Anzac, Empire and War: Australian Nationalism and the Campaign for Imperial Federation

Abstract

While Federation in 1901 failed to lodge in the popular imagination, Australians widely embraced the idea that their nation was born at Gallipoli during World War I. Despite its subsequent ubiquity, the form of nationalism that spawned the legend of martial birth was not the only kind that had currency during World War I. This article traces the ideal of Australian nationhood held by imperialist liberals, such as Alfred Deakin and members of the Round Table group, through the campaign for imperial federation. It argues that the distance between Australian and British interests that became apparent during the war and the peace process put paid to Australian interest in imperial federation, and to the quasi-mystical ideal of nationalism that went with it. Australians were left with a martial nationalism that was more strident, parochial and anxious than the imperial liberalism that propelled the Federation movement.