The impact of war, 1914-1922, social and cultural impact Flashcards

Question

Why was reform of franchise necessary

Answer 1

Because the government planned a wartime election

Answer 2

It tripled it

Answer 3

- All men over the age of 21 became entitled to vote. - Men over the age of 19 who had seen active service in the war got the vote for the next general election - Women over 30 became entitled to vote if they were a member or married to a member of the local government register, a graduate voting in a university election or a property owner

Answer 4

``` Younger working-class women who had been most active in war work still did not have a vote. Working-class women did not receive the vote until 1928 when they finally enfranchised on the same terms as men in the Representation of the People Act. ```

Answer 5

The war created a huge demand for extra workers which gave the trade unions huge bargaining powers which they exercised through their Trade Union Congress. The trade unions on the whole co-operated with the government in banning strikes in essential war industry and accepting dilution and conscription. Meanwhile, the Labour Constitution 1918 gave unions a key role in the party.

Answer 6

Changed beliefs and assumptions towards behaviour, mortality and religious practise. The stuffier aspects of Victorian society loosened during the war and never quite returned. Increased social mobility and changed inwoven's political and social positions during and after the war

Answer 7

``` They were not broken by any means. In female employment during war, working-class girls went mainly into munitions, middle-class girls more into nursing or administration. (yet working-class women still did not receive the vote) ``` In the armed forces, class divisions between officers and men remained clear cut. However, the terrible death toll created a common bond of suffering and loss that ran across all social classes and was later expressed in the war memorials and rituals of remembrance.

Answer 8

War gave churches a greater public role. Thousands of chaplains were needed for the armed forces ti cater for the spiritual and religious needs of vast armies. Churchmen were in demand to conduct religious services, preach supportive sermons and carry out burial services. However, the war also proved a challenge to Christian churches. Some found it hard to justify the slaughter on the Western Front or to reconcile this with faith in God. Some church leader, including the Pope, tried to reconcile the opposing camps and promote peace.

Answer 9

Challenged assumptions about the superiority of Western civilisation. For four year the supposedly most civilised countries on the earth had waged an increasingly barbarous war against each other. This weakened assumptions about the innate superiority of European values and civilisation, and strengthened the ideas of anti-imperialism and anti-colonialism.

Answer 10

Created a culture than rejected the war and the society that had allowed it to happen. Many artists embraced 'modernism' which rejected the values that had been so destructive.

Answer 11

Outbreak of war created a wave of patriotism. This had been fed in Britain since the start of the century, in literature, in newspapers such as the Daily Mailm and in the music halls. The arms race, in particular the naval race with Germany before 1914, had fed nationalist feeling and also promoted the idea that Germany was the enemy of Britain.

Answer 12

Recruitment poster played on the patriotic duty that all men had to sign up to fight for 'king and country'. As a result, in the first few months, tens of thousands of young men in a fever of patriotic enthusiasm joined the British army. Over 1 million had signed up by the end of 1914 and, altogether about 2.5 million volunteered to fight.