Canada - The 20’s, 30’s and WWII

The 1920’s

We had commenced our great adventure. We lived in a continuous blaze of enthusiasm. We were at times very

serious and concerned, at other times hilarious and carefree. Above all, we loved this country and loved

exploring and painting it. Lawren S. Harris

La Cloche #2 Franklin Carmichael 

Last Gleam, North Shore Lawren Stewart Harris

Sitka by Emily Carr

A. Social Changes after WWI

1. Art - Canadian themes are to be valued >Group of Seven (Canadian Landscapes) >Emily Carr (B.C. Landscapes & Aboriginals

2. Inventions>Radio, Airplane & Car HE SHOOTS, HE SCORES!

3. Immigration>Between 1915 to 1925 perhaps 400 000 people leave Canada;

barriers to European immigration lowered

Beaver Swamp by Lawren Harris

B. Growth of Canadian Independence

• 1919 The Paris Peace Conferences and the Treaty of Versailles

-Canada is an independent signatory with its own seat in the League of Nations

• 1922 The Chanak Crisis

-CDN parliament will decide whether or not to participate; 1st time Canada refuses unconditional support for imperial war policies

B. Growth of Canadian Independence (Cont’d)

• 1926 The Imperial Conference-Balfour Report acknowledges dominions

are autonomous; ‘a colony had become a nation’• 1931 The Statute of Westminster

-recognizes in law the Imperial Conference; Canada a sovereign state in the British Commonwealth of nations

Can you say, ‘shut down, denied, rejected.’

1926 King-Byng Crisis

-Governor General Byng refuses to dissolve Parliament at King’s request

"Wine is a mocker,   Strong drink is raging:

And whosoever is deceived thereby   Is not wise."                              

--PROVERBS XX, 1

choice bit of calico: attractive female, student.

daddy: a young woman's boyfriend or lover, especially if he's rich.

drugstore cowboy: A well-dressed man who loiters in public areas trying to pick up women.

hair of the dog (1925): a shot of alcohol. speakeasy: a bar selling illeagal liquor.

Coffin varnish: bootleg liquor, often poisonous..

get a wiggle on: get a move on, get going.

teenager: not a common term until 1930; before then, the term was "young adults."

Get Hot! Get Hot!: encouragement for a hot dancer doing her thing.

Al Capone

We want women leaders today as never before. Leaders who are not afraid to be called names and who are willing to go out and fight. I think women can save civilization. Women are persons.” - Emily Murphy - 1931

The "Famous Five": Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby, Nellie McClung, Henrietta Muir Edwards

C. Role of Women

• Role of Women had changed drastically-increasingly controlled own lives

-held ‘men’s’ jobs, shorter skirts, shocking bathing suits, scandalous dance

• Prohibition (ban on all production, sale and consumption of alcohol; March ‘18 to Dec. ‘19)

-pushed by women’s groups

-decrease in social woes, increase in organized crime; many loopholes

C. Role of Women (Cont’d)

• 1921 Agnes Macphail first female MP• 1929 The Famous Five and the Persons Case

(Remember: Right to Vote in Federal Election in 1918, but not all provinces until 1940)

– The Issue: Does the word ‘person’ of the BNA Act include females?

• 1927 Supreme Court of Canada says ‘No’

• 1928 Appeal (with help of PM King) to British Privy Council

• 1229 Privy Council responds, “to those who would ask why the word ‘person’ should include females, the obvious answer is, why should it not?”

D. Unions …The folks that brought you the weekend.

-1919 no unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, or pensions

-1919 despite the RED SCARE (don’t forget the Bolsheviks and 1917) Winnipeg General Strike 30, 000 workers walk off the job followed by sympathy strikes across the country (demands included: eight-hour work day, higher pay, right to collective bargaining )

-->June 21st 1919 Bloody Saturday -RCMP charges strikers

The 1930’s

A. Causes of the Great Depression

1. Overproduction

-stockpiled goods go unsold

-factory owners lay off workers

-less money to spend on goods, so sales slow down even more…

The Business Cycle (Economic Cycle)-is a normal part of the economy

1. Prosperity -high employment, inflation

2. Recession -employment drops, production reduced

3. Recovery -production increases due to consumer demand, new jobs

Depression: prolonged and severe recession; Deflation may occur, wages drop faster than prices

