On 28 June 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife Sophie were assassinated in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo. The fallout from this faraway event would ultimately claim the lives of 18,500 New Zealanders and wound more than 40,000. Places thousands of miles from home with exotic-sounding names such as Gallipoli, Passchendaele and the Somme were forever etched in the national memory during what became known as the Great War. (nzhistory.net)
The first world war played a significant part in New Zealand's history. The great war was considered a key factor in bringing New Zealand together as a nation and allowed New Zealanders to gain their own sense of identity. New Zealand's involvement in the first world war differentiated New Zealand from other countries around the world from which brought about nationalism among New Zealanders resulting in the formation of their identity from which they were referred to as 'New Zealanders' and 'Kiwis'. From a population of just over one million, over 120,000 young New Zealand men were enlisted and 103,000 New Zealanders served overseas. These young men were heavily impacted by the event of the great war. The realities of the war were far from what these young men had anticipated. Many lives were lost from a population so small, many young men wounded leaving families and communities in grief and sorrow. Furthermore the first world war most prominently had an impact on the society of New Zealand,women were left to carry out tough jobs in the workforce due to the absence of young fit men and the loss of lives impacted the society immensely having an effect on the families and communities of the nation. ANZAC Day is commemorated annually on the 25th of April in remembrance of NZ's involvement in WW1, in tribute to those New Zealand men who lost their lives fighting for our nation in what is known as the great war.