Homefront expressed the important reality that the outcome of the war hinged on how effectively each nation mobilized its economy and activated its noncombatant citizens to support the war effort.
Transformation of Civilian life
War transformed civilian life by limiting individual freedoms and give control of society to military leaders. Governments of nations assumed control of the home front. Governments soon militarized civilian war production by subordinating private enterprises to governmental control and imposing severe discipline on the labor process. Governments abandoned the capitalist market economy and instituted tight controls over economic life. Planning boards reorganized entire industries, set production quotas and priorities, and determined what would be produced and consumed. The government also established wage and price controls, extended work hours, and restricted the movement of workers in some cases. However, the war created an increasing demand for workers and unemployment disappeared.
Women during the War
The role of women in the Great War were as men marched off to war, women marched off to work to fill the gaps in the workforce. Some women took over the management of farms and businesses left by their husbands, who went off to fight. Others found jobs as postal workers and police officers. Behind battle lines, women were seen as nurses, physicians, and communication clerks. Women often put in long and hard hours in ammunition factories in order to make shells.
Flora Sandes
Flora Sandes (1876-1956) was a British nurse who enlisted as a Serbian Army soldier during the First World War.
The daughter of an Irish clergyman Sandes volunteered for service with a Serbian ambulance unit upon the Austro-Hungarian declaration of war with Serbia on July 28, 1914.
When the Serbian Army was overrun by invading Austro-German-Bulgarian forces in November 1915 Sandes traveled with the Army and government-in-exile into mountains of Albania. Sandes herself enlisted with the Serbian Army during the retreat.
In November the following year Sandes was promoted to Sergeant-Major. The same year, 1916, she published An English Woman-Sergeant in the Serbian Army in order to raise money for the Serbian cause.
Before 1916 was ended, she suffered a wound caused by an enemy grenade during hand-to-hand fighting. Her wound made her return to her previous occupation of running a hospital.
In spite of the end of war in late 1918 Sandes chose to remain with the Serbian Army, eventually retiring with the rank of Captain and with Serbia's highest decoration, the King George Star.
The daughter of an Irish clergyman Sandes volunteered for service with a Serbian ambulance unit upon the Austro-Hungarian declaration of war with Serbia on July 28, 1914.
When the Serbian Army was overrun by invading Austro-German-Bulgarian forces in November 1915 Sandes traveled with the Army and government-in-exile into mountains of Albania. Sandes herself enlisted with the Serbian Army during the retreat.
In November the following year Sandes was promoted to Sergeant-Major. The same year, 1916, she published An English Woman-Sergeant in the Serbian Army in order to raise money for the Serbian cause.
Before 1916 was ended, she suffered a wound caused by an enemy grenade during hand-to-hand fighting. Her wound made her return to her previous occupation of running a hospital.
In spite of the end of war in late 1918 Sandes chose to remain with the Serbian Army, eventually retiring with the rank of Captain and with Serbia's highest decoration, the King George Star.
Propaganda
Propaganda is governmental censorship of bad news, restriction of civil liberties, and vilification of the enemy. The role of propaganda in WW1 was to convince the public that military defeat would mean the destruction of everything worth living for and to discredit and dehumanize the enemy.
This propaganda is saying how cutting rations and saving money towards the war is how civilians can help assist in the war.
This propaganda is saying how giving money to your country with help the army crush the Germans.