Course introduction

The past is to be respected and acknowledged, but not to be worshipped. It is our future in which we will find our greatness.”

In 1914, Canada was part of the British Empire. As the 20th century progressed, Canada had to face many difficult tests: two world wars, the Great Depression, the Cold War, and numerous political, social, and economic crises. On the world stage, Canada earned a reputation as a strong independent nation.

At home, Canada was working on defining its goals and refining its identity.

While reflecting upon a country's success, it is important to consider many voices and perspectives of the past to develop a complete vision of Canada's history.

In recent years, Canada has contended with aspects of its colonial past. To break patterns of oppression today, it is essential to first recognize them in the past.

As you study Canada's past, you will start to examine how it became the country it is today. Before you begin, consider the following quote from former Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s Canadian Bill of Rights.

I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all."

Historical thinking concepts

When you study history, what knowledge will you gain and what will you be able to do?

Of course you will learn some facts, but you will also learn how to approach and understand history in ways you are probably not yet familiar with. You will learn how to use historical thinking concepts.

What are historical thinking concepts? They are thinking concepts that form the structure of the practice of history. They will help you develop the skills and abilities you need to “think historically.”

Once you learn how to use these concepts, you will be able to:

• establish historical significance – examine why we care today about certain events, trends, and issues in history
• analyze cause and consequence – examine how and why certain conditions and actions led to others
• identify continuity and change – describe what has changed and what has remained the same over time
• take a variety of historical perspectives – understand the past from the perspective of the past, and the “past as a foreign country” with different social, cultural, intellectual, and emotional contexts that shaped people’s lives and actions

These historical thinking concepts will expand your approach to the study of history. Instead of accepting or compiling what others have to say about history, you’ll be able to form your own opinions and to assess the claims of others based on evidence.

When you can apply historical thinking concepts to real events, you will become more actively engaged in the study, practice, and interpretation of history. The research, analysis, interpretation, and presentation skills you will develop through this approach will become tools you can extend, develop, and use in all areas of study and in other aspects of your life.

You will develop and strengthen other transferable skills in this course. These pertain to research and communication. You’ll learn how to ask insightful research questions, develop a thesis statement, find reliable sources, gather relevant evidence, use the recommended writing style, document your sources in acceptable formats, and effectively communicate results.

Acknowledgements (Opens in new window)

World War I in Europe

Introduction

The First World War (WWI) was a global conflict that involved many nations around the world and caused tremendous damage and change.

When the war began in 1914, Canada was already self-governing. However, to most of the world, it was still just one dominion of the huge and powerful British Empire. This land had been occupied and cared for since time immemorial by the First Nations, Inuit and Métis people.

The conflict of WWI grew and continued for four long years, from 1914 to 1918.

At the time, it was known as The Great War or The War to End All Wars. Over 30 million soldiers and seven million civilians were killed or wounded during the war. By the time it was over, it had spanned over three continents.

In this learning activity, you will learn about what caused the war, how it developed, where it took place, what it was like, how Canadians took part, and why it is still significant today.

1914 to 1918 was an important period in Canada’s history and in Canada’s evolution toward becoming an independent nation that makes its own decisions, both domestically and internationally.

Europe’s history of conflict

World War 1 started with a violent act that set off a chain of reactions and, suddenly, the world was at war.

It’s easy to identify the event that set the war in motion, but the root causes are deeper and more complex. Even today, those causes are still being debated, and consequences still being felt. You will examine where it started and who was involved to give you insight into the causes of conflict of the First World War.

Access the following interactive entitled Main causes of World War 1 to learn more about the historical context of the countries involved.

Press here for an accessible version of Main causes of World War 1. (Opens in new window)

Both alliances were based on defensive agreements; that is, if one country was attacked, its allies would help defend it. Numerous other smaller alliances and defensive pacts were also in place. Two of those pacts played key roles in the outbreak and expansion of the war:

• Great Britain was committed to protect the neutral country of Belgium if it were attacked.
• Russia was committed to support the mostly Slavic country of Serbia.

