Rearmament and Domestic Policy in France before the First World War. The Introduction of Three-Year Military Service, 1913–1914

1981 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-94
Author(s):  
Konrad Fuchs ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
First World War ◽  
Domestic Policy ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World

African American Soldiers in World War I

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda M. Nagel
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African American ◽  
Military Service ◽  
The United States ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
War Effort ◽  
African American Soldiers ◽  
First World

In the midst of the long black freedom struggle, African American military participation in the First World War remains central to civil rights activism and challenges to systems of oppression in the United States. As part of a long and storied tradition of military service for a nation that marginalized and attempted to subjugate a significant portion of US citizens, African American soldiers faced challenges, racism, and segregation during the First World War simultaneously on the home front and the battlefields of France. The generations born since the end of the Civil War continually became more and more militant when resisting Jim Crow and insisting on full, not partial, citizenship in the United States, evidenced by the events in Houston in 1917. Support of the war effort within black communities in the United States was not universal, however, and some opposed participation in a war effort to “make the world safe for democracy” when that same democracy was denied to people of color. Activism by organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) challenged the War Department’s official and unofficial policy, creating avenues for a larger number of black officers in the US Army through the officers’ training camp created in Des Moines, Iowa. For African American soldiers sent to France with the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), the potential for combat experience led to both failures and successes, leading to race pride as in the case of the 93rd Division’s successes, and skewed evidence for the War Department to reject increasing the number of black officers and enlisted in the case of the 92nd Division. All-black Regular Army regiments, meanwhile, either remained in the United States or were sent to the Philippines rather than the battlefields of Europe. However, soldiers’ return home was mixed, as they were both celebrated and rejected for their service, reflected in both parades welcoming them home and racial violence in the form of lynchings between December 1918 and January 1920. As a result, the interwar years and the start of World War II roughly two decades later renewed the desire to utilize military service as a way to influence US legal, social, cultural, and economic structures that limited African American citizenship.

The Scottish Soldier and Scotland, 1914–1918

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hew Strachan
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
War Poetry ◽  
Literary Representation ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Local Impact ◽  
Big Cities ◽  
First World

This chapter addresses Scottish military service during the First World War, showing how from having underperformed before the war, Scotland overperformed during the war’s first two years. Particularly striking was how many recruits came from agricultural backgrounds, although in absolute terms the big cities still contributed more men. As the Territorial Army (TA) was the principal Scottish route into the army, the battle of Loos in October 1915 had an enormous local impact: this was Scotland’s equivalent of the Somme. Every Scottish infantry regiment was represented, and both the 9th and 15th Scottish Divisions were TA Lowland Divisions. From Loos came the literary representation of the war, especially Ian Hay’s The First Hundred Thousand and John Buchan’s war poetry. The effect of the First World War, with Scottish infantry regiments raising twenty-plus battalions, was to disseminate those regimental identities much more widely across Scottish society. An enhanced Scottish identity was created, and it emerged in a military context. Overwhelmingly this identity was set within the context of the Union and the empire.

“Mourning Hurray”: a Historical and Poetic Commentary on the Literary Page of the Futurists in the Newspaper Nov’

2021 ◽  
pp. 456-487
Author(s):  
Ruslan A. Poddubtsev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
First World War ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Critical Responses ◽  
First World

This work is a detailed commentary to the futurists’ literary page “Mourning Hurray” (“Traurnoe Ura”), which was published in November 1914 in the Nov’ newspaper. Newspaper versions of texts are compared with later versions from collected works and poetic features are revealed. The historical background of the publication is restored and the poets’ attitude to military service during the First World War are clarified. Critical responses given by Nov’ publicists are considered and the discussion between V. Mayakovsky, N. Raevsky and A. A. Suvorin is described. The commentary makes it possible to look at the page “Mourning Hurray” as a complete artistic statement.

scholarly journals Early Results From the ‘Diggers to Veterans’ Longitudinal Study of Australian Men who Served in the First World War. Short- and Long-Term Mortality of Early Enlisters

