Over the course of history Canada has engaged in social, political, economic and cultural relations with various countries. Managing relationships and foreign policy are key elements in Canadian foreign policy. These relationships and policies have taken many different shapes and forms as expected, and thus, the history of Canadian foreign relations is a significant part of Canada’s identity as a nation today. In particular, one aspect that is often analyzed on this topic is the how the Americans failed to conquer Canada. One can only imagine how different Canada would be if certain battles favoured the Americans. It is evident, that the Americans failure to conquer Canada was a result of poor war tactics and military conduct at crucial points in time. The Americans were not fully prepared to conquer Canada as a whole, and underestimated the Canadians in terms of their war capabilities, loyalty and readiness for war. The Americans also naively believed they could take advantage and attack the British during the American Revolution.
An important period to consider is 1775-1783 where crucial battles and victories emerged for Canada against the Americans. In December of 1975, the Americans decided to attack Quebec, what is known and referred to as the Battle of Quebec in the American Revolutionary War. The purpose or motive of the invasion was to incorporate Quebec into the thirteen colonies. This would ultimately prove to be a failure for the Americans, which is discussed
For many decades, writers and authors have accused the American influence on Canada as one of the reasons why Canada is losing its heritage, with one major aspect being the game of hockey. The institutionalization of American Culture began to take root in Canada during the late 1920’s and 1930s as technological advances, specifically the invention of the radio, allowed Canadians to enjoy American entertainment. American stations were much more reliable than Canadian ones, causing American sporting stations such as NBC and CBS to become extremely popular in Canada (Gruneau et al, 1993). As Canada was becoming intertwined with the United States (U.S.), it was becoming less of a satellite of Britain, which made it tremendously difficult for Canada’s elite to protect British ideals such as self-improvement and participating in sport for the game’s sake. (Gruneau et al, 1993). In the early 1940’s, after the great depression forced many franchises to dismantle, the National Hockey League (NHL) was left with six teams, which made up the famous “original six.” At this time, America had a strong influence on the game, as four of the original six teams were based in the United States, and all of the players in league were paid in American dollars (Gruneau et al, 1993). By the early 1960’s, televised sports were emerging in North America, and NHL players were becoming mainstream stars. Inspired by this, along with the threat of the NHL losing its television contract to the Western
English and French Canadians have had one of the most complicated and intriguing relationships throughout all of history. Even though they share the prosperous country of Canada, they could not be more divided as a nation. Factors such as language, culture and political beliefs have separated these two vast majority of Canadians for a very long time. Throughout the last century, French-English relations have slightly improved over time, yet there is still an unstable peace between the two peoples. This will be clearly demonstrated throughout this essay, which will explore three critical time periods that changed French-English relations in Canada. Between the years 1914 and 1929, relations amongst the English and the French are shown to be very unstable and unpleasant, due to the events which occurred in that timeframe. Later on between the years 1930 and 1945, relations improved slightly because much was learned from the previous time period. In the years after, the unstable peace and division between French and English Canada, even to this day, was established.
Today Canada and the United States are major trading partners, allies, and two neighboring countries with a long history of cooperation with each other. But is it possible for Canada to protect its independence and culture living next door to the country so powerful and rich as the United States. Since the Canadian confederation, Canada started developing relations with the U.S. As the years passed by, Canada began to relay on the United States in the national defense. Many Canadians think that the military, political and economical dependence would not make a difference to their daily life. But today more then even Canadian culture is affected by the American influence. Media, American artists,
Dennis Carter-Edwards’ article The War of 1812 Along the Detroit Frontier: A Canadian Perspective covers the theme of local history during the 19th century in Detroit. In particular, Carter-Edwards explores the Canadian perspective of the war of 1812 in the Windsor-Detroit region. The author examines three big categories; the measures that the British took to defended the area, the factors that influenced British decisions, and the power players that played a role on the outcome of the war. The article is an in-depth account of the events and people that were key players in the war, especially in the Canadian context.
When one thinks of Canada, he/she is most likely to stereotypically comment on a subject regarding hockey, beavers, maple syrup, and cold weather. However, not many stop and wonder about how Canada became the peaceful nation it is today. Throughout Canada’s relatively short and brief history, it has managed to flourish into a strong and powerful nation. Canada’s peaceful identity has been formed with meaningful historic events that have occurred throughout our history.It’s identity has been characterized by Lester B. Pearson's role during the suez canal, their involvement in the Vietnam war, and its engagement in peacekeeping missions around the world.
When it comes to Canadian History, perhaps the most controversial and widely disputable topic of debate would have to be one of Canada’s greatest wars: The War of 1812. A wide array of views are held on many aspects of the war ranging from who won to what ramifications the war would ultimately sire. In yet another discussion on the ever so controversial War of 1812, a new question was posed and deliberated by five historians: whose war, was it? Like any other question posed about this war a multitude of ideas would ultimately arise in each of their differing viewpoints. In their roundhouse discussion, the historians would ultimately serve to paint the War of 1812 as a war that transcends much further than the nationalistic view. A view that, though an important part of Canadian history, has been exaggerated to the point of choking out the many voices who fought and continue to fight for inclusion in the narrative. In their remembrance of the War of 1812, society unwittingly failed history in their lackluster commemorations which exclude important narratives and voices and stand tainted by the misuse of history to serve the nationalistic agenda.
