Canada's Contributions in the Boer War, World War I and World War II

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Canada’s contributions in the Boer War, World War One and World War Two are well documented. The Canadians helped in the Boer War from 1899-1902, World War One from 1914-1918 and World War Two from 1939-1945. Many Canadians were killed in these three wars. Just over more than 7000 Canadians were sent out overseas to help out in the Boer War (this included 12 women nurses).1 Approximately 65 000 soldiers died in World War One.2 (see Appendix 2) Approximately 45 000 died in World War Two.3
(Appendix 1)

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At the time of the Boer War, World War One and World War Two, Canada’s population consisted mainly of French-speaking Canadians and English-speaking Canadians. Even though there were many French speaking Canadians at that time in Canada, the Canadian military consisted of very few French-speaking Canadians and the majority was made up of English-speaking Canadians.
During the Boer War the military service was a voluntary act in Canada because of the fact that almost all French Canadians disagreed upon helping in the Boer War and they believed it was not something necessary that Canada should be involved in. Later on during the times of World War One and World War Two the military service had become mandatory for all men and this was called conscription. This meant that all men ages 20 to 45 were required to join the military. The English-speaking Canadians did not really mind this because they were in favour of the war efforts from the beginning, but it was a big deal for the French-speaking Canadians because they were not ever in favour of contributing in the war efforts.
Even when the French-speaking Canadians were part of the military they did not have a proper command over them especially since the English-speaking Canadians treated them very badly and there were problems with the languages that the English and the French Canadians spoke. “Command is important not merely because effective command wins wars, but national command is the instrument that connects the (military) forces to the government.”4. This quote explains that command needs to be practised in a military for it to exist and operate.
Since Canada was one country, the French- Canadians always disagreeing to help in all three of these wars did not show a lot of patriotism to the country. Especially during the time of the Boer War there was an outrageous reaction in Quebec against the English-speaking Canadians wanting to fight for their mother country Britain.

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