Lest We Forget

The impact of WWI on the 20th Century.

It was birth of modern capitalism and imperialism and the death of fin de sicle 19th century. As Hobsbawm wrote the modern 20th century begins with WWI and ends with the downfall of the Soviet Union in 1989.

This was an Imperialist War. It had no purpose other than as an internecine conflict to reshape the world for the European Imperial powers. As a result it ended the age of Empires, the old colonial powers in Europe, the Ottoman Empire, all met their inglorious end with WWI.

WWI was the violent cesarian birth of modern capitalism. It aided in the rapid development of Fordist production in the United States. As result Amercia surpassed England to become the future capitalist empire replacing the old Empires of Europe.

It wiped out an entire generation, the lost generation of Fitzgerald.

As a result of this war radical movements in art formed in Europe such as Dada, Futurism, Surrealism and the whole modernist movement in Art.

The war spirit the warrior culture of WWI would create the conditions for fascism begining with the Futurist movement in art. Mussolini and Hitler both embraced the warrior kulturekampf of futurism.

It would shrink the world with the development of a mass diaspora from Europe to America resulting in the creation of Hollywood, mass media, travel literature, mass advertsing (based on the propaganda efforts used in WWI). See Gothic Capitalism Redux

The world had never experienced a world war before, and thus the creation of the global village and the preconditions for 21st Century globalization were laid out in the creation of a new politics of international relations, the League of Nations and Wilsonian inspired Nationalist movements.

That without this war there would have been no Russian Revolution. As a result of poor working conditions, war profitering and lack of veterans pensions and support WWI created the revolutionary conditions for the mass General Strikes world wide during 1919.Several of these created revolutionary situations of workers power, soviets, in Europe specifically in Russai,Italy and Germany.

The psychic devistation, as much as its physical destruction, of WWI resulted in an Occult Revival in Europe and North America, like the workers movement, this had as much to do with searching for a better world, a better future, one without war.

As result of WWI new utopian socialist movements and populist reform/revolts spread through-out Europe and North America. Including in Western Canada Social Credit, and the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, etc. Many of these movements looked towards new distributive models of sharing the wealth. Some like the IWW, Anarcho-Syndicalism and Technocracy advocated an new form of production and distribution models under workers control.

As result of WWI there was the contradiction that some of the utopian movements in art, politics, science, religion, philosophy, economics would be socialist and some would be fascist.

It resovled nothing in Europe, leading to the rise of fascism in Germany due to the economic oppression of the allies demands on the defeated nation.

WWI created the conditions for future of anti-semitism through the creation of the protocols of the Elders of Zion and the Zionist nationalist movement.

That WWI created the modern middle east. The area was divided up by the Imperialist nations, creating modern Iraq, Syria etc. This was a direct result of the discovery of oil which became the life blood of the new Fordist capitalism.

As the result of the post WWI colonization of the Middle East by the declining Imperial powers, modernist culture responded with a fascination for orientalism.

As a result of the technological advances in chemistry, etc. we moved from organic biological pharmacy to new plastic based chemistry and mass production. This was a result of the use of gas warfare. As a result it led to new advances in medicine including the need for mass public medicine as a result of the tragedy in the trenches and the Post War influenza epidemic.

New weapons of war and technology; tanks, motorcycles, planes, heavy ships, submarines,the machine gun, radar, sonar, TV, etc. were introduced during and directly as a result of WWI. The space program began as a result of rocket experimentation arising from the war.

As result of WWI the second wave of modern Feminism began lobbying for womens sufferage, birth control, sex education, the flapper became popular, women smoked cigarettes to show their liberation in popular culture.

It created the Jazz age, the short boom between 1920-1929. This included the rise of Afro-American culture in the US jazz music, blues, modern dance, etc. And its popularity in Europe especially France.

That it created an exile community of Americans abroad, writers, painters, thinkers, publishers, artists, etc. Paris became the home of a generational diaspora of Americans.

Finally it created the Canadian identity as a Nation State with our involvement in the War. A History of Canadian Wealth, 1914.


