Why did the First World War affect the people of Britain in so many different ways?

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Why did the First World War affect the people of Britain in so many different ways?

At the beginning of the war society was different. For a lot of people, poverty, social and economic disruption was normal. Literacy was fairly general and the society was mainly Christian and was very religious, therefore there were frequent Bible readings. The upper classes were better classed with leisure and comfortable living conditions. They had servants, which were mainly women, who worked in the ‘domestic service’. There was little mixing between domestic and industrial working classes. When war broke out in 1914, the impact was disruptive. There was a rapid increase in unemployment, especially of women who had also worked before because of poverty. The stock market crashed which resulted in food prices increasing and panic buying. The First World War affected the people of Britain in so many different ways but the question is why?

The war affected both the people directly involved in the war and the civilian population. The men were affected because the war demanded hem to fight, so they played a vital role. When war was declared thousands of men volunteered to join, the 247,000 regular soldiers in the British army. The volunteers were affected because if they didn’t recruit then women handed out white feathers to them because they were in civilian clothes. They were known as cowards. They had to leave their jobs causing major disruption in industry. Many of them believed that the war would end by Christmas and they were anxious not to miss it. But they did not know the horrors they were to face. Recruiting campaigns persuaded men to join. They talked about the better world, which would follow victory and whipped up hatred against the Germans. Friends joined up together; some villages and teams lost all their young men on the same day. People never imagined it would be like this.

The Govt then decided to introduce conscription. The conscripted were affected differently from the volunteers because this forced all men aged 18-41 to join the services. This affected the men because they were now forced to leave their jobs. But it didn’t just affect the men; it affected employers because they gained more power over workers because they were able to influence whether or not a worker was conscripted. It affected the women because factory owners realised that they needed women to take on men’s jobs now they were at war. Conscientious objectors were affected by the war differently from the volunteers and conscripts because they were opposed to it. To them the idea of killing was evil and horrific. They were affected by the war because they were sent to non-fighting duties like ambulance work and work camps. When they refused an officer’s order they wee court-martialled and were either shot or sent home in disgrace. Other ‘conchies’ were affected, as they had to serve willingly in the war, accepting the same risks as troops.

Soldiers and Tommies were also affected. They thought the war was an adventure but it soon dawned on them that fighting was futile. They had to put up with the sight, sound and smell of dying, dead and wounded soldiers. The Junior Officers also had to face the same conditions as the soldiers. They had to face horrible living conditions and diseases, like dysentery. Life in the trenches was full of boredom and apprehension punctuated by relatively short periods of intensive noise and fear. No man came through the experience unscathed. The war affected their morale. Soldiers in the trenches always talked about returning to ‘blighty’, which was home in Britain. Soldiers were kept in constant worry. Soldiers started to resent the men who stayed at home without reason and 'got rich quick' making use of their knowledge of business to turn war conditions to their advantage. Their experiences at the front had changed them and had cut them off from their old way of life forever.

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The Generals on the other hand were affected because the war was now in their hands and they had the responsibility to launch attacks etc. Like the General officers they had better living conditions than the soldiers, had better meals and had better chances of surviving. The Generals had experienced the fighting in different ways. The soldiers were faced with the growing suspicion that the Generals in 1916 either did not know or did not care what the ordinary soldier was suffering. According to the Generals casualties and ‘fatigue were not possibilities studied’ in their ‘war academy’.

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*** 3 STARS This is a very difficult essay to write as there is so much information to research, analyse, summarise and include. The writer has made an excellent effort to include a wide number of ways the people of Britain were affected by WW1. Some more quotes and statistics needed in places. Although the writer has included topic sentences at the beginning of paragraphs the word 'affected' is overused.