Total War

By: Minnie

Question

“What are the main ideas of Total War in World War I ?”

British Government Report on the Armenian Massacres of April-December 1915 by Lord Bryce

Document: http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/brycereport_armenia.htm

“I am grieved to say that such information as has reached me from several quarters goes to show that the number of those who have perished in Armenia is very large.  It has been estimated at the figure of 800,000.”

Opinion Statement: According to Lord Bryce's report, he felt grieved to say that over 800,000 people had died during 1915, and he believed that many of them were including irrelevant people.

The Western Front and the Birth of Total WarBy Dr Stephen Badsey

“Nothing short of the organisation for 'total war' on a scale previously unknown in history would do. For the British, this meant the creation and training from scratch of new mass armies, and a national sacrifice of staggering proportions. The principal 'cause' of World War One, in this sense, was the tactical deadlock of the trenches; and the principal cause of its end was the solving of that problem over the next four years.”

Document: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/total_war_01.shtml

Opinion Statement: Dr Stephen Badsey, a historian, believed that the principal cause of World War I was that people wanted to get over each other for the pride of their own countries, and everyone was included, which called a 'total war'.

American Women And The Great WarBy Lynn Dumenil

Document: http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/ww1/dumenil.html

Women And WorkWomen were offered job opportunities that challenged the traditional patterns of sex segregated labor. Women replaced men in farms all over the country in order to sustain agricultural production. In the cities, women took jobs as street car conductors and postal carriers and found employment in shipbuilding and other heavy manufacturing that previously had been closed to them.

Opinion Statement: Lynn Dumenil believed that women during World War I replaced men as workers and they broke the traditional rules of genders separation.

Thesis Statement

Total war is when the civilian population is part of the war effort. In World War I, everyone was participated in the war

effort especially women who took on jobs as workers to support their countries.