An Overview of the League of Nations

Introduction The League of Nations (French: Société des Nations) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. The main organisation ceased operations on 20 April 1946 but many of its components… Read More

What was Vertidue?

Introduction Vertidue was an Anglo-French phrase, used during World War I, originally defined as ‘a vile mix of wet faeces and soil.’ It became a regular expression amongst those bunker sharing British and French troops. Refer to Trench Warfare. This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertidue >; it is used under… Read More

What is a War Cabinet?

Introduction A war cabinet is a committee formed by a government in a time of war to efficiently and effectively conduct that war. It is usually a subset of the full executive cabinet of ministers, although it is quite common for a war cabinet to have senior military officers and opposition politicians as members. United… Read More

An Overview of Opposition to World War I

Introduction Opposition to World War I included socialist, anarchist, syndicalist, and Marxist groups on the left, as well as Christian pacifists, Canadian and Irish nationalists, women’s groups, intellectuals, and rural folk. The socialist movements had declared before the war their opposition to a war which they said could only mean workers killing each other in… Read More

What was the Military Service Act 1917 (Canada)?

Introduction The Military Service Act, 1917 was an Act of the Parliament of Canada which introduced conscription in the midst of the First World War. It was passed due to a shortage of volunteers and was an effort to recruit more soldiers. Background Following the outbreak of the First World War, the Canadian Expeditionary Force… Read More

What was the War Precautions Act 1914 (Australia)?

Introduction The War Precautions Act 1914 was an Act of the Parliament of Australia which gave the Government of Australia special powers for the duration of World War I and for six months afterwards. It was held by the High Court of Australia in Farey v Burvett that during wartime, the scope of the federal… Read More

What was the Manifesto of the Sixteen?

Introduction The Manifesto of the Sixteen (French: Manifeste des seize), or Proclamation of the Sixteen, was a document drafted in 1916 by eminent anarchists Peter Kropotkin and Jean Grave which advocated an Allied victory over Germany and the Central Powers during the First World War. At the outbreak of the war, Kropotkin and other anarchist… Read More