Deep Divisions In The Australian Society example essay topic

It is a strange dichotomy that wars both can create unity and promote divisions on the home front, as was the case in Australian 1914-1918. Australians greeted the news of the outbreak of war in 1914 with almost indecent enthusiasm. They were excited by war's adventure and they were incredibly over - confident. Patriotic unity was high when the war began, but as it progressed, serious rifts and divisions in society developed.

The war, no matter how important historically and influencing national identity, it created serious divisions and hostility within the nation. The war placed tremendous pressures on Australian society in general. Men's and women's roles were polarized. Women suffered immensely during this time, only able to help the war effort by knitting etc. Each recruit left behind a family, all of whom would now condemned to years of anxiety and waiting. Industrial unrest increased.

So tense had the social and industrial scene become in Australia that observers feared an explosion. Unemployment, inflation, stagnant wage rates, and rising casualty numbers all contributed to increase these strains. Strike activity began to escalate in 1916. The debates over conscription devastated Australian society; the Labor Party split and sectarian divisions and bitterness increased. However, the war did have a positive affect for trade, primary producers and manufacturers, who prospered and expanded during the war The war caused a marked polarization of acceptable male and female roles. Acceptable roles for women were those related to motherhood, domesticity and tending the sick and other roles were discouraged.

As the newspapers said, no women need ever be idle in the War. But the women's war effort was to re-establish rather than introduce sexual stereotypes of men as the warriors and creators of history, with women as the workers, passively submitting and at the mercy of fate. Branches of the Red Cross and Australian Comfort Funds were established to help with the war effort, generally in middle-class suburbs, which attracted primarily middle-class women. As the casualties list and the seriousness of war grew, women's dissatisfaction and restlessness became increasing apparent. Satisfaction in knitting was, for some, no longer enough. The authorities' attitude towards women was discouraging.

Attempts by women to be sent to the Front as cooks etc, which were traditionally women's roles, were denied. Women, other than nurses, were not required and their attempts to play what they saw as a constructive role in the war effort were never taken seriously. However some single women did enter the paid workforce for the first time, often in clerical jobs, such as those in banks. Generally they were employed on a temporary basis, often to replace a particular individual who had enlisted. Often they were given mechanical tasks, and frequently they were the recipients of patronizing comments. Most changes in employment were short-term.

By 1921 the proportion of women in paid employment was basically the same as that in 1911. The war closed more doors for Australian women than it open. They were forced into a passive waiting role. Those who worked hard for the war effort received little or no recognition. For those who wanted to do more than knit, the war years must have been ones of intense frustration. The war also reinforced to women how Australian society was a society for men A problem during the early days of the war was racial tension.

Recent migrants from Germany and her allies, as well Australians of German descent were regarded with deep suspicion. These 'enemy subjects' were to report to the military authorities or the local police where they had to swear an oath not to fight against the Empire. Some of the racist responses were merely symbolic, and some were almost ridiculous. Any German - sounding names of towns, and natural landmarks such as mountains, wee replaced with Anglo - Saxon or Aboriginal names.

The ever-present 'German sausage' took on its American name of 'baloney'. 'Suspicious' activities of innocent people were reported to authorities, and some people lost their jobs. The treatment of German - Australians shows how obtrusive the federal govt had suddenly become in the lives of ordinary Australians. It also shows elements of racial antagonism that became increasingly bitter as the war dragged on. Anti - Germanism further demonstrates the need many Australians felt to make the war more real and immediate in their own lives. The presence of traitorous groups within Australia was assumed and ordinary, sensible people believed stories of spy rings and outrages, because such things seemed believable in war - time.

Anti - Germanism became increasingly virulent as the war progressed, because frustrations and tensions had to be externalized in some way. The treatment of Germans in Australia is an index of Australian anxiety and a demonstration that though the battles were fought in Europe, the war occasioned serious effects within Australia. Remote from the theatres off war, Australian's were not remote from its effects. Australian trade did not suffer because of the war, although at first there were fears that it might. In fact the total value of Australian exports rose markedly. The war therefore forced the Australian economy to become more self - sufficient.

Before 1914, Australia's manufacturing industry was small. As the war led to a shortage of many goods in Australia, manufacturing industry expanded. Heavy industry developed. In June the BHP established its steelworks. The production of textiles increased as did the manufacturing of goods such as ships, office equipment, dyes, clothing and small arms. Primary producers prospered.

