A study of War and Military History, 1867 to the Present - Essay Example

Military Science 2 August Three times during the twentieth century, Canada became involved in conflicts thatspanned the globe. Compare and contrast Canada’s initial views of these conflicts: elaborate on how it perceived it would participate, and explain what shaped these perceptions. Prior to the events of the First World War, Canada was one of the most important and largest colonies of the British Empire, having vast natural resources and manpower to support the industry and commerce of the United Kingdom and its Commonwealth domains. With its large expanse of land mass covering North America, right above the United States, proved to be of strategic importance for the British. Trade between Canada and the main British isle was usually undeterred by the vast Atlantic Ocean, and such supply routes were usually left undisturbed for the most part. On the social and political situation, the Canadians were mostly North American colonists who remained loyal to British imperial rule and also composed of colonists from the United States who maintained their allegiance with the British rule. This group of Canadians formed the majority of Canada’s society and usually held a strong voice with regards to the colonial affairs. On the other hand, there were also the French speaking Canadians who were mostly from the domain of Quebec and Montreal. The French Canadians were formerly French Empire colonists during the 16th and 17th century who were conquered by the British by the end of the French-Indian War. The fact that French Canadians were usually not treated with much respect as that of the English Canadians, French Canadians most of the time took the polar opposite with regards to political opinion. When the outbreak of the First World War happened in Europe, it was first thought that the British Empire would not be involved in the war which at first was thought to be merely involved between the Austria-Hungary against Serbia. But when Germany entered the war, in the side of Austria-Hungary, Great Britain decided to enter the war against what would later be known as the Central Powers, namely the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to prevent the German Empire from expanding its imperial influence. Canada was involved in this armed struggle across its borders since it had its obligations as a colony of the British Empire. Prior to all this, Canada had a large standing militia force, yet a small regular army and an even smaller navy. Sam Hughes, the Minister of Militia and Defense during that time, was tasked to raise enough soldiers for the war in Europe to complement the British forces around the Western Front. For this to be done, volunteers of men were needed to be implemented to enlist enough manpower to be of potential support for the war efforts. Many joined in the hundreds of thousands, becoming known as the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Canadians were known to serve well and with distinction. They were notable in their involvement in major battles such as the Battles of Ypres, Somme, Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele and the Hundred Days offensive. Canadian Corps were considered as fine soldiers, being highly motivated and dogged. But as the war dragged on and losses were mounting high on the British and its Commonwealth forces, it came to the point that conscription would be needed. After the Battle of Somme, in which casualties on both sides of the belligerents where high, there was a great demand to reinforce the forces in the Western Front. Because of the terrible amount of casualties as the battles raged on the trenches in the Western front with no clear or decisive victory in sight, the number of volunteers of Canadians drastically dropped. This eventually caused conscription to be seen as a necessary measure for the Canadian government to pass the act of conscription. By this period, the government Canada decided to pass the act of conscription. Opinions about conscription in Canada during the First World War were divided distinctly between the English Canadians and the French Canadians. While the English Canadians were generally in favor in support of the war efforts and conscription for the sake of king and country, the French Canadians were very much against the conscription since they see it as a fight that they really should not be concerned about. This led to the Conscriptions Crisis of 1917, in which many Canadian citizens, even the English Canadians, avoid the conscription. Uprisings and resistance towards the conscription arose as the government tried to draft men and began to overlook exemptions. Fortunately, the war ended on 1918 with victory for the Triple Entente in which the British Empire sided with. But it left the whole Canadian population suspicious and distrustful of its government. When the Second World War broke out in Europe once again, Canada took the side again with and for Great Britain as part of its Commonwealth forces against Nazi Germany and its Axis allies. By this period in history however, due to Great Britain’s declaration of the Statute of Westminster at 1931, Canada was no longer a semi-independent dominion of the British Empire but a full-fledged sovereign state in equal and part of the Commonwealth of Nations which were also formerly domains of British imperial rule, such as Australia, New Zealand and India. Therefore, Canada’s involvement in the Second World War is not as a dominion subject of a powerful empire, but as a sovereign state of its own. Despite the initial view that Canada joined the war out of some debt of gratitude to the British Empire, Canada entered the war on the side of the Allied Forces as a loyal friend to Great Britain as much as a sovereign nation. Also, the opinion upon of the war was not as divided among the English and French Canadians as compared to the First World War. While the English Canadians were always ready to volunteer and fight against the enemies of Great Britain, French Canadians were more willing to go out and fight the Germans during the Second World War. Even though French Canadians never felt any sense of loyalty to France during the First World War, many French Canadians volunteered to fight the Germans due to a sense of patriotism amongst other Frenchmen who