These alliances were supposed to reduce the risks of war. However, in reality they increased the risks, because once one country goes to war, all the others must join as well. Once the war started, it accelerated it into a global conflict.

Underlying causes

You will investigate these alliances in the following graphic. Press the slider to switch between alliances. You can click on each country in an alliance to examine its status in 1914 and how it was applying the MAIN strategies discussed earlier (Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism, and Nationalism).

Let’s explore the underlying causes of the First World War in the following interactive map and descriptions.

Review the following terms before you begin:

Press here for the accessible version of the Underlying causes of the First World War. (Opens in new window)

Alter a single action or condition, and an event might have turned out differently."

Source: Seixas, Peter, and Tom Morton. The Big Six Historical Thinking Concepts. Toronto: Nelson Education, 2013. 102

You can test out this theory that the events of history were not inevitable.

Now that you’ve examined summaries of the long-term and immediate causes of the First World War, do you think the war was inevitable? Was there one single event or action that caused the war?

What was it like?

No one anticipated such a long, widespread, and world-changing war. Leaders, soldiers, and people on the street thought it would all be over by the end of 1914. However, things did not go as planned and the war was like nothing anyone had experienced before.

Germany had a plan

At the start, Germany was ready for war. They took the initiative and followed a plan.

The Schlieffen Plan was a war plan put together in response to the “Dual Alliance” of 1893 between France and Russia. Germany wanted a plan ready if they were ever in a war with the Dual Alliance – being attacked from the west (France) and from the east (Russia) at the same time.

The Schlieffen Plan was designed to eliminate France as an ally to Russia before Russia was ready to attack. It was based on the assumption that Russia would take about six weeks to get its military force together and mobilized after the war broke out. Germany’s plan was to use that lead time, seize the opportunity, immediately focus their forces against France, and defeat them before turning east to fight Russia.

To make swift progress, Germany would avoid France’s fortified borders and make an unexpected and forceful strike through neutral Belgium deep into France. The idea was to successfully complete the major attack on the Western Front within the six weeks Russia took to prepare. Then, with France subdued, Germany would turn east to attack Russia.

The Schlieffen Plan depended on Russia not mobilizing its armed forces quickly, on Great Britain not living up to its obligation to defend neutral Belgium, and on France and Belgium being caught off guard by the unexpected attack through Belgium and not being able to defend themselves against it. If it had gone according to plan, France would have been defeated in a matter of weeks.

But it did not go as planned.

Trench warfare

The Schlieffen Plan didn’t work. Instead, Belgium put up a fight, French troops set up defences, Great Britain and all the British colonies stepped in to defend Belgium, and Russia was ready to go in ten days.

On the Western Front, the opposing forces got bogged down in north-east France and a new kind of warfare emerged: trench warfare. This was an incredibly devastating and demoralizing form of combat that left the participants, the local citizenry, and the surrounding countryside permanently scarred.

How was trench warfare different? In past conflicts, when two big armies met on a battlefield, they attacked each other directly, head-on and face to face. Usually, cavalry (soldiers on horses), infantry (soldiers on foot), and rolling artillery like cannons were used on both sides and the “rules of engagement” were quite clear.

Things had changed by 1914. Weapons had advanced. As the war went on, a variety of new explosive devices such as grenades, mines, and mortar shells came into play. Soldiers had more options for shooting from a distance with artillery, repeating rifles, rifles with telescopic sights, machine guns, and other 20th-century weapons. As the conflict continued, tanks, war planes, surveillance balloons and other new technologies were brought into the war.

The weapons, equipment, and “rules” of war were new and kept changing. Systems of attack, defence, communication, and transportation had to be improvised on the fly. During the course of the war, longstanding 19th-century methods and conventions were replaced through trial and error with 20th-century inventions, and not much about warfare remained the same.

The following photos and captions from the First World War help describe how conditions changed during war. As the war continued, the equipment, the weaponry and how soldiers engaged with each other all changed.

