Transcript Borden and the Great War

Borden and the Great War
1911 Election
Marching to War
The Battles
Conscription
A Terrible Toll
The Election of 1911
Laurier’s Liberals wanted “free trade”
with America
Robert Borden’s Conservatives
campaigned with “No Truck nor Trade
with the Yankees” and won
Laurier and Borden a study in contrasts
Laurier a French-Canadians with
charisma a charmer
Borden a sombre unyielding Nova
Scotian
Many Canadian historians conceder
him to be the most “underrated
Canadian Prime Minister”
I dislike him because he sent 70,000
Canadians to their deaths
WAR
“The period before World War I was the
high-water mark of imperial feeling, an
era when “imperialist” was not a dirty
word.” Daniel Francis
World War I (1914-1918) the Great War
was a heartbreaking and pointless
conflict.
Imperialism taken to its logical
conclusion.
It left 14 million dead, 21 million
crippled and a generation destroyed and
for what?
Today historians cannot really explain
how the war started, what the point
was, or if it could have been prevented.
The Spark And Causes
Over the years a network of imperial
alliances had been formed in Europe
The Triple Alliance: Germany, AustriaHungarian, and Italy
The Triple Entente: France, Russia and
Great Britain
The Arms Race was another important
factor in increased tensions
Britain and Germany were in a naval
race
France and Germany were in a race to
create the largest army in Europe
Austria-Hungary and Italy wanted land
Spark and Causes
Russia with its huge territory
wanted control of the Balkans
Austria-Hungary wanted control of
the Balkans as well
Austria-Hungary was an empire
made of many nations Germans,
and Hungarians ruled the empire
but Czechs, Slovaks, Croatians and
Serbians made up a large part of
the empire
Austria-Hungary had lost the
Serbian province in the last
Balkans war
Serbians now wanted Bosnia
Spark and Causes
Russia supported the Serbs
Bosnia a province of AustriaHungary was full of unrest but
Archduke Francis Ferdinand and
his wife Sophia visited Sarajevo
As his motorcade moved through
the city a Serbian terrorist stepped
forward and killed both
The day was a Sunday, June 28Th,
1914
The alliances clicked into place
Austria-Hungary declared war on
Serbia
War
Russia supporting Serbia declared
war on Austria-Hungary
Germany supporting AustriaHungary declared war on Russia
France supporting Russia declared
war on Germany
Germany declared war on France
Germany was now faced with a
two-front war
But Germany had the “Schlieffen
Plan”
Attack France thought Belgium,
take France out of the war, then
destroy Russia
The Schlieffen Plan
The Russian Army was large but
poorly trained
France would be taken out first
The border between France and
Germany was heavily fortified
Thus the Germans would attack
thought neutral Belgium
The Germans would swing west
and capture Paris once France
surrendered Germany could destroy
Russia
Because Belgium was a neutral
country and because Britain had
promised to protect Belgium,
Britain would be at war
The French Rally
Because of the German invasion of
Belgium on August 4th, 1914
Britain declared war on Germany
Because Canada was governed by
British foreign policy Canada was
at war
Because of this young Canadians
boys would die in the muddy fields
of France and Belgium
The German Schlieffen Plan almost
worked but the French Army
rallied at the Battle of the Marne
and stopped the German advance
Now it was a war of trenches not
movement
The Alliances
The Great War was waged between
two opposing alliance:
The Allies; Great Britain and her
Empire, France and Russia
The Central Powers: Germany,
Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman
Empire or Turkey
The conflict grew to include ever
ocean and every inhabited
continent on earth
The US remained neutral until the
spring of 1917
The Americans only had troops in
Europe for the last 18 months of
the war
Princess Patricia and her
Regiment (PPCLI)
“Back by Christmas” was the cry
The war brought Canadians
together at first
Borden declared “shoulder to
shoulder with Britain”
Laurier stated “Ready, aye.
Ready!”