have been subdued by the Nazi German invaders. Thousands upon thousands of volunteers joined in the fight usually on the Western front again around North and Western Europe. It was during the Second World War that Canada did more than just provide soldiers to aid the Allied Forces. Canada was strategically out of any real armed threat to be posed by Germany. This made Canada a big military contributor of material, equipment and resources for Great Britain. Also, because of the distance Canada is placed so far from combat operations that it was an ideal location for the British forces to conduct training maneuvers without having to worry about being bombed by the Germans. Perhaps the biggest military support contribution Canada gave was the marine supply convoy fleet, which sailed from the Port of Halifax in the island of Nova Scotia, Atlantic coast of Canada, to the British Isles. This was a valuable strategic asset for Great Britain since it lacked enough raw resources and “breathing space” to strengthen its own war effort. Initially, Canada was reluctant to send any real force to fight during the early years of the Second World War due to the major global economic recession known as the Great Depression. The economic situation caused Canada to neglect its military status in place of civil developments. What was left after the First World War was a partially trained military force as well as ill-equipped. But by the onset of hostilities and escalating of military operations, Canada was able to muster more than half a million personal for the Royal Canadian Army, Air Force and Navy. Its navy should be most noted that it grew to such a sizeable amount in such a short span of time, most of which are naval merchant ships. At first, the Canadian naval convoy supply routes between Canada and Great Britain were virtually undeterred until the Germans sent their submarine fleets to menace and cause tremendous losses to the fleet. This was seen as one of the major combat involvements Canada found itself throughout the war, which would be known as the Battle of the Atlantic. Canadian volunteer soldiers also engaged in many combat operations such as the Raid at Dieppe and also joined in the invasion of Normandy during D-Day. Canadian units such as the 2nd and 3rd Canadian Infantry Divisions, and Le Regiment de la Chaudiere proved to be hardened and determined fighting formations. Also, Royal Canadian Air Force volunteer pilots participated in the Battle of Britain with skill and distinction. By the end of the Second World War, Canada was views as a major power. After the Second World War, Canada took the stance of multilateralism in world affairs. This was encouraged by then Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson that Canada would support United Nations efforts in peacekeeping operations. Even today, Canada has kept up with such stance, and has sent its developed military forces to various conflicts around the world. Recently, it has been one of the major nations to play part in peacekeeping operations in the most troubled spots in modern warfare. Canadian military forces served in the peacekeeping missions during the Gulf War, Bosnian War, the War in Afghanistan and the recent Invasion of Iraq. Canadian troops fought alongside United States and British troops in their campaign against terrorist elements as well as it also perceived that extremist terrorism is a threat to just about any nation and people around the world. 2.) How and why can the first two decades following the Second World War been seen as something of high point for the Canadian armed forces? After the Second World War, the military power of Canada stood as a formidable middle power among the great superpower nations such as the United Kingdom, the former Soviet Union and the United States. It had a well experienced military personnel, it was a major naval power in the Atlantic Sea and, because of its stance favoring on multilateralism with the United Nations (UN) and later on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Canadian armed forces are always at the ready to deploy whenever a multilateral operation is being made by either the UN or NATO. The early years after the Second World War saw the stage of powers shift from one nation to the other. After Nazi Germany fell as a powerful nation against the Allied forces and the former Soviet Union, power was shifted in different ways. For one, what were once powerful industrialized nations such as Germany, as well as agriculturally reliant nations such as France, were so crippled in its economy and military strength that it would take those nations decades to recover to their previous strength. Another reason is that countries that hardly or virtually took any physical damage from the war were spared from spending so much of their economy in war reparations. Also, such distance from enemy forces would lead to not having excessive civilian and armed reserves as casualties due to being bombarded or caught under siege by invading forces. This in turn results that there is still sufficient, able and ready manpower to keep a nation’s economy running as well having a ready amount of military personnel to be deployed. In such scenarios, Canada was spared from having a damaged physical infrastructure to both its economic and military aspects, giving it a stable economy and industry as well as having the sufficient manpower to keep its economy and military in good condition. Having these advantages, Canada was considered an important player with regards to different conflicts after the Second World War. After the Second World War, the whole world was then engaged in a heated political, diplomatic, economic, ideological and at times military conflict known as the Cold War. The world was divided between two different socio-economic and political ideologies, which were Democracy and Communism. The leading nation in the Democratic ideology is the United States of America, allied with the United Kingdom, France, what was then West Germany and also Canada, which later formed the group known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO. On the other side which was Communism, it was headed by the former Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) and its smaller satellite nations which formed the Warsaw Pact. Usually, this period in history saw