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Why Did Australian People Rush To Enlist In 1914 To 1914

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Historical Essay Why did Australian men rush to enlist in 1914/1915? During the early war period, there was a rush of Australian men enlisting to defend their mother country. The inherent sense of pride and patriotism that pervades Australian culture today was part of the driving force behind these men’s intentions. The First World War was propagated as an opportunity to seek adventure and see new exotic places, all the while defending their country. Peer pressure played a major role in inspiring these young men to enlist as they were told to “do their nation proud”. Conclusively, there were a variety of factors contributing to a young man’s urge to enlist but the hastened timeframe and imminent “call to adventure” caused the rush of people to enlist between 1914 to 1915. “At the start of World War 1, Australia was a nation of around four million people. This meant that there was a potential pool of around 820,000 men of ‘fighting age’ (between 19 and 38). With a total enlistment of 420,000 men in service for World War 1, the total population of Australia between 1914 and 1918 was 4.9 million. Australian nationalism and pride was very importunate at the time causing a huge amount of men rushed to enlist in World War 1. Australian men viewed themselves as ‘tough pioneers’ and the Australian sense of self was bloated by events such as the occupation of indigenous land, the gold rush and the exploration of Australian land. Amongst the pride of national identity, peer

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