Bourassa stated”Canada to defend
the mother countries”
Sam Hughes Borden’s Minister of
Militia had 30,000 volunteers after
a month
Most recent British immigrants
“Men the world regards you as a
Marvel!” Sam Hughes
Sam armed his men with the
Canadian Ross rifle
The rifles jammed in the mud and
overheated after quick firing
Hughes refused to replace them
until it was to late
Many died for his folly
But they were off to fight “the
Hun’
The first Canadian Expeditionary
Force set sail in October 1914
The first to arrive was the Princess
Patricia Canadian Light Infantry or
“The Princess Pats”
EMENY ALIENS
Ottawa passed The War Measures Act an act that gave the government the
power to do anything “for the security, defense, peace,order and welfare of
Canada”
The War Measures Act gave the government the power to arrest and imprison
8500 “enemy aliens”
Canadians of German, Austrian ,Turkish and Ukrainian birth were sent to
interment camps
Many of these people were used as “slave labour”
The War Measures Act would be used in World War II to displace Japanese
Canadians and again in 1970 to lock up French-Canadian nationalists without
trial
Anti-German fever was so high in Canada that Berlin was forced to change its
name to Kitchener after the British Field-Marshall
Gas at Ypres
Modern warfare was born at
Ypres,Belgium April 22,1915
The German army released 5700 gas
cylinders
The chlorine gas drifted across “no
man’s land”
The French colonial troops broke and
ran
The Canadians rushed in to close the
gap
The advance was stopped
On April 24 the Germans launched
another gas attack at the Canadians
With urine soaked handkerchiefs the
Canadians fought the Germans to a
stand still
Ypres is over the Somme begins
The cost was high more than 6000
Canadians were dead wounded or
missing
“Thus, in their first appearance on a
European battlefield,the Canadians
established a reputation as a
formidable fighting force.” Patricia
Giesler
In July of 1916 the British
launched the “big push” along the
Somme River
100,000 allied troops would march
across no man’s land and into
German machine gun fire
Battle of the Somme
More than 57,000 British soldiers were
killed, wounded, or missing
The heaviest single day lost in British
history
At Beaumont-Hamel the 1st
Newfoundland Regiment was all but
wiped-out
Of the 790 Newfoundlanders that went
over the top that morning 68 answered
the roll next morning
July1,1916 is remembered as the
darkest day in Newfoundland history
in 3 months of battle the allies lost ½
million men the Germans lost more
Vimy Ridge
Vimy Ridge was a key high ground
in northern France
The Germans had the ridge
fortified with artillery, machine
guns and a rail line
Both the British and the French had
tried to take the ridge and failed
with a lost of 200,000 men
Unlike the British attack the
Canadians under Arthur Currie
were careful and meticulous
A mock up of the hill was built and
soldiers were trained so they knew
the hill by heart
General Arthur Currie
Rather than move their own guns
forward the Canadians learned to load
and fire German guns
Andrew McNaughton a colonel and
professor from McGill University
learned how to pinpoint German guns
by their flash and sound
German gun positions were destroyed
before the advance
Canadian artillerymen were trained to
fire just ahead of the Canadian troops
the “rolling barrage”
Canadian troops were taught to cover
100 yards in a minute the famous
“Vimy Glide”
The Battle!
The attack began on Easter
Monday, April 9,1917
For the first time all 4 Canadian
divisions fought as one
In the cold, wet winds and driving
snow the Canadians must have felt
at home
The Canadians took the hill
At Vimy the Canadians captured
more guns more land and more
prisoners than any other offensive
It was called “the most perfectly
organized and most successful
battle of the whole war”
The Losses!
3,600 Canadians died taking Vimy
Ridge
After the battle Canadians were set
apart as “storm troopers”
Brought to head one assault after
another
Arthur Currie was the strategist behind
the battle
He would prove to be one of the
greatest generals in the war
A former school teacher he would start
as a private and become general of the
Canadian Corps
One German officer said “if it weren’t
for Currie and the Canadian Corps,
Germany might very well have won the
war”
Passchendaele
“Whenever the Germans found the
Canadian Corps coming into the
line, they prepared for the worst.”
Passchendaele was the worst waste
of Canadian life in all of the war
After losing 68,000 men in the
swamp-like field of Passchendaele
the British sent for Currie and the
Canadians
Currie was appalled taking
Passchendaele would cost the
Canadians 16000 dead for 5 square
kilometers of mud
Currie refused, but the British
wanted it done!
