Military | The Canadian Encyclopedia

Browse "Military"

Displaying 466-480 of 545 results

  • Article

    Second World War (WWII)

    The Second World War was a defining event in Canadian history, transforming a quiet country on the fringes of global affairs into a critical player in the 20th century's most important struggle. Canada carried out a vital role in the Battle of the Atlantic and the air war over Germany and contributed forces to the campaigns of western Europe beyond what might be expected of a small nation of then only 11 million people. Between 1939 and 1945 more than one million Canadian men and women served full-time in the armed services. More than 43,000 were killed. Despite the bloodshed, the war against Germany and the Axis powers reinvigorated Canada's industrial base, elevated the role of women in the economy, paved the way for Canada's membership in NATO, and left Canadians with a legacy of proud service and sacrifice embodied in names such as Dieppe, Hong Kong, Ortona and Juno Beach. (This is the full-length entry about the Second World War. For a plain-language summary, please see Second World War (Plain-Language Summary).)

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/e06cd521-88ae-4f9d-8950-02a0c45141f9.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/e06cd521-88ae-4f9d-8950-02a0c45141f9.jpg Second World War (WWII)

  • Article

    Battle of Seven Oaks

    The Battle of Seven Oaks, or the Victory of the Frog Plain (la Victoire de la Grenouillère), took place 19 June 1816. The battle was a culmination of the Pemmican Wars and the escalating fur trade disputes between the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) and the North West Company (NWC). Pemmican was the food supply that the fur traders depended on to carry out operations. On the day of the battle, a party of about 60 Métis and First Nations men, led by Cuthbert Grant, was heading west of the Forks to deliver pemmican to the NWC canoe brigades on Lake Winnipeg. They were confronted at Seven Oaks by HBC Governor Robert Semple and 28 men (mostly HBC officers and employees). The gunfire and hand-to-hand combat that resulted left Semple and 20 of the HBC party dead. On the Métis side, 16-year-old Joseph Letendre died, and Joseph Trottier was wounded.

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/50a4274a-0c2a-44b4-8d4c-f2246db64e4a.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/50a4274a-0c2a-44b4-8d4c-f2246db64e4a.jpg Battle of Seven Oaks

  • Article

    Seven Years' War

    The Seven Years' War (1756–63) was the first global war, fought in Europe, India, America, and at sea. In North America, imperial rivals Britain and France struggled for supremacy. In the United States, the conflict is known as the French and Indian War. Early in the war, the French (aided by Canadian militia and Indigenous allies) defeated several British attacks and captured a number of British forts. In 1758, the tide turned when the British captured Louisbourg, followed by Quebec City in 1759 and Montreal in 1760. With the Treaty of Paris of 1763, France formally ceded Canada to the British. The Seven Years’ War therefore laid the bicultural foundations of modern Canada. This is the full-length entry about the Seven Years’ War. For a plain-language summary, please see Seven Years’ War (Plain-Language Summary).

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/JamesWolfe/Benjamin_West_DeathofGeneralWolfe.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/JamesWolfe/Benjamin_West_DeathofGeneralWolfe.jpg Seven Years' War

  • Article

    Shattered

    Eric Walters’s young adult novel Shattered (2006) tells the story of Ian Blackburn. He is shaken out of his privileged life when he meets Jack, a homeless veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces. A member of the failed United Nations peacekeeping mission to Rwanda, Jack introduces Ian to some of humanity’s darkest moments. Shattered received the 2007 Ontario Library Association’s White Pine Award for best Canadian children’s book and the 2007 National Chapter of Canada International Order of the Daughters of Empire Violet Downey Book Award.

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/home-page-images/Peacekeepers-in-Rwanda.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/home-page-images/Peacekeepers-in-Rwanda.jpg Shattered

  • Article

    Ships of the War of 1812

    The war on the water was an essential, if not the most important, aspect of the WAR OF 1812. Great Britain was obviously at a disadvantage geographically when trying to defend its colony Canada in a conflict with the United States.

    "https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/images/tce_placeholder.jpg?v=e9dca980c9bdb3aa11e832e7ea94f5d9" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/images/tce_placeholder.jpg?v=e9dca980c9bdb3aa11e832e7ea94f5d9 Ships of the War of 1812

  • Article

    Siege of Fort Erie, War of 1812

    The siege of Fort Erie was a British blockade of their own fort located at the entrance to the Niagara River opposite Buffalo, New York, which the Americans had captured on 3 July 1814.

    "https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/images/tce_placeholder.jpg?v=e9dca980c9bdb3aa11e832e7ea94f5d9" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/images/tce_placeholder.jpg?v=e9dca980c9bdb3aa11e832e7ea94f5d9 Siege of Fort Erie, War of 1812

  • Article

    Sinking of HMHS Llandovery Castle

    On the evening of 27 June 1918, while sailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Liverpool, England, the Canadian hospital ship Llandovery Castle was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat (U-86). Of the 258 crew and passengers, only 24 survived. Almost all the Canadian Army Medical Corps personnel were killed: six male officers, 64 enlisted men and 14 nursing sisters. Only one lifeboat escaped; the rest were either sucked under as the ship sank or attacked by the U-boat. The submarine’s officers were later charged with committing a war crime. 

