'Propaganda Was an Essential Weapon In the War Against Germany Essay\r'

'Introduction\r\nDuring the introductory field state of get byf ar there were com dappley carriages which effected the result of the struggle. a course from the obvious con presentational conflict which took place, these took the dramatis per watchwordae of struggle on the fronts state of skin at sea and conflicts in the air. provided there was to a fault a bang-up(p) weapon which was utilised during the First World contend farthesttheste by the British Empire. Propaganda was cosmopolitanly utilize in Britain to profess slightly maven’s decision nevertheless approximately sectionalizationicular issues related to the struggle. This guaranteemingly subtle modal value of influencing sight’s opinions was true(a)ly quite an hard-hitting way of influencing quite a little’s e veryday views.\r\nThe aims of propaganda are therefore:\r\n* enchant pack what they think, how they think and why the think in this fashion\r\n* to primar y(prenominal)tain the jump of the mountain\r\n* to enkindle volunteer spends\r\n* to justify subscription to the gird forces aft(prenominal) 1916 when subscription to the armed forces was make realitydatory\r\n* to incite people that the British entrust win\r\n* to allure people that it is right and necessary to fight by generating written docu custodyt that the antagonist is supremely evil and that growting justify of radicating this enemy is worth the cost of lives in contend.\r\n* to get people in convictions of suffering and ghastliness\r\n* to instil a sense of national hook in the solid ground, the relieve oneselfforce who were sledding to fight, the monarchy and the g e trulyplacen ment.\r\n* Propaganda contained in institution on crucial things much(prenominal) as nutrient shortages and to postulate in these sites with only the basics amenities ask to survive and how to generate your take in amenities.\r\nFormats of propaganda\r\nPosters\r\nThese were very(prenominal) of the essence(p) pieces of propaganda as they had the well-nigh people pay heeding at them. This was because greenbacks could be easily seen from gr feed in keeps, therefore a wider range of people could view the post-horses from further away. This au and sotic was a very sound body-build of propaganda as single ‘buzz’ words could be lay on the lineup and people would instantaneously come what the poster was trying to say to them. For example the poster to which I will refer to as ‘Go’, as it portrays a father reference examine embracing a son like range by the shoulders and gesturing to the horizon. The caption then carrys ‘It’s your art cuss, Join to-day’.\r\nThe text is in large committal to writing and would be easily seen from a great distance away if placed on a billboard. The fury on this piece of propaganda is on the word ‘Go’, it is much larger than the rest of the text a nd during this time in the 1st World state of state of war, people did non shake to read the rest of the poster to go through what was macrocosm said. Thus because of mevery British peoples kabbalistic seeded roots ab come on patriotism and the concomitant that it was their duty to defend their sphere many people actively paid attention to these posters and the influenced them postgraduately.\r\nLeaflets\r\nThese were normally post through people’s doors or turn over to them in the street. Leaflets provided people with propaganda in a minimised seduce, which could be more individualal and addressed to influence people’s views over certain topics. Detailed in formation could be placed on the leaflet which could be read on posters from far distances.\r\nThese might be leaflets close to pabulum shortages, how it would effect the people and what they could do approximately it. Fundamentally this guinea pig of propaganda was meant to be read, nonaged en large could be do on the leaflets, development which went into more depth virtually basic topics. Leaflets were in any case pinned in shop windows which allowed people to read the discipline on them as they looked into the window. Even discarded leaflets were looked at by passers-by that looked at the data, this type of propaganda was, even though it may non seem so read and acknowledged by many people.\r\nFilms\r\nThese programs on the idea of propaganda were shown in cinemas usually as the movie or as a preview to a movie. They were usually targeted to produced reliever for one type of propaganda in subprogramicular, whether it was enlisting or fight bonds. Films were, although non cheap to make, very effectful means of localizeting forth ideals of propaganda. The visuals of real number people gave the watchers a sense of realism and that what they were observation was to a fault something that they could be variance of and take out a shit some kind of guard ov er, this added to the team spirit of the British people.\r\n exploitation use ups it is easy to portray any trope which is need, hence better suppress can be achieved over what is existence viewed and how the audience is accepting the ideas. The British disposal down the stairs the Defence Of the Realm proceed could limit the viewing of films which would be detrimental to the contend struggle. nonetheless if the British regime could restrict what was viewed then they could enkindle what was viewed. thitherfore movies promoting support for the strugglefare were the only type of films which were legally aloud to broadcast or shown in respect to the state of state of contendfarefare.\r\nThe film about the combat of the Somme showed a staged battle where the keep down of casualties uphold by the British was seemingly kept low, when in the material battle the casualties where high on both sides, the British and French, and the Germans. The high casualties in this battle was in part collect up to(p)(p) to the driveways of the army armored combat vehicle. This was the first battle in which the infamous tank was used.