Rememberance Day Special here are articles I have done related to WWI:

Royal Newfoundlanders Died For the Seal Hunt

Draft Dodgers in Dukhbour Country

Stanway's Sombre Reflection on Somme

WWI Xmas Mutiny

Christmas in the Trenches

The Vimy Myth

Canada's First Internment Camps

Canada’s Long History of Criminalizing Dissent

Rebel Yell

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
WWI, Nov11, Lestweforget, Rememberance-day, Remeberance, war, veterans, history, modernism, feminsm, veterans-day, 20thCentury,

The WWI propaganda mosque: A new exhibit showcases a Muslim POW camp

A new online exhibit from the National WWI Museum and Memorial presents the overlooked story of the Halbmondlager, a WWI Muslim prisoner of war camp.

Halbmondlager, or “Half Moon Camp,” a Muslim prisoner of war camp located in Wünsdorf, Germany, with mosque at right and prisoners drilled in military exercises in front. From the book, "In the Prison Camps of Germany" by Conrad Hoffman, 1920. (Print, Photograph from book. 1920. Open Library.)

January 27, 2023

By 

Kathryn Post

(RNS) — In 1915, Germany’s first mosque was constructed from wood in a WWI Muslim prisoner of war camp. Likely built by the prisoners themselves, the mosque was a mishmash of Islamic architecture, with its dome, façade and minaret each representing different regions of the Islamic world.

The patchwork approach wasn’t accidental. It embodied a German/Ottoman propaganda campaign that sought to “woo” Muslim prisoners from around the globe to overthrow the Russian, French and British empires. Though the mosque and its story are unfamiliar to many students of the first World War, Patricia Cecil, specialist curator of faith, religion and WWI at the National WWI Museum and Memorial, argues that they are a testament to the war’s scale and impact. 

“We conceive of it as this very European war. But it wasn’t. It was a global war,” Cecil told Religion News Service. “And this camp is evidence of that, and the photographs we have are evidence of that.”

Photograph of North African French colonial prisoners of war at Halbmondlager, “Half Moon Camp,” in Wünsdorf, Germany, in 1915. (Print, Photograph from periodical “Der Grosse Krieg in Bildern,” No. 4. 1915. Germany. 2007.68.4. National WWI Museum and Memorial.)

A new online exhibit launched Thursday (Jan. 26) by the National WWI Museum and Memorial presents the overlooked story of the Halbmondlager, or “Half Moon Camp,” a Muslim prisoner of war camp located in Wünsdorf, Germany. Featuring propaganda newspapers, photographs of the prisoners and audio clips of them playing instruments and reading poems, the “Fighting with Faith” exhibit captures a moment in history whose reverberations are still felt throughout the modern world.

At the camp, prisoners from as far away as West Africa and South and Central Asia were provided with halal foods, permitted to worship, allowed to observe religious rituals and holidays and visited by lecturers and foreign dignitaries who urged global Islamic solidarity. They were also given extra rations and larger sanitary facilities than prisoners at other German camps and were provided with extra leisure time for activities like attending concerts and playing cards. But though these perks might have appeared generous, Germany and the Ottoman Empire had ulterior motives, according to Cecil.

Illustration of the mosque at Halbmondlager, “Half Moon Camp.”
(Illustration from Die Kriegsgefangenen in Deutschland, Siegen, 1915. Germany.)

“From the outset, using religion as a tool of propaganda was the goal,” said Cecil. “They wanted to have the benefit of millions of Muslim soldiers. If you can get all these people currently under the rule of the British, French and Russian empires, and can get them to side with a religious ideology that also aligns with your military ideology, you have a recipe for revolution across the world.”

The exhibit explains that in 1914, German actors and Ottoman leaders influenced the sultan of the Ottoman Empire — who was also caliph, or head of the worldwide Islamic community — to declare a jihad, framing the war against the allied powers as a sacred obligation for all Muslims. By giving Muslim prisoners special treatment at the camp, Germany and the Ottoman Empire hoped to entice prisoners to join the politically motivated jihad.

