The historical event I will be analysing is the the opposition to World War 1 Conscription in New Zealand. To do this, I will be looking into the different reasons for the protest as well as the effect this opposition to conscription had on the population and the government of New Zealand.
Context
The Military Service Act of 1916 replaced the pre-existing volunteering system in New Zealand following the decline in volunteers for the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. This decline in volunteers can be attributed to the increasing number of deaths of New Zealand soldiers and the end of the war being seemingly along time away. With the uneven number of losses of members of different families, it was also intended for the Military Service Act to be a means of having an 'equality of sacrifice' amongst all the members of the New Zealand population.
Essentially, the Military Service Act dealt with the conscription of men between the age of 20 and 46 and prohibit employers from employing eligible men who did not enrol as a reservist. |