On June 28, 1914, a 19-year-old Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, in the city of Sarajevo. Thirty-seven days later, a wheat farmer in Saskatchewan, a dockworker in Halifax and a student in Montreal all woke up in a country at war. None of them had any say in the decision, and almost none of them had heard of Sarajevo. How did two pistol shots in the Balkans pull Canada into the deadliest war it had ever fought? Answering that question means separating the deep, long-term causes that made Europe a powder keg from the spark that set it off.
Long-term causes: MAIN
Historians often summarize the long-term causes with the memory aid MAIN: Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism and Nationalism. None of them made war inevitable on its own, but together they meant that a local crisis could quickly involve every great power in Europe, and through their empires, much of the world.
| Cause | What it meant | Example before 1914 |
|---|---|---|
| Militarism | Glorifying military power, building huge armies and navies, and letting generals' war plans shape decisions | The naval race between Britain and Germany after Britain launched HMS Dreadnought (1906); Germany's Schlieffen Plan to defeat France quickly by going through Belgium |
| Alliances | Agreements to defend one another, which could turn a two-country quarrel into a continental war | The Triple Entente (Britain, France, Russia) and the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy); Italy stayed out in 1914 and joined the Allies in 1915 |
| Imperialism | Competition among European powers for colonies, markets and resources around the world | Rivalry over Africa, including two crises over Morocco (1905 and 1911) between Germany and France |
| Nationalism | Intense loyalty to one's nation, and the desire of peoples ruled by empires to have their own states | Serbian and South Slav nationalism inside Austria-Hungary; French anger at losing Alsace-Lorraine to Germany in 1871 |
The spark and the chain reaction
- June 28, 1914: Gavrilo Princip, linked to a Serbian nationalist secret society, assassinates Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo, Bosnia.
- July 28: Austria-Hungary, backed by Germany, declares war on Serbia after Serbia does not accept every demand of its ultimatum.
- July 30: Russia, which saw itself as the protector of Serbia and other Slavic peoples, orders general mobilization of its army.
- August 1 and 3: Germany declares war on Russia, then on Russia's ally France.
- August 4: German troops invade neutral Belgium to reach France under the Schlieffen Plan, and Britain, which had promised to protect Belgian neutrality, declares war on Germany.
Why Canada was at war
In 1914 Canada was a self-governing dominion of the British Empire. It ran its own domestic affairs, but Britain still controlled the Empire's foreign policy. So when Britain declared war on August 4, 1914, Canada was automatically at war, with no vote in Parliament needed. What Canada did control was how much to contribute. Prime Minister Robert Borden's Conservative government offered troops at once, Parliament passed the War Measures Act in August 1914 to give the government sweeping emergency powers, and the opposition Liberal leader, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, called for national unity behind the war effort.
- Strong ties to Britain: many English Canadians were born in Britain or had parents who were, and saw the Empire as their family.
- A sense of duty to defend Belgium and France against German invasion.
- Belief that the war would be short, glorious and "over by Christmas".
- Unemployment was high in 1913–1914, so army pay of about a dollar a day was attractive.
- Some First Nations saw service as honouring their historic alliances with the Crown.
- Many French Canadians felt little loyalty to Britain, though many sympathized with France at first.
- Henri Bourassa, founder of Le Devoir, argued that Canada should defend itself but not be dragged into Britain's imperial wars.
- French-language schooling had just been restricted in Ontario by Regulation 17 (1912), which angered French Canadians.
- Immigrants from Germany and Austria-Hungary suddenly found themselves labelled enemy aliens.
- Pacifists, some farmers and some workers opposed fighting a European war.
Enthusiasm in English Canada was real. Minister of Militia Sam Hughes gathered volunteers at a hastily built camp at Valcartier, Quebec, and on October 3, 1914, the first contingent of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), more than 30,000 soldiers, sailed for Britain. A majority of that first contingent had been born in Britain. Recruitment in French Canada was lower, partly because the army offered few French-speaking units; the main exception was the 22nd Battalion (later the Royal 22e Régiment, the "Van Doos").