On August 4, 1914 Canada entered a war in which it was to suffer greatly in loss of life, distrust in the Canadian government due to their internment and conscription - From the war, Canada was to gain very little.

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       On August 4, 1914 Canada entered a war in which it was to suffer greatly in loss of life, distrust

in the Canadian government due to their internment and conscription. From the war, Canada was to

gain very little.

       This war was essentially a European war, not only because most of the conflict occurred in

Europe but also because it was primarily the result of a long struggle for supremacy among the

European nations. France, Germany and Britain had been expanding their empires, particularly in Africa

and they would frequently come into conflict (for example when Germany helped the Moroccans resist

French occupation in 1905). These conflicts often threatened to escalate into full scale war including all

the European due to the alliances these countries had. The two major alliances were the called the Triple

Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy) and the Triple Entente (France, Russia and Britain).

Eventually, the assassination of the Austria-Hungarian Arch-Duke Ferdinand by Serb revolutionaries

initiated the first declaration of war by Austria-Hungary against Serbia on 28th July, 1914. Thus Russia,

Germany, and France took part. And because the Germans went through neutral Belgium the British

had to protect the Belgians, according to the treaty of 1839. This dragged the global British Empire into

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a European conflict of such magnitude and horror that it was to become known as “the war to end all

wars”.

       Other than the virtue of publicly honoring its membership in the British Empire, Canada had no

reason to enter, and nothing to gain from its involvement in this European war. The United States kept

out of the conflict until the year before the war ended, and it entered only because of the direct threat of

Germany’s appeal to Mexico to declare war on the US. There was no threat to North America ...

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