Soldiers struggling to pull a big gun through mud. The mud and flooding at the front created mobility problems for the men, and it also rendered the general conditions extremely hazardous, with men and animals often becoming trapped in the quagmire.

Photo of French soldiers using bolt action rifles while taking cover. Early in the war, French soldiers were not yet in trenches, used bolt action rifles (not rapid fire guns), didn’t have helmets, and carried little with them.

A photo of an Australian trench mortar battery preparing a trench mortar in a chalk pit. These guns could be fired from an undercover location and, later in the war, were used from the trenches.

A photo of a 75 mm French field gun that has been mounted for use as an anti-aircraft weapon. It was used against troops advancing in the open and in trench warfare.

A photo of a Vickers machine gun and crew wearing gas masks during the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

A photo of soldiers in 1918 using a U.S. Hotchkiss machine gun on a range in France.

What was the Western Front?

As the war went on, systems of trenches, barriers, and bunkers evolved and extended into a continuous line of trenches. The line extended across France from near Dunkirk in the north, southward to around Lille, then onto the west side of the France-Belgium border, and south to the border of Switzerland. This shifting line formed the “Western Front,” where the two opposing armies met and engaged.

The Germans held this line for some time, taking advantage of most of the important mining and industrial land of France and Belgium during the war. The map that follows shows the line of trenches that made up the Western Front, from 1914 to 1918.

Most Canadian operations took place on the Western Front. The following map highlights the areas along the front where Canadian forces made significant contributions.

Canada’s role in World War I

Members of the No. 2 Construction Battalion (1917).

Canada took part in World War I from the beginning. Because Canada was a dominion of the British Empire, Canada entered the war at the same time as Britain. Canadian troops fought mainly on the Western Front. Canadians participated in many battles, as indicated on the Western Front plaque in Currie Hall, Royal Military College of Canada, in Kingston, Ontario.

Were these battles involving Canadians on the Western Front historically significant for Canada?

Historical significance

What is historical significance?

Part of the answer can be found in the idea that there is a difference between “history” and “the past.” As historian Ruth Sandwell states, the past is “everything,” but:

… history is someone’s attempt to make sense and order out of the chaos of everything-ness."

Source: Seixas, Peter, and Tom Morton. The Big Six Historical Thinking Concepts. Toronto: Nelson Education, 2013. 51.

To make sense of past events, historians sift through them and try to figure out which of them resulted in sizeable change, over long periods of time, for a large number of people. Historians determine historical significance by examining events that have a lasting impact for many.

When it comes to Canada’s role on the Western Front in World War I, four battles are usually considered to be historically significant.

• the Second Battle of Ypres (Opens in new window)
• the Battle of the Somme (Opens in new window)
• the Battle of Vimy Ridge (Opens in new window)
• the Battle of Passchendaele (Opens in new window)

The locations of these battles have been highlighted in the following map of the Western Front.

Research activity

Canada joined World War I on August 4, 1914, when Great Britain declared war on Germany. Canada was automatically pulled into the war as a dominion in the British Empire, but, during the war, Canadian forces fought as a distinct unit and made strong contributions on the Western Front in four critical battles.

Historically significant events can be those that result in great change over long periods of time and have an impact on a large number of people. However, historical significance also depends on one’s own perspective and purpose. When it comes to World War I, many Canadians believe Canada's role in these battles were significant, highlighted Canada as a nation in its own right, and made a difference to the overall outcome of the war.

Canada’s role in World War I is also linked to the overall history of Canada and with progress toward equal status with other nations. Canada’s efforts and accomplishments in the war showed the world that Canada was an independent nation with its own identity, power, pride, and presence.

Read the following document entitled Transferable Skills Outline (Opens in new window) to explore the framework and the descriptors for each skill. Download, print, or copy the information in the document into your notes - you'll refer to it in each unit.

Note the indicators that you think you will develop in this course. Throughout this course, you should revisit these skills to reflect on which ones you develop and if your original predictions were correct.

As you continue through this unit and the rest of the course, keep your notebook updated and be mindful of opportunities to apply and develop transferable skills.