The British Cabinet and the Anglo-French Staff Talks, 1905–1914: Who Knew What and When Did He Know It?

1985 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-131 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Coogan ◽  
Peter F. Coogan
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
World War ◽  
French Military ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Military ◽  
First World

The role of the British cabinet in the Anglo-French military conversations prior to the First World War has been and remains controversial. The acrimonious debate within the government during November 1911 seems linked inextricably to the flood of angry memoirs that followed August 1914 and to the continuing historical debate over the actions and motivations of the various ministers involved. Two generations of researchers now have examined an enormous body of evidence, yet the leading modern scholars continue to publish accounts that differ on the most basic questions. Historians have proved no more able than the ministers themselves were to reconcile the contradictory statements of honorable men. The persistence of these differences in historical literature demonstrates both the continuing confusion over the cabinet's role in the military conversations and the need for a renewed effort to resolve this confusion.The starting point for any discussion of the staff talks must be the recognition that the meaning of the term changed significantly over the nine years before the outbreak of World War I. The contacts began with a series of informal discussions between senior British and French officers during 1905. The first systematic conversations took place early in January 1906 under the authority of Lord Esher, a permanent member of the Committee of Imperial Defence (CID), and Sir George Clarke, the CID secretary. Later in that month a small group of ministers, including Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, sanctioned formal, ongoing exchanges between the two general staffs.

scholarly journals Remembrance, Retrospection, and the Women’s Land Army in World War I Britain

2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnie J. White
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
World War ◽  
History And Memory ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
Problematic Relationship ◽  
The First World War ◽  
First World

This paper explores the methodological challenges posed by interviews with former members of the Women’s Land Army held in Britain’s Imperial War Museum. These interviews were conducted approximately 60 years after the First World War as part of the Women’s War Work Collection that was created in an effort to capture the role of women in the wars of the twentieth century. These documents are certainly of value to the historian, although the decades that passed between event and recollection highlight the problematic relationship between history and memory. The author argues that due to this temporal gap and the continuation of lived experience that shaped both identity and memory in the intervening years, the interviews lose their evidentiary primacy and must be approached as secondary sources, albeit ones grounded in personal experience. This challenge is exacerbated by problems with the interview process itself that guided how the Land Girls’ narratives were reconstructed by the interviewees. This paper works toward a re-evaluation of the usefulness of these oral interviews.

scholarly journals Army medicine during the First World War

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-178
Author(s):  
Gennadiy N. Shaposhnikov ◽  
Vladimir V. Zapariy
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Military Medicine ◽  
World War ◽  
Medical Support ◽  
Military Health ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Military Health Care ◽  
Russian Military ◽  
The Military ◽  
First World

The article explains the development and functioning of an essential military component - medical support wartime - evacuation system. Describes the concept of conservative evacuation, developed in the Russian army at the beginning of the last century, shows the military medical services’ efforts to expand military health care and improve the system of evacuation during World War I. It is noted that, despite significant efforts, the evacua-tion remained the weakest part of Russian military medicine and does not reflect the scale of sanitary losses.

scholarly journals The Origin of the Polish National Loan Fund and Its Operation on the Polish Lands

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3 ENGLISH ONLINE VERSION) ◽  
pp. 45-69
Author(s):  
Eliza Komierzyńska-Orlińska
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Banking System ◽  
Emergency Situation ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Loan Fund ◽  
Monetary Unit ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Government ◽  
First World

The idea of establishing the Bank of Poland as the central bank of the Second Polish Republic and introducing a new currency appeared shortly after Poland regained its independence. At the beginning of 1919, in the economic circles it was believed that one of the initial steps taken by the government would be to establish a new issuing bank in place of the Polish National Loan Fund, which had appeared on the Polish territory in an emergency situation—during the First World War, and which, contrary to the original (both German and Polish) plans survived for 7 years and was transformed after the war into the first bank of issue in the now independent Polish State. The Polish National Loan Fund established by the Germans as an issuing institution by way of the ordinance of December 9, 1916 establishing the Polnische Landes Darlehnskasse was granted the privilege of issuing a new currency, that is a new monetary unit under the name marka polska. The German authorities were guided by various objectives when creating the new issuing institution—first of all, the aim was to limit the area of circulation of the German mark and to create an instrument that would draw in the occupied area of the Polish territory to finance the war, contrary to the assurances of the occupying authorities that the PKKP would be an institution supporting the economy and banking system of the country—the Kingdom of Poland, whose creation was envisaged after the end of World War I.

scholarly journals Spanish Flu and the End of World War I in Southern Iranfrom 1917–1920

