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Effects Of Propaganda In Ww1

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In 1914 when World War One began, few people had any idea that it would become a war unlike any other war seen before. Soon it was considered a “total war” and one that involved not just soldiers but many civilians as well. WW I began with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Ferdinand by a Serbian citizen and ended four years later in 1918. After Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Germany came to their aid. That set of a chain reaction leading to multiple countries involvement in the war. Eventually, the Allies which consisted of Britain, Russia, France, Serbia and later the United States were fighting against the Central Powers which consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire. They fought using a system …show more content…

“During World War One atrocity propaganda was employed on a global scale. The Great War was the first total war in which whole nations and not just professional armies were locked in mortal combat” (Depicting the enemy). All countries were pushing to increase support in the war as an instrument to help them win the war and propaganda was a way to connect with civilians. One very common example of propaganda was demonizing the enemy, for instance the Allied powers would create posters of the Germans depicted as savage and barbaric as the “German Huns” (Depicting the enemy). These caused citizens to sympathize with the war and increase their nationalism, which resulted in them becoming part of the war. It also gave a reason as to why they were fighting the war, which was to defeat the “German Monsters”. “The enemy is of great importance in propaganda, for not only does it provide a target that can be attacked, but also it offers a scapegoat” (Depicting the enemy). The distraction factor of propaganda was useful for redirecting attention to the enemy instead of facing the problems that actually were affecting civilians on the homefront. Propaganda “recommended” that civilians joined the war effort in any way possible, becoming a soldier was not the only option people could donate money or work in factories (Propaganda for patriotism and …show more content…

One of the first examples of civilian targets were the German Zeppelin Raids on London. In total 557 people were killed, all of them being civilians (History - The Home Front in World War One). Once these bombings occurred civilians became a weapon for the Germans to use against their enemy, which was Britain. However the Germans did not only kill British civilians. “Germany invaded neutral Belgium on 4 August 1914. From the next day, civilians were executed en masse, as the invasion force advanced on its first obstacle, the ring of forts around Liège” (The 'German Atrocities' of 1914). Poor little Belgium was another example of how even neutral civilians were targeted and how the lack of boundaries and morals made WW1 a total war. “There were women, children and old men among the victims but the vast majority were men of military age. These were more likely to be suspected of sniping” (The 'German Atrocities' of 1914). The fact that women and children were being killed proves that the war had taken over everything including what was moral for the soldiers. Noncombatants being brought into the war as targets fits into the definition of total war because they were killed with an ignorance for the rules of

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