The War continues ….Canada’s Role in the War

Recap:•German plan for attack on France was called the Schlieffen Plan•Germany ignored an agreement that was once signed between them and Great Britain to not invade Belgium (neutral territory)•Germany based their plans on MANY assumptions• Russia would be slow to get their army organized• Great Britain wouldn’t care about the violation of treaty• France would be caught off guard if Germany advanced

from the opposite (expected direction)

The Schlieffen PlanSee if you can explain the Schlieffen plan and its failure

Other details that are happening at the same time…

•Austrian troops are advancing towards Serbia and unable to conquer the country right away (1915)

•Bulgaria joined the war to help the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria and Italy) rather than help their neighbours (Serbia)

•Russia also surprised Austria with an unexpected attack on the Eastern border of Austria -Hungary

Canada’s Role•When Britain officially declared war on Germany on August 4th 1914, the Canadian General pledged their intent to fight against Germany 1 day later (Aug. 5th)

•Canada only had a small army at this point but had many volunteer soldiers (in case of war only)

•Sam Hughes was given the mission of building and creating the new army•He asked for 25000 new men to volunteer, 32000 men signed up

Why?The Minister of Militia and Defense- Canada

Canadian Soldiers trained at a place called Valcartier- Quebec

•By October 1914, with minimal training and 100 Canadian nurses, we set sail to join Britain to fight against Germany

The Numbers

•Almost 620,000 Canadian men and women served in the First World War at a time when the population of the country was only a few million.

•Of these, more than 66,000 were killed.

The Newfoundland Regiment

•In 1914, Newfoundland was not yet a part of Canada but joined the Canadian Army

•Of the 2000 members who joined 350 were killed very early on

•There was much discrimination against who could join the army– Natives, Blacks, Chinese and Brown people were here in Canada at this time and had to fight to join the army

John Shiwak- leading sniper of Inuit tribes in Labrador

Just to give you an idea of the Racism that people who were not descendents of Britain had to deal with…

The Komagata Maru IncidentThe Case study