Monday 25 February 2013

Conscription Crisis

The Conscription crisis was the the mandatory military service which made all men over 18 join the Canadian army. Everyone was outraged about Prime Minister Borden's choice to put in the overseas conscription  because he had promised that there would not be one. Borden knew the conscription was divisive and passed the military services act making conscription the law. The conscription caused the Canadian Expeditionary forces to expand and also caused the Canadians to be divided into the French Canadians and English Canadians. Everyone was concerned that the CEF was going to disband, forcing all of the canadians to fight for or in another allied forces' unit. Many of the families were not willing to sacrifice another man but also fewer men were willing to volunteer for certain death overseas and because of this it lead to the need to replace battlefield losses. Men that had been overseas were being told to go back across but they believed that they had already done their duty. This causes people to question the real value in war because they thought that the leaders did not value the soldiers lives and they were concerned about profiteering. These are just some of the ways people were effected by the conscription crisis in World War 1.

3 comments:

  1. I agree that Canada was divided when Borden put in affect an oversea conscription. I also see why it was necessary to have it in place to win the war because the number of volunteers were declining.I think it was justified what Borden did.

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  2. Cole, you are right that conscription caused a larger rift between French and English Canadians. Remember that many people--a good portion of English Canadians--actually supported overseas conscription. How did this impact Canada? Do you think conscription was justified?

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  3. Nice blog Cole, how do you feel about mandatory conscription during this time?

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