Good Times and Bad: 70 Years in the Life of Canada - Essay Example

One of the darkest moments in history of Canada is in the participation of the First World War. Canada joined the First World War in 1914 and participated fighting the enemy in the Western Front. Canada armies were involved in the Battle of Neuve in March 1915. In April the same year the army confronted Germany forces in the Second Battle of Chapelle (Ward & Gibson). The German’s subjected the Canadians soldier with gas poison which killed almost all the soldiers that were in the battle field.

More than 65,000 soldiers died while fighting Germans and it allied forces. In 1916, Canada formed the Canadian Corps and was deployed to defend Ypres from being captured by the Germans. In 1917, the Canadian Corps managed to defend Ypres and extended their confrontation to Somme. On April 1917, they captured Vimy Ridge, which had suffered an attack for over two years (Ward & Gibson). However the victory of capturing Vimy costs the Canadian corps over 10,000 fatalities, but it was a major military success because Vimy Ridge was later established as a site for Canadian National Memorial (Ward & Gibson).

The Great War is significant in Canada because it aligned the country to the Western allies. These allies have established a common body that deals with international security issues since the Second World War. However, majority of Canadian families lost at least one family member from the war. It was a great loss for the families and the country at large given the population by then was a few million people. In 1931, Hitler rose to power after the Nazi Party won the election in 1933. Soon after taking office, Hitler embraced on annexation of other countries in Europe such as Austria in 1938 and Czechoslovakia in 1938-1939 (Canada in WWII, 2014).

In an effort to avoid emergence of a Second World War the major political mighty countries including Canada were involved in