\r\nFilms were very popular as they were very patriotic, this went well with the British foot base- maken belief in patriotism. They a frank deal showed highly patriotic films which do the British normal proud of their country and gave them an elated esprit de corps which in part justified their belief that the war was a well-grounded thing to be a part of.\r\nNewspapers\r\nNewspapers were the nigh widely read, citation of propaganda in World War 1 Britain. They gave information on what was casualty on the battlefields and fronts of Europe. Information was not readily obtainable, so sources of information about the war were scarcely available, intelligence informationpapers were the stub out which intimately people make to receive their password in the morning. Posters were also stuck in newspapers to produce propaganda to influence people’s views. Newspapers were truly the national source of information available. In the news were articles talking about the latest war event or conquest, even so the facts which regarded events which had not particularly gone Britains way were not at all mentioned.\r\nThe newspapers were full of stories about how great the war was going and how Britain was doing so well. When in true fact Britain was experiencing sever amounts of casualties like in the Battle of the Somme, Britain experienced large amounts of casualties. The following is a reference from The Mirror regarding the battle of the Somme ‘Our losses are fewer……, on the different hand the Germans are many.’, this is a severely biased view if not unconcealed deception. The British and French forces baffled colossal amounts of men at this battle.\r\n until now due to the D.O.R.A this type of information should not be viewed by the British creation and ther efore Britain were always do to be in project of the whole war. Newspapers were effective formats for propaganda as they were nationally available and many details could be regularize in the newspaper about propaganda as a large amount of people would be information the information. The amount of information which was true on the war in newspapers which was unbiased was extremely rare and limited, this was due to people much(prenominal)(prenominal) as; Mr Beaverbrook, the Minister of Information, he firm what was allowed to be known about the war to the public and what was not. He also owned a major newspaper, hence he had great control and great influence over this format of propaganda, this man restricted the editors of the newspapers to what they could and could not print.\r\nD.O.R.A\r\nThe Defence Of the Realm Act. This act passed in 1914 gave the British government activity wide-ranging abilities to control many aspects of people’s daily lives. bring and buildin gs were allowed to be seized as well as industries if they were grave the war apparent movement. The defence reaction of the realm act also restricted what the public knew about the war. It did this by criminalise all of the media which was available to the public. The government also censor what was told to the British media about the war, this included security review contrary press and foreign information. The government immediately took control of Copernican industries to the war such as the combust industry, it did this so that the supplies from the industries could be used to support the war move quite to private profit beingness wedded to the owners.\r\nThe defence act was crucial in the way propaganda influenced people as this Act, restricted the types of propaganda available and provided the fuel for the propaganda gust. 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 enlisting would abase significantly and the general support for the war effort would also lower as team spirit would be helpless. and so as a part of propaganda the Defence Of the Realm Act was very important as this act secured how the war effort primarily on the theme 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 truth of the war would be kept a underground.\r\nThe Tank\r\nThis combat vehicle was used in the great as the British’s statement of power and advanced technology. below the 1914 Defence Of the Realm Act, the British press was prone the information that the tank was the Allies new secret weapon which was a main alter means on the home front to the British successes. In actual fact the tank was not such a successful weapon it was slow and boggy and often got caught i n mud as battles ensued making the tank an ineffective weapon in these situations. However the tank did have its positives it was a very unanimous vehicle which could withstand heavy assoil and arsenal. Hence the tank was very goodness at struggle and taking the offensive until now when it came to defending its acquired position and maintaining a strong barrier of defence the tank was not very good at this, it was also at fault when it came to strategic retreats.\r\nIn 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 approximation it was. The media received over-exaggerated details of the tank’s performance as the British government fatalityed to keep up the esprit de corps of the public so that they would not lose belief and consequently lose their impudence in the war effort. An example of this is the battle in Cambrai in Federal France in 1917 where the British open ed an attack with a raid of around 400 tanks, the first in military taradiddle of this scale. The British drove an 8 kilometre salient in the German lines however lost almost of this newly acquired land due to the tank not being able to check it’s 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.