The ploy, by most measures, failed, said Cecil. Those who did opt in to the Ottoman military were mistreated and often ended up deserting — letters show that some wrote back to the camp to warn about being abused by Ottoman officers. But more significantly, the prisoners were largely unconvinced by the German and Ottoman tactics.

“Their own national ties, ethnic ties and understanding of Islam and what it teaches about jihad were stronger than propaganda,” said Cecil. “This failed because Germany and the Ottoman Empire couldn’t get this group of Muslim prisoners of war to align with what their idea of jihad is.”

“Fighting with Faith” online exhibit logo. Image courtesy National WWI Museum and Memorial

---

RELATED: Black museum religion exhibit features Little Richard’s Bible, Rev. Ike’s suit

---

But though the propaganda campaign itself was a failure, it left its mark. “This alliance, this propaganda campaign, and this camp, if we want to drill it down, is the birth of the Western notion of jihad for the 20th and now the 21st century,” Cecil told RNS. Jihad has several meanings, including an internal struggle to honor the divine or external struggle against the enemies of Islam. But Cecil argues that this was the first time jihad was linked to a geopolitical military ideal: to overthrow the British, French and Russian empires.

Photograph of a Saphi prisoner of war at Halbmondlager in 1915. (Print, Photograph from periodical “Der Grosse Krieg in Bildern,” No. 4. 1915. Germany. 2007.68.4. National WWI Museum and Memorial.)

Cecil added that the failed campaign also had lasting effects on the Middle East. Prompted by the perceived threat of a holy war, Great Britain diverted soldiers and resources to the Middle East and deepened its involvement in the region both during and after the war. The propaganda campaign also led to the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the exhibit argues, which fractured and redrew the Middle East, laying the groundwork for discord in the region for decades to come.

“The whole 20th century is affected by World War I,” Leila Fawaz, chair of Lebanese and Eastern Mediterranean studies at Tufts University, told RNS. “The fact that this museum took the challenge to study this incredible subject, which much more experienced experts on the region have never gone near, is extraordinary.”

Fawaz, who previewed the exhibit, appreciated the museum’s attention to the prisoners, rather than just to global actors.

“I’ve always liked the story of the little people, not the powerful people. It’s really easy to write about the great powers … but it’s the common people that I’m interested in.”

The exhibit, which will be online indefinitely, complements an onsite exhibit on WWI prisoners of war at the museum in Kansas City, Missouri. “Fighting with Faith” is free online and is funded by the Lilly Endowment, which is also a key supporter of Religion News Service.

---

FROM THE ARCHIVES: How the Great War gave us the US Conference of Catholic Bishops

Gallipoli And Vimy

While we had Vimy Celebrations this weekend coinciding with Easter, and ending today, the Australians and New Zealanders will celebrate the WWI battle of Gallipoli with Anzac Day at the end of the month.

A disaster on the scale of the battle of the Somme in WWI and Dunkirk and Dieppe.in WWII. As 'colonial' nations under the tutelage and control of the British Imperialists farmers and workers became cannon fodder in their Great War with Germany.

Tactically speaking, the plan is for British artillery to pound the Turkish position until precisely 4:30 when the ANZAC forces would attack from their trenches. In what may be an indicative blunder that no one in the military would care to admit to, the respective commanders fail to synchronize their watches. The ANZAC commander, Major Barton, realizes that the bombardment has inexplicably ceased seven minutes too soon. The Turks have had time to return to their trenches. Amazingly, the English Colonel Robinson (John Morris) orders the attack to go forward.

In what seems a counterintuitive tactic, the soldiers are ordered to empty their rifles of all ammunition and charge with "bayonets only." The first wave is cut down by heavy machine gun fire. Most of the men don’t make it but a few yards. A second wave meets an identical fate.

However for Canada, Australia and New Zealand , it was our recognition of the need for transparent autonomous military operations, that created our national identity on the battlefields of Gallipoli and Vimy.

