INTRODUC T ION

Canada is not a nation of pacifists. It has never been a country that decried war as some unthinkable policy. Yet, for some reason, many Canadians are uncomfortable with the idea that we have been and can be a military people. Some find it surprising that Canada has gone to war many times. Some even find it distasteful that we still commemorate those wars. True, Canada has not participated in war as often as some of our strongest allies, especially our neighbour to the south, yet our history is rife with conflict. Despite that, common misconceptions exist within Canada’s public and academic spheres. One of these is that this nation has no discernible military history to speak of. Another is that our military has had no significant impact on our development as a nation. A third is that our military history is easily defined by only a few key events or ideas from the 20th century — Vimy Ridge, the disasters at Hong Kong and Dieppe, the liberation of the Netherlands, peacekeeping, et cetera. And finally, that our military history is simply not important. The fact is that the record of Canada at war is an account of the country itself, and the social, political, and economic developments throughout our history cannot be easily, comfortably, or accurately separated from the military chronicle of this nation.

The history of conflict in the land that came to be known as Canada is, of course, much older than the nation itself. Before Europeans arrived, large Indigenous confederacies dominated huge tracts of territory coast to coast, competing with one another for trade, resources, and power. When the first Europeans appeared along the east coast, they encountered the powerful Wabanaki Confederacy, which had been formed due to the threat posed by another mighty coalition to its west — the Five Nations Confederacy. After the first Europeans disembarked on the St. Lawrence River, they found themselves in the middle of a desperate conflict as the Indigenous communities along that river attempted to hold back the growing strength of the Five Nations. For much of the 17th century, this confederacy posed the greatest threat to the French presence along the St. Lawrence. The Europeans who arrived in North America were co-opted into these long-standing conflicts, and the technology these newcomers brought with them was sought after to tip the scales.

As more and more Europeans arrived, the First Nations became caught up in the intruders’ dynastic conflicts in North America. Despite the ravaging effects of disease in tipping the power balance toward the European colonizers, the First Nations continued to play a role in all the major clashes on the continent, even as their powerful confederacies declined.