Conscription Bill & European Alliances
The Conscription Bill
The Conscription act was established in the First World War, in 1917. At first, Canadians were really excited to go to war, Canadians didn’t know what war was really like until soldiers were sent overseas. At the start of World War One, soldier recruitment was voluntary. The Prime Minister in Canada at the time was Robert Borden. Prime Minister Borden didn’t want to pass or introduce a conscription law. He actually promised the French-Canadians that he wouldn’t pass conscription as a law. The French-Canadians didn’t agree with conscription because they didn’t want to be connected with britain in any way. Prime Minister Borden decided to visit the front lines and saw for himself that they needed more soldiers in order to win the war. The war was going badly and the number of casualties was huge, conscription seemed necessary at this point.
There was also an election coming up in Canada (December), and Borden wanted to be re-elected. He also knew that the conscription law needed to be passed because more Canadian soldiers were desperately needed. So, in order to win the election Borden passed the Wartime Elections Act. This changed who was allowed to vote. Now, wives, mothers and sisters of soldiers were allowed to vote. This gave women an opportunity to vote in a federal election for the first time. All of these women would vote on the side of conscription, because their husbands/family members were already off fighting in the war and they needed support. So, obviously all these women would vote for Robert Borden because he was going to pass the conscription law. So, Robert Borden was re-elected as Prime Minister and the conscription law was passed.
The conscription law stated that men between the ages 20-45 would be enlisted to go overseas and fight in the war. The conscription law was actually passed in August, 1917. So, recruitment for soldiers was now no longer needed and recruitement wasn’t voluntary. Voluntary recruitment was failing to maintain the number of troops, this was one of the original reasons why conscription needed to happen. The results of conscription were that some Canadians viewed it as an important act that needed to take place. Other Canadians viewed it as an act that had more to do with staying loyal to britain, and they didn’t like that. Conscription actually had little impact on Canada’s war involvement. This was because, although 100,000 Canadian were conscripted, less than half were actually sent overseas. Nowadays, people say that conscription was pointless, but back then it seemed like the right thing to do in the midst of the war.
European Alliances
At the beginning of World War One, the major powers/countries were split into two alliances. First, is the Triple Entente. This alliance consisted of Britain, France and Russia. Second, is the Triple Alliance (central powers). This alliance consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. The main causes of World War One were things to do with, militarism, alliances, imperialism and nationalism. Germany always wanted to compete with Britain for land and colonies. So, Germany was competing with the UK to build battleships. The British feared an attack on their empire. So, both nations began to build a new battleship called the dreadnought (a huge battleship). So, there was already tensions between countries before the first world war was even an idea. Germany was also competing with Russia and France. Germany needed to expand their army because Germany was in the middle of Russia and France, which were both very powerful countries. Although Germany had a larger army than France and Russia, Germany didn’t stand a chance if those two countries combined their armies against Germany. By 1914 all the major powers were linked by alliance systems. Alliances made it more likely that a war would start.
In the past, Germany (Prussia a german state) had won battles against France, Denmark and Austria-Hungary. Austria-Hungary accepted their defeat, so Austria allied with Germany in 1879 and this formed the dual alliance.
France on the other hand, didn’t accept that they had been defeated by Germany in the past and wanted revenge against Germany (Germany took land from France that provided France with natural resources).
So, once Austria-Hungary allied with Germany, they promised to support Germany if France ever tried to attack Germany. Also, Austria risked war against Russia because they wanted to try and claim the same land in the Balkans region. So, Germany promised to support Austria in case Russia decided to attack. Italy joined this alliance hoping to gain land from France in North Africa. Once Italy joined, the Triple Alliance (central powers) was formed.
The other alliance was the Triple Entente. Britain ruled much of the world, and only stood to lose land not gain land. But, as I mentioned before Britain was in a naval race with Germany, and the growing of America and Japan threatened Britain. So, in 1906, Britain guaranteed support for France in case of a German naval attack. So, Britain and France allied and gave support to each other. Russia was threatened by Austria-Hungary and Germany because both of them looked to Russia as a place to gain land. So, in 1907, Russia decided to become a part of an alliance with Britain and France. This formed the Triple Entente.
All of the great powers were competing for colonies because the more land you own, the more people working the more money you make. Britain didn’t want Germany to own land in Africa, but Germany really wanted to be able to own more land in Africa. Austria-Hungary feared that Russia and Serbia would try and own more land in the Balkans region, because Austria-Hungary was trying to gain land there as well. Trying to gain more colonies caused tension in the alliances.
The direct cause of the war was the murder of Franz Ferdinand (heir to austrian throne) and his wife Sophia. Austria owned Bosnia, which upset Serbia. Franz Ferdinand and his wife were visiting Sarajevo which is in Bosnia. They were in a parade to show that Austria was in complete control of Bosnia. Serbia felt that Bosnia belonged to them, and because it didn’t, Serbia was angry. There were many serbians that were living in Sarajevo (Bosnia) and those Serbians wanted this area to be a part of Serbia, not Austria. Serbians viewed the parade as an insult. Even though Franz Ferdinand and his wife were warned that visiting Sarajevo could be dangerous they did anyway. A group called the Black Hand had planned to kill Franz Ferdinand when he came for the parade, and they did. They shot both Franz Ferdinand and his wife. This made Austria angry and this murder was the spark that started the first world war. Once this event occurred, alliances were called upon and the first world war had begun.