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-83
Author(s):  
Seyyed Alireza Golshani ◽  
Mohammad Ebrahim Zohalinezhad ◽  
Mohammad Hossein Taghrir ◽  
Sedigheh Ghasempoor ◽  
Alireza Salehi
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Southern Iran ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
Spanish Flu ◽  
First World

The Spanish Flu was one of the disasters in the history of Iran, especially Southern Iran, which led to the death of a significant number of people in Iran. It started on October 29, 1917, and lasted till 1920 – a disaster that we can claim changed the history. In one of the First World War battlefields in southern Iran in 1918, there was nothing left until the end of World War I and when the battle between Iranian warriors (especially people of Dashtestan and Tangestan in Bushehr, Arabs, and people of Bakhtiari in Khuzestan and people of Kazerun and Qashqai in Fars) and British forces had reached its peak. As each second encouraged the triumph for the Iranians, a flu outbreak among Iranian warriors led to many deaths and, as a result, military withdrawal. The flu outbreak in Kazerun, Firoozabad, Farshband, Abadeh, and even in Shiraz changed the end of the war. In this article, we attempt to discuss the role of the Spanish flu outbreak at the end of one of the forefronts of World War I.

scholarly journals Destinies of editions about the Russian-Japanese War in the collections of pre-revolutionary military libraries

2020 ◽  
pp. 11-27
Author(s):  
A. M. Panchenko ◽  
Yu. V. Timofeeva
Keyword(s):  
Historical Memory ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Legal Documents ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Number Of Publications ◽  
The Military ◽  
First World

The relevance of the topic is due to the great role of military-historical literature and libraries as its repositories in forming the historical memory ofthe people, which is important for ensuring the spiritual security of the country. The article is the first to examine publications on the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905 from the book collection of the “House of Officers of the Novosibirsk Garrison” of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, got from other military libraries. The purpose of the article is to identify the fate of military libraries. Research tasks are: 1) to calculate the number of publications on the Russian-Japanese War in the book collection of the “House of Officers...”; 2)to reconstruct their repertoire; 3) to determine libraries which collections they were originally included in. The study methodologically bases on historic, objective, systematic principles, localization of historical facts. Methods used are that of source studying, comparative and statistical. The work is done on a wide representative source base, constituted from pre-revolutionary publications of the “Houses of Officers...,” periodicals, regulatory and legal documents of the military department. 21 catalogs of officer libraries were analyzed, confirming the presence of issues on the Russian-Japanese War in them. As a result of the study, 92 pre-revolutionary works in 100 copies dedicated to the Russian-Japanese War were revealed in the library of the House of Officers. For 66 of them in 71 copies the former ownership of 18 military libraries was established. Their repertoire was reconstructed. The results show that the First World War, which destroyed the personnel of the Russian army, became an involuntary cause of the ruin of ­military libraries, having left them without supervision in the places of the previous quartering of troops and deprived them of officers - enthusiasts of ­librarianship. The revolutions of 1917, radical transformations of Soviet power and the Civil War completed the ruin of the tsarist army military libraries, which ceased to exist as independent book collections. The study has expanded the understanding of the state role in military-historical works’ dissemination and military libraries’ collections replenishment.

Indian Army and the First World War

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaushik Roy
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Mass Mobilization ◽  
World War ◽  
Military Performance ◽  
British Rule ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Military Support ◽  
The Military ◽  
First World

Accustomed to conducting low-intensity warfare before 1914, the Indian Army learnt to engage in high-intensity conventional warfare during the course of World War I, thereby exhibiting a steep learning curve. Being the bulwark of the British Empire in South Asia, the ‘brown warriors’ of the Raj functioned as an imperial fire brigade during the war. Studying the Indian Army as an institution during the war, Kaushik Roy delineates its social, cultural, and organizational aspects to understand its role in the scheme of British imperial projects. Focusing not just on ‘history from above’ but also ‘history from below’, Roy analyses the experiences of common soldiers and not just those of the high command. Moreover, since society, along with the army, was mobilized to provide military and non-military support, this volume sheds light on the repercussions of this mass mobilization on the structure of British rule in South Asia. Using rare archival materials, published autobiographies, and diaries, Roy’s work offers a holistic analysis of the military performance of the Indian Army in major theatres during the war.

scholarly journals The centenary of World War I in Serbia: A war of monuments

2020 ◽  
pp. 127-149
Author(s):  
Alexey Y. Timofeev
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The First World War ◽  
History Of ◽  
Republika Srpska ◽  
Memorial Sites ◽  
The Military ◽  
First World