Passchendaele
On October 26 the Canadians
started the first of several attacks
By November 6 the ridge was
taken at a cost of 15,654 casualties
After Curries report to Borden of
how the British were fighting the
war Borden spoke these words to
David Lloyd George the British
Prime Minister “ Mr. Prime
Minister, I want to tell you that, if
ever there is a repetition of the
Battle of Passchendaele, not a
single Canadian soldier will leave
the shores of Canada…”
In The Air
Canada produced more and better
pilots than any other country
Of the top 27 aces 10 were
Canadian
Billy Bishop Owen Sound Ontario
“The Lone Wolf” 72 victories 3th
for the war
Raymond Collishaw Nanaimo BC
60 victories 5th
Will Barker Dauphin Manitoba
Canada’s most decorated war hero
Roy Brown a Canadian flyer who
was credited with shooting down
the “Red Baron”
The Conscription Crisis
The bodies kept falling and the costs
kept rising
The Government sold “Victory Bonds”
The human costs were worse, Borden
had wanted 500,000 men to enlist this
from a country of 8 million with 1.5
million of military service age
Enlistment was falling off Great Britain
and New Zealand had introduced
conscription
When the US entered the war they had
conscription
Canada had to get men or drop out of
the war
Conscription
On May 18th, 1917 Borden rose in
the House of Commons and stated
the country would be conscripting
soldiers
Conscription was rejected in
Quebec
In the House every FrenchCanadian MP voted against the bill
Almost every English-Canadian
MP voted for the bill
The majority won
The Military Service Act became
law on August 29th, 1917
Union Government
After conscription Borden came to
Laurier to try and form a Union
Government, both Conservatives
and Liberals to run the war effort
Laurier refused because of
conscription
Borden did get some Liberals to
join and formed the Union Party
and called an election in the winter
of 1917
Borden had no intention of losing
the election
He took the vote away from anyone
from an enemy nation within the
last 15 years
Rigged Vote
He also took the vote away from
pacifists
At the sometime he gave the vote
to women
But only women married to or
blood relatives of a service man
Borden also gave the vote to
soldiers regardless of how long
they had been in Canada
In Europe soldiers could either vote
“government” or “opposition”
Borden’s hard ball worked he won
153 seats the Liberals won 82, 62
from Quebec
Prussians Next Door!
Opposition to conscription was not
limited to Quebec
Farmers in Ontario and the west
did not want to sent sons overseas
The Labour movement under the
Canadian Trades and Labour
Congress organized angry protests
In Quebec 98% of the men asked
for exemption from the draft
In Ontario 94% of men asked for
exemptions
English-Canada supported
conscription so long as it was
someone's else's sons
Wartime Acts
Good Friday 1918 riots in Quebec
city more riots on Easter Monday 4
people killed
Conscription needed 100,000 men
it received 99,500, 24,000 made it
to Europe before the war ended
War Measures Act 1914
Income Tax Act 1917 temporary
Military Service Act 1917
Military Voters Act 1917 all
soldiers to vote
Wartime Elections Act 1917 gave
the vote to women
Canada”s 100 Days
The October Revolution of 1917
took Russia out of the war
This freed German troops from the
Russian Front
The Germans launched a major
attack on allied lines in March of
1918
The Allies counter-attacked with
the battle hardened Canadian Corps
leading the attack
From August 8th to November 11th
is “Canada’s 100 Days”
Flanked by Australian and French
troops the Canadians broke thought
at Amiens
Breakthrough at Amiens
The German defenses crumbled
In a single day the Canadians
advanced over 13 kilometers
Trench warfare was dead this was a
battle of speed and strategy
General Currie and the Canadians
lead the charge
The Canadians captured over 5000
German soldiers on the first day
August 8th, 1918 was a “black day”
for the German Army
“The Canadians were ending the
war by destroying the German
Army” Desmond Morton
November 11th 1918
Rather than get in another
stalemate Currie shifted the front
and attacked the Hindenburg Line
In a high pitched battle the
Canadians broke the German line
The Royal 22nd or Vandoos fought
with determination every officer
was either killed or wounded
Major George Vanier was shot
almost to pieces
Later he would become A
Canadian Governor General
4 Canadian divisions would
defeated 47 German divisions
Mons
The Canadians liberated an area of
200 cities and towns
They captured more than 30,000
enemy soldiers
The Canadians crossed the
Belgium frontier and fought their
way into the town of Mons
On November 10th 1918 the
Canadians Corps fought a battle for
the town among the narrow streets
and canals
On the eleventh hour of the
eleventh day of the eleventh month
the Great War ended
The Price of Victory
“It can hardly be expected that we
shall put 400,000 or 500,000 men
in the field and willing accept the
position of having no more voice
and receiving no more
consideration than if we were toy
automata.” Robert Borden
620,000 Canadians serviced during
World War I this from a country of
8 million
178,000 were wounded and 68,000
were killed
It has been said that Canada's War
of Independence was fought in the
trenches of Europe
Canada an Independent Nation
Canadian political independence
confirmed during the war:
Regulation IX, passed during 1917
Imperial War Cabinet, Canada
became an “autonomous nation”
within the British Commonwealth
Borden insisted that Canada sign
The Treaty of Versailles
independent of Britain
Borden insisted that Canada have a
separate seat at The League of
Nations
Canada also joined the Leagues
International Labour
organization
World War I = World War II
Treaty of Versailles signed June 28th, 1919
The Spanish Flu of 1918-1919 takes
another 30,000 to 50,000 Canadians