A. Causes of the Great Depression (Cont’d)

2. Canada’s Reliance on Exporting Staple Products(crops, timber, minerals) -1925 - 1929 record crops and prices, but in 1929 U.S.A., Argentina and Australia have record crops = competition

3. Canada’s Dependence on the U.S.A. -40% of all exports

4. Economic Protectionism and Tariffs5. International Debt after WWI -

countries indebted to U.S.A. unable to pay due to reduced trade

A. Causes of the Great Depression (Cont’d)

6. The Stock Market Crash

-Black Tuesday, October 29th 1929

-People buying on margin, speculation

-Value of several key stocks on TSE dropped by $1 000 000/minute

B. Responses to the Depression• The U.S.A.

-Franklin Delano Roosevelt (my favourite president) implements The New Deal

Goodbye laissez faire, hello Mr. John Maynard Keynes!

Keynes called for deficit financing. This is where government expenditures can exceed its revenue. The result is not a Balanced Budget, but a deficit. What would your banker say?

Keynes called for projects of value, not just make-work schemes eg//roads, hydroelectric dams.

Most countries ignored his ideas, but not U.S.A., Germany, Japan

B. Responses to the Depression• Canada1. Riding the Rails2. Pogey - deliberately kept lower than the lowest paying

jobs

1. Unemployment Relief Camps - room, board & $0.20/day

2. Bennett’s New Deal-progressive taxation, max. hours in a work week, minimum wage, stronger regulation of working conditions, unemployment insurance, revised old age pension plan, marketing board to regulate wheat prices

5. On-to-Ottawa Trek and the Regina Riot

-P.M. King wouldn’t give a provincial tory government a ‘five cent piece’

-Bennett elected in 1930

-King re-elected in1935

Note: Prairies hit particularly hard; Dust Bowl

Rioters atop railroad cars, others climbing, police and others below.

My government: Prime Minister Bennett presiding over his cabinet, every face his .

King sitting in a Bennett Buggy: the body of an automobile hitched to a horse.

King sitting in his study, 1932.

C. Collapse and Consequences of the Great Depression

1. Unemployment - 25% in most industrialized countries;remember no safety net & think about the business cycle

2. Banking Failures - businesses and farms go bankrupt, then banks (6000 in U.S.A.)

3. Political Consequences - “People who are hungry and are out a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.” FDR

-in Canada Canadian Co-operative Federation (later to be NDP) and Social Credit Party

4. Changing Role of Government -Laissez Faire is dead, hello government control of economy (tax, monetary ie/interest rates, and fiscal ie/gov’t expenditures policies

Note: The Prairies were hit particularly hard. Dust storms, locusts, wheat rust, low wheat

prices….

World War Two 1939 - 1945

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Italy

• Benito Mussolini forms a political party called Fascisti

• 1922 Musolini’s March on Rome, King Emanual surrenders government w/o a single shot

Goodbye democracy, Hello dictatorship. And the people wanted it!

• 1935 Ethiopia invaded

Can you say totalitarianism?

Fascist dictator of Italy from 1922 to 1943.

Germany

1. 1923-24 inflation now hyper-inflation (12 billion mark = $CDN 1

2. 1923 Hitler’s beerhall putsch in Munich

3. 1919 - 1933 Germany a democracy; Weimar Republic, Disliked by most Germans &blamed for Treaty of Versailles

Rules Germany 1933 - 45

Hitler and the Nazi Party

• Extreme Nationalism, Anti-Democratic, Anti-Semitism (Jews = scapegoat), Restore Germany’s Military Might

• 1932 Hitler appointed Chancellor• Feb. 1933 just short of a majority, NAZI party bans communists

from Reichstag, coerces Reichstag to pass Enabling Act

Goodbye democracy, Hello dictatorship. And the people wanted it!

