The Home Front

• 1914- Suffragettes and Suffragists suspended their camapign
• Suffragists persuaded men to sign up/ Suffragettes demonstrated that women should work in munitions factories, all suffragettes released from prison
• White feathers were given to men who did not sign up, Mother's union- encouraged sons to sign up, Women's Land Army/Women's Army Auxiliary Corps

• Industry suffered shortage of labour- 2 million fewer than necessery
• Women employed instead of men- not accepted by everyone, thought they would not have the necessery skills
• 1916- desperate shortae of engerneering workers as more men needed to fight
• Government employed women exclusively in munitions factories- 800,000 women employed in emgerneering industries by the end o tf the war

• Dangerous work- longer shifts, disarstorous accidents (Silvertown- east end London- 1917)
• TNT explosives caused breating amd digestion problems/rashes/yellowing skin/blood poisoning/brain damage 

• August 1914- Defence Of the Realm Act- to make sure Britain had enough resources and to make sure the British people were in a fit state to fightand support the war
• Government could take control of vital industries, 2.5 million acres of land/buildings, british summer time for more working hours,alcohol
• Conscription, stopped talk of the war, censorship, rationing
• Many men voluteered in 1914, believed it would be over 'by christmas'. By 1915, more casulties and less volunteers so not enough replacements
• Conscription (1916)- all singlemen between 18 and 40 had to fight- then married too
• Conscientious objectors didn't fight for religious/moral reasons- treated as criminals and imprisoned, some carried out non violent work such as ambulence driving
• Women did men's work
• German U-boats attacked food ships from the US to Britain. Britain took three main steps to solve it: 
  1) Navy convoys- got 25% of merchant ships down to less than 1% being sunk
  2) Compulsory Rationing- 1918, voluntry in 1917- used for beer, butter, sugar and meat. some hoarded food as prices were rising then selling it on the 'black market
  3) Britain grew more food- Women's land Army (1917), big new labouro force which worked on farms

• 1914- entusiatic, adventurous, right to fight, would be 'over by christmas
• Censored letters from soldiers and newspapers
• Reporters were kept away from battles, no photographs with dead soldiers
• Casulty figures were not available 
• People away from the  front line could not imagine the actual conditions of war
• Attitudes changed as the war went on
• 1500 civillians were killed during bombing raids, no obvious succes on the western front until 1918, government couldn't hide injured veterans or deaths from families, difficult rationing and increased taxes
• Propaganda posters encouraged men to sign up, enocuraged US involvement, War Propaganda Bureau (sep 1914), Ministry of Infomation produced films- The Battle of the Somme (1916), National War Aims Commitee (June 1917) issued propaganda literature and speeches 

Attitudes towards Germany

• Resposible for the war
• Should be punished
• Should pay for the damage
• In 1918 election, politicians knew they were able to gain support if they treated Germany harshly

The Paris Peace Conference

• France: (Georges Clemenceau) damage to landscape, industry, people/ wanted to cripple Germany so it could not attack again
• USA: (Woodrow Wilson) 14 points for the PPC, League of Nations/ wanted Germany to be punished but not to harshly, would one day recover and want revenge
• Great Britain: (David Lloyd George) wanted Germany to be justly punished but not harshly, loss of nav and colonies, keen for G and GB to trade again- second largest trading partner so more British jobs, public pressure was strong