As time goes on, some countries become more relevant in the global sphere while others start to fade away. Canada is a country that only becomes more relevant as time goes on. Since being granted full sovereignty, Canada has had a growing role as a major world player. Much of their international growth has to do with its close ties to the United States and the United Kingdom. However, the country has also undergone huge change and refocusing on a domestic level. With influence from both Europe and the United States, Canada has a very unique system of governing. This paper will focus on a few major areas of Canada. It will look into the history of Canada, the structure of its government, its politics, and many of the major issues it faces today.
Far from the shores of England, and to a large extent independent from the mother country, Canada remained reliant upon Britain, at least for its military expertise. Although Britain was largely preoccupied with the Napoleonic Wars in Europe, its military support of Canada, especially in the later phases of the war, proved to be decisive in the defeat of the Americans. Perhaps this is only appropriate given that Britain’s policy of impressment of American vessels and sailors was a principal cause of the War of 1812(Black, 185). To be fair though, American expansionist sentiment, embodied in the cries of the War Hawks leading up to the War of 1812, and that later manifested itself in the form of Manifest Destiny contained in the Monroe Doctrine, was also a cause of the war. Also contributing to the start of the War was the growing expansionist sentiment in the United States that was based on the idea of American superiority over Canada(185). This sense of superiority was rooted not only in the ideology of the American revolution, that republicanism and democracy were superior to monarchy and despotism, but also in the comparative advantage in population, manpower, financial and industrial strength enjoyed by America (Creighton,108). To the Americans, Upper Canada was an appealing and exceedingly vulnerable province by virtue of its geography, small population and perhaps even more so because of the composition of that population that included many recent
The Canadian foreign policy of the 1930s has been a subject of scholarly inquiry for quite some time .In this paper, we compare the readings of Norman Hillmer,"Defence and Ideology: The Anglo-Canadian Military Alliance in the 1930's "Eayrs, James " A low Dishonest Decade" : Aspects of Canadian External Policy, 1931-1939.
Canada, at the time had been ruled by Great Britain. In Document C, a Congressman of Virginia with name of John Randolph complains that the United States principal purpose to going war is to take over Canada. H explains that the United States leaders are rather selfish and greedy and how it seems to be the leading cause of going into war. According to the text in Document C it states, “…if you go to war it would not be for the sake of… Maritimes right” and, “… Canada seems to be their tempting sight.”. This explains that John thinks that all the United Sates only care is for more land. However, this statement is not very true. The United States did care about gaining more land but wasn’t the only matter that led Americans to declare the War of 1812. This would also play into National Pride being something proud American citizens can heroically boast and brag about. Gaining land in Canada can be a major accomplishment for the United Sates and could be a great example of National
“Our first duty is to win, at any cost!” Sir Robert Borden played an important role as Canadian Prime Minister during World War I, and while he is to be praised, he also to be held accountable for his actions; especially in the passing of Bills through parliament. Sir Robert Borden had not a great vision but more so a motto to live up to (to strive for), a country to lead in a worldwide war, and decisions that if not taken in a certain light, would have disrupted the newly forming “peaceful” dominion into a divided house.
Little recognized, outside of the 1812 war’s scholarly circles, the Canadian campaign of the War of 1812 was critical to the success of the then fledgling United States of America. While the initial battles of the Second War of Independence, an alternate name for the War of 1812, did not end positively for US forces, one could argue that the very defeats suffered contributed to our most successful policies in foreign policy throughout its history. Further, if the Canadian campaign has garnered little thought from the average American, it was most certainly a critical portion of the entire war effort. Standing in the opening of that campaign is the Siege of Fort Detroit and the initial defeat of American forces at the hands of the British.
In 1914, Canada was a British colony as it had been a part of the British Empire ever since the 1600’s, with a majority of Canadian citizens being of British descent. But, with Canada’s participation in World War I on the front lines and domestically, Canada repeatedly proved that “colony” is not something that should be used to describe itself. Despite some of the costs, Canadians took it upon themselves to show the Allies and the Germans who they truly are. We emerged from the war, as not only independent of British control, but also as a major global superpower due to the Allies’ military dependence on us, the economy developing skyward and full jurisdiction in foreign affairs.
Division in Canada was deep: Nationalists battled imperialists, and French Canadians were at odds with Anglophones. The theoretical debate was quickly halted by the outbreak of World War I, and forced into a practical test. While Canadian land forces famously punched above their weight in battles like Vimy, Ypres and the Somme, Canadian naval forces offered a lackluster showing throughout the First World War. The vast sums of money required to pursue any naval course of action meant that parliamentary ideological debate would be fierce3, and that the House of Commons would ultimately determine the direction of Canada's naval future. In light of this, it should be asked what effect Canadian politics at the turn of the century had on the development and subsequent effectiveness of the Royal Canadian Navy? Likely, Canadian politics were complicit in quashing any aspirations for a competent and powerful navy. Pursuit of a policy of splendid isolation, absence of bipartisan cooperation or communication, culminating with a poor combat record during the First World War ending 1918 as a result support this hypothesis. The first two factors are the political causes, the combat record is the concrete proof of the consequences. Despite the fact that this opinion is not widely espoused today, especially through government or official websites, the evidence
Graeme Garrad, author of the article and a senior lecturer in history at Cardiff University evokes the event of War of 1812. He writes a beautiful article entitled “The saviour of Canada” which was printed in the journal History today in October 2012. This article is about how Canada defended Britain from United States in the War of 1812. He tells about the consequences of the war and describes how Canada helped Britain. I am going to review his article on the basis of language, images, content, facts, His style of writing, how he concluded the argument, what title lead us to expect from the article, bias or not.