The bleachers of the Berlin stadium to spell out ‘We belong to you’ May 1, 1939

Nazi Germany Under Hitler

• Germany totalitarian state• June 1934 Night of the Long Knives, 1000 ‘enemies of

the state’ murdered• 1933 - 39 Nuremburg Law

Jews: Star of David, Lost Citizenship and Property, not allowed to mingle with ‘German’ population

• Nov. 9, 1939 Kristallnacht, (night of broken glass)• Re-militarization• Gestapo and Heil Hitler (Fuhrer)

Can you say totalitarianism?

Hitler (January 30th, 1939): ''In the course of my life I have very often been a prophet, and have usually been ridiculed for it. During the time of my struggle for power, it was in the first instance the Jewish race that received my prophecies with laughter - when I said that I would one day take over the leadership of the State, and with it that of the whole nation, and that I would then, among many other things, settle the Jewish problem. I think that for some time now they have been laughing on the other side of their face (laughter). Today I will once more be a prophet. If the international Jewish financiers, inside and outside Europe, succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevisation of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!'

Soviet Union

• 1928 Stalin consolidates control of communist parrty.

• Five year Plans

-collectivize farms, invest in heavy industry, Great Terror (millions killed during 1930’s)

Can you say totalitarianism?

1935

A. Causes of WWII in Europe

Fundamental Causes• Treaty of Versailles• The Great Depression• Rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Party• Failure of League of Nations• Ultranationalism• Unwillingness of democratic governments to

intervene

B. Pre-WWII TIMELINE

-1936 - 39 Appeasement Policy

-March ‘36 Hitler occupies Rhineland

-’36-’39 Spanish Civil War (Test run of Blitzkreig)

-March’38 Annexation of Austria

-October ‘38 Sudetenland exchanged for peace

-March ‘39 Invasion of Czechoslovakia

August 23rd, 1939 Germany and Soviet Union sign Non-Aggression Pact(Ribbentrop Pact)

C. Timeline of WWII

Events of 1939

1 September Hitler invades Poland

3 September France and Britain Declare War

10 September Canada Declares War-P.M. King promises no conscription

October 1939 - April 1940 Phony war (despite Poland &Czechoslovakia)

Events of 1940

May -German 'Blitzkrieg' -Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Britain- British Expeditionary Force evacuated from Dunkirk (MAP)-France falls

Canada now Britain’s greatest Ally, can you tell me why?

-The Blitz British victory in Battle of Britain

Events of 1941

June -Operation Barbarossa lebensraum, destroy communism

So much for the Non-Aggression Pact…

Battle of the Atlantic

• Longest campaign of WWII; control of shipping lanes between North America & Britain

• By 1941 U-boat wolfpacks sinking Allied ships faster than they could be built (21 ships sunk in St. Lawrence river)

• By 1943 Allies winning battle• Arguably Canada’s most decisive contribution to war

– Convoys guarded by RCAF & Royal Canadian Navy (Corvettes, Sonar)

– Navy 13 ships & 3 000 soldiers to 270 & 100 000), Merchant Marines

. Events of 19448. Events of 19459. 1944▪Allies land at Anzio and bomb monastery at Monte Cassino.▪Soviet offensive gathers pace in Eastern Europe.▪D Day: The Allied invasion of France. Paris is liberated in August.▪Guam liberated by the US Okinawa, and Iwo Jima bombed.1945▪Auschwitz liberated by Soviet troops.▪Russians reach Berlin: Hitler commits suicide and Germany surrenders on 7 May.▪Truman becomes President of the US on Roosevelt's death, and Attlee replaces Churchill.▪After atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrenders on 14 August.

