Unit 8: The 1950s (Brave New World) Flashcards
Final Exam (Post-Confederation)
A Brave New World
The end of WWII is a watershed moment. Wars of this magnitude change things, and this one changes things in the world.
To understand Donald Trump’s presidency, many go back to WWII. He may be a fool, but the people around him, and the people who had him elected are not all fools. It is important to recognize the real, political issue that puts the US - and the world - at stake. The US wants to reinstate the world order to how it was before the Second World War; Trump wants a “pre-1945 world order.” Fascism, Totalitarianism, and the Battle against it (the way it was defeated) are lessons learned from the Great War (that are brought into the Second World War, as many of the resolutions failed, such as the League of Nations). Leaders now understand that a new world order must be created, as World Wars just happened twice, back-to-back
Coming out of the second war, there is a new sense of internationalism and globalism that takes shape (e.g. the creation of the United Nations, established in 1945, to do what the League of Nations could not do).
The Great Depression disappeared with the beginning of WWII, but the people who went through it did not forget it.
The various governments are all preparing to deal with a post-war recession, and are expecting it to happen, but much of the war was spent thinking about post-war reconstruction, and so instead of a post-war recession, there is a post-war boom.
8 May 1945: Victory (VE) Day in Europe
This ends the war in Europe, but not in the far East. The war continues in the Pacific.
Soldiers are returning to their families after 5-6 years, with psychological traumas and scars from war, expecting to fit back into a better society and a normal life.
1945 Election (GAT and WTO)
Liberals win the election again in 1945 with an easy-majority government. Liberals have been in power since 1935 when Mackenzie King won over Bennet, and they have won again. The Conservatives have not really changed their policies since John A. Macdonald (e.g. high tariffs). This new move towards globalization is a move toward multilateral trade.
Multilateral Trade: free trade becomes widely accepted as the orthodox economic policy
General Agree on Trades and Tariffs (GAT)
World Trade Organization (WTO)
The Cold War
The Cold War was the geopolitical, ideological, and economic struggle between two world superpowers, the USA and the USSR, that started in 1947 at the end of the Second World War and lasted until the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 26, 1991.
It is a whole new world, and new world order. Thus far, the world has been dominated by Britain and European powers.
Canadian Contributions to WWII
Canada and World War Two: By the war’s end, over 1 million citizens would serve in military uniform (out of prewar population of 11 million) and Canada would possess the fourth-largest air force.
Korean War
There is a temporary peace in 1946 and 1947, but by 1950 Canada is at War in Korea.
Dumbarton Oaks
26 June 1945: Mackenzie King signs UN Charter
What does King think about Canada’s relationship with he US after WWII?
By 1945, King thinks he has gone too far particularly with his relationship with the US
By the end of 1945, Americans have set up military bases in Canada and have built a highway in Canada (the Alaska highway that links Alaska with the US)
At the end of 1945, King has the opportunity to sign a Free Trade deal with the US and he declines
King is an autonomist, and fears he has gone too far into the arms of the US while stepping away from Britain
Canada’s location between the US and the Soviet Union places Canada in a strategic position during the Cold War
And Mackenzie King is already thinking about this in 1945
What is King’s Cold War mentality?
King is old by now and there is a new generation of Liberal politicians wanting to push him out, but he will not step down until he becomes the longest running PM in British CommonWealth History. King does not have the cold war mentality; he is not a “Cold Warrior.”
The Atomic Age (and Questions Raised)
The atomic bombs were developed during the Second World War. The allies pushed to develop them before Germany did, and the US used them to end the Pacific War (the argument being that Japan will continue to fight, and there will be war until Japan is ended).
The use of these weapons of mass destruction changes the world because they raise the question: How can we even have a war if the result will be the destruction of the world? If these weapons are used, we all die and the world gets destroyed.
