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    Coming of Age Essay

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    Alex
    The document discusses how Australia and New Zealand came of age during World War 1. It describes how the countries were still attached to Britain at the start of the war. The disastrous landing of ANZAC forces at Gallipoli demonstrated Britain's disregard for their lives. Though a tragedy, it helped the nations realize they were capable of independence from Britain and could make their own decisions to better protect their people. While the war brought great loss of life, it was ultimately vital for Australia and New Zealand's development into independent countries.

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    Coming of Age Essay

    Uploaded by

    Alex
    48 views3 pages
    The document discusses how Australia and New Zealand came of age during World War 1. It describes how the countries were still attached to Britain at the start of the war. The disastrous landing of ANZAC forces at Gallipoli demonstrated Britain's disregard for their lives. Though a tragedy, it helped the nations realize they were capable of independence from Britain and could make their own decisions to better protect their people. While the war brought great loss of life, it was ultimately vital for Australia and New Zealand's development into independent countries.

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    The document discusses how Australia and New Zealand came of age during World War 1. It describes how the countries were still attached to Britain at the start of the war. The disastrous landing of ANZAC forces at Gallipoli demonstrated Britain's disregard for their lives. Though a tragedy, it helped the nations realize they were capable of independence from Britain and could make their own decisions to better protect their people. While the war brought great loss of life, it was ultimately vital for Australia and New Zealand's development into independent countries.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    48 views3 pages

    Coming of Age Essay

    Uploaded by

    Alex
    The document discusses how Australia and New Zealand came of age during World War 1. It describes how the countries were still attached to Britain at the start of the war. The disastrous landing of ANZAC forces at Gallipoli demonstrated Britain's disregard for their lives. Though a tragedy, it helped the nations realize they were capable of independence from Britain and could make their own decisions to better protect their people. While the war brought great loss of life, it was ultimately vital for Australia and New Zealand's development into independent countries.

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    Coming of Age Essay

    In order to mature into a greater version of themselves, countries have to go through times

    of hardship and struggle. True maturity comes from taking these experiences and learning

    from them to become an improved version of themselves. Some nations already had great

    independence at the time of the war, but some smaller countries were still attached to their

    more powerful parent countries who got them to where they were at the time. Australia

    and New Zealand were an example of those countries and were still attached to and

    serving Britain. Australia and New Zealand came of age as a result of the war and learnt

    that they could be more independent and did not need to be Britain’s child anymore

    because they knew what to do with themselves better than Britain did and had more value

    on the lives of the people of the country.

    Before WW1 began Australia had pledged allegiance to Britain. When the war began, all

    Australians fighting had to be volunteer due to act in 1903 that stated conscripted forces

    could not be used to fight overseas. These men served “wherever the British desired” and

    their country got no say and where and who they fought. ANZAC forces who volunteered

    expected to train in England but had to go to Egypt instead due to lack of training and

    accommodation facilities. They had limited training only being in Egypt for about 4

    months before being shipped off to the Dardanelles due to Cairo being a potential target

    for the Ottoman Empire and Lord Kitchener declaring the Anzac would be adequate for a

    “Cruise in the Marmara.” On April 25th, 1915 the Anzacs landed on the shores of Gallipoli.

    However, they had missed their intended landing spot and had ended up north of where
    they were supposed to be. Where they landed, they were greeted by rocky terrain and

    gunfire from the many Turks waiting at the landing spot which would later be named

    Anzac Cove. Commander Dix said, “tell the colonel that the damn fools have landed us

    too for north.” Not only was the original landing at Gallipoli a disaster, the entire

    campaign ended up being a total failure and resulted in 24 652 wounded Anzac soldiers

    and 11 488 ended up dead.

    This day at Gallipoli became known as one of the worst days in the history of the

    country’s as it resulted in the death of so many people. However, it was a very important

    part of coming of age as nations. This landing at Gallipoli was a demonstration of how

    little Britain cared for the lives of the Anzacs by making a careless mistake and leading

    many of them to their death. After the initial landing they were still left with terrible

    conditions. Over the course of eight months many Anzac soldiers died, and they did not

    gain much from it. J. W. McPherson said about the horrors he saw at Gallipoli, “Men had

    lost arms and legs, brains oozed out of shattered skulls and lungs protruded for riven

    chests; many had lost their faces and were, I should think, unrecognisable to their nearest

    friends.”

    As the war continued, more and more Anzac troops were contributed to the war to fight

    for Britain on the western front and those who survived Gallipoli went to fight in France.

    New Zealand were forced to add conscription of troops to keep in the war. Australia was

    one of only 2 countries to have an all-volunteer force. In the end both countries suffered
    monumental losses of many young men who would have later made a big difference to

    the small population of those countries. According to the Victorian state library 421 809

    Australians served in the war and there were over 60 000 deaths and 137 000 wounded. Of

    the 32 000 that originally enlisted in the AIF only 7000 survived. In New Zealand 100 444

    served with 16 697 deaths and 41 317 wounded.

    Even though the war was a tragic event for the young nations, it was incredibly vital in

    becoming what they are today. As countries, the war helped them come to the realisation

    that they didn’t need to be treated like babies by Britain and could think for themselves.

    They could look after the people of their nations better than Britain could as they placed

    greater value on their lives and wellbeing. What happened at Gallipoli was a tragedy for 2

    developing nations but the real question is, would Australia and New Zealand be what

    they are today if it wasn’t for the tragedy that happened over 100 years ago?

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