developing or third world nations influenced by these ideologies being pitted against each with the support of its powerful benefactors. During the first and second decades of the Cold War, Canada has deployed its military as a steady bulk of willing volunteers forces. It had participated in various major conflicts during the 1950’s and 1960’s, usually as a formidable support force fighting alongside United Nations peacekeeping forces or in multilateral military operations with the United States and other allies. Such military operations placed the Canadian military in different warzones and battlefields throughout the world, with various climates and terrain to contend with. All of which the Canadian military have won the respect and admiration of its fellow allies they fought side by side, always proving that the Canadian soldier is always ready and willing. Perhaps the first conflict that the Canadian military found themselves engaged in with notice was the Korean War during the early 1950’s. The Canadian forces joined the United States, Great Britain, United Nations and South Korean forces in the attempt to halt the Communist North Korean military forces from gaining a complete foothold of the whole Korean Peninsula. Despite the constant offensive pushes and fierce assaults of North Korean military columns against the Western forces with their South Korean allies, the Canadian forces that volunteered to fight were hailed for being determined soldiers and hardly had as terrible morale than their American and South Korean allies. One certain Canadian unit known as the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry fought valiantly in the Battle of Kapyong, which was perhaps one of the fiercest major battles that occurred during the whole Korean War. By this point in history, Canada already established itself as a standard bearer for the concept and action of peacekeeping, in and with support of the United Nations. After the Korean War was called to a draw, another conflict occurred in which established Canada its peacekeeper reputation. By the late 1950’s, the Suez Canal Crisis had erupted, in which Egypt and other Arab nations fought to seize control of the strategic maritime passage route called to Suez Canal to deny the State of Israel, and also its allies, supplies or trade from the sea routes. The United Nations responded by going against Egypt and its Arab allies and helping Israel liberate the Suez Canal. Among the countries that too part on this operation were Britain and France, with Canada playing a supporting role in this conflict. It was after the Suez Canal Crisis that the idea of Canadian military forces partaking on multilateral peacekeeping efforts was started by then Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson, who famously quoted: “We need action not only to end the fighting but to make the peace… My own government would be glad to recommend Canadian participation in such United Nation force, a truly international peace and police force.” – Lester B. Pearson, November, 1956. This declaration clearly stated that the Canadian military forces would serve as the main “buffer force” to prevent or block any continuation of hostile actions by the belligerents of any conflict, and to ensure that any chance of armed reprisals by either side are obstructed. As well, this action on Canada’s military would also help prevent chances of any nation to invade another by just deploying its forces on concerned territories around the globe. An example would be the deployment of the 27th Canadian Infantry Brigade to West Germany during the 1950’s as an action to help defend Western Europe from a possible Soviet invasion. During the 1960’s the Vietnam War raged on in which the United States found itself fighting against fierce guerilla resistance by the North Vietnamese Army and guerilla forces. Canadian military did not really participate heavily during the Vietnam War, and Canada wanted to remain a non-belligerent nation throughout the conflict. Nevertheless, more than tens of thousands of Canadians volunteered to join the conflict to fight North Vietnamese forces alongside the American forces. Even native indigenous citizens of Canada joined in the fight. These combat volunteers proved to be highly motivated soldiers, being able to deal with fierce combat without losing much for morale. Besides having to be involved in major military campaigns such as the Korean War, the Suez Canal Crisis and the Vietnam War, Canada also participated as military observer operations in other conflicts as well even prior once prior to the mentioned wars. In 1948, Canada sent its forces to Kashmir in order to buffer the Pakistani and Indian forces from further fighting. It also participated in keeping the peace in the African nation of Congo when it began to establish itself as an independent nation of its own in 1962. Also in 1964, Canadian military units were sent to the island of Cyprus to prevent further fighting between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots from escalating even further. Even until this very day and contemporary era, Canada sends volunteer forces in support of new multilateral missions and agendas, such as the current War on Terrorism. Canada was part of the coalition of the Western Allied forces that aided Kuwait in regaining its territory against Iraq during the first Gulf War. Canada also deployed light infantry and special purpose army units to Afghanistan, after the September 11, 2001 bombing of the World Trade Center, in support of the multilateral war against terrorists around the world. It was only after a scandalous incident, in which a handful of Canadian soldiers brutally tortured and killed a Somali teenage boy in Somalia, that made Canada lessen that amount of soldiers that were sent out to multilateral missions. Nevertheless, throughout these conflicts showed the global community that the average Canadian soldier is a well motivated and ever persevering fighter, and that Canada was a formidable peacekeeping force in both the strategic and tactical level of warfare. On the strategic perspective, Canada has the military capacity to deploy its military to troubled spots in the world. On the tactical level, the Canadian forces are as trained and well experienced as US and British forces through years of experience. Read More