Articles on First world war

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When world leaders thought you shouldn’t need passports or visas

The promise of recently explored oilfields dictated British interest in Mesopotamia (roughly, modern-day Iraq) during the Sykes-Picot Agreement negotiations. Reuters/Thaier Al-Sudani

Explainer: what is the 100-year-old Sykes-Picot Agreement?

The Sykes-Picot Agreement delivered the spoils of war to Britain and France, and deferred the dreams of Arab nationalists.
Presidents Hollande and Obama. Is it still possible for nation states to build a global alliance against organisations such as Daesh? Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

States and gangs: the difficult search for new ways to run the world

To save mankind from the scourge of war… These eight words drawn from the preamble to the Charter of the United Nations have been ringing in my head for the past week. Most believe that they were penned…

Why we don’t hear about the 10,000 French deaths at Gallipoli


Join the dots between Gallipoli and the Armenian genocide






Let’s honour the Anzacs by making two-up illegal again

In 1915, Australians came to terms with total war – and were prepared for the battle at Gallipoli and conscription in 1916. Australian War Memorial/Flickr

1915 in Australia: the reality of total war sinks in

It was not the excitement but the seriousness of the first world war that captured the imaginations of Australians. The experience of 1915 had a marked effect on local commitment to winning the war.
Archival photographs such as the above, from Gallipoli, are one resource documentary makers draw upon to communicate understandings of historical events. Australian War Memorial/Flickr

Who tells our stories? The first world war on the small screen

War history used to be brought to TV audiences by donnish lecturers but historical reconstructions now hold sway. Two recent docos about Gallipoli are hybrid examples of the form that help us better understand the past.


Australian troops in France in the first world war – and one of Australia’s women medics, possibly Dr Laura Foster. Heather Sheard

The forgotten Australian women doctors of the Great War

More than 20 Australian women doctors defied official discouragement and served as surgeons and medical officers in the first world war.

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