Propaganda Was an Essential Weapon In the War Against Germany Essay

IntroductionDuring the for the showmagazine time gentle human beings War there were more aspects which innateized the result of the state of state of contend. Apart from the obvious con bearingational conflict which took place, these took the form of fighting on the summits fight at sea and conflicts in the air. However there was in any case a grand apparatus which was utilised during the First World War by the British Empire. Propaganda was full generally apply in Britain to forge nearones decision round particular issues r stimulate to the state of state of war. This seemingly subtle authority of influencing slews opinions was genuinely instead an military forceive way of influencing tidy sums general outlooks.The aims of propaganda argon therefore* influence sight what they think, how they think and why the think in this fashion* to chief(prenominal)tain the stake of the multitude* to recruit pop the dubiety soldiers* to just nowify subscriptio n to the armed forces after 1916 when subscription to the armed forces was made mandatory* to convince hoi polloi that the British pull up stakes win* to convince spate that it is right and necessary to fight by generating ideas that the enemy is supremely ugly and that getting rid of radicating this enemy is worth the cost of lives in war.* to support people in measure of suffering and hardship* to instil a scent out of national pride in the rural argona, the custody who were spillage to fight, the monarchy and the g all overnwork forcet.* Propaganda contained nurture on crucial social functions oft(prenominal) as food shortages and to cope in these situations with yet the bedrock amenities needed to survive and how to generate your own amenities.Formats of propagandaPostersThese were really authoritative pieces of propaganda as they had the virtually people looking at them. This was because beaks could be easily seen from capital distances, therefore a wider ran ge of people could view the posters from further away. This factual was a very effectual form of propaganda as single buzz linguistic process could be placed on the poster and people would instantaneously know what the poster was laborious to avow to them. For example the poster to which I will refer to as Go, as it portrays a don showcase figure embracing a son like figure by the shoulders and gesturing to the horizon. The caption consequently reads Its your duty lad, Join to-day.The text is in large writing and would be easily seen from a great distance away if placed on a billboard. The emphasis on this piece of propaganda is on the word Go, it is much larger than the rest of the text and during this time in the 1st World War, people did non take a shit to read the rest of the poster to understand what was macrocosm verbalise. Thus because of many an(prenominal) British peoples deep seeded roots about nationalism and the fact that it was their duty to defend their nation many people actively paid attention to these posters and the influenced them graduate(prenominal)ly.LeafletsThese were usually posted through peoples doors or sighted to them in the street. Leaflets provided people with propaganda in a minimised form, which could be more individualal and targeted to influence peoples views over authorized topics. Detailed in formation could be placed on the leaflet which could be read on posters from far distances.These might be leaflets about food shortages, how it would effect the people and what they could do about it. Fundamentally this cause of propaganda was meant to be read, minor details could be vest on the leaflets, information which went into more depth about basic topics. Leaflets were to a fault pinned in shop windows which allowed people to read the information on them as they looked into the window. Even discarded leaflets were looked at by passers-by that looked at the information, this type of propaganda was, unconstip ated though it may non seem so read and acknowledged by many people.FilmsThese programs on the idea of propaganda were shown in cinemas usually as the movie or as a catch to a movie. They were usually targeted to produced support for one type of propaganda in particular, whether it was recruitment or war bonds. Films were, although non cheap to make, very influential means of coiffureting forth ideals of propaganda. The visuals of real people gave the watchers a sense of realism and that what they were watching was also something that they could be part of and hold up some kind of control over, this added to the esprit de corps of the British people.Using films it is easy to portray any image which is needed, hence better control put up be achieved over what is being viewed and how the audience is accepting the ideas. The British governance under the Defence Of the realm Act could trim back the viewing of films which would be detrimental to the war effort. However if the Br itish presidential term could restrict what was viewed then they could move on what was viewed. thusly movies promoting support for the war were the only type of films which were legally aloud to stagger or shown in respect to the war.The film about the Battle of the Somme showed a staged encounter where the number of casualties sustained by the British was seemingly kept low, when in the actual battle the casualties where high on both sides, the British and French, and the Germans. The high casualties in this battle was in part due to the efforts of the force tank car. This was the first battle in which the nonorious tank was used.Films were very popular as they were very patriotic, this went wellhead with the British home- kick upstairsn touch in patriotism. They often showed highly patriotic films which made the British public proud of their country and gave them an elated morale which in part justified their belief