Resources required

Canada and the Second World War narrative

• Resource A: Propaganda posters
• Resource B: War is declared
• Resource C: Motivations for joining the war
• Resource D: Why did Canada enter the War?
  Resource R: Further reading and links

Rationale and learning intentions

• To acquire an understanding of the motives that members of the British Empire may have had for joining in the Second World War when they did not have to
• To analyse individual Canadians’ situations and perspectives on the outbreak of war
• To become aware of the influence of propaganda
• Students will analyse the motives for and against joining in the war; they will conduct an enquiry using a variety of visual and written primary and secondary source material.

NB. An aim of all of the Canada enquiries  is that they should follow the Accelerated Learning Cycle (Connect – Activate - Demonstrate - Consolidate) and be accessible to students of a variety of learning styles (Visual – Aural – Kinaesthetic).

Starter

Look at Canada and the Second World War narrative – in particular at paragraphs 4 and 5. Ensure that pupils understand the meaning of the following words and can say or write a sentence placing each into its correct context:

• British Empire (The territories around the world colonised by, and under the control of, the UK. It was the largest empire in history.)
• 1931 Statute of Westminster (Had to be passed in each of the Dominions it applied to (not just the UK) as they were in 1931 – the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of Canada, the Dominion of Newfoundland, the Irish Free State, the Dominion of New Zealand and the Union of South Africa. A key part of the statute was that laws passed in the UK after 1931 no longer extended automatically to Dominion countries unless they expressly requested it, and that no law passed in any of the Dominion countries after 1931 would be made void by the UK. It effectively removed the last bonds of British Imperial power in these countries.)
• Dominion (A self-governing or virtually self-governing country of the British Empire which had allegiance to the Crown.)
• Autonomy (Self-determination, self-government)
• Treaty of Versailles (Treaty passed in 1919 that brought the First World War officially to a close. It punished Germany for the war and demanded high reparations payments.)
• League of Nations (An international organisation created after the First World War, whose aims were to prevent war and promote diplomacy. The USA never joined though Woodrow Wilson had included the establishment of a League in his Fourteen Points, and it proved incapable of preventing some significant conflicts, most clearly seen with the build-up and outbreak of the Second World War.)
  NB: This could be done as homework prior to the lesson and discussed later.

Use Resource A: Propaganda posters with the students to ensure that they understand their purpose and what the appeal of each is. The examples given in Resource A show different methods used according to needs i.e. USA using the strongly embedded sense of freedom; USSR informing and motivating the Russian people, the majority of whom were illiterate or semi-literate, through posters with little text but emotive themes. The suffering of the Soviet people was, for example, a common theme for political posters of the period.
 
 
Progression Look at Resource B: Declaration of war (which has been taken from www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/newspapers/intro_e.html).

Read through this with students and emphasise the rights Canada exercised under the Statute of Westminster. This leads to questions about why Canada should wish to involve itself in war when it didn’t necessarily have to.

What, therefore, were the possible motivations for entering war?

Main Activity

In pairs, students look at Resource C: Motivations for entering the War, which includes extracts giving different points of view about feelings about the war.

Students complete Resource D: Why did Canada enter the War?, considering the following questions:

• What evidence can you find for Canadians wishing to get involved in the war in Europe?
• Can you find any evidence that this was not popular with all Canadians?
• For what reasons do you think this might be?

The first entry has been completed as an example.
To extend the students, direct them to the Canadian War Museum’s website: www.civilization.ca/cwm/propaganda/second_e.html.

What do the Canadian propaganda posters exhibited here add to our understanding?
If possible, the students should complete the table using ICT and then continue their work with their own research following the links provided in Resource R: Further reading and links.

 
Plenary Discussion:

• Do you think that Canada’s reasons for joining in were sufficiently good to justify its involvement?
• If you had been in a similar position in 1939, what do you think you might have done – join the war on Britain’s side or stay out?
• Does knowing the eventual outcome of the war affect your choice in any way?