History 2201E Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Gold Base, Cash Crop, Breadbasket
2 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
January 30, 2018
The “Great War” and Canada
Lecture Suggested Readings and films: (Bumsted – ch. 8: 324-332)
‘And We knew How to Dance: Women World War I’ (NFB, 1994)
Part I. State of the Nation: Economic Snapshot
Industrial Development:
- 1850-1900 First Phase of Canada’s Industrial Revolution
o Characterized by rapid expansion of consumer goods industries- ie- textiles,
clothing, footwear, and cigars.
o Especially in southern Ontario
- Beginning in 1900 –Second Phase –
o Characterized by a surge in capital goods industries such as machinery and
equipment –
o spurring development in: mining, pulp and paper, and electrical and chemical
industries
o Big Canadian companies opening up
Agriculture:
Increase in commercialized farming
- Stimulated by both local and international demand an increased appetite for staple
foods
o Large cities like Toronto and Montreal, also went to Britain
- Rail and steamship offered more reliable transportation of goods, cold storage facilities,
lower freight rates
- Implications: Ontario’s bacon, cheese, butter, and eggs found their way to Britain
- Turning point: Ontario farmers also branched out into industrial crops such as: Sugar,
beets, grapes, and tobacco and grew most of the fruits and vegetables that were canned
in Canada prior to 1920.
- Canning industries – used to preserved food that could be shipped much frther abroad
Regional variances:
- Quebec – cattle raising in Quebec’s Eastern townships proved to be a highly profitable
venture and QC also exported butter and cheese to Great Britain but they fell behind
Ontario as they were slower to mechanize their farms
o Milk products
- Nova Scotia and P.E.I – potatoes = most successful cash crop.
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- Prairie Wheat Boom – b/w 1901- 1913 – wheat production expanded from 56 million to
224 million bushels and grain exports increased by 600%
- Implications:
- wheat soared from 14 – 42 % of total Canadian exports
- Transformed prairies from a fur trade frontier to the breadbasket of the world – wheat
production second only to the U.S
- British Columbia:
- By 1900 - Salmon Fisheries had become most profitable fishery in Canada
- Timber Frontier - demand for construction lumber in developing North American cities –
furniture
Mining – across Canada
• Coal- Maritimes, AB and B.C – supplying Canadian trains, factories and homes.
o Canada was self-sufficient
o Primary form of fuel for transportation and industrial development
• Copper –gold- base of Red Mountain = boom in B.C
• 80% of Canada’s electrical generating capacity = Ontario and Quebec
Political Landscape:
• ➢ 1911- 1920 – Robert Borden serves as Prime Minister
Population Context:
http://www65.statcan.gc.ca/acyb07/acyb07_0007-eng.htm
Year
Population
1867
3,463,000
1890
4,779,000
1900
5,301,000
1910
6,988,000
1914
7,879,000
1915
7,981,000
1916
8,001,000
1917
8,060,000
1918
8,148,000
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Canada and The Great War: 1914-1918
A pivotal moment in the development of the Canadian nation.
- An imaginative event
- Important in the creation of national mythologies
o The first World War as the Birth of a nation
▪ No longer a dependent colony of Britain
- A cultural, social, military and political event
- Growth in the power and influence of the Canadian state
o More involved in economic planning, enforcement of labour regulations
o Taxation history – before WWI no income tax
▪ was levied to raise $ for the war
Part II: Patriotic Response to War
“Those who reckon with England must reckon with England’s sons”.
June 1914
- Starts: Austrian Archduke assassinated in Sarajevo
o Before the war – system of alliances that allows for a domino force to take place
o Formed to present other countries to expand territory in Europe and around the
world
- Result: Allies essentially given support to different sides which results in a declaration of
war
o British dominions get drawn into war because of their various ties to the British
empire
- Call to arms – great number since many Canadians were born in the British isle
o Majority of population: British-descent
o French Canadians not supportive at all – don’t see much meaning
▪ View as a Canadian war fought for British interests
o Others not as enthusiastic: Central/Eastern Europeans (Germans/German-descent
▪ Don’t see them part of the widespread Anglo-Canadian
Patriotism
- 1914 War Measures Act – enacted during the WW2 in a modified war and FLQ crisis in
the 1970s
o granted government to make a number of decisions without consulting parliament
o not the normal democratic practices
o allowed gov’t to censor newspapers and universities
o arrest and detain without explanations
o any king of transport
o mandating what manufacturers would make
▪ i.e. materials for the war effort
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