundreds of years in their struggle for freedom.”
David Lloyd George spoke of Wales’s heroic past and the people did not wish to disappoint or fail the future generations, which may in the future feel the Welsh people have become cowards. He used his own nationality to impress upon the audience how important it was that they sigh up.
This source may be affected by the fact that Lloyd George may be biased due to the fact that he is a Welshman and is proud to support the cause. He made the speech as he is a Welsh politician and if the crowd had been addressed by an Englishman the speech may not have been so effective.
The make up of the London-Welsh audience may also have a negative affect on the sources reliability as we don’t know if speeches like this happened all over other parts of Britain.
Religious views also had an affect on the number of men that joined up to fight as it was seen as a terrible sin to kill any living being-but chapels supported the war effort. Source A3 is an example of this and shows how the support of the chapel in Wales led to an increase in the numbers of men that were encouraged to join.
The early autobiography of poet and novelist, Robert Graves explains the importance of how “Lloyd George…who persuaded the chapels that the war was a crusade.”
Unfortunately the source was taken from a book which was written after the war some years later in 1929 and this may affect the sources reliability as he may have been affected by other peoples opinions or seen different evidence from historians writing at the time.
The author enlisted in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in 1914 which adds strength to the source as he would have known what was happening at the time and talked to others in the same situation about the events.
The English author’s family possessed a holiday home in Harlech, North Wales and he would have known the affect of the chapel in this specific area but the fact that it is a holiday home cannot be over looked as this means that he did not live there full time. Another affect is that the book doesn’t just concentrate on just the First World War and parts may also be exaggerated to entertain the audience.
For the first time the government was made up by a coalition during wartime as all of the parties set an example for the people that in order to win this war and conquer Germany everyone had to work together.
Throughout the war politics played a major role in controlling the affects of the impact that the war had on people. A coalition of all parties was set up for the people in order to set an example; in order to win the war Britain must put up a united front. The source B2 shows how cartoons were used in political periodicals such as this example from Punch. Pictures such as this example were common in middleclass home.
Source B2 is a cartoon showing the soon to be Minister of Munitions, David Lloyd George riding two horses named Labour and Capital, pulling a munitions wagon, a very valuable piece of equipment needed at the time during the war. The source is reliable as it was from the period of the actual war and was aimed at the middleclass audience reflecting a contemporary viewpoint..
The source being a cartoon makes the information more reliable and accessible. A cartoon usually provides a whole picture and is a useful reflection of contemporary opinions.
It shows that ‘Punch’ thought the idea of David Lloyd George taking the job and controlling all the munitions was a good idea and he was up to the task.
The war “greatly favoured the growth of the Labour party” as source B4 explains to us.
The liberal party lost the support of the people as they were the people who took the country to war. They also introduced Conscription even though they claimed to believe in voluntary military service and the Labour part benefited from this-people felt let down by the liberals who promised one thing and delivered something else.
The source extract was taken from the book ‘A History of Wales’ was written by John Davies, A specialist historian in Welsh history after the war in 1993.
But as John Davies is Welsh historian and the book is about Wales, the use of this source may be limited as his nationality may affect his opinion while writing. However its reliability can be called into question as his interpretation of events may be affected by other people’s views of the war as the book was written years afterwards.
The source is written only about Wales and this doesn’t tell us of the opinions of the rest of Britain or how the rest of Britain was affected by WWI.
The book is about the general history of Wales only a small percentage is about the First World War and some important detail may have been left out and other parts may have been exaggerated.
Although many women found themselves earning good wages for the first time during the war, women were always paid less than men, and were not promoted as often as their male colleagues. They were often given the most dangerous jobs to do. In addition male workers played practical jokes on them. In 1915 there were the strikes against the use of women workers and some men complained of 'dilution', unskilled women taking over the jobs of skilled men. Actions like these meant that when the war ended most women were sacked and their jobs were given to men. There was a big campaign to persuade women to give up their jobs and go back to being housewives. Women who refused to give up their jobs were sometimes attacked. The phrase 'Heroines to Scroungers' was used to describe them and moral blackmail was used to persuade them to give up their jobs. Women demanded equality with men for the first time.
Posters were not only used to encourage men to join during the recruitment campaign, many posters were used by the government during the four year period of war to encourage women to ‘do their bit’ to help.
Source C3 is an example of this and was probably used throughout the war as we have no actually specific date but this may affect the utility of the source.
A picture of a woman putting on an overall waving to a man dressed in uniform, leaving to go to the frontline. In effort to fill the men’s jobs to keep the country running smoothly through the troubled times, women were encouraged by the thought of being equal to men, being able to and become more independent.
This type of propaganda was commonly used promoting the idea that war should be used as an opportunity ‘Learn a new skill’. Women were employed all over Britain in a campaign to produce munitions, other valuable equipment and materials that were needed during the war.
Source C4 reflects the large numbers of women that took over the men’s jobs which increased throughout the four years of war. The purpose of these ‘official figures’ may have been to encourage more women to join the working force or to show just how many jobs that the men had left and the women had taken over- to emphasize the important role they played in the war effort.
Unfortunately these ‘official figures’ may have been rounded up as the government may have manipulated them after the war to make them look better and all end on round figures show that they were responsible for encouraging the female independence.