that the war was a dandy thing to be a part of.Newsp apersNewspapers were the most widely read, source of propaganda in World War 1 Britain. They gave information on what was happening on the battlefields and fronts of Europe. Information was non readily available, thus sources of information about the war were scarcely available, news programpapers were the choice which most people made to receive their news in the morning. Posters were also stuck in newspapers to produce propaganda to influence peoples views. Newspapers were truly the national source of information available. In the news were articles talking about the latest war event or conquest, however the facts which regarded events which had non particularly at rest(p) Britains way were non at all mentioned.The newspapers were full of stories about how great the war was going and how Britain was doing so well. When in actual fact Britain was experiencing sever amounts of casualties like in the Battle of the Somme, Britain experienced large amounts of casualties. The side line is a quote from The Mirror regarding the battle of the Somme Our losses are few, on the other hand the Germans are many., this is a severely biased view if not blatant deception. The British and French forces woolly colossal amounts of men at this battle.However due to the D.O.R.A this type of information should not be viewed by the British public and therefore Britain were always made to be in control of the whole war. Newspapers were legal formats for propaganda as they were nationally available and many details could be put in the newspaper about propaganda as a large amount of people would be indication the information. The amount of information which was veritable on the war in newspapers which was unbiased was extremely rare and limited, this was due to people such as Mr Beaverbrook, the Minister of Information, he decided what was allowed to be known about the war to the public and what was not. He also owned a study newspaper, hence he had great control and great i nfluence over this format of propaganda, this man restricted the editors of the newspapers to what they could and could not print.D.O.R.AThe Defence Of the Realm Act. This act passed in 1914 gave the British government wide-ranging abilities to control many aspects of peoples daily lives. Land and buildings were allowed to be seized as well as industries if they were outstanding the war effort. The defence of the realm act also restricted what the public knew about the war. It did this by censoring all of the media which was available to the public. The government also censored what was told to the British media about the war, this include censoring foreign insistency and foreign information. The government immediately took control of important industries to the war such as the coal assiduity, it did this so that the supplies from the industries could be used to support the war effort instead to secluded profit being given to the owners.The defence act was crucial in the way pro paganda influenced people as this Act, restricted the types of propaganda available and provided the fuel for the propaganda fire. D.O.R.A was responsible for the over-exaggerated press about the tanks. If D.O.R.A had not restricted the information which was to be shared with the general public the support for the tank in the form of war bonds and recruitment would lower berth signifi bedtly and the general support for the war effort would also lower as morale would be lost. Hence as a part of propaganda the Defence Of the Realm Act was very important as this act secured how the war effort mainly on the home front would be marketed and justified. The British also cut the German transatlantic cables so that they could not communicate with any British media so the legality of the war would be kept a secret.The TankThis combat vehicle was used in the great as the Britishs statement of power and advanced technology. Under the 1914 Defence Of the Realm Act, the British press was given the information that the tank was the Allies new secret weapon which was a main contri anding factor on the home front to the British successes. In actual fact the tank was not such a in(predicate) weapon it was slow and sluggish and often got caught in fuck up as battles ensued making the tank an ineffective weapon in these situations. However the tank did have its positives it was a very strong vehicle which could withstand heavy fire and arsenal. Hence the tank was very good at attacking and taking the offensive however when it came to reason its acquired position and maintaining a strong breastwork of defence the tank was not very good at this, it was also at fault when it came to strategical retreats.In the papers the British media projected the take as an influential weapon in the war on the home front however it was not as effective as the public sight it was. The media received over-exaggerated details of the tanks performance as the British government wanted to adjud ge up the morale of the public so that they would not lose faith and consequently lose their self-confidence in the war effort. An example of this is the battle in Cambrai in Northern France in 1917 where the British capable an attack with a raid of around 400 tanks, the first in military history of this scale. The British drove an 8 kilometre salient in the German lines however lost most of this saucily acquired land due to the tank not being able to hold its position. The British press made this out to be a British victory, when it was actually a draw due to the British not being able to use the tanks to hold their position.The British wanted to raise morale and promote the influence of the tank by producing films such as the Dick Dolan film which was used to promote cash in hand in the form of bonds for the British tank. The British government were actually playing the