War Breaks Out

Many European empires lost their colonies in the Americas during the 1700s and 1800s, yet the Middle East, Africa and Asia were still sought after territories. Decades of imperial rivalries, economic competition, nationalism, and instability following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the east all led to a very fragile and unstable peace in Europe at the turn of the 20th century.

The Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who was to become the future King of Austria-Hungary, was assassinated on June 28, 1914 in Sarajevo, Bosnia by a Serbian nationalist. The assassin was part of an extremist group that wanted Serbian power in the Balkans and intended to break up the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Austria-Hungary believed the Serbian government was involved in the murder and declared war. This declaration of war was supported by Germany, an ally of Austria-Hungary.

Russia quickly became involved as it sought to protect Slavic nations (which included Serbia). Germany then stepped in and demanded a promise of peace from Russia and its ally, France. When the Germans received no reply, they declared war on Russia on August 1, 1914, and on France on August 3, 1914.

European countries wrangled one another into two competing alliances at the start of WWI in 1914: The Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Italy, which later left the Alliance) and The Triple Entente (France, Russia, and Great Britain).

On its way to France, the German army invaded Belgium on August 3rd, 1914. Britain, an ally of France and supporter of Belgian neutrality, demanded that the Germans withdraw from Belgium and that Germany observe the Treaty of 1839 which declared Belgium a neutral country. Despite the ultimatum from the British, the Germans continued their invasion and Britain declared war on Germany on August 4th.

Canada was a self-governing Dominion of the British Empire, but did not fully determine or control its own foreign affairs. Therefore Canada was obliged to enter the War alongside Britain, which asked for 25,000 Canadian soldiers to be deployed.

The Canadian Government thought that the might of the British Empire would make for a short-fought war with Germany. Little did they know it would last four long years and enlist 619,636 Canadians, almost 13% of Canada’s population of 8 million.

Ultimately Canada triumphed and showed remarkable fighting strength on the Western Front, contributing to the victory of the Allied nations, but the First World War changed the country forever. The triumph also came at a great cost: nearly 61,000 Canadians died and 172,000 were wounded. Thousands more returned home with psychological wounds inflicted by the war. Then known as “shell shock”, we would now classify these psychological wounds as PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

A total of approximately 9 million people in uniform and 13 million civilians died in the First World War.