The Gouzenko Affair
On 5 September 1945, the Cold War comes to Canada with the Gouzenko Affair. Gouzenko was a Soviet cipher clerk working for the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa decides he wants to defect to the Soviet Union for Canada (in order to allow Canada to accept him). He reveals 109 stolen top-secret documents to Canada on Soviet espionage activities in the West to the RCMP. He reveals that the Soviet Union has an intricate spy-network in Canada that is spying on the Canadian government. The Soviets have been Canada’s ally throughout the War, and so this was a massive shock to Canada. This shows how naive the Canadian government is, and how unprepared the government is for the new realities of the Cold War.
The RCMP officers on duty do not believe him, and he is fearful because he needs to be hidden for the weekend because Soviet agents are now after him. The Canadian government does not help him all weekend, as the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice are away. Fearing for himself and his family, he goes to the Press (Ottawa Journal newspaper), but they are not interested. He hides his family across the hall from his apartment and watches his apartment get raided by the Soviet agents. When he finally convinces the RCMP to listen, his disclosures shock the world. Mackenzie King returns on Monday to all of this news, and he is upset with the government for doing nothing to protect Gouzenko. Gouzenko went into hiding for the rest of his life.
This intensifies the Cold War, because it instills fear and suspicion that a Soviet espionage could be happening anywhere. The iron curtain has fallen across Europe, and the world is now divided (as is Germany and Western Europe). The Soviet Union is viewed to be the enemy, as declared by Winston Churchill. The Cold War is a war of rising superpowers, but also of rising ideologies (East vs. West, Communism vs. Capitalism, etc.).
US President Harry S. Truman declares that the US will no longer hide behind fortress North America and will fight Communism everywhere in the world…
Truman Doctrine (The Domino Theory): Communism will spread like the disease; the falling dominoes, and if it is not halted, it will spread everywhere. This creates a fear and paranoia against this spread of Communism.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is formed in 1949 to fight against the Soviet Union and its Empire
Why did Canada enter a Post-War Boom?
While this is all happening, Canada is fighting its post-war era.
Canada was wrong about post-war recession. Instead, there is a post-war boom.
This is because of the changes Canada made, and its regulation of the economy during the Second World War (taxes, wage-controls, price-controls).
Canada (and the US) plays a major role in rebuilding war-torn Europe. The whole market that was in high-gear producing goods for the war continues to produce for war-torn Europe
The doors to immigration have been closed since the end of the Western Immigration Boom in 1911, and they open again after 1945
In this new spirit of internationalism and the dark shadow of the holocaust,
More war criminals got into Canada than Jewish refugees did in the war.
People begin buying automobiles
The creation of suburban Canada; people can start to think about living again, and so people move out of urban cores to spacious, suburban areas where they can raise their nuclear family and live a family ideal. The boom allows it all to happen.
Wages begin to rise.
Universities explode, as there is a huge rise in post-secondary education. Women begin to go to university, too. Department of Veteran Affairs in Ottawa looks to send veterans to school with free tuition so that they can have working jobs.
War Brides are coming back and people are getting married again. Baby Boomers: babies are being born in large numbers.
Canada continues to seek to define itself Canada is moving towards an autonomous, independent. nation on the world stage. It is becoming Americanized, but is still very tied to and proud of its British roots. But how can Canada remain a distinct nation?
In 1947, Canada lifted its ban on Chinese immigrants, but is still pushing Japanese immigrants out of camps and back to Japan. There is no sense of diversity in Canada until the 1970s. Although Canada is opening its doors to new immigrants, it expects them to assimilate to british Anglo-Saxon lifestyle.
Who is Canada’s first citizen? When?
The first citizenship ceremony takes place in 1947, and Mackenzie King becomes Canada’s first citizen.
A New Generation of Politicians
Mackenzie King retired in 1948 and died in 1950, and he is replaced by his Quebec left-tendent in 1948: Lois St. Laurent.
He wins over George Drew of the Progressive-Conservative (PC) Party, who was Premier of Ontario (but they had no chance against the Liberals, who are now being called the “Government Party”).
Liberals become arrogant and complacent, because they have been in power too long.