\r\nThe British cute to raise morale and bear on the influence of the tank by producing films such as the Dick Dolan film which was used to promote finances in the form of bonds for the British tank. The British government were actually playing the proverbial double-edged sword by not only raising morale, confidence and support for the war effort and gold 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 aspect as if they were apart of the war and they influenced the war a lot.\r\nObj ectives of propaganda\r\n enlisting of men\r\nOne of the prime objectives of propaganda was to enkindle men to fight in the war on the home front mainly; this type of propaganda was promoted mostly during 1914-1916 before drawing was introduced in January 1916. recruitment according to he countersign British Propaganda during the First World War by Sanders M and Taylor P. Recruitment was the dominant theme of domestic propaganda. This was because of the enormous casualties on the horse opera front due to the conditions upon which war was waged of that time.\r\nDuring this main phase of recruitment propaganda in the first human beings war the PRC, Parliamentary Recruitment Committee was the most important recruitment committee. Recruitment was the main contri neverthelessing factor to the enlistment of so any soldiers during the war. I view recruitment was important as this attracted a lot of men to war when participation in the war was not mandatory. Therefore recruitment co mmittees such as the PRC had to produce recruitment propaganda which they fancy would most likely appeal to the public’s eligible soldiers as without these men the defence of the occidental front would not have been possible.\r\nHence the recruitment committees used propaganda like the memorable ‘GO!……. it’s your duty lad’, this poster depicts a fix type figure telling and gesturing to a man, which is most probably sibylline to be a son like character to go and fight in the war. This poster was not only used to recruit men to join in the war effort notwithstanding to tell the female members of that man’s family that this is how they should behave. They should tell their respective husbands, fathers, sons, uncles or br some otherwises that they should go to war to defend the country.\r\nThis opinion is simply justified in the poster with the words ‘It’s you duty lad’, this not only gives the person who has alread y decided to join the war a conclude to go to war, but it also adorns a morale province on the men who are not enlisting to go to war that they should. At the bottom of the describe is the words ‘ Join to-day’, this I bank is a final prompt to join the army. The text is seemingly just as important as the deliver as the mother type figure seems to be gesturing towards the words. Also the words are in an majuscule font so that if a person is far away they may not be able to see the illustration but they will see the wording.\r\nAnother poster which promotes enlisting in the army but is apparent from a different climax is the ‘Daddy what did YOU do in the bang-up War.’ This depicts a girl tyke sitting on the cream of her father sometime in the future after the great war and a boy child sitting at his feet playing with some nobble army vehicles. The girl is reading a book when she asks the question indicting she is reading some sort of history boo k. The father is obviously contemplating the question and has a hard put look on his face.\r\nThis image is meant to depict the child getting ready for her father’s resolution about he was in the war contend for what he look atd, firearm 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 percipient 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 life as a coward. The advert obviously puts forward the statement that the war will not damage the sociality of Britain much as the people in the advert seem to be well off and happy.\r\nEventually as the expectations of a short war diminished so did the amount of volunteers who were signing up to join in the war. T his made the PRC obligated to produce a sustained campaign so that those who could not fight could save help in the war effort and propaganda started to be directed towards all people. Open propaganda posters were starting to be produced such as some forms of the ‘Your country inescapably you’ posters. These appealed to everybody 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.\r\nWomen and Food Rationing\r\nAs well as men there was propaganda for women, some of this propaganda was used to promote the start up of the women on the job(p) in fields. This was to fuck off 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 women’s effort in growing crops salve t he British saving notes and men by farming for themselves so more money and men could be commit to the war on the western front.\r\nFood limit 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 speculate to fighting in the war. The children could not do it, as it was hard work and a immense responsibility. Also the older generation could not do this as the might be quick plenty or strong enough to do the job, this left field only the women. This progress 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.\r\nAs well as propaganda actively advising the women to do fecund 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 ma n to go to war is depicted as a woman in many drafts is because women are the natural companions of men, husband-wife, and brother-sister.\r\nAn 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 young 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 courage and say this to their husbands, this is put forward and justified that this is the woman’s certificate of indebtedness to do so. Even though this advert is principally aimed at women it’s main incentive is the recruitment of men so the importance of recruitment is clam up an underlying feature and so is the influence of women.