How Hill 145 and Vimy changed everything

It was then that things changed. Instead of headquarters officers planning the operation in secrecy and isolation they did something unique. They planned the assault and then included every soldier in the plan. Maps, details and objectives were made a part of the daily training for six weeks. Model layouts of the ridge and Hill 145 were studied, not just by commanders, but by every soldier. Exercises were run in the weeks before the assault on a field laid out to simulate Hill 145 and the ridge. Units learned terrain, timing and cover. Where, up to that time, the taking of a position had been the objective of a platoon commander; it was now the objective of the whole platoon, and every soldier in that platoon knew the objective, the plan to take it and what adjacent units were doing.

The battles at Vimy and Gallipoli mark our true day of 'national' independence which would lead to real independence later from the British Empire. It is the military which creates the modern Canadian/Australian/New Zealand state's of the 20th Century from the rubble of the British Commonwealth.

Our countries national identities were formed because we fought Britain's wars, and in doing so we were blooded, and survived to challenge their ability and authority over 'our' state. Our view of ourselves as Canadians, Australians, or New Zealanders, as citizens of a nation was created in the trenches of France. Such was not the case for the State which would not come until after the Charter of Westminster and WWII. And indeed in Canada's case not until we had our own Charter in 1982.

"April 25, 1915, is a date etched in Australia's history. To many this is Australia's most important national day. Commemorative services are held at dawn, the time of the original landing."

“New Zealand’s experience at Gallipoli fostered an emerging national identity, and it’s important we create an environment that allows those traveling to Gallipoli to respectfully connect with their past and understand the massive sacrifice made by their forbearers,” said Rick Barker.

"Every nation has a creation story to tell; the First World War and the Battle of Vimy Ridge are central to the story of our country," Prime Minister Stephen Harper told those gathered, including Canadian veterans and high school students.

And it is a central event in Turkey's modern nationhood. Showing that nationalism in the 20th Century was the result of the fragmentation and destruction of the old Imperialist polities of the 19th Century.

Even though they were in the opposing ends of the battlefield, the Battle of Gallipoli left huge marks in the psyches of both Australia and New Zealand on the one side, and Turkey on the other. Even to this day, ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day is celebrated in both those countries, and it is considered that the battle marked the birth of the collective national identities of both those nations, replacing that of the collective identity of the British Empire. In Turkey, the battle is seen as one of the finest and bravest moments in the history of the Turkish people - a final surge in the defense of the motherland as the centuries-old Ottoman Empire was crumbling; which laid the grounds for the Turkish War of Independence and the foundation of the new Turkish Republic eight years later, led by Atatürk, a commander in Gallipoli himself.

See:

The Working Class Dies For Harper

Royal Newfoundlanders Died For the Seal Hunt

Draft Dodgers in Dukhbour Country

Stanway's Sombre Reflection on Somme

WWI Xmas Mutiny

Christmas in the Trenches

The Vimy Myth

The Best Laid Plans

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
WWI, ANZAC, Lest we forget, Rememberance-day, Rememberance, war, veterans, history, modernism, veterans-day, 20thCentury, Vimy Ridge, Australia, New Zealand, WWI, Gallipoli, Canada, War, military,
WWI, Somme, Battles, Newfoundland, Royal-Newfoundland-Regiment, War, History, France
Somme, Newfoundland, WWI, Stanway, EdmontonSun, Canada,
military, military-engineers, Royal-Canadian-Engineers, WWII, WWI, sappers

Remembrance Day O7

Here is an archive of my war posts for Remembrance Day.
Lest We Forget War is the health of the State.

