WW1: On The Homefront Flashcards
What is the ‘home-front’?
-Life in Britain during WW1
What is a ‘Total war’?
-A war that involves or effects all society
How did Women support the war effort in 1914?
- They stopped all campaigning
- They set up organisations such as the Women’s Hospital Corps and the Women’s Police Volunteers
Did people support the war?
- Yes
- In 1914 half a million men joined the army
- These feelings went down after Christmas 1914, as everyone thought it would be over.
How did women support the war effort in 1915?
-Lloyd George and Mrs Pankhurst organised a ‘Women’s job march’ to recruit women for factories
Who refused to employ women? And how did they resolve it?
- Trade Unions and Employers
- The government agreed with the trade unions that they’d pay women the same as men
Why was the Munitions Crisis important?
- Allowed women to work in factories
- Allowed them to help out more with the war effort
- A coalition government was set up
- Lloyd George was made Minister of Munitions. He introduced a wide range of measures to ‘deliver the goods’
- New National Shell Factories
- 20,000 munition factories and their workers were controlled by the government
- Wages were controlled
When was conscription set up? And did people like it?
- Set up in 1916 for non-married men aged 18-40
- May 1916 a further Conscription Act extended to all men of military age, married or not.
- Between 1916-18, around 1 in 3 men were conscripted
- Public didn’t like to as they’re loved ones had to leave
- 50 MPs voted against it in parliament
How many people joined the army in September 1914 compared to September 1915?
- 1914, just under 500,000
- 1915, under 100,000
Why was the number of volunteers higher in 1914?
-They thought the war would be over by Christmas
What were Conchies?
- Conscientious Objectors
- They are people who are opposed to the war for religious or political reasons
- It would be against their conscience to fight
What was DORA?
- Defence of the Realm Act
- Set up on the 8th August 1914
- Gave the government power to bypass parliament and are laws themselves
What was the Problem with Mining? How was it solved and what was the importance?
- Problem: If mining wasn’t controlled by the government, they wouldn’t contribute
- Solution: The government took control, so that coal was for the war and not the coal owners
- Importance: Coal is need to run the steam engines and machines in factories
What was the Problem with Food Production and Distribution? How was it solved and what was the importance?
- Problem: Britain depends on foreign imports (40% meat and 80% wheat)
- shortages occurred in 1916 and worsened in 1917
- German U-Boat sunk 1 in 4 merchant ships
- In April 1917 Britain was down to 8weeks supply of wheat
-Solution: LG persuades farms to turn pasture land into arable land which lead to an increase of potatoes and wheat.
-The Ministry of Food upped the price of bread. There were compulsory rationing in 1918
-It subsidised the price of bread which meant the price fell,
even the poorer families could afford the ‘nine-penny loaf’
-It encouraged voluntary rationing
-The Royal Family led the way by announcing they were going to reduce the amount of bread they ate
-Important: Britain needs food to keep going
What was the problem with Railways? How was it solved?
- Problem: Trains needed to move troops around the country.
- Also to send cargo to factories and give troops supplies
- Solution: Government ran them as a single unified system
- Railway companies granted the pay they had in 1913