Britain bought QLD's beef and mutton surplus for the duration of the war. And the wool industry was boosted when November 1916 when the British Government bought the entire Australian and New Zealand wool clips. In November 1916, the entire wheat export supplies were also sold to Britain. There were considerable strains on ordinary Australian's Workers.

Middle class loyalists regarded serious dislocations in the main primary industries such as wool, meat, transport and mining, as a direct and calculated assault on the allied war effort. Their traditional dislike of the use of the strike was intensified and classified as disloyal. It was 'the enemy within'. Figures in the war census of 1915 showed how unequal the sacrifice was. Almost 80% of people recorded net incomes below 50 pounds per annum.

The introduction of income tax to pay for the war effort meant the wealthy had not lost nearly as much as the poor. While wages had been held back through the arbitration system, prices and rents had risen rapidly. The first calls for volunteers in August 1914 had been enthusiastically responded to, so much so that by the end of that year 52 562 men had signed up, far exceeding Australia's initial pledge to supply en expeditionary force of 20 000. But after the horror of Gallipoli became known it was no longer simply a matter of opening the recruiting room doors and choosing the best men. PM Hughes visited London in early 1916 to discuss the progress of the war, and became convinced that only conscription for overseas service could supply 16 500 men a month that the Imperial General staff needed. The British Govt promised Australia a voice in the peace negations in return for the war effort the country was making.

Leading politicians, religious leaders and some businessmen had formed the Universal Service League to work for the introduction of conscription for overseas service. Women were urged to encourage men to enlist and newspapers published letters from the front appealing for help. The nation was bitterly divided. Anti - conscription leagues were formed to fight the Universal Service League, trade unions declared their total opposition to conscription and a total strike was threatened.

Conscription for overseas service could have been achieved by an act of parliament, but the Labor Party was pledged to oppose it and deeply divided on the issue. Hughes decided to call a referendum in support of conscription. Arguments put forward by the conscriptionists were that Australia's honour was a stake, that Australian's had a duty to defend the empire and that an unfair burden was being placed on those who had enlisted voluntarily. Anti - conscriptionists argued that Australia had already done more than her fair share, that the war was remote from Australia and that attempts to introduce conscription would divide that country. Hughes won the right in Cabinet by one vote to put the referendum legislation to parliament, and then plunged into the campaign to urge Australian's to vote yes. The resulting division within the Labor Party was devastating.

Hughes was considered by state govt as a traitor to their cause. In the end the vote taken on 28 October 1916, and again 20 December 1917. Conscription for overseas service was narrowly defeated in both referendums, which reflected the divisiveness of the campaign. Hughes was forced to resign as Leader of Labor.

He walked out taking 4 ministers with him and formed an alliance with the Liberal Party. The recruiting campaign had opened people's eyes to the existence of divisions within the community. Te conscription campaigns accentuated those divisions and occasioned the most serious conflict the Australian people had experienced. Party against Party, class against class.

Protestant against Catholics. On a personal level, friend broke with friend, families split, provoking great tensions and antagonisms. The conscriptions debates drew in all sorts of arguments - strategic and military, economic and social, moral and ethical, and some simply emotional. Both campaigns had served to provide Australians with a more candid impression of the war's realities. The loyal conscriptionists had conveyed a new message of desperation from the Front, while their opponents had urged voters to save their young men from the carnage.

Thus weariness mounted throughout the community and with it the divisions deepened considerably. The Australian nation had been deeply divided by the war. The different experiences of those at home and those who had fought on the battlefields led to misunderstandings, bitterness and frustrations on both sides. The cost of the war had been enormous. Australia had lost 60 000 men killed and thousands more returned home to spend all their days in hospitals, to bear in their bodies or in their minds the scars of the worst war the world had known. The innocence of Australian society collapsed under the impact of war.

By 1918 it seemed almost unbelievable that in 1914 Australian had welcomed war as a moment of romance and adventure. They would celebrate the heroism of their troops, when they returned, and, in time, they would earn that real bonds of national unity had been forged at Gallipoli, but they would never forget what a ghastly business war was. It had destroyed a generation of Australian and had shaken Australian society. Dreams of unity and harmony had been shattered and gave place to the nightmare of sectarianism and class warfare. An 'atmosphere of nervous tension's ett led on the nation and was not relived until November 1918; many would claim it remains today. The war, and paradoxically, conscription, had become secondary to the voicing of hatreds that sprang from the deep divisions in the Australian society.