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 52-72
Author(s):  
Janet McCalman ◽  
Rebecca Kippen ◽  
Joan McMeeken ◽  
John Hopper ◽  
Michael Reade
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
First World War ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
World War ◽  
Civilian Life ◽  
Early Results ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
The Life Course ◽  
First World

As the world marks the centenaries of the First World War, we still know remarkably little about the life course effects of military service. This paper reports on the first iteration of a cradle-to-grave dataset of men who enlisted and served overseas in the First World War from the state of Victoria, Australia. It examines mortality during military service and in civilian life and finds that mortality in both cases was strongly correlated with individual characteristics. Tall men and young single men were more likely to die in the war. In civilian life, mortality followed closely the pattern for Australian men, and was again highly correlated with individual characteristics and social class.

Frenchmen in the AIF: French–Australian identities during the First World War

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 294-306
Author(s):  
Pauline Georgelin
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Unique Position ◽  
Conflicting Demands ◽  
French Military ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World ◽  
French Identity

This article investigates the participation of French-born soldiers in the AIF – Australia’s volunteer army during the First World War. While the AIF counted men from many different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, the experiences of the French-born Diggers is yet to be fully explored. This article analyses the detailed profiles of these men contained in their military files and demonstrates how they are emblematic of the diverse nature of the French community in Australia. French-born residents of Australia were in a unique position, as they were also liable for French military service. This article explores the motivations and implications of their choices. It also draws on French archival sources to provide a transnational perspective, framing the soldiers’ experiences within the broader context of the conflicting demands of the French and Australian governments, and how French identity was expressed from both above and below.

scholarly journals Emigrant Draft Evasion in the First World War: Decision-Making and Emotional Consequences in the Transatlantic Italian family

2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 170-188
Author(s):  
Selena Daly
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Military Service ◽  
First World War ◽  
Personal Relationships ◽  
World War ◽  
Italian Family ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
First World

In 1911, Italians living abroad constituted one-sixth of Italy’s population, numbering roughly five million people. During the First World War, approximately 300,000 men returned from the Americas and other European countries to answer the call to arms and complete their military service. However, this number constitutes only 13 per cent of those men living abroad who were liable for conscription. Thus, this article will examine the larger phenomenon of draft evasion among emigrant Italians across the Atlantic, where most evaders resided. I will begin by analysing evasion in the context of Italian mobilization and the factors influencing emigrants’ decision-making. I argue that the decision was a joint one, negotiated between family members on both sides of the ocean. I will thus also explore the impact of this decision on personal relationships, through three case studies of familial separation initially caused by emigration and then compounded by draft evasion: a husband in California and his wife in Liguria; a son in the Dominican Republic and his mother in Calabria; and a woman in Argentina whose husband had evaded the draft, and her sister in Liguria, exploring the emotional toll this decision took on them and their loved ones.

scholarly journals Burden of War: Soldiers and the Birth of Social Conflict in 1917

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-46
Author(s):  
K. A. Tarasov ◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Military Service ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Front Line ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
New Recruits ◽  
First World

The article examines the distribution of burdens from Russia’s participation in the First World War. During this period, dissatisfaction with the balance between those who went to the front and those who remained in the rear could be expressed openly. By 1917, the human reserves of the Russian empire were practically exhausted. At the same time, a large part of the population enjoyed deferrals from serving in the army. After the revolution, servicemen, many of whom had already been on the front line and were wounded, were very active. They demanded that soldiers who served in rear units should go first with new reinforcements. This category included new recruits, soldiers of auxiliary troops, military clerks, officers, and all ranks who were involved in training in reserve battalions. By the summer of 1917, soldiers demanded the mobilization of former policemen, deserters, and everyone who legally or illegally used deferrals from military service. In the end, the slogan “The bourgeoisie to trenches!” was born spontaneously. This meant sending to the front all who profited from the war by remaining in the rear. The spread of this slogan speaks of the assimilation of the language of class antagonism by soldiers. It also became important to the escalation of civil war. The demands were directed to the state authorities whose silence led to soldiers’ desires to implement “mobilization” on their own.

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