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Golden Summer | European Powder
Keg |
Sarajavo |
Canada Goes to War |
Building an Army |
Union Government |
Women get the Vote |
Canada Divided |
Conscription Act |
Nationalism |
The Home Front |
Victory |
Aftermath
On Sunday, June 28, 1914, in the Bosnian town of Sarajevo, nineteen-year old
student Gavrilo Princip fired the shots which killed the heir to the Austrian
throne, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie. No one could have
foreseen that this act would unleash upon the world the devastation of the First
World War - the Great War, as it came to be known. No one could have foreseen
the events which, by war's end in 1918, wiped ancient empires and kingdoms from
the map, overturned social systems and saw political and military power
shift from Europe to the United States of America. Certainly no one could have
foreseen the death of more than 8 1/2 million men on the bloody
battlefields of the war, nor the wounding of 20 million others and the wholesale
destruction which ravaged cities and their civilian populations as the war
progressed.
A month later, on July 23, Austria presented an ultimatum to
Serbia designed to make her fight or be humiliated. Russia agreed to come to
Serbia's assistance if attacked. On July 28 Austria, backed by Germany, declared
war on Serbia. German military leaders were convinced that 1914 would be the
last year in which they could defeat Russia, having first taken care of France.
It was on this premise that their Schieffen Plan had been devised: the Plan
called for a quick knock-out blow against France and the switching of German
armies by train to the eastern front. On July 31 Russia mobilized. On August 1st
Germany declared war on Russia and the following day occupied Luxembourg. On
August 3 she declared war on France and on August 4 invaded neutral Belgium,
thereby violating an 1839 Treaty - the Treaty of London - which guaranteed that
neutrality.
On August 4 Britain declared war on Germany. With that
declaration the British Empire, including Canada, was also at war. British trade
depended heavily on access to the ports of Flanders: if these were in enemy
hands, not only trade was threatened but also Britain itself. Britain also felt
that a treaty obligation to Belgium should be upheld, and there was a moral
obligation to come to the assistance of France. The intervention of the British
Expeditionary Force held up the German advance long enough to disrupt the
Schlieffen Plan. Both sides became bogged down and dug trenches. Germany was
obliged to fight on two fronts, east and west, and for the next four years the
bloodletting was to continue. It was into this carnage that Canada was drawn.
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