Tensions de l'entre deux guerres

        Tensions between countries in Europe appeared after a conflict that opposed France and Prussia, the Franco-Prussian War, in 1870. These tensions leads to the First World which began in the early 20th century. The WWI started in 1914 and finish in 1918. Many countries were involved ; France, Great-Britain and Russia (Triple Entente), but also the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, Germany and Italy (Triple Alliance). An important event, the murder of Franz Ferdinand, the heir of the Austrian crown have launched the beginning of the First World War, on June, 28th in Sarajevo. For sure, Austria-Hungary declared war to Serbia, one month later. Germany was beside them. Russia, allied with Serbia took part in the conflict, France have followed Russia in their decision. After, the United Kingdom entered in the  war.

We can ask us, what kind of role the United Kingdom had in the First World War ?

In the first part, we’ll see the reason why the United Kingdom joined the war and what they’ve done. In the second part, we’ll take a look about the role of the civilians in the war.

        The United Kingdom had an important place in the war. In this first part, we will talk about the ressources of the United Kingdom and then of its soldiers.

        At the begining, the United Kingdom joinded the war to protect Belgium, but it starts attacking alongside France against Germany. Each country started to create as many weapons as possible : that is called the arms race. In fact, the more a country had weapons, the more it was risky for other countries to attack it. Each country wanted to be feared by the others. According to the Ressources of the Great Powers in 1914, The United Kingdom had a steel production of 7.9 tons, which classed it the country with the most important steel production behind Germany (17 tons). Its foreign trade was about 1 million of £ per year, and had 20 millions of tons on their merchant ships, hence the massive steel production. Indeed, for example, the United States of America created themselves weapons, that they after gave to United Kingodom to help them. They also helped France for ressources, money, and military material.

        The United Kingdom had a lot of ressources, but not as many soldiers. Indeed, this was the country that had the less soldiers available among the 5 others ; only 711.000 including reserve forces. That was three times less than Germany (2,200.000 soldiers). But, in contrast of the other countries, the British soldiers were volonteers, and well trained ; at least at the beginning of the war. In fact, everyone believed that the war would not last. But, as the war kept going, the human losses were significant. It reminded to the volonteers soldiers how awful the war was. That explains the low number of soldiers in the United Kingdom.

        Even if the United Kingdom didn’t have loads of soldiers, everybody was working in the back. In this second part, we are going to talk about the impact of the total war on the british society, and about the women’s role in the war.

        The First World War is considered as a total war because of the implication of every civilian in it : men, women, children, everybody had a role to play in this war. As we can read on the document 2, Harold Parry is telling his mother that he can’t just seat and watch the war happening under his eyes. Even if he is against violence and wars in general, he says that his ideas don’t matter in a time of a national crisis like this one, and that is the reason why he’s leaving for the King’s Royal Rifles. The King’s Royal Rifles is a part of the British Army. During the First World war, it is dispered in battalions and is particulary usefool on the Italian front. Furthermore, a total war involves all of the society and it deeply affects people, even those who are not fighting on the front. But, because of the decline of volunteers, men are then in the obligation to go fight ; they have to leave their jobs to go to the front.

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