Behind the Scenes of Canadian War History

The Argosy, Vol. 4, No. 1 (June 1926)

This special issue presents Colonel William Wood's J. Clarence Webster Lectures on Canadian War History, delivered at Mount Allison University in November 1925. The featured work is a comprehensive historical overview of Canadian military conflicts from 1535 to 1919, organized into five major periods: the French Period (1535-1760), covering Jacques Cartier through the fall of New France; the American Period (1763-1814), addressing Pontiac's Conspiracy and the War of 1812; the Canadian Period (1837-1885), detailing domestic conflicts and the Red River Expedition; the Imperial Period (1899-1902), concerning the South African War; and the Universal Period (1914-1919), on the Great World War. Wood examines relationships between Imperial and Canadian forces, military expenditures, command structures, and numerical compositions. The lectures argue that Canada's first fully independent army emerged only in 1917, fifty years after Confederation, while emphasizing Canada's continued dependence on Imperial naval power.