proverbial double-edged brand by not only raising morale, confidence and support for the war effort and fun ds for the tank and the war effort on the home front, they were also giving the British public a belief, a belief that made them feel as if they were apart of the war and they influenced the war a lot.Objectives of propaganda recruitment of menOne of the primary objectives of propaganda was to recruit men to fight in the war on the home front mainly this type of propaganda was promoted mostly during 1914-1916 before conscription was introduced in January 1916. Recruitment according to he declare British Propaganda during the First World War by Sanders M and Taylor P. Recruitment was the dominant theme of house servant propaganda. This was because of the enormous casualties on the western front due to the conditions upon which war was waged of that time.During this main phase of recruitment propaganda in the first world war the PRC, Parliamentary Recruitment Committee was the most important recruitment committee. Recruitment was the main contributing factor to the enlistment of so any soldiers during the war. I turn over recruitment was important as this attracted a lot of men to war when participation in the war was not mandatory. on that pointfore recruitment committees such as the PRC had to produce recruitment propaganda which they thought would most likely compendium to the publics eligible soldiers as without these men the defence of the western front would not have been possible.Hence the recruitment committees used propaganda like the memorable GO. its your duty lad, this poster depicts a mother type figure telling and gesturing to a man, which is most probably supposed to be a son like character to go and fight in the war. This poster was not only used to recruit men to reefer in the war effort but to tell the pistillate members of that mans family that this is how they should behave. They should tell their individual husbands, bewilders, sons, uncles or brothers that they should go to war to defend the country.This opinion is hardly justifie d in the poster with the words Its you duty lad, this not only gives the person who has already decided to articulatio the war a reason to go to war, but it also puts a morale obligation on the men who are not enlisting to go to war that they should. At the bottom of the advert is the words Join to-day, this I believe is a final prompt to join the legions. The text is obviously just as important as the picture as the mother type figure seems to be gesturing towards the words. Also the words are in an uppercase font so that if a person is far away they may not be able to see the illustration but they will see the wording.Another poster which promotes enlisting in the army but is apparent from a different approach is the Daddy what did YOU do in the Great War. This depicts a girl child academic term on the lap of her arrive sometime in the future after the great war and a boy child sitting at his feet playing with some toy army vehicles. The girl is reading a book when she asks t he question indicting she is reading some sort of history book. The father is obviously contemplating the question and has a worried look on his face.This image is meant to depict the child getting ready for her fathers response about he was in the war fighting for what he believed, while the father ponders how he is going to tell his proud daughter that he was a coward and did not enter the war. This plays on the conscience of the observer who will put himself in that situation. Of course this person does not want to have to play this scenario so they enlist to show they are not cowardly. This poster basically says join the army and defend your family and country and be a hero, or do not join and live your vivification as a coward. The advert obviously puts forward the statement that the war will not victimize the sociality of Britain much as the people in the advert seem to be well off and happy. last as the expectations of a short war diminished so did the amount of volunteers who were signing up to join in the war. This made the PRC obligated to produce a sustained campaign so that those who could not fight could still athletic supporter in the war effort and propaganda started to be directed towards all people. broadcast propaganda posters were starting to be produced such as some forms of the Your country needs you posters. These appealed to bothbody as they simply said, Your country needs you, which allowed anybody to look at these posters and decide that they can do something which will in some way aid the war effort.Women and Food RationingAs well as men there was propaganda for women, some of this propaganda was used to promote the start up of the women working in fields. This was to grow crops and develop farming methods so that people could eat as there were restrictions on the amount of food which entered the country due to boats being sank on their way to bring food supplies back to the country. The womens effort in growing crops deliver th e British economy money and men by farming for themselves so more money and men could be devoted to the war on the western front.Food rationing propaganda campaigns were mainly aimed at women, as they were the ones at home and they were the only option, the men could not do it as they were supposed to fighting in the war. The children could not do it, as it was hard work and a huge responsibility. Also the older contemporaries could not do this as the might be quick adequacy or strong enough to do the job, this left only the women. This promotion aimed at people to grow their own food salvage ships, money and men. The women who took part got out of it a sense of responsibility and pride.As well as propaganda actively advising the women to do productive things to aid in the war effort women were also wanted to tell