WW1

• When/where/who was involved?


  • Where: Europe mostly.

  • When: 28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918

  • Between: the Allies (mainly France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917, the United States) and the Central Powers (the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire / Turkey, and Bulgaria).
• Why was NZ involved in this war?

  Public opinion - Most New Zealanders favoured supporting the British Empire; many were enthusiastic. 'War fever' was present in NZ, as in Europe.
• Why was NZ involved in this war?

  Financial Interest - In 1914 NZ was very dependent on Britain for trade. NZ had prospered through its exports of agricultural produce.
• Why was NZ involved in this war?

  Security - New Zealanders were also conscious of their situation at the edge of the empire, alone in a vast ocean in which a new, alien power – Japan – was emerging to the north (though at the time it was allied to the British Empire). New Zealanders regarded British sea power as the key to their security.
• Why was NZ involved in this war?

  Political support - Prime Minister William Massey pledged New Zealand’s support for the empire immediately. Given the national mood, to fail to do so would have meant political suicide.
• The most lasting impact of the war


  On New Zealand's sense of itself
• New Zealanders


  • Compared themselves with British and others and did not find themselves wanting
  • Took pride in the fact that they had done their bit – even overdone it – in the war
  • Felt they had stood the greatest test to confront them so far
• Role of women in WWI

  • 550 nurses served with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force
  • Women gathered to knit or stitch items of clothing for soldiers
  • In 1916 Women's patriotic committees formed the Dominion Parcels Scheme to send parcels to soldiers overseas
• Role of Māori in WWI

  • At first Māori weren't allowed to fight in the war
  • Four Māori MPs (Apirana Ngata and Maui Pomare) were key to signing up Māori
  • 2227 Māori and 458 Pacific Islanders had served in the Māori (Pioneer) Battalion
  • 336 died on active service and 734 were wounded
• First group of 8,454 soldiers left New Zealand heading for the other side of the world


  October 1914
• Later a Māori contingent was sent
• At first the soldiers were volunteers, but later men were conscripted to fight
• New Zealand troops had occupied Western Samoa, which was a German territory


  Within a month
• Britain asked New Zealand to seize German Samoa as a 'great and urgent Imperial service'
• Occupation of Western Samoa

  1. Led by Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Logan

  2. 1400-strong Samoa Advance Party of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force landed at Apia on 29 August

  3. There was no resistance from German officials or the general population
• Turkey had entered the war on the side of the Central Powers
• The Australia New Zealand Army Corp (ANZAC) troops supported British and French soldiers in an attempt to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula, in Turkey
• Despite months of fighting, they were unsuccessful, and many men died – about one in six of the New Zealand soldiers
• Allied troops pulled out in January 1916
• How is this war remembered today?

  World War I is remembered more widely because a lot of soldiers died in this war. It touched the lives of every home.

  • 500 civic war memorials were built throughout New Zealand.

  • ANZAC day is still celebrated over 100 years later.
• How significant was NZ’s contribution to this war?

  New Zealand played a small but useful part in the British Empire’s war effort. The defeat of the Central Powers in late 1918 ensured New Zealand’s physical and economic security

  • The total population of New Zealand in 1914 was just over one million.

  • Just under ten percent of our then population of 1.1 million served overseas, of which more than 18,000 died.

  • There were also over 40,000 hospitalisations due to injury or illness.

  • Nearly every New Zealand family was affected by the impact of the war.
• The Triple Entente

  • Russia, France, and Britain
  • a friendly understanding/informal alliance, not a formal military alliance
  • did not guarantee to go to war or to give military support
• The Triple Alliance

  • Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary
  • formal military alliance