World War one Case

World War One is at the end of the timeline of our investigation of a period of modern history between 1750 and 1918. Only thirteen years after the British self-governing colonies in the six states agreed to federate to form the Commonwealth of Australian, and an independent Australian nation was established, Australian men volunteered to fight in a war in Europe.

Out of a population of little more than 4½ million, between 1914 and 1918, 416,000 men enlisted for service overseas with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). These men who stated their age was between eighteen and forty-four (although some were too young or old and lied about their age) represented about 38.7 percent of the total adult male population. Of some 331,000 who served overseas, 61,919 were killed, another 155,000 were wounded and more than 4,000 missing or taken prisoner, resulting in 221,000 total casualties or nearly 67% of the soldiers mobilised to fight.

The great majority of the population in the early decades of the 20th century were either immigrants from Great Britain or Ireland or the descendants of such immigrants. Moveover, Australia was most concerned the British would continue to assist with Australian defence in the Pacific area against the expansion of other great powers in the region such as the German Empire and Japan. So, when Britain declared war against German on 4 August 1914 it would have been unthinkable to Australians, for Australia not also automatically to be at war, standing shoulder to shoulder with Great Britain and the interests of the British Empire (above information drawn from Australian Government, Department of Veteran Affairs, "Australians on the Western Front" 2006.)

The movie "Gallipoli" was made some 30 years ago - 65years after the events of World War One (approximately equivalent to the period from now back to the Second World War.) The movie endeavours to describe the values and contradictions in Australian society and the reasons for Australian men volunteering to fight in this war in Europe.