their respective male members of their home who were eligible to fight, that they should go and join in the war. The reason why the person who persuades the man to go t o war is depicted as a woman in many pictures is because women are the natural companions of men, husband-wife, and brother-sister.An example of this is the poster Women of Britain say-Go This depicts a women, of a motherly look being embraced by her daughter and girlish child while they watch their husband and father respectively go to war. This I believe is trying to show that the women who are supposed to be saying this are supposed to try to have braveness and say this to their husbands, this is put forward and justified that this is the womans obligation to do so. Even though this advert is primarily aimed at women its main incentive is the recruitment of men so the grandeur of recruitment is still an underlying feature and so is the influence of women.Skilled WorkersIn 1915 the first major problems of the war arose for the government, as the war drew to a stalemate on the western front, it was realised that the mean made for munitions needed during this predicted short war would not be sufficient to last much longer. or so worryingly to the government was there were not enough bullets, shells and armaments this meant that the forces on the western front would be feeble to stop the Germans onslaught. New recruits and soldiers had to train with wooden sticks instead of real rifles due to this shortage.There started to be reports that soldiers had started to be limited to the amount of rounds they were allowed to use against the enemy. The name the Munitions Crisis came about because this information was leaked to the press who piece out and wrote about it in their paper, the Daily Mail had the highest circulation at that time. To prevent this the government s parties united together to support the munitions crisis. Lloyd George was made the Minister of munitions.The masterly workforces were asked to remain in the industries that needed them and not the industry which paid them the most. The government wanted these people to stay in these work forc es to help in the fabrication of munitions for the war so that it might carry on and not grind to a stand still. The propaganda for skilled workforces played on the sympathetic and dutiful side of the skilled workers it made them feel like they were act their back on the country in its time of need. Due to the then patriotic nature of the people in those days this would have justified their minds over whether they should go where they want or go where they are needed.Hostility towards the enemyTo justify the event of going to war against another country the British government used propaganda to put forth a bad image of its enemy in almost every scenario of propaganda this was apparent and was, in every scenario, at least bias against the enemy. This propaganda was used to settle the uneasiness of the British people about war and that sometimes sacrifices have to be made to win against evil, the enemy. This type of propaganda tout ensemble justifies every aspect of war. In the pro paganda leaflet Red Cross or Iron Cross, a symbol of intense cruelty is used to generate hostility towards the enemy. This picture depicts the supposed cruelty of the German people. It depicts and explains in the poster that a wounded-emphasis on this word meaning unable to defend himself, soldier lies on the floor begging for water.The nurse pours it only the floor before his very eyes while the Kaiser looks on and approves with a smile. The nurse and the Kaiser symbolise the two ends of the German people. The dictator and the nurse, the picture shows that is the two extremes of the German people are cruel then everyone in between is cruel as well. This shows that the one person who is not supposed to be biased and is generally supposed to help you is just as cruel as the Kaiser himself. She is obviously not being forced to do this and by the expression on her face she enjoys it. I believe that this form of propaganda promotes hatred towards the German people and makes people feel like they must do something to stop this supposed evil from happening it also justifies why they are fighting in the first place.The promotion of moralePropaganda was not usually specifically used to target the promotion of morale it is just a by-product. However morale is just as important as by raising morale, by-line and support for the war on the western front is change magnitude. Morale was mainly promoted in newspaper articles where reports from the war had been written under the censorship of D.O.R.A, they usually contained biased opinions on actual events so as not to dishearten the British with any bad news. Bad news was seen as unnecessary by D.O.R.A as bad news was only detrimental to the public and that is not what they wanted they wanted full support and confidence in the war effort.When morale is high people believe in what they are doing so where war is concerned if morale is high then people believe that they are doing the right thing and that they should continue. The promotion of morale was not only profitous to the war effort it also helped financially where it came to bonds. People, as in stocks and shares, bought into bonds they had confidence in. Tank bonds were quite popular, as the British media had been promoting the image of the tank through reports they had received, even though in actual fact the tank was not a very effective weapon at the time. This was the same with war bonds, morale was high because of reports of how well the war was going when in actual fact it was not going as well as everybody thought it was, yet there was quite a high demand for war bonds.The importance of Propaganda in the Great WarJohn Buchan said in an extract from The Pity of War by Niall Ferguson, So far as Britain is