Canada

1
Canada The British Empire
Kevin J. Benoy
2
What Kind of Nationalism?
3
British Subjects

• In the late 19th early 20th century most
  Canadians were of recent British extraction.
• They felt a strong kinship to Great Britain.

4
British Subjects

• Canada was an integral part of this world empire.
• We were British subjects and proud of it.

5
British Subjects

• During the 19th century, Great Britain had the
  largest fleet in the world, maintaining a 2 power
  standard her fleet was larger than the next two
  national fleets combined.
• Britain was committed to Splendid Isolation
  staying out of international commitments and only
  committing when Britain could force the balance
  of power in Britains interests.
• British Canadians felt pride in British power

6
British Subjects

• British subjects were enormously proud of the
  size of the British Empire which was between
  1/6 1/5 of the worlds land mass and contained
  a similar proportion of the worlds people.
• Like Americans today, the British saw themselves
  as tremendously powerful.

7
Canadiens

• French Canadians felt no such connection to
  things British.
• They had been isolated from Europe since before
  the Conquest, beginning in 1759.

8
Canada First

• Of course there were some English Canadians who
  wanted an independent Canada.
• However, this Canada First movement was small
  in number and resentful of the Canadiens the
  only other group who supported a distinctly
  Canadian nationalism.

9
Imperial Federation

• At the end of the 19th century there was even a
  movement to strengthen ties with Britain.
• In 1884 the Imperial Federation League was
  founded in Britain.
• Proponents wanted to strengthen, not loosen, ties
  between Britain and its colonies.

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Imperial Federation

• The idea was to create a single federal Imperial
  state, with a super-Parliament in London.
• The Colonies would be mere provinces within this.

11
A British Nation

• The overwhelming bulk of Canadas population and
  particularly the controlling elite, felt
  themselves British through and through.

12
Imperial Entanglements
13
Imperial Entanglements

• Even as a self-governing dominion within the
  British Empire, there was the danger of getting
  caught up in conflicts with little or nothing to
  do with Canada.
• After all, a global empire had to maintain
  itself.
• Against rebels.
• Against other imperial powers.

14
Sudan, 1885

• In 1881 a religious leader in the Sudan, Mohammad
  Ahmed, declared himself the Mahdi the messiah
  of Islam.
• He set out to clear his country of foreign
  influences including the Egyptians, who he saw
  as impure Moslems and their allies, the British.

15
Gordon of Khartoum

• A British force, under the command of General
  Charles Gordon, was under siege at Khartoum.
• Britain called on its colonies to contribute to a
  force to put down the radical Islamic forces.

16
Sudan, 1885

• Sir John A. Macdonald understood that though
  British Canada might support sending troops,
  Quebec would be strongly opposed.
• The conflict ended before any Canadian commitment
  was needed. (Though Australian forces were sent.)

17
The Anglo-Boer War
18
The Anglo-Boer War - Origins

• Another Imperial crisis arose in Southern Africa.
• In the late 19th century a three power struggle
  took place there between
• The British
• The Boers
• The Zulu

19
Anglo-Boer War - Origins

• Shaka Zulu led the most powerful African military
  force to ever emerge.
• After initial set-backs like the complete
  annihalation of the British 24th regiment at
  Isandlhwana - British firepower eventually broke
  the Zulu, who had conquered much of southern
  Africa.

20
Anglo-Boer War - Origins

• British supremacy in Southern Africa irked the
  Boers (Afrikaaners) descendants of early Dutch
  settlers who had trekked out of the Cape area to
  escape British rule.
• In 1880-1881 the Boers won the right to
  self-government though theoretically under
  British oversight.

21
Anglo-Boer War - Origins

• In 1885 gold was discovered in Transvaal, one of
  the Boer republics.
• Uitlanders flooded in, as did British investment.
• The Boers feared being swamped by the newcomers
  and restricted their voting rights. They also
  heavily taxed the gold business.
• Investors and British residents of the Transvaal
  hoped Britain would intervene.

22
Anglo-Boer War - Origins

• In 1895 a British businessman, Cecil Rhodes,
  financed an attempt to seize control of the
  Transvaal, in what came to be known as the
  Jameson raid.
• It failed, but convinced the Boers that the
  British would try again possibly using the
  British army in Cape Colony and Natal. After all,
  Lord Milner, the British Governor of the Cape
  publicly favoured annexation.

23
Anglo-Boer War - Origins

• The Afrikaaner republics of Transvaal and Orange
  Free State spent heavily on modern armaments,
  buying mainly from Germany.

24
Anglo-Boer War

• In 1899 it looked as though the British were
  seeking war.
• The Boers struck first.
• On October 11, the Boers invaded Cape Colony and
  Natal.
• Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberly were encircled.
• The British suffered one setback after another.

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Anglo-Boer War

• Britain called on the Empire to help.
• Prime Minister Laurier was torn between two
  impossible positions
• Support Britain and lose all support in Quebec.
• Avoid committing Canada and enrage British Canada.

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Anglo-Boer War

• Laurier had to compromise.
• He decided to send volunteers, providing that
  Britain paid their expenses.
• 7,000 Canadian soldiers (including 12 female
  nurses) served in Southern Africa over a 3 year
  period.

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Anglo-Boer War

• In 1900 the tide of battle turned. British forces
  took control of most Boer territory.
• Superior British forces forced the Boers to turn
  to guerilla tactics.
• From September, 1900 to the end of the war, in
  may, 1902, a nasty guerilla struggle drained both
  sides.

