WW1 IMPACTONCANADA’S….
SOCIAL IMPACTS:
- Roles of females – women got more jobs = nurses, staff officers, 2000 women worked as nurses, 6000 worked in the civil army, when men came back most women lost job- soon after this famous 5 were fighting for their rights, women helped by sending food, pyjamas and clothes for the soldiers at war
- Minorities, ethnic – aboriginals were still being discriminated but made contributions in the war… gov’t didn’t expect them to be part of the war – were seen as ‘savages’ – 4000 volunteered for service in 1913 – gov’t slowly stopped their racist attitudes towards them – borden put the ‘wartime selection act’…
- French and English Canadians separated – different thoughts, French had problems with them because Manitoba’s school act 1890 restricted French instructions in school, French didn’t follow instructions for the war because they were against the British
- Government did nothing for the soldiers who returned
ECONOMY:
- Canadians in early 1900’s didn’t think war in Europe would affect their rights
- ^ more focused on unemployment, economic depression, threat of crop failure
- war hurt the troubled economy cause the unemployment rate grew cause soldiers left, and some people were not allowed to work = Germans, etc. 20% of world’s prewar employees left ….
- Dept ridden railway systems became a national disgrace – because of dept ..no credit – and 50000 workers were out of job from 1914 -1915
- 1913 – gov’t spent = the same amount they spent on the military alone in 1915
- not a good time for Canada to enter war but pressured by Britain
- 1915 – british ministry of munitions created the imperial munitions board (started to flourish) – and produced a millions shells per day and 1/3 of it used in the war each day – Joseph flavellle–1917 = the largest business in Canada > employed 150 000 workers
- 1917 – Britain could no longer afford Canadian goods – Canada gained money through taxes = tobacco, asked citizens and got 100 million from them- introduced victory bonds = 2 billion! – bonds in general covered 80% of the war’s cost
- Thomas white was the finance minister in Canada at the time
- December 1917 – Halifax relief commission formed – 30 million
- After the ear ended – a lot of steel making and chemical making factories – after war – no demand of these things and these factories just shut down = unemployment
POLITICS:
- Canada had a new and stronger relationship with Britain – Canada was now being heard by other countries – Borden had to deal with Canada’s dept
- Maritimes – building ships/ transporting – so their manufacturing levels went down of corporate take over reduced the number of companies = unemployment
- 1917 – 1921 = maritime production stopped by 40% - over 1000 people left Maritimes
- social problems --- 600 000 men went over seas – and the rest of the soldiers who survived had trouble getting back to Canada
- most of the country divided after the conscription act and the war times measure act
- Winnipeg general strike 1919– when soldiers returned they had no job and the had a strike
- Spanish flu – 100 000 approx soldiers stuck in Europe – end of war – and this flu caused devastating effect to the people in Europe and the soldiers brought it back to their countries – and there was nothing to fight it with – that was the last bigpandemic – about the same number people that died in the ww1 died from this flu all over the world
AMERICAN’S
SOCIAL:
- National War Labour Board – started at the beginning of the war
- Mediated labour disputes
- Resulting in improved wages, 8-hour work days and organized unions
- Women started working in factories in jobs that were normally male-oriented
- Police officers
- Factory workers
-Southern blacks also were allowed to hold jobs, and were not forced out at the end of the war
-Mexicans had lots of political turmoil.
-Since there was a labour shortage in the States they immigrated to the USA to take the jobs
AFTER THE WAR
- even though women were put out of their jobs, returning soldiers still had trouble finding work
- Government was no longer controlling prices and rationed goods
- Huge spike in prices of goods -> inflation
- Many worker strikes
- Strikes were considered a “European Communist” behaviour, and scared many people
- Lots of racial movement. Returning soldiers were not allowed their jobs which had been taken over by people of a different colour
- People felt that foreigners moving from Europe were bringing communist studies with them
- Led to the American idea of associating foreigners with unrest and violence and things that were generally unacceptable
- A lot of bombing and terrorism happening against these European countries
- FBI was formed to control terrorism
- Huge amounts of Russian and other immigrants were deported
- Immigration was severely limited and restricted after that