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Chapter 4 - Industrial mobilisation
from Part 2 - Mobilising resources for war
- By Andrew T. Ross
Edited by John Blaxland, Australian National University, Canberra
Book:

Mobilising the Australian Army

Published online:

23 May 2025

Print publication:

30 May 2025, pp 71-93
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Summary

Australia has been regarded for the last 80 years as a member of the elite club of truly industrialised and modern nations. The fact of Australia’s industrialisation is regarded by most people, particularly scholars, as an inevitable consequence of being part of the industrial and technological culture of north-western Europe. But there was never anything inevitable about the industrialisation of Australia. Australia was a battle ground for competing major economic powers including Britain, the United States, France, Germany and later Japan. In 1900, Australia was a valuable market for manufactured goods. While the struggle for this market was at times intense, there was de facto agreement among the major powers that the emergence of local secondary industry was not to be encouraged.

10 - The Italian Front
from Part II - Theatres of War
- By Nicola Labanca
Edited by Jay Winter, Yale University, Connecticut
Book:

The Cambridge History of the First World War

Published online:

05 December 2013

Print publication:

09 January 2014, pp 266-296
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Summary

The year 1915 saw the gradual invention of a new kind of war activity which permanently transformed the actual image of the war. During 1915, the war cultures became enduringly crystallised around a body of mobilising themes, words and images which confirmed the meaning initially attributed to the war itself. The question of control of the seas was of central importance during the course of 1915. The blockade imposed on the Central Powers, and the submarine war designed in response to unlock its grip, were thus determining elements in totalisation of the conflict. The consequences of the blockade, in terms of food supply and the economy on the one hand and of military and diplomatic matters on the other, and, finally, of morale, were indeed considerable. They were to be an enduring burden throughout the rest of the war.

20 - Neutrality
from Part IV - The search for peace
- By Samuël Kruizinga
Edited by Jay Winter, Yale University, Connecticut
Book:

The Cambridge History of the First World War

Published online:

05 December 2013

Print publication:

09 January 2014, pp 542-575
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Summary

This chapter talks about the study of workers and labour movements in the First World War. The war demanded total mobilisation in the nations engaged, and in particular in the industries which fed the furnace. The First World War was indeed the first of its kind: no one had imagined anything like it, and there was no previous point of reference to deal with the situations that it created. The nations attempted to remedy the lack of available labour by recruiting foreigners, prisoners of war, adolescents and women. The Hague Convention authorised the employment of prisoners of war, with the exception of officers, provided that the work was not excessive and was unconnected to military operations. The Allied nations retained their legitimacy because they had won the war on the home front and on the battle front.