Backbencher

Lecture 9 was title Yankee Sidekicks or Second Class Poms, and in this lecture Isern asked us to think about how other nations view us as an nation and citzens of a nation. But as we began to look into both Australia and New Zealand we see that both countries maintained good standing relationships with Britain up through the Great War and then things changed not because soldier from Australia and New Zealand werent willing to fight but because the British commanders almost treated them as if they were expendable pieces like pawns in a chess game, mainly at Gallipoli. Foriegn Policy in both countries was discussed as well in the fact the after WWII both nations joined the league of nations as independants and this revealed both countries were starting to look at themselves for answers for the government rather than depending on the help of other nations such as Britain, with this Australia began to focus its attention on Asia as they had formed an alliance with the US to help in carrying out attacks on Japan during WWII, with New Zealnd becoming concerned with where Britain's worries actually lied. One thing i found interesting is that New Zealand tends to have a little more distaste for the US than does Australia because New Zealand was used as a sort of staging point for US troops in WWII, so in a sense NZ tended to feel a tad bit used by the US. But surprisingly they are still friendly to the US, but this is due to the fact that they have a small military and still need help with protection if need be, so in that sense they feel as if they still need the US in a sort of big brother I have your back way. Overall this was another interesting lecture for me because it brought to light some of the military history of the 2 nations during WWII, which i am a huge fan of researching.


Matt Liese