Views towards women changed all over Britain and many people expressed their opinions. The conservative paper, The Daily Mail expressed one such opinion in a report during April 1916, commenting on the ever changing role of women at the time. This is a contemporary account of a working girl’s life after the impact of war.
‘The wartime business girl is to be seen any night dining out alone or with a friend.’ This source C5 shows just how independent women were becoming, ‘formally she would never have had her evening meal in town unless in the company of a man friend.’
This shows how it never would have occurred before the war and how odd the men found it to be.
In spite of the casualties and suffering the war did provide new opportunities for women. They could work and earn money for themselves; they drank and smoked in public.
Even if the newspaper (The Daily Mail), found they didn’t like these changes they had no choice but to accept it because the war situation meant that women had a role to play .
The impact of war greatly affected people, both at home and fighting on the fronts, opinions, standards, beliefs and overall attitudes of the people.
Source D1 reflects views of the paper The Labour Voice, a newspaper published in the Swansea Valley. After January 16th 1915 the former all welsh written paper was to only be published in English. The effects of war resulted in the newspaper needing to be more widespread, to meet the needs of the people and the welsh language is ‘becoming to inadaptable for the needs of a newspaper.’
It’s useful for is to find out about the history of Welsh language newspapers- but not particularly useful when looking at how peoples lives at home were affected.
This source only talks about that part of Wales and according to the date the war had only been going on for 5-6 months, surely the war wasn’t totally responsible for the decline in the Welsh language? As things like this don’t happen in a few months, it would take years for a dramatic decline in the Welsh language and so the decline must have occurred some time before. In our time (2004), some welsh papers are still in circulation (e.g. Y Cymro) so surely the ‘negative’ affect of the impact of war didn’t affect all papers.
The affects of the impact of war were also felt by the chapel. The experience of war had changed the way young men, who had fought in the war, thought of about religion as source D4 explains. The chapels didn’t take in to account the massive suffering that the war had inflicted on people, the chapels continued as they always had done- the experiences of the congregation had fundamentally changed.
This source was written by Welsh historian Kenneth O. Morgan in the book ‘Rebirth of a Nation: Wales in 1981’ published in 1981.
The author’s views on the effect of war on the church may be influenced by anything that may have occurred at the time but has benefit of hindsight, so he is able to look back over events objectively.
The fact that the book is about Wales as a whole may also affect the reliability of the source as the book ranges from 1880-1980, it doesn’t only concentrate on World War One which means only a short part will be on the views of the changes- but he’s is also commenting on how he sees the war affecting people’s lives in the years which followed..
Written by a modern historian, Clive Emsley, the article of source D5 appeared in the magazine New Perspectives in 1996. The object of the source was to take a fresh look of the impact of war and the modern historian is able to examine in detail the impact that the war had on all areas of life as he is able to look at all different types of evidence from the time such as articles from newspapers, diaries and pictures.
The new perspective is different to the view of historians writing at the time of the war or the first few years after the war when they appeared to be much more initial- the further away from the war the more objective and balanced opinion.
Emsley was able to look at the long term impact with the benefit of hindsight using other people’s accounts of their experiences rather than just looking at the short term affects.
In conclusion the initial impact of the First World War greatly affected the lives of people all over the world including those at home in Britain. The war had a mixture of effects both negative and positive.
Putting aside the mass loss of life and material possessions; affects of the conscription campaign and the propaganda persuading women to help with the war effort; the affect of the media on the people; the affect on political views as all parties combined into a coalition government in order to work together through the hard times; the role that David Lloyd George played as Minister of Munitions and later the Prime Minister Even the effects the war had on authors and poets later on; the affect the war had on the role of women at the time. Many grabbed the opportunity to escape the old class system and become higher paid valued workers. Women became better workers as they replaced the large numbers of men that went to the home front and factories depended on the women’s health and medical care improved. Crèches were introduced for the first time for children to be looked after during the long working hours.
After the end of the war many found it hard to return to their old lives, most uneducated women were forced to return to servant life and it was the end of a short lived freedom as the men returned taking back their previous jobs.
The war however offered new opportunities for educated women who were able to hang onto their independence. After the war many men previously against the vote for women changed their minds after seeing the result of their work in the war. In 1918 women over 30 year old whom owned property were permitted to vote and fortunately for those against the movement there was a limited number at the time and in 1919, the very first woman MP entered the Houses of Parliament.
Women became more independent smoking, drinking, wearing their hair and dressed short and for the first time going to parties without a chaperone.
The war had another positive affect the Trade Unions became stronger as workers became more independent and important because of the work they did was vital for the war effort as war backed by industry.
In the years after the war the wealthy people were no longer able to maintain their luxurious lifestyles as competition from industries abroad increased- their lives would never be the same again.
Miners in South Wales realised their importance on the world stage as the main producers of coal, they tried to use this power by becoming more politically aware virtually forced into it by World War One.
Britain had created a massive debt in the face of war of around 7,809 million pounds and people in Britain were greatly affected by this as the government was forced to raise taxes in order to pay the debt back.
The war had made technology advances such as silent films possible and led to better medical care and advancements.
By looking at the shadows left behind by the previous generation can we see the overall impact that the war had inflicted on people and differently to the historians at the time. We are able to see both the long term affects and the short term.
World War One had a gigantic impact on peoples lives all over the world include those at home in Britain, many people’s lives changed beyond recognition, both the good and bad things that happened helped make our country what it is today.