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/ASW/VictoryBondsPosterLlandoveryCastle1918.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/ASW/VictoryBondsPosterLlandoveryCastle1918.jpg Sinking of HMHS Llandovery Castle

  • Article

    Sinking of the SS Caribou

    The SS Caribou was a passenger and train ferry that operated in the Cabot Strait between Port aux Basques, Newfoundland and North Sydney, Nova Scotia. On 14 October 1942, the German submarine U-69 sank the vessel, causing the worst loss of life in Canadian waters during the Second World War.

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/new_article_images/Caribou/ss-caribou-1920-1940.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/new_article_images/Caribou/ss-caribou-1920-1940.jpg Sinking of the SS Caribou

  • Article

    Sixty Years On, Korean War Still Echoes

    When is a war not a war? For the Korean War, the answer is not always clear. This year, 2013, marks the 60th anniversary of the ceasefire of a war that not everyone describes that way. It had ambiguous beginnings, more than 20 participating countries, and still no formal end. But some things are evident. This year, Historica Canada is commemorating this sometimes-forgotten but still-resonant period of our recent history, and Canada’s role therein. Our country sent more than 26,000 members of our military to the Korean “theatre.” More than 500 Canadians died, and another 1,000 were wounded; 32 became prisoners of war.

    "https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/images/tce_placeholder.jpg?v=e9dca980c9bdb3aa11e832e7ea94f5d9" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/images/tce_placeholder.jpg?v=e9dca980c9bdb3aa11e832e7ea94f5d9 Sixty Years On, Korean War Still Echoes

  • Article

    Snowbirds

    The Canadian Forces Snowbirds are a military aerobatics team. They are officially known as "431 Air Demonstration Squadron." Since 1971, the team has performed across North America before millions of people. The Snowbirds have been recognized as among the best in the world at precision formation aerobatics and stunning solo crosses with minimum separation between the aircraft.

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/3d26459f-4f24-4f5c-a33b-b6d9ac0f4515.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/3d26459f-4f24-4f5c-a33b-b6d9ac0f4515.jpg Snowbirds

  • Article

    Somalia Affair

    In 1992–93, Canada contributed military forces to UNITAF, a United Nations–backed humanitarian mission in the African nation of Somalia. In 1993, Canadian soldiers from the now-defunct Airborne Regiment tortured and killed a Somali teenager named Shidane Arone. These and other violent abuses during the mission shocked Canadians and damaged the country’s international reputation. They also led to a public inquiry that revealed serious failures of leadership at the highest levels of the Canadian Armed Forces, kick-starting reforms aimed a professionalizing the officer corps. This article contains sensitive material that may not be suitable for all audiences.

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/new_article_images/e002280232.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/new_article_images/e002280232.jpg Somalia Affair

  • Macleans

    Somalia Affair: Chronology

    This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on April 15, 1996. Partner content is not updated. What began as a humanitarian mission quickly unravelled into one of the darkest chapters in Canadian military history (see Somalia Affair).

    "https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/images/tce_placeholder.jpg?v=e9dca980c9bdb3aa11e832e7ea94f5d9" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/images/tce_placeholder.jpg?v=e9dca980c9bdb3aa11e832e7ea94f5d9 Somalia Affair: Chronology

  • Macleans

    Somalia Inquiry's Damning Report

    This article was originally published in Maclean’s magazine on July 14, 1997. Partner content is not updated. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. If only Prime Minister Brian Mulroney had not jumped at U.S. President George Bush’s request to send Canadian troops to Somalia in 1992.

    "https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/images/tce_placeholder.jpg?v=e9dca980c9bdb3aa11e832e7ea94f5d9" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/images/tce_placeholder.jpg?v=e9dca980c9bdb3aa11e832e7ea94f5d9 Somalia Inquiry's Damning Report

  • Article

    Spanish-American War

    Spanish-American War, the 1898 conflict between the US and Spain, during which the US removed Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines from Spain, annexing the last 3.

    "https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/images/tce_placeholder.jpg?v=e9dca980c9bdb3aa11e832e7ea94f5d9" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/images/tce_placeholder.jpg?v=e9dca980c9bdb3aa11e832e7ea94f5d9 Spanish-American War

  • Article

    St Albans Raid

    In the third year of the American Civil War, around 20 Confederate agents raided the town of St. Albans, Vermont. The raid was planned by Confederate spymasters based in St. Catharines and Montreal. On 19 October 1864, the men robbed the town’s three banks and killed a man, before crossing the border into Canada. Fourteen of the raiders were soon arrested. They were brought to trial three times and released each time by Canadian judges. The raid and court decisions worsened relations between Canada and the US, which were already strained.

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/Capt-Young.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/Capt-Young.jpg St Albans Raid