ENGLISH PROPAGANDA DURING
WWI
WORK ON PROPAGANDA POSTERS
I- REMINDER: THE CAUSES OF THE 1ST WORLD WAR
II- BRITAIN IN WAR
III- HOW PROPAGANDA POSTERS PLAYED A MAJOR ROLE IN WORLD WAR I?
I- REMINDER: the causes of the 1st
World War
I-1- A divided Europe:
→ Economic competition between industrial
countries to win markets
→ Power competition : colonialism.
eg: 2 crisis about Morocco between France and
Germany (1905 and 1911)… war was imminent !
→ A strong Franco-German rivalry : France
wanted to recover Alsace and Lorraine
Triple Alliance (central powers) was
a military alliance among the
German Empire, the AustroHungarian Empire, and the kingdom
of Italy.
Triple Entente (Allied powers) was
the alliance linking the Russian
Empire, the French Third Republic,
and the United Kingdom of Great
Britain
→ OPPOSING FORCES
1915
I-2. Discontentment of minority
groups wanting more rights or
independence
Eg: In the Austro-Hungarian Empire
I-3. Summer 1914: WW1 broke out!
Gavrilo Princip: a Serbian, member of
a Yugoslav nationalist organisation.
He assassinated the
Austrian Archduke Franz
Ferdinand and his wife on
28th June 1914.
28th July, 1914: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
Russia mobilised in support of Serbia
2nd August, 1914: Ottoman Empire (Turkey) and Germany
signed a secret treaty of alliance.
3rd August, 1914: Germany declared war on France.
4th August, 1914: Germany invaded neutral Belgium and
Luxembourg (before moving towards France), leading
Britain to declare war on Germany.
10th August, 1914: Austria-Hungary invaded Russia.
II- Britain in war
Head of the British column
near Le Havre
Source : New York Times, 30 Aug 1914
British Highland
regiments marching
through Boulogne
New York Times, 1919.
Present this document: nature, source, context, address, main
ideas.
Describe it:framing, composition ''colours'', light and shade,
characters, setting, action, moment.
Interpret it.
List the whole vocabulary you need to describe the fighting during
WW1
III- HOW BRITISH PROPAGANDA
POSTERS PLAYED A MAJOR ROLE IN
WORLD WAR I?
1914: The famous World War I recruiting poster featuring Lord
Kitchener, Secretary of State for War.
EXAMPLE OF
AUSTRALIAN PROPAGANDA
British women working in
the arms industry
Unit: million
British leaflet dropped into German trenches by balloon:
FOR WHAT ARE YOU FIGHTING, MICHEL?
They tell you that you are fighting for the Fatherland. Have you ever thought
why you are fighting?
You are fighting to glorify Hindenburg, to enrich Krupp. You are struggling for
the Kaiser, the Junkers, and the militarists....
They promise you victory and peace. You poor fools! It was promised your
comrades for more than three years. They have indeed found peace, deep in
the grave, but victory did not come! . . .
It is for the Fatherland.... But what is your Fatherland? Is it the Crown Prince
who offered up 600,000 men at Verdun? Is it Hindenburg, who with Ludendorff
is many kilometers behind the front lines making more plans to give the English
more cannon fodder (cannon fodder=chair à canon) ? Is it Krupp for whom each
year of war means millions of marks? Is it the Prussian Junkers who still cry
over your dead bodies for more annexations?
No, none of these is the Fatherland. You are the Fatherland.... The whole
power of the Western world stands behind England and France and America! An
army of ten million is being prepared ; soon it will come into the battle. Have you
thought of that, Michel ?
Military Casualties in World War I 1914-1918
Belgium
British Empire
France
Greece
Italy
Japan
Montenegro
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Serbia
United States
Austria-Hungary
Bulgaria
Germany
Ottoman Empire
45,550
942,135
1,368,000
23,098
680,000
1,344
3,000
8,145
300,000
1,700,000
45,000
116,516
1,200,000
87,495
1,935,000
725,000
Britain joined the war on August 4th 1914. She had a
small professional army and no policy of national
service so she needed many more men for the British
Expeditionary Force (BEF).
Consequently the British government quickly created a
lot of recruitment posters.
Other posters followed, many stimulating wartime
economy, others encouraging support for government
policy by provoking indignation against the atrocities
committed (always) by the German Army.