British Propaganda During World War I

Propaganda is information designed to get people to believe a certain point of view. It does not have to be lies. It can be the truth, though it is only one part of the truth. The British government started to use propaganda at the before the world war one. They used it to make the British people dislike the Germans and support the war.

Propaganda was used in world war one to promote the war effort. The government used propaganda for many deferent reasons. The government used propaganda at many different times in the war for many different reasons and some of the propaganda was not needed by the end of the war like recruitment poster.

Recruitment propaganda was used from the start of the war until conscription was introduced in 1916 .The British government made many recruitment posters to get people interested in signing up to fight in the war. The government used many different and my favourite one is a man sitting in an arm chair and has his daughter asking him “daddy what did you do in the Great War?” this was made to get a normal family to sing up for the war it had a very big impact on many family men it would make them feel a bit guilty to his family that he did not help to protect the country.

The government made theses posters to get people to sigh up for the war because the British army was very small about 250,000 men compared to the French and German army what where conscription army’s. We need help to beat the evil Germans so we put up posters asking people to join the army.

Women were also the target from propaganda either. Propaganda was targeted at them to try and get them to take up work in the places left by the vast number of men what went to fight in the war. Or to try and make their husband, fight in the war.

The news papers published Atrocity stories about atrocity stories what happened in Belgium. This stories where to tell to build up hate toward the Germans. It was based on true fact and most of it was real but got mixed on the way to your ears. But other stories are just made up. They were successful because people wanted some thing to hate the Germans for and this was a good thing for the British government.

A British spy was killed by the Germans what was a very good piece of propaganda .But the newspaper told us that she was a middle aged nurse working at the western frontline serving our troop in the war in the Germans lines. It was in all of Germany power to kill her because she was spying and helping British solider in prisoner of war camps escape to the frontline .It was a great pieces of propaganda for the first world war . But after the war the Germans did emit that it was a very big mistake to kill her but she could have been put in a prison.

Raising money for the war became increasingly difficult throughout the war. The government tried many different ways of raising money. At first they simply spent less money elsewhere in the county or raised taxes a bit. However as the war kept on growing they didn’t have enough money to fund the war. The government found its self, borrowing money from other countries to fuel the war. They decided to issue an appeal for money in the way of propaganda to get the wealthier families and households to donate money to them. They asked people to take out war bonds that could be paid back at the end of the war. This was also coped by the US in WW2.

The British army did have a secret weapon of the First World War it was the tank. The Tank was a propaganda persons dream their was many new stories about it in the paper and many different pictures of it in the paper at first it was not that impressive in the war. But after time the army used them goodly and did much damage with them but. The tank did build up much national pride and gave British people hope that we where going to win the war.

The government did not only want to influence the views of Britain, but also those of friends and enemies abroad. America would be a great help if they would join the war for the allies. To help mobilise America for war the Foreign Office, who were in charge of propaganda to neutral audiences, printed hundreds o books and leaflets to send to American newspaper editors. When the Luistania was sunk by a German U-boat’s torpedo in 1915, British propaganda made sure it was told about a lot.

Without the propaganda the country would might not have won the war. It helped us many way . It was one of the crucial factors of us winning the war although be may of gave up on the war but the government used their ever growing wisdom in know what we want to see and hear about the war (was better wisdom in them days).