The anniversary of the First World War in Serbia has become an oc-casion for exacerbating public discussion and drawing attention to the rise of revisionism in NATO countries. Fear of a revision of the history of World War I infl uenced Serbian society and elites on the eve of the centenary. The concerned Serb elites responded with a wide range of events organized in Serbia and Republika Srpska. Within the framework of the commemorative events dedicated to the anniversary, monuments, installed and restored by the Serbian authorities and their foreign part-ners, have received special signifi cance. These were monuments to the Serbian patriot G. Princip, to the famous Iron Regiment, to the woman volunteer-soldier Milunka Savic. They are traditional fi gures of the Ser-bian memory of the First World War. At the same time, Serbian authori-ties did not succeed in their attempt to perpetuate in monumental forms the head of the Serbian military intelligence D. Dimitrievic-Apis, the leader of the Serbian nationalist organization Black Hand, which patron-ized the Mlada Bosna organization that prepared the assassination on Franz Ferdinand. The Russian-Serbian monuments of the First World War in Serbia presenting Nicholas II and the military brotherhood of the two peoples were of special signifi cance. All new monuments have become memorial sites and at the same time attractive points for vari-ous political forces expressing their sympathies and antipathies through symbolic gestures towards them.

scholarly journals «Russia does not step out of the role of the defendant in the Persian question…»: British discursive practices and Russian public opinion on the eve of the Great War

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-218
Author(s):  
Andrey B. Larin
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Discursive Practices ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Foreign Office ◽  
The Government ◽  
Mutual Relations ◽  
The Great War ◽  
First World

The paper is devoted to the peculiarities of the British socio-political discourse functioning in the relation towards Russia and its foreign policy on the eve of the First World War. Based on the materials related to the Persian question and the activities of the Persia Committee, it was shown that a significant part of the British public opinion was biased against Russia, even after the signing of the 1907 Convention. Such invective approach had a direct and indirect impact on the policy of Foreign Office. At the same time, these British discursive practices were accepted by Russian public opinion as a constant in the mutual relations of the two Empires. Moreover, there was a tendency in Russian press to use the British Other (accusing and rebuking) as a convenient tool for affirming their own ideas and positions. Commenting on various British accusations and reproaches, Russian publicists appealed to their own government, hinting that the latter pays more attention to the British public opinion than to the interests of Russia. The government, for its part, used the appeal to Russian public opinion as an argument in its disputes with London. Thus, during the period under review, in Russia it was learned how to use the British approach to it as to a convenient Other in its own interests.

Raising an ‘industrial army’: the policy of reservation in the First and Second World Wars

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliette Pattinson ◽  
Arthur Mcivor ◽  
Linsey Robb
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Home Front ◽  
Government Control ◽  
World War ◽  
Total War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The Government ◽  
Armed Services ◽  
The Military ◽  
First World

This chapter provides an examination of the policy of reservation in the two world wars. In total war, industry was in direct competition with the military for a limited supply of men. The state needed to mobilise labour just as much as it did combatants to fill the ranks of the armed services. Both wars witnessed increased government control to direct manpower to where it was needed. Despite attempts to retain men with essential skills on the home front during the First World War, too many skilled men were able to enlist into the forces. Those men who remained on the home front were derided as shirkers and cowards. Civilian men therefore had to negotiate their relegation to the subordinate status of unmanly ‘other’. Whereas errors were made during the First World War, with the government lurching from one manpower crisis to another, a more systematic approach was adopted in the Second with a Schedule of Reserved Occupations. The raising of an ‘industrial army’, which was merely rhetoric in the First World War, became a reality in the Second.

Imperial Berlin and Washington: New Light on Germany's Foreign Policy and America's Entry into World War I

1978 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reinhard R. Doerries
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
World War I ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
The First World War ◽  
The World ◽  
Foreign Office ◽  
The Government ◽  
War Aims ◽  
First World

Since the early 1960s we have witnessed in West German historical writing noteworthy changes in the interpretation of the causes of the First World War and, therefore, of the meaning of that war for Germany. One is particularly struck by the refreshing debate which ensued among German scholars on Germany's war aims specifically and on Imperial Germany's foreign policy prior to the World War in general. The so-called captured German documents of the Foreign Office and other branches of the government were returned to Germany, and a younger generation of historians eagerly examined the newly available material. Remarkable, if at times controversial, studies were the result of the scholarly reexamination of the German imperial era. Yet, in all the commotion and controversy, there was one area of German foreign policy which conspicuously remained ignored or treated with astonishing marginality

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