First World War set world change in motion

Posted 2 months ago

JEFF HELSDON PHOTO

Robert Stewart, left, and Legion past-president Bill Findley examine a gas mask used for babies prior to Stewart's presentation on the First World War as a part of Remembrance Week.

By Jeff Helsdon

Staff Writer

It's said the young country of Canada became a nation when its soldiers won at Vimy Ridge.

Local historian Robert Stewart - who spoke at the Legion Saturday as part of Week of Remembrance activities in Tillsonburg - presented a hypothesis that went a step further, saying the First World War changed society in Canada, and the world, from an old-fashioned agriculture-based society to a modern one.

"It sets in motion many of the events we've seen in the last 100 years and some of the same problems we still have today," he said.

In 1914, the largest department in the Canadian government was the post office. By 1918, Canadian government was managing how industrialization takes place, recruitment of soldier and is a food source for the soldiers of the entire British Empire.

"We've never gone back to the level where the post office is the biggest employer of government services," he said.

War itself also started to change in the First World War, Stewart explained. At one time, war was about armies fighting armies. The First World War started a new trend where countries fought with technology and the race was on to build bigger, better weapons.

"We're not just fighting the enemy's armies, but their ability to develop weapons," he said.

Prior to 1914, it was a rare instance where civilians became military targets. That all changed in the First World War and now it's routine for military leaders to target civilians.

Prior to the war, many countries were still run by monarchies. Stewart mentioned Germany, Russia, Austro-Hungarian Empire and England as examples. By the end of the war, four previously-existing monarchies were gone and the fifth (Britain) was in decline.

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire and Austro-Hungary caused many of the problems later in the century.

"Some of the flashpoints in international relations in the last 30, 40, 50 years came about because of the First World War," Stewart said.

Besides being a local lawyer and also having both a bachelors and masters in history, Stewart is a member of the Great War Society and Museum of Applied Military History. As a history student, his summer job was working for Parks Canada at national historic sites as an interpreter dressed for the era. He loved that job so much he still does it as a volunteer with these two groups.