World War I : Britain 1914-1918



A.) The Chain of Events, from British Perspective

On August 2nd 1914, German troops marched into Belgium, in violation of Belgium's neutrality, guaranteed by the treaty of 1839, of which Prussia itself had been a signatory power. On August 3rd 1914, Britain declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary.
The German invasion was stopped at Compiegne, 40 km from Paris, and pushed back. Then the war turned into TRENCH WARFARE. British troops took on the sector on the SOMME. Little ground was gained and lost; casualties were high. Between winter 1914/15 and spring 1918, the front hardly changed.
Britain declared the BLOCKADE of Germany's North Sea coast, a blockade which also harmed neutral Netherlands and Denmark. The blockade was effective; the German economy had to manage without imports from overseas. The lack of fertilizers, of raw materials had a serious impact, which only partially could be made up by wartime research. The German fleet, for the most part of the war, remained in the docks; only in 1916 it left for the open seas to fight the BATTLE OF JUTLAND, in which it failed to break through, but sunk more British tonnage than it lost. Both sides claimed victory.

In October 1914 the Ottoman Empire entered the war on the side of the Entente. Winston Churchill, secretary of the navy, advocated a landing at the Dardanelles, the conquest of Constantinople - the Ottoman Empire, defeated by Italy in 1911 and by a Balkan coalition in 1912 was regarded the weak link in the Axis chain. British troops landed on GALLIPOLI PENINSULA. However, they were pinned down by the Turks, and, after a year of fighting and 10.000s of losses, withdrew in January 1916. Another attempt to invade Mesopotamia from Kuwait was stopped by the Turks, the invaders inclosed in KUT EL-AMARA and forced to surrender. Two campaigns, two failures; attacks on GAZA from Egypt similarly did not make progress.
The Entente powers made promises to many governments to cause them to enter the war on their side - to Rumania, Italy, Greece. Promises were made to the Jews in the BALFOUR DECLARATION of 1917 (a Jewish homestead in Palestine) and to Sherif Husayn of Mekka, whose bedouins rebelled against Turkish rule.
To the surprise of the British, Husayn's bedouins, lead by Colonel E.E. Lawrence (LAWRENCE OF ARABIA) took Aqaba. Financed and equipped by the British, the ARAB REVOLT was critical in tying Turkish forces and disrupting their infrastracture; Now, the British army could move into Palestine. At the same time, a British force had taken Baghdad. By the time the Ottoman Empire asked for a truce, the British had taken Mosul, the Arabs Damascus.
Meanwhile, the German spring offensive on the western front came to a halt in July 1918, and from then on the allies, with fresh U.S. forces, pushed the Germans back, into Belgium. On November 9th 1918, the German High Command requested a truce.


B.) The War, as perceived in Britain

News of the outbreak of World War I was welcomed less enthusiastically in England then on the European continent. The TRENCH WARFARE along the Somme soon became the central theatre of events, and there prospects were bleak. Wave after wave of soldiers were sent to attack the German trenches; casualties were extremely high, with no visible success. The mechanisation of warfare, the introduction of GAS WARFARE made life in the trenches seem like hell. The TANK, introduced by the British, was not a decisive element.
A serious response on the British Blockade of Germany's coasts was Germany's U-BOAT WARFARE. Both the British navy and merchant marine suffered losses, and hitherto affluent Britain had to experience, just as Germany, the lack of many products.
The country introduced WARTIME ECONOMY; the country, which in the years of High Imperialism had grown accustomed to food imports from overseas, becan to extend agricultural production again. As men served in the army or navy, women had to fill their places in factories, administrations and elsewhere. And scarce goods were rationed (COUPON ECONOMY). The affluent lifestyle of pre-war Britain ended abruptly, replaced by WARTIME SOCIALISM, where goods were distributed according to need, not according to wealth.
The individual citizen was asked to make extraordinary contributions, to invest his savings in WAR BONDS, to volunteer, to donate blood. The class structure of the British Empire was jeopardized, as hitherto disadvantaged strata of society, the Irish, inhabitants from the colonies, were armed and sent to the front. The war demanded the mobilization of all energies. It became evident that the structure of the British Empire was outdated and could nor be upheld for long; the Irish EASTER RISING of 1916 made that all too obvious.







EXTERNAL
FILES 		World War I, from Spartacus Schoolnet, many files
The Devil's Porridge, from Dumfries & Galloway Council, on an ammunition factory employing 30,000 women, opened in 1915
Working Women and the First World War, from Spartacus Schoolnet
Encyclopedia of the First World War, from Spartacus Schoolnet; a weird publication, as it exculsively lists persons on the Entente side
The Long, Long Trail, The Story of the British Army 1914-1918
Scottish Women Hospitals, The Almeric Paget Military Massage Corps, from Family Records
Chaim Weizmann and paardenkastanjes. Chemische problemen bij de Britse munitieproductie tijdens den Eersten Wereldoorlog (Chaim Weizman and Horse Chestnuts. Chemical Problems with British Ammunition Production during World War I), by E.R.J. Wils, in Dutch
DOCUMENTS Records of Women's Services, First World War, from PRO
Cecil Slack's Great War letters, posted by ERIL, C.S. being the wife of a soldier who served in WW I; vast collection of letters
Illustrated War News, Vol.15, Nov.18th 1914; Vol.21, Dec. 30th 1914, posted by Gutenberg Library Online
VIDEOS Hang up your brightest colours. The Life and death of Michael Collins, 90 min. documentary, 1997, from Irish Visions; Michael Collins, 1996, cc
REFERENCE Walter Raleigh, England and the War, 1918; online book posted by authorama [English WW I propaganda]
Edmund Dene Morel, Truth and the War (1915), edited by Catherine Ann Cline, NY : Garland 1972 [G]



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on January 8th 2002, last revised on October 6th 2008

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