WWI

Gallipoli And Vimy

Stanway's Sombre Reflection on Somme

WWI Xmas Mutiny

Christmas in the Trenches

Merry Christmas, Red Baron

The Vimy Myth

The Best Laid Plans

Royal Newfoundlanders Died For the Seal Hunt

Canada's First Internment Camps

Eugene Debs


Spanish Civil War

Casablanca R Rated

Christy Moore - Viva La Quince Brigada

Kenney is A Funny Guy

The Spanish Revolution & Civil War 1936-1939



WWII

The Horror of Glorifying Bomber Command

Vonnegut, Dresden and Canada

Not MacArthurs Republican Party

The Good Germans


Afghanistan

Mr. Dithers Accidental War

Harpers War Costs Another Canadian Life

The Working Class Dies For Harper

Harper War Monger

Hidden Costs of Harpers War

Never Again, War

Remembrance or Revisionism

Lest We Forget

White Poppies

White Poppy Debate

Draft Dodgers in Dukhbour Country

Support Our PeaceMakers

Rich Man's War

War and the Market State

Humanitarian War

Kenneth Patchen

SOME REMARKS ON WAR SPIRIT

War Resisters Welcome Here

Military Industrial Complex

Celebrate Mothers Day For Peace

Year of the Pig

Job Protection for Canadian Reservists

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Canada, Taliban, Harper, Bush, Afghanistan, NDP, liberals, Afghanistan, Canada, bringthetroopshome, Layton, TroopsOut, Afghanistan, War, Harper, Conservatives, Liberals, Canada, politics, military, NATO, peacekeeping, Karzai, Government, Politics,
WWI, Nov11, Lestweforget, Rememberance-day, war, veterans, history, veterans-day, 20thCentury, Canada, Edmonton, Alberta, Legion, Poppies, Whitepoppies, Red, Poppies, peace, war
WWI, Somme, Battles, Newfoundland, Royal-Newfoundland-Regiment, War, History, France,
Fascism, Vietnam, War, WWI, WWII, SpanishCivilWar, International-Brigades, Rememberance, Rememberance-Day, poppies, Veterans, BoerWar, Canada, warmonger, Bourne, Anti-War, just-war, MacPaps, Conservatives, Harper, NDP,
Legend o f Mons, Arthur Curry, Canada, France, Gernmany, Britain, trenches, trench warfare, biplane, Fokker, Royal Guardsmen, shellshock, post-traumauticsyndrome, amnesty, Christmas 1914, WWI, Deserters, RedBaron, Snoopy, Arthur Machen, peace, 1918,
air warfare, David Bercuson, fire bombing, WWII, Canadian War Museum, Bomber Command,
Bomber Harris, bombing, Canadian Legion, Dresden, WWII Veterans,
mother, Kathe Kollowitz, Mothers Day, Anit-War, Peace, Mothers

WWI Xmas Mutiny

It was Christmas Eve 1914 and the soldiers in the trenches, Brits, Canadians, Germans and French, muddy, covered in blood and guts, coughing up bloodied mucus of poison gas, called a truce in the War. A truce that remains a mutiny on the books of the ruling clases and their military to this day.

A new film has been made of this famous mutiny for and it will be shown to British Troops in Iraq.

Now if they sneak in the Americans to watch this that just might be the inspiration for the American all volunteer working class army to down arms and end this war.

So subersive is the legend of the Christmas Truce of 1914 that the French still refuse to allow their soldiers to see this film and refused to be part of the production effort.

Brit troops to see 1914 Xmas 'anti-war' film
During the ceasefire, German, British and French troops stopped shooting, got out of their trenches and shared cocoa and cigarettes. They sang hymns together and returned to fighting a few days later.The French army refused to participate in the making of the film, saying soldiers who participated in the Christmas truce were disobeying orders. German troops have already taken in the movie, but it will not be presented to French soldiers. The ceasefire was seen as treason by superiors on both sides.

It was of course this famous truce that gave rise to the 1960's comic Christmas song Snoopy's Christmas by the Royal Guardsmen Listen to it here.

And it was the inspiration for Dalton Trumbos classic Anti-War novel, Johnny Got His Gun.

During the summer of 1914 in a crucial battle in Mons Belgium British troops claimed to have seen St. George and a group of Longbowmen in the skies, which they claimed to have turned the battle in their favour.

This is known as the Legend of Mons, and occult horror author Arthur Machen claimed at the time that it was based on his short story called the Bowman which had been published in the popular press of the day. However historian A.J.P Taylor believed the story and recorded it in his history of WWI.

The fact that the tale and trench rumours of Angels of Mons appeared the summer before may have had a subconcious effect on the soldiers in the trenches facing the first industrialized war of mass murder.

