Analyze the social situation of any one European country throughout World War One.

During World War I, Britain fought as one of the Allied powers, which originally consisted of the Triple Entente – The United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire. Minor members, such as Italy, Japan, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Belgium, later joined them. They successfully defeated the Central Powers (The German Empire, The Austro-Hungarian Empire, The Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria.) In order to do so, the United Kingdom was forced to completely reorganize their army, introduce the RAF, and go into a state of total war. The British army increased drastically in size due to conscription. In an effort to protect the civilians of Britain, the Defence of the Realm Act was passed in the early weeks of the war. Under this act censorship was implemented and the British public were prohibited to do things that they would ordinarily do, such as fly a kite, buy binoculars, feed wild animals, discussing official war matters, lighting a bonfire, and pubs were given a curfew.

The influx of media boosted British morale during the war, as newspapers and propaganda flourished. Fortunately for the British they recognized early in the war that they needed propaganda in order to have advantage over the Germans. In 1914 the War Propaganda Bureau was created, and produced numerous official documents, posters, speeches, books, pamphlets and even realistic films about the war – all made a big impact on the civilians’ impression and view of war. Under the Defence of the Realm Act, newspapers were restricted on what they could publish. Despite this, the public craved news on the war and sales of the Daily Mail increased from 800,000 a day in 1914 to 1.5 million in 1916. New Magazines, including The War Pictorial, and The War Illustrated, reported news of developments in the war, and as the names of the magazines suggest – images and illustrations of the war in action. British war poets gained the attention of the public – whether they were there fighting and dying for their country, such as Issac Rosenberg, Wilfred Owen, or a woman, such as Vera Brittain expressing the pain of losing a loved one in the war.

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