Topic 7.3 Conducting World War I
Learning Objective
Explain how governments used a variety of methods to conduct war.
Historical Developments
World War I was the first total war. Governments used a variety of strategies, including political propaganda, art, media, and intensified forms of nationalism, to mobilize populations (both in the home countries and the colonies) for the purpose of waging war.
New military technology led to increased levels of wartime casualties.
Reading Questions
- Why was WWI considered a "total" war?
- How did women contribute to the war effort?
- How did colonies contribute to the war effort?
- How did governments change the economy to fit their war goals?
- What were some of the new industrialized weapons that were used? How did these weapons contribute to high death tolls?
- Why did civilians become targets?
- What were the causes and consequences of the Armenian Genocide?
Conducting War
WWI became a Total War" because countries required the mobilization of the entire population. Thus the authority of the state increased significantly.
Governments mobilized large segments of their populations. Men of all classes were recruited as soldiers. Women began to do the work men left behind and also joined the war effort as nurses and other . The colonies also joined the war. Europeans appealed to the colonies with a sense of duty and patriotism so that they would join in the war effort.
“The women worked as ammunition testers, switchboard operators, stock takers. They went into every kind of factory devoted to the production of war materials, from the most dangerous posts in munition plants to the delicate sewing in aeroplane factories.”
- Alice Dunbar Nelson, American Poet and Civil Rights Activist, on African American women’s efforts during the war, 1918
Governments mobilized large segments of their populations. Men of all classes were recruited as soldiers. Women began to do the work men left behind and also joined the war effort as nurses and other . The colonies also joined the war. Europeans appealed to the colonies with a sense of duty and patriotism so that they would join in the war effort.
“The women worked as ammunition testers, switchboard operators, stock takers. They went into every kind of factory devoted to the production of war materials, from the most dangerous posts in munition plants to the delicate sewing in aeroplane factories.”
- Alice Dunbar Nelson, American Poet and Civil Rights Activist, on African American women’s efforts during the war, 1918