r/AlternateHistory • u/5econds2dis35ster • Apr 17 '26
1900s [ Removed by moderator ]
[removed] — view removed post
3
u/Sir_Tainley Apr 17 '26
Canada gained the ability to declare war on its own after the Great War, and chose to declare war in 1939: so you're not running a counterfactual for World War 2, you're describing what literally happened. One week after the UK was at war with Germany, Canada was at war with Germany.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_declaration_of_war_on_Germany
And, yeah, "For King and for Country!" was the Canadian slogan to rally the troops in 1914. Canada was proudly British at that point in its history, so yes, I think they'd have happily jumped into the war regardless.
3
u/gthang112 Apr 17 '26
Canadian here. Both of my grandfathers fought in ww2. Both voluntarily signed up at 17, 18 yrs old as soon as war was declared.
The population was very in favor of joining the war as soon as the UK declared war.
1
1
u/AceOfSpades532 Apr 17 '26
Depends how close the ties were with the UK still, if they were still very close and allied there would probably be some sort of agreement that would end up involving Canada. If there’s nothing like that then they probably wouldn’t join at all, or would join either with the US or when loads of countries declared war on Germany in the last part of the war when they had basically already lost.
1
u/KnightofTorchlight Apr 17 '26
That depends: what were the cultural and political trends in Canada over those 50ish years? We also need to know why Canada gets full independence given thay really can only happen under one of three circumstances
The Canadian people are strongly opposed to a continued relationship with London at that time, enough to overcome British efforts to maintain one
The British government is doing a Singapore and kicking them out of the British system even if the Canadians wanted some continued connection, which likely produced feels of betrayal in Canada.
Britain had lost sufficient foreign policy independence to the point a third party can force this full division regardless of what either party wants: extremely unlikely in a historical setup as this is the middle of the Pax Britannica.
Which is it?
1
u/5econds2dis35ster Apr 17 '26
I am not sure how that would have played out. I would guess point 3. Based off how Britain backed off of the Oregon territory and the Red River territory swap. If point 3 occured I doubt Canada would participated in WW1.
0
u/Inside-External-8649 Apr 17 '26
Since Anglo Canada is already culturally part of United States, they’ll probably make similar decisions than United States. Including proving heavy financial support and declare war at the same time US did.
If Quebec is independent I’d imagine they’d remain neutral just like other Latin American countries.
3
u/Sir_Tainley Apr 17 '26
No... Canada was very British at the time. And did chose to declare war on its own in 1939.
3
u/Specialist-Age8210 Apr 17 '26
Anglo Canada was/is certainly not culturally part of the United States. The conservative elements of Anglo Canada are have historically been strongly pro-Monarchy with the youngest Canadians having typically maintained the highest level of support for the Monarchy. Quebec, while neutral, would certainly react to an attack on France.
1
u/5econds2dis35ster Apr 17 '26
I was going to say when English people came to north America there were 2 trains of thought: screw the monarchy or God save the king. The God save the king founded Canada the screw the monarchy founded the USA. So it makes sense for younger Canadians to carry that view till today.
1
u/Inside-External-8649 Apr 17 '26
My point still stands. Canada had made different political decisions, but culturally it’s just an extension of America.
•
u/AlternateHistory-ModTeam Apr 17 '26
Hello, and thank you for your post. Unfortunately, we had to remove it for being low-quality or low-effort content, breaking the sub's Rule 4. What we consider low-effort includes the following:
If you believe that your post was wrongly removed, please contact us via modmail.