Britain and the first world war by

Britain at war

cristianaromano12 — 2024-03-28 14:05:26 UTC

In September 1914, as Germany headed towards Europe, reaching the River Marne in France, the British Secretary of State for War “Lord Kitchener” realized that the war would last a long time and that as a result, they would needed many more soldiers to engage, which is why they appealed for volunteers. He hired soldiers from the colonies, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Thus it was that conscription, the compulsory military service, began to be a fundamental obligation because, given the too many soldiers who served, they were no longer called up only from England, but even from overseas, from the colonies of the English empire.

Filomena Marturano, comedy by Eduardo De Filippo

cristianaromano12 — 2024-03-28 14:06:44 UTC

Men leave, consequently women have to take on a forced position, capable of carrying out the function of both a man and a woman at the same time, taking care of the education of their children but also of business, or taking care of the work that the man has left pending. For example, in Eduardo De Filippo's Filomena Marturano there is precisely this new figure of the woman who, when her husband leaves for war and, at a certain point, at a time when the Americans are in Naples, has to improvise to maintain four or five children, whom her husband left her. To do so, she turns to smuggling. Smuggling takes a certain turn, because everyone goes to her, making her rich. When the husband returns, he finds a different reality, in which his wife represents not only the classic figure of a woman, but also that of an enterprising man. He is also stunned by the horrors that the war had caused, in fact during the night he has crises caused by the trench warfare. He is unable to connect with reality because he pays the price for the outbreak of this war which has now shocked him.

The Easter Rising in Ireland

cristianaromano12 — 2024-03-28 14:07:18 UTC

An important issue in British politics in the first two decades of the 20th century was the “Irish question”. In the past this situation caused a sort of revolt because Ireland wanted independence. There was a sort of "Easter Rising", which means that there was a revolt by the Irish, who took advantage of England's vulnerability to rebel against their government. During this Sunday morning, a group of Irish extremists began to defend themselves from British rule. This was due because "Home rule", meaning what the law that guaranteed Ireland's independence from England, was suspended. Having suspended this law, which essentially allowed them a sort of independence, they rebel. The Irish rebels, however, have the support of the Germans, consequently tempers worsen, because internal war breaks out in England.

The republican party "Sinn Féin" (an Irish name that means "ourselves alone") begins not only to be born, but also to loudly claim this desire for independence which characterizes Ireland in this historical moment.

A war of attrition

cristianaromano12 — 2024-03-28 14:07:48 UTC

In May 1915 a German submarine sank a British passenger ship, called the "Lusitania", on board which there were 128 American passengers. The dimension therefore spreads beyond England, because not only had Germany created the revolt within the United Kingdom, supporting the Irish rebels, but it had also founded a ship with British passengers. It was as if Germany was provoking the intervention of England which should have remained neutral. The president of the United States "Thomas Woodrow Wilson" sent diplomatic protests to Germany and, in the same month, Italy joined France and Great Britain. Thus it was that the German "Zeppelin" carried out the first aerial bombing of London.

As a consequence, "the war of attrition" begins, the term makes us understand that it is a new war tactic, which however must be understood as a social impact, because it is no longer done with the strategic objective of destroying the enemy but, it is a war that aims to destroy men as entities.

In this war, most of the soldiers were killed and, a modification of it was "trench warfare", it involved face-to-face confrontation, consequently these men experienced all the suffering of that period. It is no coincidence that the men involved in the war were called "Shell shock", that is, shocked by the bombs, this was the term used by doctors to allude to the psychological effect of the explosions. This makes us understand how the horrors of war corrode people's souls against a society that is instead deaf and insensitive.

The horror of life in the trenches was remembered mainly by the "war poets".

In this whole context, the war takes on a supernatural dimension, because even George V, defines the Windsor dynasty, the Bolsheviks took power in Russia and the Italian army collapsed in the battle of Caporetto in October 1917. It possessed a house German, but to avoid internal popular revolts, he decided to give up, taking an English surname.

The end of the war

cristianaromano12 — 2024-03-28 14:08:10 UTC

In September 1918, British artillery began lobbing shells into the Hindenburg Line, a series of German trenches believed to be impenetrable, as tanks and infantry attacked on the ground.

The war cost the Allies and Germans approximately 260,000 casualties. On October 4, 1918, Germany asked President Woodrow Wilson for an “armistice” which would have led to national self-determination. Britain and France agreed out of fear that American power might increase if the war continued. On November 11th at 11am, the cannons stopped exploding and that day was commemorated as "Armistice Day". This is followed by the Treaty of Versailles, during which the criteria for peace between Germany and England are defined and in addition, the English president defines 14 points to draw up the peace treaty and prevent future wars. One of which, and having presented a plan to establish the society of nations, this establishes that in Geneva, still present today, there will be a superior body that will watch over the peace of all the peoples involved in the war. This creation of his, however, proved to be very difficult, and Wilson left office without being able to convince the United States to join it.