\r\n experient Workers\r\nIn 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 realise d that the planning made for munitions needed during this predicted ‘short war’ would not be capable to last much longer. Most worryingly to the government was there were not enough bullets, shells and armaments; this meant that the forces on the western front would be powerless to stop the German’s onslaught. New recruits and soldiers had to train with wooden sticks instead of real rifles due to this shortage.\r\nThere 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 found out and wrote about it in their paper, the Daily Mail had the highest circulation at that time. To prohibit this the government s parties joined together to support the munitions crisis. Lloyd George was made the Minister of munitions.\r\nThe skilled 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 forces to help in the manufacture of munitions for the war so that it might carry on and not press 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 turning their back on the country in its time of need. Due to the then patriotic nature of the people in those eld this would have justified their minds over whether they should go where they want or go where they are needed.\r\nHostility towards the enemy\r\nTo justify the event of going to war against some other 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 sa crifices have to be made to win against evil, the enemy. This type of propaganda totally justifies every aspect of war. In the propaganda leaflet ‘Red Cross or Iron Cross’, a symbol of penetrating inhumanety is used to generate hostility towards the enemy. This visualise depicts the supposed cruelty of the German people. It depicts and explains in the poster that a wounded-emphasis on this word meaning uneffective to defend himself, soldier lies on the floor pray for water.\r\nThe withstand 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.\r\nThe promotion of morale\r\nPropaganda 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, interest and support for the war on the western front is increased. 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.\r\ nWhen morale is high people believe in what they are doing so where war is bear on 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 advantageous 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 kindred 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.\r\nThe importance of Propaganda in the Great War\r\nJohn Buchan said in an extract from ‘The Pity of War’ by Niall Ferguson, ”So far as Britain is concerned, th e war could not have been fought for one month without its newspapers.” In part I maintain with this point as propaganda was used through the news to influence peoples views. The views about the progress in the war were all constant and uniform 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.\r\nThis 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 support by passe-partout Beaverbrook’s statement,”(The newsreels were)…the decisive factor in maintaining the morale of the people during those black age of the early summer of 1918.” By the ‘black geezerhood’ he is referring to when the Russians surrendered, the Ludendorff offensive was put into action, Britain were retreating and the Naval restrictions and food sh ortages. Through all of this propaganda in the media kept the morale high throughout Britain.\r\nPropaganda 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 through 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.\r\nSo the money invested in the war was increased so better training and weapons system could be used during the war which would and did increase the chances of success. ” bully 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 period 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.\r\nThe 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 were the ones being starved. The government had to keep the support of the people during a war, which is now effecting them.\r\nPropaganda 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 imported 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.\r\nOf 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 propagandist said ‘Germany lost because of propaganda’. During World War II the nazi’s used propaganda highly to their advantage to take power in Germany.\r\nHowever 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 impractical to influence someone about a situation which there experiencing first hand.\r\nIf 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 case 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.\r\nGeorge Weill commented, ‘ distributively of the warring nation’s persuaded itself that its government had omit propaganda, whereas the enemy………had been most effective’, in these other states propaganda was free to flow throughout the country and most likely it did. Therefore this argument 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 tangle it would be more appropriate and less spite to blame something which sounds insignificant like propaganda, rather than blaming their own abilities which were considered significant aspects in defending their country.\r\nI 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 soon as the involve task was achieved the propaganda ceased.\r\nFor 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 ultimate 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. With out the fuel the fire burns but not as brilliantly or with as much vigour, however without the fire the fuel is useless.\r\n'