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Conscription Essay Example

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Conscription Essay Example
In the year of 1916 the labour government introduced conscription. Conscription or ‘national service’ was a method of convincing men to compulsory enrollment into the armed forces. Before introducing conscription it was a significant issue in Australia between the years of 1914. This was due to the fact that there were different people on both sides of the issue who were and weren’t in support for conscription. Most countries such as Britain fought with a conscripted army of men besides Australia who heavily relied on voluntary enlistment.
To begin with this essay will discuss the major points such as: why Australia became involved in wars overseas, why the government made the decision of conscription and did WWII involve conscription it will then move onto minor issues such as tactics used in the war.
Australia never made the decision to be involved in the war instead they were pressured into joining the war. Australia needed to assist England in the approaching war so in return if Australia was in need of political or economical assistance, England would be there to help. The two most important reasons why Australia joined the war consisted of loyalty towards Britain and improvement of Australia’s international reputation. There were minor reasons such as mate ship and poverty yet the two most vital reasons persuaded Australia and caused Australia to enlist in such a shocking war.
During WWI, Australia’s labor prime minister, William Hughes wanted to enforce compulsory conscription. This was most likely since Britain and New Zea-land had introduced conscription earlier in the year. He also thought with the purpose of conscription it would make it easier for Australia to fight against Germany, therefore it could possibly stop Germany from invading Australia. An additional reason to enforce conscription was that the number of individuals willing to join with the army were dropping, thus these reasons persuaded Hughes to enforce conscription and for it to

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