Essay On Why Did Australia Want To Enlist In Ww1

World War One began in August 1914 and lasted until November 1918. During this period, 331 781 Australians enlisted and served overseas with 59 342 killed and 152 171 wounded. Defending the ‘Mother Country’ was initially the reason for enlistment for the majority of Australians’, however, as time progressed, the extent of enlistment dropped. One of the foremost reasons that had Australians enlisting in World War I was because of the fact that Australia was a part of the British Empire, this made Australians want to enlist to show their support and prove their loyalty towards the ‘mother country’. However, not all saw this as a chance to serve the British Empire; many people were simply seeking thrills, fascinated with the glory of going to

Towards the end of the 19th Century, Australia had been participating in numerous small imperial wars that were fought in the name of Britain. As early as 1885, a small contingent of men was sent from New South Wales to Egypt to assist Britain in putting down a small religious uprising. Likewise, Australia also inputted 16 000 men and horses in the Boer War which lasted from 1889 to 1902. These successful, small wars filled people with encourage to enlist in war and misled Australians into thinking that war was the, “…greatest opportunity for a chap to make a man of himself…” than something that costs thousands of lives (Nicholls, 1994, pg182). Hence, when World War I broke out, some Australians saw it as a chance to take part in an adventure rather than a chance to serve the ‘Mother Country’. This is evident when author of Images of Australian History, Nicholls, G., stated that some people enlisted for “…more a sense of adventure and an opportunity to travel than patriotism…” and the “…greatest opportunity for a chap to make a man of himself…” (Nicholls,G., 1994, 181-182). Nicholls also corroborates with the Australian War Memorial in the fact that not all Australians enlisted purely in the thought of defending the ‘Mother Country’, which is made clear in an extract from a letter by Robert Edmund

When the news of war came in 1914, people in Australia greeted it with enthusiasm and naivety. According to McKernan, M., in The Australian People and The Great War, Australians lacked a sense of pessimism and fatalism that was found in the French, Russians and Irish. This, combined with the fact that Australians were often in the direct line of fire, had death tolls climbing upwards so rapid that by the end of 1916, the battalions were less than half strength. Consequently, opinions began to change and rather than being focused on defending the ‘Mother Country’, many started to question the purpose of sending soldiers to a war that was fought thousands of kilometers away from Australia. Enlistment rates, as a result, decreased after the initial burst of enthusiasm. People started to think less about fighting for Britain and more about the impacts fighting in war brought to Australia. Accordingly, enlistment rates dropped from less than 5000 in the first half of 1917 to 2 500 in the second half of the year. However, despite the diminishing rates of enlistment, there were still people who put their names down to go to war. This wasn’t because of their sense of duty towards the ‘Mother Country’, instead, it was because of the belief to uphold