Such was the horror of WWI and the introduction of mechanized death, mass slaughter by machine gun, huge mortars and giant Big Bertha guns that deafened you, poison gas, tanks, trench warfare, etc. the veritable impass of the No Mans Land lead to the need for a moment of humanity, human contact that became the Christmas Truce.

Shell shocked, cold, wet, facing certain death, suffering what was called Battle Fatigue, the first time it was ever recorded in war and we know now as Post Traumatic Syndrome, soldiers fled the field not in cowardice but in terror. And the officers on both sides of the trenches shot them mercilessly.

The Officer Corps of all the Armies of WWI were the last vestiges of the Aristocracy while the soldiers in the trenches were the original grunts, and like modern industrial capitalism which the war so effectively modeled itself after, they were expendable cogs in the machine.

Canadians know this well for even our officers like their men were expendable, as colonial troops, in both WWI and WWII. In the case of the later the battle of Dieppe saw the ruthless sacrifice of Canadians on the whim of Lord Mountbatten for his personal ego trip in securing a position of command.

23 Canadians were executed for desertion or cowardice in WWI. 2 were executed for murder (murder in war you ask well...) one after he suffered a head injury went nuts, the other was a case of shooting a superior officer, a Sgt. Major, the guys who were particularly brutal to their men. We would call it fragging today.Thousands more died in the trenches, including almost all the 1st Royal Newfoundland Regiment.

All those boys from the prairies, the cities, from the farms and the factories, from Saskatchewan, Iowa, Sheffield, Paris and Berlin died for the glory of Imperialism and Capitalism. When they came home there were no jobs, a depression, and no Veterans benefits. It was not such a Great War.

Happy Christmas (The War is Over)

There's nothing noble about dying. Not even if you die for honor. Not even if you die the greatest hero the world ever saw. Not even if you're so great your name will never be forgotten and who's that great? The most important thing is your life little guys. You're worth nothing dead except for speeches. Don't let them kid you any more. Pay no attention when they tap you on the shoulder and say come along we've got to fight for liberty or whatever their word is there's always a word.

Just say mister I'm sorry I got no time to die I'm too busy and then turn and run like hell. If they say coward why don't pay any attention because it's your job to live not to die. If they talk about dying for principles that are bigger than life you say mister you're a liar Nothing is bigger than life There's nothing noble in death. What s noble about lying in the ground and rotting. What's noble about never seeing the sunshine again? What's noble about having your legs and arms blown off? What's noble about being an idiot? What's noble about being blind and deaf and dumb? What's noble about being dead. Because when you're dead mister it's all over. It's the end. You're less than a dog less than a rat less than a bee or an ant less than a white maggot crawling around on a dungheap. You're dead mister and you died for nothing.

Imagine

Rememberance or Revisionism

There has been a torrent of blogging on Rememberance Day and its importance this weekend. But unfortunately there is also a mistaken belief that all the wars fought were for Freedom and Peace. Such is not the case.

As I blogged here before WWI was an Imperialist war of aggression, a useless war, one that did not produce peace and freedom.

Our warmongering PM in his speech launching Veterans Week went back so far as to include the Boer War, our first expeditionary war, another example of an Imperialist War.

While it is important to remember and respect our veterans, who believed the State Propaganda of the day that they were fighting just wars, just as todays soldiers believe the State Propaganda about Afghanistan being a just war, this is no excuse to embrace warmongering revisionist history.

War is the health of the State. There are very few just wars.

Now what really gets my goat is when progressive, left wing bloggers also get sucked into saying this stuff. Forgetting their history. Espcially galling is when it is NDP bloggers who say this stuff. As one did in his blog. They forget the CCF/NDP opposed all wars, including WWII. And they opposed forced conscription. Thank goodness for that. As I wrote in reply to this particular Dipper there was only one just war for Freedom;

The Boer War was an Imperialist war of agression by Briatin and Canadians fought in that war. WWI was an Imperialist War. The Korean War was the first hot war of the Cold War. Viet Nam was not a war but a police action which Canadians fought in as volunteers and are now recognized as 'veterans' thoubh we did not decalre war on Viet Nam nor did Canada officially suppport that war.