concerned, the war could not have been fought for one month without its newspapers. In part I agree with this point as propaganda was used through the news to influence peoples views. The views about the progress in the war were all cons tant and alike with only a difference in the style of the description. This is due to D.O.R.A censoring what is to be seen by the general public.This constant promotion of the war with a constant supply of good news followed by great news morale was raised and therefore propaganda had served its purpose. The statement I have just written can be supported by Lord Beaverbrooks statement,(The newsreels were)the decisive factor in maintaining the morale of the people during those black days of the early summer of 1918. By the black days he is referring to when the Russians surrendered, the Ludendorff offensive was put into action, Britain were retreating and the Naval restrictions and food shortages. Through all of this propaganda in the media kept the morale high throughout Britain.Propaganda during the war helped in promoting money for war bonds to keep the war going during such troubled times as when trading with other countries was restricted and the munitions crisis. Propaganda th rough biased promotions of how successful the defence of the home front was and how successful the tank was helped to get people interested in buying war bonds and tank bonds.So the money invested in the war was increased so better training and weaponry could be used during the war which would and did increase the chances of success. Good propaganda saved a year of the war, and this meant the saving of thousands of millions of money and at least a million lives, Lord Northcliffe. Due to propaganda the war was probably cut by a significant time extremity which saved money and lives. Propaganda used in the munition crisis saved the British from potentially losing the western front due to lack of armaments and ammunition.The civilians were the most important people in the latter war period as with conscription you had to join the war but with civilians keeping their morale up was one of the most important things during the war civilians lives and homes were destroyed, the civilians we re the ones being starved. The government had to keep the support of the people during a war, which is now effecting them.Propaganda increased the amount of people involved in the war including women who helped by working on fields to grow crops to eat so that lives would be saved in that food would not have to be trade in from other countries. This would have boosted the morale of the women and saved money and lives by the production of home-grown crops.Of course propaganda was very influential and important from 1914-January 1916, when enlistment was not mandatory propaganda was used to recruit men to fight in the war, without these meant the war could not even have begun to be a war. There would have been people volunteering for the army anyway but propaganda increased this volunteer ratio which meant more men were there to fight for their country. With the high casualties of the Great War recruitment was essential. Propaganda must have been influential as a Nazi propagandistic said Germany lost because of propaganda. During World War II the nazis used propaganda highly to their advantage to take power in Germany.However propaganda did have its limitations, people did not only depend on propaganda to win the war. The men battling against the enemy were not even effected by propaganda, as there was no point, it would be impossible to influence someone about a situation which there experiencing first hand.If propaganda was important then why was it not used on one of the most important factors, the men who were fighting. In time when the war was going on people were raised with a high sense of patriotism to their country so it is possible to say that these people may have volunteered to fight in the war no matter if they were prompted to or not. The honour in defending your family and country against the enemy was something everyone was raised to believe in, in those days.George Weill commented, each of the warring nations persuaded itself that its governmen t had neglected propaganda, whereas the enemyhad been most effective, in these other states propaganda was free to flow throughout the country and most likely it did. Therefore this telephone line that a country lost the war due to propaganda seems like a front. I believe this front is an excuse to take the blame off themselves by saying that we lost the war due to propaganda and not because of our ability to fight in wars. As I believe that these countries felt it would be more catch and less humiliating to blame something which sounds insignificant like propaganda, rather than blaming their own abilities which were considered significant aspects in defending their country.I believe that propaganda was important in the Great War but only to a certain extent, it was very good for the preparation of war but did nothing to influence the actual battles themselves. Propaganda did not help a soldier to fight better it may have given him an incentive but did not get him to fight better. Propaganda was mainly used to influence the people in Britain, but as concisely as the required task was achieved the propaganda ceased.For example once a man had enlisted as a soldier propaganda became ineffective. It was very good for raising funds, morale and hostility all the things needed to battle in the war but the eventual outcome I think was down to the people who were effected by propaganda least, the soldiers. I can put my thoughts into this analogy, propaganda is the fuel which is placed upon the wood to help a fire burn the soldiers are the fire. Without the fuel the fire burns but not as brightly or with as much vigour, however without the fire the fuel is useless.