|
1929 Crash | Economic Slowdown
| Bennett in Power |
The Ottawa Conference |
Prairie Drought |
Relief |
The Regina Riots | Alberta &
Bible Bill | Statute of
Westminster | Woodworth & the
C.C.F.
| The Union Nationale |
Relief Camps |
Bennett's Conversion |
King's Return |
European
Unrest | Royal Visit
The end of the First World War ended on
November 11, 1918 but he result was neither conclusive
or final. Germany had surrendered but had not accepted
defeat, and the bitterness and resentment that many of
it's soldiers and civilians carried with them was not
easily pacified. The reparations conditions placed upon
Germany by Britain, France and the United States insured
that a return to peaceful conditions and the development
of a democracy in Germany would be a difficult process.
Adolf Hitler joined
the Nazi Party in the early twenties as party member
number 55 after he was commissioned by the German
military to infiltrate and spy on them. He quickly
decided to take over the party himself and use it as
tool to gain power and make amends for the defeat of
Germany during WWI. By the early 30's he had been
elected German Chancellor and upon the death of
President Hindenburg he seized that position and made
himself the dictator of Germany.
Canada had sacrificed
it's young men during the First World War and with over
66,000 dead and 172,000 wounded was not anxious to rush
into another European war. The same feelings saturation
most politicians and people in France and England and
the policy of appeasement became a popular stance as
Hitler and Germany began to rebuild it's economy,
military, armaments industries with Hitler casting his
greedy gaze over large areas of Europe.
In Italy Mussolini was
also dreaming of Empire and in 1935 invaded Ethiopia
looking for an easy victory. The League of nations
decided to take action and after intense debate over
sanctions, finally came up with a list of items which
would not be traded to Italy.
In October there was
also a Federal election in Canada and Mackenzie King
came to power and the Canadian representative to the
League, Walter Riddell, assumed that the statement by
the new King government, stating that economic sanctions
were favoured but military action out of the question
for Canada. On November 2nd, as a vote neared on copper,
Riddell decided to propose a resolution of his own which
did not included copper, an important Canadian export to
Italy. This action became known as the Canadian
Resolution and put severe restrictions on Italy which
seemed to be working. Canada received widespread
admiration for proposing such an effective action.
By mid-December, the
Canadian government, facing pressure from the Italians
and French Canadian groups, backed away the resolution
and issues a statement that defined the Canadian
Resolution by Riddell as a personal action and not one
representing Canada. At this point the resolution, after
having received strong support began to faultier and
then fell apart. Canada had stood up to the aggressor
and then abandoned the victim.
In 1937 Mackenzie King attended the
coronation of King George VI and then continued on to
Germany for a visit with Hitler. King felt that Hitler
was a simple man who would not be a serious danger to
anyone and when Chamberlain signed the Munich agreement,
King cabled congratulations to him for the deal.
The rewards of aggression had
fallen into the laps of Italy and German and the main
part of the show was about to begin. German took the
rest of the Sudetenland and then threatened Poland. With
the signing of the Soviet-Nazi non-aggression pact in
August of 1939 the way was open for the German attack.
Appeasement had done it's job and stopped a war, but
only for awhile and when the war came in September of
1939 it was bigger and more horrific then World War 1
and Canada was again sucked into the vortex of violence
and destruction. |
