The British Empire played a crucial part in the First World War, supplying hundreds of thousands of soldiers and labourers as well as a range of essential resources, from foodstuffs to minerals, mules, and munitions. In turn, many imperial territories were deeply affected by wartime phenomena, such as inflation, food shortages, combat, and the presence of large numbers of foreign troops.
This collection offers a comprehensive selection of essays illuminating the extent of the Empire’s war contribution and experience, and the richness of scholarly research on the subject. Whether supporting British military operations, aiding the British imperial economy, or experiencing significant wartime effects on the home fronts of the Empire, the war had a profound impact on the colonies and their people.
The chapters in this volume were originally published in Australian Historical Studies, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, First World War Studies or The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs.
1. Introduction Ashley Jackson and James E. Kitchen
2. The First World War as a global war Hew Strachan
3. Sir Charles Lucas and The Empire at War Ashley Jackson
Part I: War on Imperial Frontiers
4. South Africa and World War I N.G. Garson
5. Spoils of war: Sub-imperial collaboration in South West Africa and New Guinea, 1914–20 Colin Newbury
6. ‘Khaki crusaders’: crusading rhetoric and the British Imperial soldier during the Egypt and Palestine campaigns, 1916–18 James E. Kitchen
7. From defeat to victory: logistics of the campaign in Mesopotamia, 1914–1918 Kaushik Roy
8. British Understandings of the Sanussiyya Sufi Order’s Jihad against Egypt, 1915–17 John Slight
9. Marching to the Beat of an Imperial Drum: Contextualising Australia’s Military Effort During the First World War Rhys Crawley
Part II: Home Fronts
10. Cyprus’s Non-military Contribution to the Allied War Effort during World War I Antigone Heraclidou
11. African agency and cultural initiatives in the British Imperial military and labor recruitment drives in the Gold Coast (colonial Ghana) during the First World War Kwabena O. Akurang-Parry
12. Norman Lindsay and the ‘Asianisation’ of the German Soldier in Australia during the First World War Emily Robertson
13. War opinion in South Africa, 1914 Bill Nasson
14. The War Munitions Supply Company of Western Australia and the Popular Movement to Manufacture Artillery Ammunition in the British Empire in the First World War John S. Connor
15. The expatriate firms and the Colonial economy of Nigeria in the First World War Peter J. Yearwood
16. The influence of racial attitudes on British policy towards India during the First World War Gregory Martin
17. William Morris Hughes, Empire and Nationalism: The Legacy of the First World War James Cotton
Part III: Soldiers and Fighting Fronts
18. ‘You will not be going to this war’: the rejected volunteers of the First Contingent of the Canadian Expeditionary Force Nic Clarke
19. Dominion Cartoon Satire as Trench Culture Narratives: Complaints, Endurance and Stoicism Jane Chapman and Dan Ellin
20. ‘Accurate to the Point of Mania’: Eyewitness Testimony and Memory Making in Australia’s Official Paintings of the First World War Margaret Hutchison
21. Informing the enemy: Australian prisoners and German intelligence on the Western Front, 1916–1918 Aaron Pegram
22. The Prisoner Dilemma: Britain, Germany, and the Repatriation of Indian Prisoners of War Andrew Tait Jarboe
23. ‘All in the Same Uniform’? The Participation of Black Colonial Residents in the British Armed Forces in the First World War Jacqueline Jenkinson
24. Australian and New Zealand fathers and sons during the Great War: expanding the histories of families at war Kathryn M. Hunter
25. Loss and Longing: Emotional Responses to West Indian Soldiers during the First World War Richard Smith
26. Conclusion: The First World War Centenary in the UK: ‘A Truly National Commemoration’? Andrew Mycock
Biography
Ashley Jackson is Professor of Imperial and Military History at King’s College London, UK, and a Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford University, UK. He is the author of numerous books on British imperial history, including The British Empire and the Second World War and The British Empire: A Very Short Introduction.