Events of 19415 (cont’d)

Dec. -Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, US enters the war-Canada defeated at Hong Kong

Events of 1942

-Germany suffers setbacks at Stalingrad and El Alamein

- genocide begins at Auschwitz x2 (Final Solution Timeline)June - Battle of Midway, turning point in Pacific WarAug. -DIEPPE

-900 dead, 1000 wounded, 1900 POW’s-greatest single day loss for Canada of WWII

Events of 1943

-Stalingrad, decisive turning point of Eastern Front -Allied victory in North Africa -Italy invaded (Canada very involved), ‘44 Northern

Italy falls

Events of 1944

-Soviet offensive gathers pace in Eastern Europe -D Day, Operation Overlord, Juno Beach

Spring -U.S.A. island hopping to Okinawa Aug. -Paris liberated

Events of 1945

May 5 -Canadians liberate Holland -Auschwitz liberated by Soviets-Soviets 1st tp Berlin, Hitler commits suicide

May 7 -Germany surrenders, V-E DayAug. 14 -Japan surrenders V-J Day after atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima (78 000 dead) and Nagasaki

(35 000 dead)

Events of 1945 Wartime Conferences, 1946 Nuremburg Trials

D. THE CANADIAN HOMEFRONT

"Here in the galleys life was joyous, with the girls singing, amazingly agreeable under their hanging pots and sieves.

"— Pegi Nicol MacLeod, 1944

A. The Role of Women 1. Overseas

• 1941 1st time in history official women’s branches of the CDN army

-by war’s end 46 000 CDN women served overseas: cooks, mechanics, welders, radar operators, pilots (Ferry Command), coastal defences

-SOE (Special Operations Executive); secret agents in France

A. The Role of Women (cont’d)2. Women on the Homefront

• 1944 Factories operate 12 hours/7 days & 1 000 000 women in workforce

• Hold same jobs as men, but paid less; after war expected to go back into the home

B. Production-total war effort paid for by war bonds, taxes & gold payments from England

C. Propaganda

D. Canadian Training Facilities-British Commonwealth Air Training Plan; by end of war 130 000 air personnel trained-Camp X (sorry top secret, if I told you I’d have to kill you)

E. Conscription‘39 PM King promises, ‘no conscription,’ but by ‘42 plebiscite; Can you guess the result? I’ll take mine strained, not broken.

F. Enemy Aliens

• 100 000 CDNS forced to register

• Anti-Semitism in Canada-‘38 St. Louis went Germany-Cuba-Florida-Canada-907 Jews turned away‘None is too many’

F. Enemy Aliens (cont’d)• Japanese Internment• ‘42 after Pearl Harbour• Japanese Canadians must

decide: deportation or internment camps

• 22 000 chose internment (14 000 born in Canada)

• ‘43 Custodian of Aliens Act• ‘44 leave B.C. or be

deported• ‘88 Compensation; CDN

gov’t pays 21 000/ survivor

G. Technology

• Planes & Tanks• RADAR & SONAR• Rockets & Jet Engines (developed by Germany)• Atomic Bomb (Manhatten Project)

"The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.”

-Einstein

H. Canada After WWII

1. Economic Effects– By ‘45 CDN economy booming, despite war

debt of $10 billion– Manufacturing and industry overtakes

agriculture

H. Canada after WWII (Cont’d)

2. Political Effects-Canada established as Middle Power-CDN Troops recognized for contributions (Dieppe, Hong Kong, Normandy and Liberation of Holland)-social safety net strengthened-minorities’ contributions advance civil rights movement in Canada

H. Canada after WWII (Cont’d)

3. Social Effects-women achieve greater recognition-Canada becomes a more tolerant nation as over 500 000 newcomers (many of them refugees) come through Pier 21 in Halifax (including 48 000 War Brides, 22 000 children)-‘Baby Boom’-42 000 dead

"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.” -Einstein

Can you say Cold War? I knew you could.

Blitzkrieg - Lightning War 1. Airforce attacks enemy front-line and rear positions, main

roads, airfields and communication centers.

2. Concentrated tank units breakthrough main lines of defense and advance deeper into enemy territory, while infantry engages enemy to misinformed.

3. Mechanized groups spearhead deeper into the enemy territory outflanking the enemy positions and paralyzing the rear preventing withdrawing troops and defenders from establishing effective defensive positions.

4. Main force links up with other units encircling and cutting off the enemy.

To understand how effective it really is, one must realize that the Blitzkrieg is still used by nearly every army in the world today.