The British Empire played a crucial part in the First World War, supplying hundreds of thousands of soldiers and labourers as well as a range of essential resources, from foodstuffs to minerals, mules, and munitions. In turn, many imperial territories were deeply affected by wartime phenomena, such as inflation, food shortages, combat, and the presence of large numbers of foreign troops.
This collection offers a comprehensive selection of essays illuminating the extent of the Empire's war contribution and experience, and the richness of scholarly research on the subject. Whether supporting British military operations, aiding the British imperial economy, or experiencing significant wartime effects on the home fronts of the Empire, the war had a profound impact on the colonies and their people.
The chapters in this volume were originally published in Australian Historical Studies, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, First World War Studies or The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs.
1. Introduction 2. The First World War as a global war 3. Sir Charles Lucas and The Empire at War Part I: War on Imperial Frontiers 4. South Africa and World War I 5. Spoils of war: Sub-imperial collaboration in South West Africa and New Guinea, 1914-20 6. 'Khaki crusaders': crusading rhetoric and the British Imperial soldier during the Egypt and Palestine campaigns, 1916-18 7. From defeat to victory: logistics of the campaign in Mesopotamia, 1914-1918 8. British Understandings of the Sanussiyya Sufi Order's Jihad against Egypt, 1915-17 9. Marching to the Beat of an Imperial Drum: Contextualising Australia's Military Effort During the First World War Part II: Home Fronts 10. Cyprus's Non-military Contribution to the Allied War Effort during World War I 11. African agency and cultural initiatives in the British Imperial military and labor recruitment drives in the Gold Coast (colonial Ghana) during the First World War 12. Norman Lindsay and the 'Asianisation' of the German Soldier in Australia during the First World War 13. War opinion in South Africa, 1914 14. The War Munitions Supply Company of Western Australia and the Popular Movement to Manufacture Artillery Ammunition in the British Empire in the First World War 15. The expatriate firms and the Colonial economy of Nigeria in the First World War 16. The influence of racial attitudes on British policy towards India during the First World War 17. William Morris Hughes, Empire and Nationalism: The Legacy of the First World War Part III: Soldiers and Fighting Fronts 18. 'You will not be going to this war': the rejected volunteers of the First Contingent of the Canadian Expeditionary Force 19. Dominion Cartoon Satire as Trench Culture Narratives: Complaints, Endurance and Stoicism 20. 'Accurate to the Point of Mania': Eyewitness Testimony and Memory Making in Australia's Official Paintings of the First World War 21. Informing the enemy: Australian prisoners and German intelligence on the Western Front, 1916-1918 22. The Prisoner Dilemma: Britain, Germany, and the Repatriation of Indian Prisoners of War 23. 'All in the Same Uniform'? The Participation of Black Colonial Residents in the British Armed Forces in the First World War 24. Australian and New Zealand fathers and sons during the Great War: expanding the histories of families at war 25. Loss and Longing: Emotional Responses to West Indian Soldiers during the First World War 26. Conclusion: The First World War Centenary in the UK: 'A Truly National Commemoration'?
