Essay about Australian Economy Post World War I

The Fall of Singapore is considered one of the greatest defeats in British History. For it to be overtaken and then occupied by the Japanese posed a massive threat and shock to Australia, which then caused Australia to withdraw troops introduce conscription and also the USA came in to help Australia against the threatening Japanese.

Australia’s new dependence on America resulted in a large influx of American soldiers to Australia and while Australian society was initially accepting and welcoming of their unorthodox culture, behaviours and morals, this quickly turned to contempt and created an unsavoury relationship between Australians and Americans whom they saw as being a bad influence on the women and youth of Australia. Australians regarded Americans as being, “overpaid, oversexed and over-here”. However, while this had the possibility to cause influential divides in society, Australians realised the necessity for the American presence in their country and the security they had provided, overruling any irritation felt towards them. The Australian war effort in the pacific regions had also served to amplify and fuel the ‘Anzac legend’ creating a national sense of pride and unity during the war. Australia’s involvement in the Second World War thus served to create a more independent Australia, in charge of its own policies and decisions in foreign affairs, creating cohesion within society.

The First World War was the first war that Australian’s ever fought as a Federated nation. World War one was a time of great change for Australia. World War one had an enormous impact on Australian society and I will be support this argument by looking at how the loss of troops meant that more men had to be enlisted to fight and how the role of women changed during the war. I will also be examining the use of propaganda used to influence the civilian population. World War I had a significant and lasting impact on Australian society.

The Second World War was a massive event that left the whole world shocked and saddened of the outcomes. World War 2 was known mostly because of who ruled, Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Nazis. The Nazis where a German army who terrorized Europe and the world with the in humane treatment of people and mostly the treatment of the Jews. Australia’s involvement in ww2 will be the main focus of this essay. Australia lost over 30 000 people who became in prisoned by the Nazis. To follow on with the hypothesis of Australia’s involvement and contributions to WW2 was significant due to their alliances with Great Britain and the USA largely affect Australia even to this day, I will be discussing this through the rest of the essay.

This was good for both countries, as Britain was struggling with the repatriation of many of its soldiers, and unemployment was at record highs in that country, and Australia desperately needed its population to rise to help develop a new nation. This incentive program was ultimately very successful, with over 300 000 (Bereson, 2000) British nationals emigrating to Australia, bringing skills, labour force and population growth to drive the economy forward. One component of this immigration program was that offered involved land settlements to Allied ex-servicemen, and 17 000 ex-soldiers took this opportunity. This led to greater farm and industry production, which fed the growth of a young Australia.

During the years from 1914 - 1918 Australia was at constant battle all over the world fighting for the british. With battles deaths always follow. So many people say, “what did we ever gain from WW1 we lost so many people as a country”. Although we lost almost 60,000 men and 150,000 wounded or taken prisoner. After the war the British Government offered ex-servicemen free transportation to some of the colonies, 17,000 migrants arrived in Australia between 1919 and 1922. Community organisations paid for migrants to come over to Australia. Small numbers also arrived independently. It was also said that up to 300,000 men came over from britain post war to live. The British government gave an incentive to migrate over because so many people

Although both the World Wars had significant impacts on Australians, the statement that wartime controls in World War One had a greater impact on Australians than they did in World War Two is fairly inaccurate. There are a number of reasons as to why this was the case, as demonstrated through the government 's wartime controls. One of the wartime controls that was utilised by the government in both World Wars but had greater impact on Australians in World War Two was conscription. Another wartime control that had a higher degree of impact on Australians in World War Two than in World War One was the detainment and isolation of ‘enemy aliens’ when the government again took steps to protect their national security. With such a large number of servicemen deployed overseas, the role of women in Australia also changed drastically to meet the needs of the armed forces, the government and the economy and this influenced Australian life more in World War Two. Therefore, although both wars affected the lives of many Australians in mental, physical, social and economic aspects, the wartime controls of World War Two had a much greater impact on Australians than in World War One.

During World War I, the Australian home front was impacted by a long and varying list of occurrences during the period of time between the years of 1914 to 1918. The home front was influenced politically through the arguments over the conscription vote and as Australia became divided between the different war beliefs. It was also influenced by social change, as the use of censorship drastically altered the Australians’ views of war and women began to pick up odd jobs in order to assist the soldiers as very few of them were allowed to directly help as nurses in Gallipoli. There were also extreme economic alterations as the wages in Australia were pushed down and prices were pushed up, and the country discarded major trade partners who had become their enemy.

Importantly for Australia has been the take over of land by the British under the doctrine of

To describe the nature of the role, and lives, of women in Australia before, during, and after World War One

In August 1914, after the outbreak of World War I, an immense wave of support flooded Britain from her ally, Australia. All Australian political parties, community leaders, newspapers and churches were on-board with this major movement to help the mother country. All believed it was a morally right and necessary commitment . World War I, 1914 – 1918 had a significant and long lasting impact on the Australian home front. ‘The civilian population ’ had to undergo many changes to cater for the war. At this time women’s push for a larger role in the war effort caused a significant and long lasting impact on the Australian home front, which has helped shape workplace gender equality today. Conscription also impacted the Australian home front, meaning, compulsory enlistment of people in military service. As well as the massive impact on Australia’s economy from the many trading cancellations through abandoned or cut off allies, which has helped build Australia’s economy to what it is today.

World War II was the catalyst that changed the opportunities available to women and eventually the way they were regarded as a viable workforce. Suddenly women throughout the United States were pushing themselves to their limits to support the war effort. Women were fulfilling jobs and responsibilities that many previously believed to be impossible for their gender. Opportunities were opened in steel plants, ammunition factories, and even the United States military. As the war progressed the number of male workers declined dramatically. Society had no choice but to turn to the mothers, sisters, and daughters of our nation for help. The results for each woman varied

Ever since then women proved that they can work in a man’s workplace and do just as well. Any job that was a man’s, was a women’s as well. Women were soon “the most needed workers of all” according to Brenda Ralf Lewis. Factory workers became known as “the soldiers without guns”. If women hadn’t stepped up to the line, winning the war wouldn’t have been as easy as it was for us. Not only did the women in factories and shipyards have a big part in doing their part in the war contributions, but so did the women who were out on the field fighting alongside with their men risking their very life.

As more men entered the armed forces, women needed to replace them. By the war's end, hundreds of thousands of women had entered the workforce, many of them in traditionally masculine occupations such as engineering, munitions, transport, business, and eventually even the military. The war produced a leap in women's employment from twenty-six percent in the workforce in 1914 to thirty-six percent by 1918. One million women worked in munition industries, forty-thousand served as nurses, and twenty-thousand joined the Women's Land Army as agricultural workers (Marwick, 1977). For the young and the middle-class, work outside their homes was indeed a new experience. On the other hand, working-class women were used to paid work, but the type of work was new. Many left low-skill, low-wage jobs, especially in domestic service, for better paying skilled labor in factories and workshops (Kent, 1993).

A massive amount of men were taken out of the economy and left their jobs for the armed forces, so it was therefore down to the 1 million women that entered the workforce to rplace them, and keep the economy going. A further 250,000 women moved from peacetime to wartime jobs. Women then took over the jobs previously done by the men in factories, offices and transport, and played a massively crucial role in the munitions department.