More Upheavals and Conflicts

Yesterday we outlined four of seven events or movements that shaped Canada and the United States. We began with the Seven Years War that displaced the French from North America and ended with the westward expansion that disrupted the lives of First Nations.

In addition to invasive effects on the peoples already living in the new territories, the expansion fueled tensions in the more settled areas. In Québec, identification with western francophone Louis Riel, executed as a traitor, led many Québécois to conclude they could not be at home in Canada outside their own Province.

In the US expansion fueled tensions between northern and southern states. The slaveholding states did not wish to see their relative strength in the Union diminished by the admission of more “free” states. The free states sought to do just that.

The War between the States 1861-65

When war between the two broke out, Britain, officially neutral, tacitly supported the South. Canada, still be a cluster of British provinces, reaped Northern reprisals for that.

Irish “Fenian Brothers” ran anti-British raids across the border with impunity. Congress cancelled a “Reciprocity” (limited free trade) treaty with Canada. Some northerners felt they should send their army to annex Canada once the South had been defeated.

The US Civil War affected both countries. It led to a stream of refugees into Canada: slaves from the South fearing return to their owners under Fugitive Slave Laws. It transformed the United States into a tighter union with the largest military force on Earth.

Fear of invasion by this force strengthened the movement for Confederation: for the Canadian colonies to come together for defense and trade, and to downsize the British military presence that was a lightning rod for anti-British sentiment in the US.

Before his death, President Abraham Lincoln refused to approve plans for the invasion of Canada. Although such schemes by his Secretary of State continued under President Andrew Johnson, 1866 was the last time annexation was seriously considered.

Confederation of the Canadian provinces took effect the following year. Canada was then gradually demilitarized as British troops withdrew, replaced by Canadian militia. The two North American countries moved from a standoff to neutrality by the end of the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century they became allies.

Global Conflict 1914-19 & 1939-45

The Two World Wars of the 20th century are two chapters of the same conflict born out of European nationalism. In these Canada and the United States participated as Allies, though not for the same period or to the same degree.

In both Canada was involved two years before the US, a result of Canada’s closer ties to Britain, which was in from the beginning. When the US entered these wars it brought a preponderant military force, and emerged at the end as the undisputed global power.

Canada played a strategic role along the way. In the First war Canadian participation won a seat at the conference table. In the Second Canada was a major link in Lend Lease before US entry.

US President Woodrow Wilson was an initiator of the League of Nations at the end of World War I, though his own country refused to ratify the League covenant. Canada’s Lester B. Pearson was a founder of the United Nations after Word War II.

Tomorrow we'll conclude this series on decisive conflicts with a look at the last half of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st: a period of Cold War, local conflicts and the emergence of terrorism.