I never heard of the battles of Verdun, Ypres, the Somme, and the two battles that are so well-known to every Canadian, Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele.
Why? Because the United States wasn't a "no-show" in all of those battles. I can only assume that Americans rewrote the history of that war for my personal benefit; though I cannot quite comprehend why it was advantageous to me to embrace lies and to wrap myself in any national flag.
What was the cause of the First World War ? Do you think you know for sure?
If you are absolutely certain you know; please read NO FURTHER than this sentence. Because the causes are still uncertain/controversial/
I thought I knew ... it was the Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. Although I had no idea at all who he was, or why he was killed, I knew that was the spark that started the war. I just didn't know quite why (and I really didn't care, to be honest). It was just one of those complicated European things. Except he was killed in a city called Sarajevo in a place called Yugoslavia (in a region called "Bosnia" ... maybe you've heard of it??). It was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire/Monarchy and the Archduke was the "heir-apparent" to the throne. He was killed by a Serbian nationalist. Blah-blah-blah.
When this Emperor-to-be was killed, the European countries all took sides and started killing each other (again). Same old imperialist bullshit.
And when it was all over? An estimated 10 million combatant deaths and 13 million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, and the resulting genocides, and starvation, and the related 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 17 million deaths worldwide. What the f*ck?
For three years the battle lines remained virtually stationary in France. Each side would push forward, then fall back, then push forward again, then, well ... lather, rinse, repeat.
Ten million were buried on the battlefields; 30 million more were to die of hunger and disease related to the war. And no one since that day has been able to show that the war brought any gain for humanity that would be worth one human life.
But, certainly, for so many people to die, there must have been a VERY good cause, right? Right?
Maybe not ... and that's my point. There was no "good cause" ... like I was taught. It was the US and Canada getting involved in another European war in which they had no business.
The advanced capitalist countries of Europe were fighting over territorial boundaries, colonies, spheres of influence; they were competing for Alsace-Lorraine (created as part of the German Empire in 1871), the Balkans (Bulgaria, Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia), and vast colonies in Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, the Ivory Coast, Sudan, Niger, the Congo). They were fighting for empires in their age-old tradition.
What does that have to do with me? With you? Exactly: nothing.
We were taught a body of falsehoods about that war.
Canada? Entered the war because it was part of the British Commonwealth. No reason at all for Canadians to be there. Ever. But Canada's total casualties stood at the end of the war at 67,000 killed and 173,000 wounded, out of an expeditionary force of 620,000 men. My god, they weren't even fighting for their own homeland, or their families. They sacrificed themselves, and their families, for someone else's grand cause. Fools, all.
Were the French Canadians of Québec right to protest the conscription of their young men to fight another British war for empire? Hell yes, they were right. And the world would be a better place if more people had the courage to make the same choice.
