The Canadian Armed Forces – Part One

As a part of the British and French Empires prior to Confederation in 1867, the residents of what would become Canada were enlisted as part of those countries forces.  We won’t delve into the complete military history in too much depth as we just want to provide an overview but it’s worth mentioning a few notable episodes prior to 1867.

From the 1750s onwards it became necessary to mobilise residents of the various provinces in response to a number of internal and external threats.  Internally, the locally recruited militias would respond to threats (rightly or wrongly) from indigenous residents who were unhappy with European settlement in certain areas. External threats were limited to other European nations and, after the American War of Independence, the United States and border skirmishes regarding ownership of one or two areas did in fact lead to violence.  In these external threats, the locally recruited militia would be used to assist the British Army to carry out the defence of the nation.

Fenians and Canadian militia

Following Confederation in 1867 and the beginning of friendlier relations with the United States, the British began to reduce their military capacity in Canada as internal and external threats subsided.

The first action the new Canadian militia saw was to repulse the Fenian invasions which were undertaken by radical Irish Catholics trying to pressure the British to pull out of N Ireland.  There were five cross border raids in total which saw an improving Canadian military eventually repulse the Fenians, aided by the United States who impeded the raiders in their side of the border.

Metis leader Louis Riel

Artillery groups were formed in the early 1870s, prior to the North West Rebellion in 1885. This was an uprising by the Métis tribe in Saskatchewan who were fighting for greater rights for indigenous people.  It was a pretty brief skirmish but the first in which the British were not involved and it ended with defeat for the Métis and their leader Louis Riel, who was subsequently hanged.

Part Two follows…..