ABSTRACT
On first acquaintance to British eyes the First World War presents itself in starkly demarcated periods: naïve and bombastic enthusiasm in August 1914; stubborn and traumatizing conflict in the middle years; a barren victory in 1918, marred further by a malignant peace. On closer analysis this, of course, proves an overly crude interpretation. Nonetheless, politically, the war can be divided conveniently into three periods: Asquith’s Liberal Government, August 1914 to May 1915; Asquith’s Coalition Government, June 1915 to December 1916; and Lloyd George’s Coalition Government, January 1917 to November 1918. Each administration had its own individual characteristics and all shared common features. This chapter analyses key aspects of the politico-strategic dimension which united and divided these periods of government, including the military and political context within which wartime decisions were made, the clarification of a Conservative approach to war and the domestic political opportunities presented by war to particular political groupings. The traditional interpretation of the war has been that it was implicitly beneficial to the Conservative Party. As will be seen throughout this study, this is hardly a fair reflection of its actual impact. If on the simple issue of the fact of war itself this bold assertion is un-controversial, it can easily betray the level of nuance inherent in the Conservative approach to ‘total war’.
