Feature.

The low point of Canada’s military
history demands to be remembered

The war of 1812 is getting all the press these days, but we
shouldn’t forget our most shameful adventure in South Africa

  

in conflicts across the
globe: the First and

 

By Liam Britten Second World Wars in
y wa ’ the first half of the 20th
Contributor :
Century, Korea in the
ight days ago, 1950s, Afghanistan after

September 11, [rag in
1991, and Libya in 2012.
And when we
remember our war dead
and the wars our nation
fought in, the conflicts
above are probably what
came to
most of our
minds.

Canadians spent
two minutes of silence
remembering the sacri-
fices of our soldiers in

wartime. As a nation,
Canada has fought

 

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We may have even

paused to remember the

conflicts before Canada

became a sovereign

nation. The War of 1812

probably crossed the

minds of more than a few

of us, when Canadians

bravely and defiantly

turned back American

aggressors invading

the pre-Confederation

colonies of Upper and

Lower Canada. It’s espe-

cially easy to remember

1812 when there are

heroic commercials on

television and warships

engraved on our coins.
But it’s unlikely

that Canada’s first war

as a sovereign

nation crossed

the minds of

many. That

would be the

Second Boer

War (also

   
  

known as the Anglo-
Boer war), a conflict
in modern-day South
Africa fought between
the British Empire and
Dutch-descended Boers
from 1899 to 1902. This
colonial conflict was
fought for the same
reasons as many before
it: resources (in this case,
the vast mineral wealth
of South Africa, including
gold and diamonds) and
control over the native
population who would
serve as cheap labourers.
But what makes this
war so disturbing

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and so rarely remem-
bered were the tactics
Imperial Britain used.
By the war’s end, over
100,000 Boer and black
civilians had been

sent to concentration
camps, where over
44,000 would die.

And Canadian
soldiers, 7,368 of them,
participated in every
step of the way.

i nt

Canadians celebrate the end of war in 1900 | Photo courtesy of Wikimedia (Creative Commons)