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Anglo-Boer War

• The Boers threw off their uniforms and fought
  asymmetrical warfare.
• The British adopted a tactic of denying the Boers
  food and supplies.
• Blockhouses defended rail and telegraph lines.

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Anglo-Boer War

• More controversially, the British forced Boer
  civilians into Concentration Camps, so that the
  countryside could be a free-fire zone for British
  forces and Boer farms were burned down to deny
  the guerillas supplies.

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Anglo-Boer War

• Poor supply systems and the continuing war meant
  camp conditions were often poor.
• Women and children were often short of food and
  medicine.
• A report after the war concluded that 27,927
  Boers and 14,154 Blacks 25 and 14
  respectively died of starvation and exposure.

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Anglo-Boer War

• Opposition to the war in Canada was strongest in
  Quebec.
• Henri Bourassa, a former Laurier supporter and
  Liberal MP, resigned over the war and was
  re-elected as an independent.
• In his newspaper Le Devoir he opposed the war
  and argued for a nationalist policy for the
  country.

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Anglo-Boer War

• The war ended with the Treaty of Veeriningen.
• 22,000 British Empire soldiers lost their lives
  the majority through disease.
• Between 6,000 and 7,000 Boer fighters died and
  around 28,000 civilians.
• A direct result of the war was the founding of
  South Africa a country that came to be
  dominated by the large Boer population.
• Jan Smuts, a former Boer commander, became Prime
  Minister of the Country.

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The Anglo-Boer War
34
The Anglo-Boer War

• The Boer war revealed how isolated Britain was in
  the world.
• Opposition to British action came from virtually
  all countries. German hostility was particularly
  strong.
• Britain forged an alliance with Japan to reduce
  her Pacific commitment.
• Britain sought friends elsewhere too.

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The Alaska Boundary DisputeBritains Commitment
to Canada
36
The Alaska Boundary Dispute

• The Klondike gold rush of 1896 made the exact
  location of the border between B.C. and Alaska a
  pressing issue.
• This boundary and the ownership of territory
  along the coast had been unclear since the United
  States Alaska purchase, from Russia, in 1867.
• Possession of the land at the head of deep inlets
  would have allowed Canada access to B.C. across
  the Alaska panhandle.

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The Alaska Boundary Dispute

• Canadians believed that the boundary followed the
  summit of the mountain ranges near the coast.
• The Americans claimed a line which followed the
  configuration of the coast but included the heads
  of the inlets.
• By moving troops to the region the American
  president, Teddy Roosevelt, forced the issue to a
  resolution.

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The Alaska Boundary Dispute

• In 1903, an arbitration tribunal, comprised of
  three Americans, two Canadians and one British
  representative, was appointed to end the dispute.
• Lord Alverstone the British chief justice
  represented Imperial interests.
• Great Britain had no wish to annoy the Americans
  over the issue and Lord Alverstone was instructed
  to side with them.

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The Alaska Boundary Dispute
40
The Alaska Boundary Dispute

• The decision was heavily weighted in the American
  favor and Canada lost all access to the Pacific
  across the Alaska panhandle.
• What would Britain do to support Canada in future
  disputes with the United States?
• Some worried about the implications of Britains
  decision.

41
The Tin Pot Navy
42
The Tin Pot Navy

• In 1906, Britain launched HMS Dreadnought, a new
  class of warship, more powerful than anything
  seen before.
• However, it also made existing British
  battleships obsolete.
• When Germany began launching similar vessels, a
  naval arms race followed.

43
Lauriers Tin-Pot Navy

• Britains colonies, recognizing the need to
  maintain naval supremacy, committed themselves to
  help. Australia, and New Zealand both paid for
  battleships to be added to the Royal Navy.
• In Canada, a Naval Aid Bill was proposed by the
  Conservatives to send money directly to Britain
  like the other colonies.

44
Lauriers Tin-Pot Navy II

• Lauriers navy was intended to be placed at
  Britains disposal in time of war.
• English Canadians scoffed at the prospect of
  Canadas navy being of much assistance to the
  British.
• French Canadians led by Henri Bourassa were
  outraged at the thought of Canada helping Britain
  in any Imperial conflict.

45
Bordens Failure

• In the election of 1911, Wilfrid Laurier lost to
  Borden in no small measure due to his lukewarm
  support of Britain in the Naval Arms Race.
• Borden proposed to build a battleship for Britain
  in a Canadian shipyard, and man it with Canadian
  sailors.
• Winston Churchill pointed out that no Canadian
  shipyard was capable of handling the job.
• Borden had the bill passed in the House of
  Commons, but the Senate rejected it, killing the
  project.
• Canadas contribution remained puny.

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Conclusion

• Before World War I Canada was a colony of Great
  Britain.
• It was self-governing internally, and could even
  make some decisions regarding policy.
• Bigger military and foreign policy decisions were
  reserved for Britain

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Conclusion

• Some Canadians wanted an independent Canada that
  need not risk involvement in Britains Imperial
  struggles.
• Few were Anglophones.
• Most were Quebecois Nationalistes.

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Conclusion

• Most Canadians, particularly in British Ontario,
  were rabidly British.
• If there was a Canadian nationalism, it was
  nowhere near the mainstream in English Canada
  though it might be becoming so in Francophone
  Quebec.

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Finis