The only anti-fascist wars that were fought by Canadians were the volunteers who went to Spain to fight in the Spanish Civil War, who were declared illegal combatants by the Canadian State and have never been recognized as veterans, and WWII.

The fight for freedom against fascism was the only just war of all these.

And the current Tory government has opposed recognizing the volunteers who fought in Spain against Fascism as veterans! So not all Veterans in the war for Peace and Freedom were recognized in Canada this weekend.

Even the Vets who did fight in WWII did not get fair treatment from the State.
The Merchant Marines were not recognized for forty years, because they were civilian volunteers. And like returning Vets after WWI those who fought fascism came home to find no State support for them. The Night War Vets Seized the Vancouver Hotel

Not only should we Not Forget but we should also Remember the cry; Never Again War!

See:

White Poppy Debate

White Poppies

WWI Xmas Mutiny

The Working Class Dies For Harper

Not MacArthurs Republican Party

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Fascism, Vietnam, War, WWI, WWII, SpanishCivilWar, International-Brigades, Rememberance, Rememberance-Day, poppies, Veterans, BoerWar, Canada, warmonger, Bourne, Anti-War, just-war, MacPaps, Conservatives, Harper, NDP,
blogs, blogging, bloggers, Dippers, progressive-bloggers, Canadian-blogs,

The Vimy Myth

Today is the 89th Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge during WWI. The battle that changed the war.

Edmonton has Le Academie de Vimy Ridge, a Junior Senior High School set up in partnership with Canada's military for Cadet education. Very nice, lots of military history on the walls of the school.

Vimy Ridge was the hill no-one could take during WWI. Until the Canadians took it using our engineering corp and artillary assault. It cost thousands of lives. But it was a major Canadian victory, and defined our relationship with the paternalistic British command. Unfortunately that relationship, one of being expendable colonial troops like the the Newfoundlanders,Australians and New Zealanders at Gallopoli, didn't really change as we were to find out at Dieppe during WWII.

The myth of Vimy Ridge is that it was Canada's military coming of age.

In reality our coming of age as a country with its own military was during the Boer War, in South Africa. Where we sent our first indpendent contingents of troops, which included the mustering of the Alberta based Lord Strathcona's Horse. Many of those involved were members of the NWMP. Showing that the NWMP/RCMP were not just a national police force but an Imperial Military force.

Canadians who participated in the South African War did so as volunteers in regiments funded by wealthy patrons or the British government.

Before Dawn has an excellent series of posts on the Boer War and Canadian involvement.

This too was an imperialist war, for the heart of Africa. A small irregular army of Dutch settlers and native Zulu fighters were able to defeat the greatest army of the day, it was the begining of the end of the British Empire. During the same period the American Empire was overtaking the British in importance, the Americans had invaded and conquered the Phillipines, Cuba and Puerto Rico during the Spanish American war.

The foundation of the Canadian Expeditionary Force was the creation of a soverign military unit of volunteers during WWI. But it was not the first volunteer army in Canada, that was created during the Boer War.

The CEF took Vimy Ridge and then were involved in the secret British attempt to invade Bolshevik Russia at the end of the war in Operation Archangel.

That assault resulted in the repression the Bolsheviks then unleashed on the left opposition and anarchists in Russia, using the invasion as the basis for claiming they were under attack from White Russians and Imperialists and that all opposition to the Bolsheviks would be considered counter revolutionary. It was on this basis that the Bolsheviks attacked the Worker Sailors Soviet at Kronstadt.
The Allies including the CEF were as responsible for the statist ending of the Russian Revolution, and the solidification of the Bolsheviks in State Power,
as was the signing of the Peace Treaty with Germany.


Also see:

WWI Xmas Mutiny

Christmas in the Trenches

Canada’s Long History of Criminalizing Dissent

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Vimy, Ridge, CEF, WWI, Russia, Boer, War, South, Africa, Canada, Gallopoli, Canada, War, military, historyKronstafdt, Bolsheviks