The Quebec «Easter riots» against the mobilization crisis in Canada during the First World War

Abstract

The article attempts to discover and characterize the causes and preconditions of the Quebec Easter rebellion and explore the mobilization crisis in Canada. The underlying causes, the antagonism between the Anglo-French and the Canadians, differences in religion, language and lifestyles, the colonial policy of the British Empire in Canada and, in particular, in the Francophone provinces of the Dominion, have been investigated. The proposed research aims to embrace all strata of the Canadian society, from peasants and soldiers to city dwellers and clergy. The article also focuses on a different level of political leadership explaining that the politics of the home front was not just a conflict between the imperialists and the nationalists, while at the same time providing the background of the issues surrounding Regulation 17. The preconditions which had arose in Canada in the last pre-war years, as well as the social specifity, which divided the society into either supporters or opponents of the governmental mobilization policies, have been analyzed. Among different groups of sources, the influence of media on the intentions in Quebec province and English Canada have been explored. The research has been based on the newest foreign historiography, including that in English and French first-ever used for the analysis of the mobilization crisis in Canada in the First World War, as well as the general analysis and typology of the available historiographical achievements of both American and European historians.

Keywords

• quebec
• anglo-canadians
• franco-canadians
• first world war
• “regulation 17″