British+Posters+of+World+War+I

= Brit﻿ish Propaganda during WW1 ﻿ Olivia Bryan Propaganda was used for many reasons during WW1.The two major reasons were to recruit soldiers and reserve supplies around the nation. Because of the lack of a conscription policy, the government needed many more men to fight in the British Expeditionary Forces.They worked to gain young men, using posters and leaflets to motivate them. Since the government indirectly controlled some english newspapers, headlines were used for their benefit also, resulting in rumors being printed as truths, for the whole nation to see. Many slandering headlines were made available to the public, inflaming the English hatred for Germany, and supplying them with a great amount o﻿f stories that justified their fighting. One famous story was that a belguim child's hands were cut off by Germans. Another was that German officers crucified a Canadian. However, not all posters stirred the public in a troubling way. One very famous poster featured Lord Kitchener, Secretary of War, and, at the time, a well known model of the English Army. The caption read "your country needs you", and asked healthy English men to help the nation. Other posters urged citizens to conserve all products, by consuming less and setting aside unnecessary trinkets for the Army to use for the production of guns, bullets and tanks. Some even asked for the help of women, for them to volunteer in their communities and to take up the work that their husbands, brothers, sons and cousins had left behind. Actually, this kind of encouragement impacted the equality of men and women during that time period. Women were given a wider range of career choices and over two million women joined the work force. Some even became soldiers and fought beside the men. However, there were some sexist propaganda that was tolerated at the time. Gender was used to compel men to fight, because women were told to shame their husbands if they had not thought of fighting themselves.All in all, even though the English government may have used unjust mediums and hindered reputations to motivate citizens, needs were met and enough men joined the army for the Allies to win the war.



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